The ZTE Nubia Neo 5G is one of the thriftiest yet exceptional gaming phones on the market today.
It’s powered by a T820 octa-core processor courtesy of Unisoc, paired with a Mali-G57 GPU. It also sports a 6.6-inch display at a resolution of 2408 x 1080 with a refresh rate of 120Hz.
But for reference, our review model came in Phantom Black with 18GB of RAM (extended by 10GB) and 256GB of internal storage.
Table of Contents
Design and Construction
The Nubia Neo 5G was certainly designed with ZTE’s splash of creativity when it comes to aesthetics.
It’s a pleasant surprise that the phone feels pretty slim, lightweight, and comfortable to hold. After all, it’s modeled after some mech-inspired designs. You’d think that it’d feel heavier with that in mind, but I digress.
It certainly looks different, even in its Phantom Black colorway. The mech design makes me feel like I’m carrying around a Transformer, but don’t let the 3D-ish effect fool you. The phone feels very smooth from body to bezel.
For buttons and ports, the volume rocker and power button, which also acts as the fingerprint sensor, is situated on the right side. As for the left side, we have a dual nano SIM card tray.
At the bottom, we have a USB Type-C port, a 3.5mm earphone port, and a single speaker grill.
The earphone port kind of bothered me after a closer look, as it looks a bit off-centered.
But anyway, at a first impression, the back panel looked so extra. It feels somewhat custom-built, even when I know it isn’t, as it only has two colorways.
It has this cybernetic design supported by some kind of three-dimensional effect and metallic-like texture. But in actuality, it feels more like glass if you tap it once or twice.
As for the camera module, it has a dual-setup with a LED flashlight sitting right next to the top camera.
All in all, the design feels fresh to me. ZTE might not be at the top of our heads when it comes to gaming phones, but this is a pretty good start.
Display, Multimedia, and Biometrics
For display, the phone has a 6.6-inch 120Hz display that supports FHD+ at a 2048 x 1080 resolution. It also has a 20:9 aspect ratio and a 90.5% screen-to-body ratio.
The speakers on this phone are also pretty loud to boot. It’s probably because the Nubia Neo 5G is supported by DTS:X Ultra. Contrasting the immersive Dolby Atmos, DTS is designed for gaming experiences with support for static, multi-channel, and object-based audio.
But overall, ZTE has my flowers because my media consumption experience with the speakers has been great. With a well-rounded display and loud speakers, I can kick back and relax after a few games of Asphalt 9.
The ZTE Nubia Neo 5G has pretty standard biometrics. It’s the usual pattern, numeric, and alphanumeric passcode shtick.
The phone also has what most of us would see as standardized fingerprint sensors for unlocking your phone. It also lets users register for facial recognition unlocking, which isn’t really that mind-blowing these days, either.
Cameras
The ZTE Nubia Neo 5G comes with a dual-camera setup at the back.
This setup consists of a 50MP main camera with f/1.8 aperture and a 2MP bokeh depth camera with f/2.4 aperture.
The phone also has an 8MP selfie camera in front (f/2.0). As for video capabilities, both cameras can shoot up to 1080p @ 30fps.
To frank though, these cameras aren’t the best on the market. But, they’re good enough for casual use if you’re into taking photography or videos in general.
In the right lighting conditions, the main camera can take sharp photos with good detail. As for the secondary lens, it’s pretty passable for taking photos of buildings or landscapes.
Although, I do have gripes with the camera UI. Maybe it’s just the font? It just feels so vanilla, like I’m sure someone from ZTE could have performed CPR on this to make it feel a little less dead.
But you know, surely you aren’t buying this phone for its camera. The silver lining here is that it’s WAY better than what most phone cameras can offer.
OS, Apps, and UI
Making our way into software, the Nubia Neo 5G runs on Android 13. But, the phone has some twists including cool game-centric apps.
First up, we have GameSpace – which is not only a game launcher. It also cleans up your RAM for anything you don’t need, and speeds your phone up too! It’s basically a performance enhancer with a feature that prevents accidental touches.
I should also mention that the Nubia Neo 5G also has this pre-installed app called Goper.
However, it’s an app used for gaming accessories which we currently don’t have access to. It showed me possible connections to earphones, coolers, fans, and gamepads.
Next, the phone has personalization settings that let you choose themes from Hi-Light (its thematic, gamer-ish choice), standard Android, and Nubia Classic.
Additionally, the phone features their take on assistive touch called Z-POP which I found kind of funny. Get it? Like, ZTE’s UI pops out? No? Alright, moving on.
I have one inconvenience I’d like to address with ZTE here. Why doesn’t the phone have a dedicated app for photos or galleries? I find it strange having to go to the file manager just to check out photos I took.
The interface feels a bit clunky in its Hi-Light theme, but it felt better when I changed back to Android. However, the drop-down UI with the notification tab felt really smooth.
Regular settings accessible from the UI aside, I found this neat feature aptly named Refreshrate. It lets you choose how many frames you need! You have options for 60Hz, 120Hz, and intelligent adjustment.
As for bloatware, we only have Phone Switch which I did not dare touch, Booking.com, and WPS Office.
But for the most part, everything feels okay. Admittedly, how the phone performs overall compensates for these little things.
Performance and Benchmarks
Speaking of performance, the ZTE Nubia Neo 5G is powered by a Unisoc T820 with an octa-core processor. This six nanometer chipset is paired with a ARM Mali-G57 GPU.
The processor is paired with 8GB of RAM, an extended 10GB, and 256GB of internal storage. With a total of 18GB of RAM, the phone is certainly powerful even at mid-range.
From experience, it can handle any game you want to play without slowing down at the slightest. I’ve tried Asphalt 9, Diablo Immortal, Genshin Impact, and Honkai: Star Rail with no issues.
I’d like to believe this phone is a solid pick, with no mobile game or application that it can’t run. Personally, I would’ve loved to spam Teamfight Tactics on it if I had the time.
But also, I think it’s because of its multi-layer heat dissipation system. Yep, this phone’s battery and motherboard is almost completely covered. I’d like to thank the superconducting thermal materials that were used in the making of this fine phone.
Legit though, the phone barely heats up. It even went through the benchmarks without a single hiccup. For those of you interested in the numbers, here you go.
- AnTuTu v9 – 440,724
- AnTuTu v9 Storage – 12,657, 301.7 MB/s (Seq. Read), 256MB/s(Seq. Write)
- Geekbench 6 – 902 (Single-Core), 2557 (Multi-Core), 2236 (Vulkan), 2229 (OpenCL)
- 3D Mark – 2011 (Wild Life)
- PC Mark – 12,882(Work 3.0)
Battery and Connectivity
Powering the ZTE Nubia Neo 5G is a 4,500mAh lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery and features 22.5W wired charging.
Charging the battery from 0 – 100% should take about an hour and a half or so. As for its capacity, the battery is good enough to last users a full day with mixed-use.
However, this doesn’t mean you can’t drain it within 24 hours through long gaming binges and media consumption.
In PC Mark’s Work 3.0 Battery Test, our ZTE Nubia Neo 5G lasted 9 hours and 24 minutes.
But for our video loop test, the phone was able to last 15 hours and 28 minutes. The test was conducted in airplane mode, at 50% brightness and 50% volume for mixed-use variables.
The ZTE Nubia Neo also supports 5G connectivity with an ‘intelligent switching’ dual nano-SIM setup. Basically, this means that if your primary SIM has unstable data, it switches to the other in a jiffy.
I’d say it’s a pretty nifty feature, considering the phone does intend to give players the best offline AND online gaming experience possible.
Conclusion
As we wrap up this review, let’s address the delicate matter at hand — the price of the phone.
Now I know readers must be curious to have made it this far, as I did note that this was a thrifty pickup. But, how budget-friendly are we talking here?
At the time this article was written, you can find the ZTE Nubia Neo 5G on sale for PHP 9,599 at ZTE’s official store in Shopee 103. At full price, this should be around PHP 11,999.
For how much it costs versus how good it performs is a good deal, by the way. It’s a solid gaming phone, draped with what I think is a too over-the-top thematic touches. But you know, style is subjective.
What matters here is how it is upon using it, right? Its competition with other gaming phones is surely offering better overall value, but at a way higher cost. Like, way higher.
For me, I’d definitely settle with a phone like this. If we’re talking pros and cons, I’ll give you guys a quick recap.
Imagine having yourself a phone that doesn’t heat up, performs well on demanding apps, and has redeeming factors in small features like RAM management.
In contrast, you get an ‘okay’ camera with no dedicated gallery app, an off-center earphone jack, and passable battery life.
If it were up to me, buyers wouldn’t even find the cons that much of an inconvenience. The ZTE Nubia Neo 5G is positioned as a thrifty gaming phone with great performance, and I stand by that.
But hey, what do you guys think? If you had just enough, which gaming phone would you get? Let me know in the comment section below, and maybe we’ll find a way to match them up together!
ZTE Nubia Neo 5G specs:
6.6-inch FHD+ @ 2408 x 1080 pixels
Asahi Glass protection
120Hz refresh rate
Unisoc T820 octa-core processor (6nm)
1 X Cortex-A76 @ 2.7GHz
3 X Cortex-A76 @ 2.3GHz
4 X Cortex-A55 @ 2.1GHz
Mali-G57 GPU
18GB RAM
256GB internal storage, UFS 3.1
50MP main camera, f/1.8
2MP bokeh camera, f/2.4
8 MP selfie camera, f/2.0
1080p@30fps
HDR
5G LTE, VoLTE
Dual nano-SIM
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4G/5G
Bluetooth 5.2
NFC Supported
GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS
Android 13
Li-ion 4500mAh battery, 22.5W wired charging
USB Type-C 2.0
3.5mm earphone port
Fingerprint sensors (side-mounted)
Ambient light sensor
Accelerometer
Compass
Gyroscope
163.7 x 75 x 7.98 mm (dimensions)
192 grams (weight)
Phantom Black, War-Damaged Yellow
