nubia Music In-Depth Review
Last July, nubia Philippines has introduced the nubia Music to provide an affordable and unique music experience for Filipino music lovers. The smartphone offers features not commonly found on typical smartphones, such as a speaker with up to 600% volume with AI super volume algorithm and DTS:X Ultra, dual musical light effects with melody, dual 3.5mm earphone jacks, and a Classic Vinyl Record Player design.
In this review, we will take a closer look at the smartphone's features to help you determine if it meets your needs.
Design and Walk Around
As we discussed during the unboxing and first impression of the device, the nubia Music has a classic vinyl record player design. The design is elegant and artistic, featuring classic geometric shapes and a holographic texture process on the camera module. The phone comes in two colors: Pop Art and Zeel Orange, and I have the Zeel Orange version.
The phone's front features a large 6.6-inch HD+ (720 x 1612) IPS display with a centered hole-punch 5MP camera at the top and a discreetly carved earpiece above the display. The phone does not come with a pre-installed screen protector, but two screen protectors are included in the box for you to apply yourself.
On the back of the phone, there is a dual camera module. One houses the 50MP main camera, while the other houses the 2MP depth lens and a single LED flash. There is also a large speaker design resembling a vinyl record.
The right side of the phone features the standard volume rocker button and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor embedded in the power button.
On the left side, there is a card tray with a 2-card slot for one nano-SIM card and either another nano-SIM or a microSD card for expandable storage.
At the top of the phone, there are dual 3.5mm earphone jacks, allowing you to share and enjoy music with family members or friends.
The bottom of the phone features the USB Type-C charging port and microphone.
Display and Multimedia
The nubia Music boasts a large 6.6-inch display with an HD+ (720 x 1612) resolution, a 90Hz refresh rate, and a 180Hz touch response rate, making it ideal for a smooth and responsive display experience. The IPS panel produces good colors with decent viewing angles but may be challenging to use in direct sunlight even at maximum brightness.
The standout feature of the nubia Music is its large speaker at the back, which supports a volume increase of up to 600% and features an AI super volume algorithm and DTS:X Ultra. When the volume is boosted to 600%, the bass becomes noticeably lacking, although the treble and midtones are more prominent.
Other noteworthy features include dual 3.5mm earphone jacks for sharing audio and a built-in FM antenna for listening to the radio without wired headphones.
The device is equipped with Dual Musical Light Effects with Melody. The RGB light effects on the speakers provide a Breathing Light effect that changes in real time with the rhythm of the music. Additionally, there is a Screen light effect which can be customized in the Melody Lights app. This effect creates a surrounding light effect on the screen that also changes in real-time with the rhythm of the music.
Camera
Rear Camera
The nubia Music smartphone boasts a dual-camera system with a 50MP F1.8 primary camera featuring Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF). Additionally, the primary camera is accompanied by a 2MP depth sensor that helps with portrait shots.
The main camera is equipped with 12 shooting scenes recognition and face recognition V3.0 that locks the face focus when taking photos and videos.
Although the camera is not the phone's primary feature, it performs surprisingly well under bright lighting conditions. However, the dynamic range requires improvement in some scenarios.
For indoor and low light, photos can be muddy in certain situations even with the Night Mode feature turned on, still, it is good enough and usable for casual social media postings.
Front Selfie Camera
In terms of the front camera, the nubia Music boasts a 5MP front camera with an F2.4 aperture. The camera is also paired with the usual camera UI features for selfies.
For selfies, it produced decent photos for its price, especially in bright conditions. Background blurring for portrait selfies isn’t that perfect but good enough.
Video
For video, the nubia Music supports up to 1080p@30fps video recording with its main camera and 720p@30fps for the front-facing camera.
The recorded video from the main camera is shaky having no image stabilization.
MyOS 13, Apps, and Security
The nubia Music uses a customized UI called MyOS 13, which is based on Android 13. This UI is easy to navigate and comes pre-installed with Google's standard app suite and some unnecessary apps.
The device featured a Live island where various useful functions could be accessed, such as checking battery status, setting a countdown timer, recording voice, connecting earbuds, making phone calls, using the flashlight, and playing music.
In terms of security, the nubia Music is equipped with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor that is embedded in the power button. It also features facial recognition for unlocking the device.
Both features work well - the side-mounted fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate. However, the face unlock feature can be slower in low-light conditions.
Hardware and Performance
The nubia Music is powered by a Unisoc SC9863A processor. This processor is made using a 28nm process, which is considered outdated. It is equipped with four Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.6GHz and four Cortex-A55 cores at 1.2GHz, along with a PowerVR GE8322 GPU with speeds up to 650MHz.
Despite the outdated processor, the device can perform smoothly in casual and light tasks. However, you may experience slight stutters and lags with some apps and games, even with the lowest available settings. It's important to note that this is not a gaming smartphone, so expectations should be moderated.
The nubia Music also supports Extended RAM, allowing you to expand your phone's RAM virtually by using the phone's internal storage. It can make use of up to 4GB for a total usable RAM of up to 8GB.
In the Philippines, the nubia Music is available in one storage variant - 128GB storage, with 18.87GB of used storage out of the box. If you need additional storage, you can further expand it via the dedicated microSD card slot.
Below are the benchmark scores from this device:
- AnTuTu v10.3.2 – 145,322
- AnTuTu Storage Test v10.3.2 – 8,836 (290.0 MB/s Seq. Read, 240.7 MB/s Seq. Write)
- Geekbench 6.3.0 – 197 (Single-core), 819 (Multi-core)
- PCMark – 5,041 (Work 3.0)
- 3DMark – 413 (SSE – OpenGL ES 3.1) 562 (SSE – Vulkan)
Battery and Connectivity
The nubia Music comes with a large 5,000mAh battery. According to nubia, you can listen to music for up to 150 hours with earphones or 48 hours using the speaker continuously. However, in my experience, the battery is only good enough to last a day of light to moderate usage without needing an additional charge. In the PCMark Work 3.0 Battery Life Test, the phone only lasted 9 hours and 19 minutes, which is quite low for a 5,000mAh battery phone.
The nubia Music's 5,000mAh battery takes about 2 hours and 30 minutes to fully charge with its 5W charging. This charging speed is slower than expected for a smartphone in 2024.
Apart from its battery performance, the nubia Music has standard connectivity features, including dual SIM (nano-SIM, dual stand-by), 4G LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and USB Type-C.
nubia Music Specifications
6.6-inch HD+ (720 x 1612) IPS display, 267 ppi
90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz sampling rate
Unisoc SC9863A processor, 28nm
PowerVR GE8322 GPU
4GB RAM (+4GB extended memory)
128GB of internal storage
Storage expandability via microSD Card
50MP F1.8 main + 2MP depth camera
5MP F2.4 selfie camera
Dual-SIM (nano) / 4G LTE
WiFi / Bluetooth / GPS
FM antenna (built-in)
USB Type-C / Dual 3.5mm earphone jacks
DTS:X Ultra loudspeaker (up to 600% volume)
Side-mounted fingerprint sensor
MyOS 13 (Android 13)
5,000mAh battery with 5W charging adapter
Colors: Pop Art and Zeel Orange
What’s inside the box
If you haven't seen the unboxing of the nubia Music yet, the box contained the smartphone itself, a SIM card ejector tool, two sets of screen protectors, a quick start guide, a warranty card, a 10W power adapter, a USB Type-C to USB-A charging cable, and a silicone case.
Price and Availability
You can now purchase nubia Music at any local nubia Philippines store and online through the official Shopee and Lazada store for only Php3,999 SRP.
Verdict
The nubia Music is a reliable and affordable entry-level smartphone that offers many unique features specifically designed for music enthusiasts. It has an appealing design, a large speaker, dual 3.5mm audio jacks, and dual musical light effects. Additionally, it boasts a large display, a decent camera, and a long-lasting battery, all for only Php3,999.
If you're looking for a budget-friendly smartphone that prioritizes music and multimedia, the nubia Music is definitely worth considering.
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