Nubian Z20 Evaluation: Another Evolution of Dual-screen Design

From shooting stars to borderless screens, Nubia has injected continuous innovation into the mobile phone industry in recent years with its excellent R&D strength, making the original "machine circle" with weak innovation and chasing marketing gimmicks another pure land.

Users who pay attention to Nubia should be able to feel its recent changes. The product line has been simplified, and the product strategy has changed from tapping market segments to focusing on the research and development of flagship models and the exploration of future technologies. So we have seen many refreshing products, such as Nubian α, the first Red Devil with cooling fan, Nubian X with dual-screen design and so on.

Ten months after Nubian X was released, Nubian Z20, an iterative model of the product, came into being. Dual organic light-emitting diode display screen, exclusive multi-focus coverage imaging system and top-performance Snapdragon 855+ chip make it the flagship of a new generation of images that has attracted much attention at present.

The value of the secondary screen function is upgraded.

In the process of the whole industry attacking the real full screen, lifting structure, sliding structure and dual-screen design are three schemes appearing in the market at present. After more than a year of precipitation, the lifting structure has undoubtedly become the mainstream at present. The dual-screen design advocated by Nubia has not been popularized in the industry except for similar products launched by vivo in the early stage.

Even in this context, Nubia still chose to continue to adhere to the dual-screen design, which surprised us. At the same time, we are also curious about what new functions and usage scenarios Nubia has developed for the secondary screen, and whether it can further enhance the user experience through the secondary screen.

The previous generation can switch the screen by touching the fingerprint keys on both sides at the same time, but this generation has changed the original operation mode and solved it with a more direct floating ball. Whether you use the main screen or the auxiliary screen, you can switch screens by clicking the floating ball. If you think floating ball is an eyesore, you can also drop down the notice bar to find the same function. In addition, the user can also use the sensor to make the system switch automatically, but in this way, the palm will touch the screen during the process of flipping the phone, which is very easy to cause accidental touch. Of course, thanks to the dual fingerprint design of Nubian Z20, if you are not afraid of trouble, you can lock the screen first, then flip the phone and unlock it, and you can also switch screens.

The biggest upgrade about the secondary screen is that Nubia has specially created the function of the secondary screen space. It can be understood that the secondary screen uses a desktop alone, and some shortcut functions can be gathered here to facilitate users to open it in one step. At present, payment codes of Alipay and WeChat are provided, as well as bus codes supported by some cities. I still use this function very frequently. For example, before the subway stops, I can click the boarding code by taking out my mobile phone and unlocking it through the secondary screen, which saves a lot of previous operation steps and realizes the quick code display.

At present, the functions provided by split-screen space are relatively simple, which will continue to be richer than Nubian. Personally, I think it is very necessary to add notepad and calculator. After all, we usually need to record some information when we call. If you go to the secondary screen, just open it directly, saving a lot of trouble.

In addition to the sub-screen space, Nubia provides a gesture function, which I personally like very much. Simply put, when you use an application to browse a web page or an article through the official WeChat account, you can always move the content to another screen by swiping the screen with three fingers. On the surface, it seems that this is just a change of screen to see the content, but in fact it has derived many ways of use.

Give two common examples. Before going on a business trip, you can adjust the boarding QR code from the main screen to the secondary screen for standby at any time. When boarding, you can directly unlock the mobile phone from the secondary screen to display the QR code. In addition, when reading an article, if you need to reply to WeChat, you can also send it to the secondary screen first, and then switch the screen to continue reading. The secondary screen is relatively eye-catching. Simply put, you can understand this function as "browsing later" or task switching of hardware versions, which can greatly improve our operating efficiency. Unfortunately, at present, only the latest content can be kept, and there is no "collection" function.

In addition to the new sub-screen space and gesture function, the Z20' s sub-screen can also provide two mapping areas during the game, which is convenient for high-end players to achieve more extreme operations. It is worth mentioning that Nubian Z20 also inherits the game space in the Red Devils, which can control the status of mobile phones in real time, block messages or notifications and so on.

Of course, for young users who are interested in buying Nubian Z20, besides being curious about the fresh experience it can provide, they should pay more attention to the improvement of its face value. After all, the mobile phone is not only a communication tool, but also a fashion item that shows the user's personality and taste.

The most direct embodiment of this aspect is off-screen display. Both the main screen and the sub-screen of Nubian Z20 have been turned on for off-screen display, which not only provides various official styles for users to choose from, but also provides online resources and user-defined functions. Even Nubia has cooperated with a pet development game "Travel fetters", through which you can know the status of your pet in real time, greatly enriching the playability displayed on the screen.

If the off-screen display can not only show your personality to the outside world, but also provide a little fun for your dull and boring life, then the lighting effect of the scene on the screen is really to be cool. The sub-screen on the back of Nubian Z20 can present different lighting effects when talking, opening games and playing music. In addition to music, users can't see anything else, which is quite a feeling of simulating the game mobile phone to create a scene atmosphere.

From the evolution of dual-screen function, we can see Nubian's thinking. From simple value-added to the current split-screen space and game mapping, the potential of dual-screen design can be tapped more and more stereoscopic. Even some details are still worth improving, which makes us see the future of dual screen more clearly.

Pebble-shaped circular design

With the development of smart phones to full screen, there is not much space left for designers on the front of the original fuselage, and Nubian's dual-screen design even deprives three-quarters of the space behind. Fortunately, friends are relatively slow to follow up on dual-screen mobile phones, and the preconceived advantages also make dual-screen replacing borderless become Nubian's current landmark design.

Even the dual-screen design, if you want to show flagship machine's unique sense of advanced and quality, there are many places that need to be scrutinized.

The original intention of Nubian Z20 may be that users can use it both positively and negatively, and both screens can be used as home screens, with no shortage of functions. For this reason, Nubian Z20 adopts hyperboloid design, with the same curvature on both sides, and the handshake feeling is exactly the same whether it is held forward or backward. At the same time, Nubia is also equipped with two completely symmetrical fingerprint buttons and two earphone openings.

The back cover glass is treated by special technology, and the auxiliary screen and the back cover are integrated. If you don't look carefully, it will be difficult to detect, which also makes the auxiliary screen very elegant and smart when displaying content on a pure black background.

This station got Nubian Z20 with diamond black color matching, in which the frame part is made of polished mirror metal, and the middle frame and two screens have a smooth transition, and there is no sense of cutting at all. In addition, the protective film has been pasted on the glass panels on both sides before leaving the factory, and the official products are naturally positioned accurately without curling. However, if you shoot yourself in the future, it's really a bit troublesome to take care of both sides. The official also gives a protective cover, which is made of transparent silicone commonly used in the market, but there is no "exposed back" behind it, which will reduce the touch sensitivity of the secondary screen to some extent.

It is worth mentioning that Nubian Z20 also supports pressure middle frame, and the palm can squeeze the middle frame to achieve specific functions. At present, long grip and short grip are supported, and users can customize them according to their own preferences. To my surprise, this is actually a very convenient way to switch screens, but Nubia has not provided this function yet, which really puzzles me.

Nubian Z20 adopts a combination of three cameras arranged horizontally. There is a double color temperature flash on the left side of the camera and a self-timer fill light on the right side. Two sets of lights can't be turned on at the same time, and only the left double color temperature light can be turned on when lighting with a flashlight.

This time, Nubia has made great changes in the process design, and the original square and angular image of a science and engineering man has completely disappeared on the Z20. Round four R angles, streamlined middle frame and hyperboloid design, it is no exaggeration to say that this generation is like pebbles.

As always, first-class image power.

Nubia is one of the earliest manufacturers in China to pay attention to the imaging ability of mobile phones, and most of its early users are image lovers. Nubian's distinctive NeoVision imaging system provides a wealth of camera functions, enabling ordinary users to take photos comparable to those obtained by professionals using SLR and higher versions.

The Nubian main camera adopts the industry-class IMX586 sensor, which supports 48-megapixel straight-out ultra-clear photos, with an aperture of F/ 1.7, and supports OIS three-axis optical image stabilization. The other two sub-cameras are16 million pixel super wide-angle camera and 3 times zoom 8 million pixel telephoto camera, in which the wide-angle lens can not only get a large viewing angle of 122.2, but also has a super macro capability of 2.5cm.

I have always been very reassured about the performance of Nubian mobile phones in taking pictures. This time Nubian Z20 didn't let me down. Three lenses with different focal lengths can keep you still and take the desired composition, which is very convenient for framing. In terms of imaging, the main camera can take advantage of high pixels to obtain ultra-high resolution photos in the case of sufficient light during the day; At night, the main camera can also increase the amount of light through the pixel four-in-one technology to ensure the picture is bright and clear. Super night scene mode can also be used under extreme conditions, which can increase the width of the picture and increase the details.

In terms of training, Nubia does not join AI optimization by default, and pursues to restore the hue and color of the real scene, which is also convenient for professional users to carry out post-operation. For white users, Nubia also provides an AI camera. It is understood that Nubia already has 500+ scene optimization data such as people, animals, flowers, green plants and landscapes. The mobile phone can automatically optimize the effect according to different scenes, such as saturation, sharpness, edge enhancement, exposure compensation, local light and dark adjustment, intelligent noise reduction, intelligent HDR, white balance adjustment and so on.

Dual-screen design also has some applications in images, such as lighting the secondary screen at the same time when taking pictures or videos, which can be used to take pictures of girls or VLOG. Add a detail here. Although Nubian Z20 uses the same hardware for ordinary shooting and selfie, in actual use, using the sub-screen selfie alone will castrate some functions, such as taking pictures without telephoto (this can be ignored), without super night view, and the highest video is only 30 frames in full HD.

Performance, durability and summary

Qualcomm released its latest flagship platform, Snapdragon 855+, last month, which is equivalent to improving the platform standard of flagship mobile phones in the second half of the year. At present, there are only two mobile phones equipped with Snapdragon 855+ chip, ROG 2 and Black Shark 2 Pro, and Nubian Z20 is the first Volkswagen flagship model equipped with this platform.

According to official data, compared with the previous Snapdragon 855, Snapdragon 855 Plus increased the main frequency of the "super kernel" in the CPU from 2.84GHz to 2.96GHz, and the main frequency of Adreno 640 in the GPU from 585MHz to 672MHz, and the GPU performance improved by 15%. From the actual test results, Ann Bunny's V8 running score has reached more than 450,000, and the highest quality of "Peace Elite" and "the glory of the king" can be stably maintained at 60 frames, so there is no need to worry about performance.

Regarding battery life, compared with many netizens, they are worried that the dual-screen design will bring extra power consumption to Nubian Z20. However, in practical application, only a few scenes need dual screens to work at the same time. Even in the case of power shortage, the secondary screen can be used as the main screen to reduce power consumption. Because various projects need to be tested in the evaluation process, the intensity of my use of Nubian Z20 is obviously higher than that of my usual iPhone XR. Go out at 8: 30 in the morning and get home at 8: 00 in the evening. After nearly 12 hours of heavy use, Nubian Z20 still has nearly 30% power remaining. If it is iPhone XR, it is basically popular.

Nubian Z20 is an avant-garde and innovative flagship mobile phone with top hardware configuration, eye-catching dual-screen design and first-class image capability. Looking around the current mobile phone market, pure "dolls" and stacked models abound, which makes the appearance of Nubian Z20 particularly dazzling. Even so, the leader is not good. Nubia has to face the real resistance and tap the potential of dual screens to create more use value for users.