ZTE’s ticket into the high-end smartphone makers guild – the Nubia Z5 – showed itself in a leak a few days back, and it was perhaps the first ZTE device that really excited people. ZTE has now gone ahead and officially announced the Nubia Z5, with a ¥ 3,456 (around $555) price tag attached to it.
The Nubia Z5 joins the ranks of devices such as the HTC Droid DNA and the Oppo Find 5 with a 5-inch display of 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution, resulting in an extremely sharp screen with a pixel density of around 441ppi. 2013 is looking to be a year when smartphone makers will try to entice users with 1080p displays as one of the selling points, and ZTE has officially grabbed itself a seat in the front row with the Nubia, though it remains to be seen how the quality of the display stacks up against other devices.
That 1080p display will need a lot of power to keep everything running smoothly, and the quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor and 2GB RAM inside the Nubia Z5 will be more than adequate and up to the task. A 2,300 mAh battery is included, which will hopefully be able to keep the device going long enough on a single charge.
Other specs of the Nubia Z5 include a 13 megapixel camera on the rear, 2 megapixel camera on the front, 32GB built-in storage, all the connectivity options you need including NFC, and Android 4.1.1 with ZTE’s customization on top. It’s no doubt a spec sheet that doesn’t skimp in any area, though Android 4.2 out of the box would have made the deal even better than it currently is.
Oh, and another thing of note is the thin 7.9 mm aluminum unibody that the Nubia Z5 carries all the horsepower in, with an ultra-slim bezel design resulting in an almost edge-to-edge display. The device may not look so original, specially with that iPhone-esque single button in the center, but it nevertheless looks quite good and gives off the vibe of a well designed phone.
The Nubia Z5 will be launched in China in January next year, in black and white colour options. A special titanium version will also be launched later on for a much higher price of ¥ 7,890 (around $1,265), though details of what it has to show for that high price were not given. International availability outside China isn’t confirmed either, so don’t get too excited for now unless you’re okay with importing it.
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