Nubia M2 Play Review: Is It Worth Buying?

Trying to enter the budget smartphone category in India, currently dominated by Xiaomi, Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Nubia has launched its new smartphone, under its ‘M’ series, Nubia M2 Play in the country. Nubia has offered an amazing device in this category which is certainly going to attract buyers.

Nubia M2 Play looks similar to Nubia M2 Lite but without the golden edges.

Priced at Rs 8,999, the handset will face competition with the likes of Xiaomi Redmi 4, Moto E4, Coolpad Note 5, and the recently launched bezel-less Micromax Canvas Infinity.

Display And Design

Nubia M2 Play has a 5.5-inch HD (1280x720) display with 2.5D curved glass and an integrated metal body with a double diamond edge-cut frame. Based on Nubia’s M2 series, the phone has a smooth texture and metal body and is only 7.9mm slim.

The primary camera is placed on the top-left corner of the handset, just like other Nubia handsets, and is encircled by a red ring which adds a premium look to the phone as well as act as a protection to the camera. On the right is the power button with SIM+MicroSD card holder and volume rockers are placed on the other side.

The 3.5mm audio-jack is placed on the top with micro USB port and two speaker grilles on either side of the port.

The large display is good for multimedia consumption. The display is less illuminated and looks cooler.

The home button below the display also doubles as a fingerprint scanner which the company claims can unlock the device in 0.15 seconds. The fingerprint sensor works amazingly and unlocks the device every time in a single attempt. There are two capacitive buttons on either side of the home button (fingerprint sensor) which works as back and drop down menu button.

Software And Performance

Nubia M2 Play is powered by 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 Octa-core processor coupled with 3GB RAM. It showed decent performance and is capable of multitasking, though it lags while switching between apps.

Nubia M2 Play gave us 41681 in AnTuTu, and 683 and 2629, respectively, in Geekbench’s single core and multi core tests.

Nubia is offering the latest Android 7.1 Nougat with Nubia’s 5.0 UI skin on top, whereas for other phones, like M2, N1 or Z17 Mini, you need to update the device to get this latest version. Nubia’s custom ROM feels good to use, it is smooth and provides a lot of features for accessibility.

The UI provides a host of features for customers to choose from:

The handset comes with Edge Gestures with which you can - Swipe up/down from the edge to switch and start apps, Swipe repeatedly from edges to accelerate your phone for which there is also a pre-installed ‘Accelerate’ option; it basically clears the phone memory. You can also adjust the brightness by swiping the both edges, and Double tap on the edge to go back.

You can enable Super Screenshot by holding the Power and Volume-keys at the same time. Share your screen image instantaneously in a text, picture or video. Using touch gesture, you can also Swipe up or down using three fingers to capture a screenshot.

Swipe left or right using three fingers to switch among the opened apps

With smart sensing, you can answer your calls by just moving the phone close to your ear.

Camera

The rear camera sports a 13-megapixels sensor with NeoVision 6.0 camera engine, f/2.2 aperture and LED flash.

With the 13-megapixels Sony Exmor RS CMOS lens, you can capture clear pictures. The image quality is clear and the camera captures images using real lighting, however, the color saturation is low when compared with its competitors. 

The NeoVison 6.0 camera engine offers a lot of features like Light drawing, E-aperture, Clone, Time-lapse, Slo-mo, Panorama. Overall the camera is average which is you can expect from a phone under Rs 10,000.

There is ample amount of noise when you click pictures in low light conditions.

The autofocus on the device is a bit slow and takes time to focus on objects; sometimes you might have to manually focus on the object.

On the front is a 5-megapixels selfie-shooter with f/2.4 aperture, and 84-degree wide angle lens. The front camera also features a beauty mode which is nothing unique.

Battery and Connectivity

Nubia M2 Play is backed by a 3000mAh non-removable battery which supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 for fast charging. With its NeoPower technology, the battery gives good backup and is sufficient for a single day.

However, the battery takes more than 2 hours to reach 100 per cent charge. But you will need to carry a power bank or charger because the battery won’t last until night. On PC Mark’s Work 2.0 battery life, it runs for more than 7 hours which is 4 hours less than its regular usage.

Connectivity options, offered by the phone, are Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v4, 4G VoLTE, micro USB, 3.5mm audio-jack, GPS, and GLONASS.

Verdict

The Nubia M2 Play is a decent smartphone with a good battery, average camera, and display. Performance wise, the handset is good. Nubia has made entry in the Rs 10,000 smartphones category with a decent product but to compete with Xiaomi or Moto in this category, Nubia has a long way to go.