Folding smartphones tend to be on the higher end of the price spectrum, but the Nubia Flip 5G has its eyes firmly set in the more affordable segment. If you’re in the market for a clamshell foldable, there’s not much competition in this price range. With the Oppo Find N2 Flip discontinued and the Find N3 Flip not yet available in the UK, the only real competition here is: Motorola Razr 40 (£769 at time of writing).
So the stage is set for Nubia to swoop in with its first flip phone and grab attention as a “budget” handset. With competitive specs and a uniquely designed external display, his Nubia Flip 5G has the potential to be a real challenge to the Motorola Razr 40.
The only problem is that Nubia has yet to reveal whether the Flip 5G will actually be coming to the UK (at the time of writing, only a vague European launch has been confirmed). If that happens, this hands-on session makes us think Motorola might be in contention for the title of best affordable foldable phone.
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Nubia Flip 5G Hands-On Review: Design, Key Features, First Impressions
Before we dive into these specs, let’s talk about the design. Compared to the sleek Motorola Razr 40 Ultra or the sleek Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, the Nubia Flip 5G feels a little drab. The flat edges and rounded corners are definitely a Galaxy knockoff, but the matte plastic sides don’t look that way. Or as classy as the Z Flip 5’s aluminum trim.
The Nubia Flip 5G isn’t trying to compete with the most premium clamshells around, but even compared to the Motorola Razr 40 with its bold colors and vegan leather coating, the Nubia Flip 5G feels overly utilitarian. It feels like there is. It also weighs 214g, which is quite heavy among foldable phones. For comparison, the Razr 40 weighed 187g and the Find N2 Flip weighed 191g.
The dimensions are all pretty much in line with the competition, so most of that should all be under the surface. When folded, the phone measures 170 x 76 mm and is only 7.3 mm thick, and when folded it measures 76 x 16 x 88 mm (WDH).
With the phone closed, let’s talk about the most interesting part of the design: the external display. The circular screen is his 1.43-inch OLED panel, which sits neatly within the ring-shaped camera housing. This is very different from the rectangular external displays I’m usually used to seeing on flip phones, and it certainly helps his Flip 5G stand out among its competitors.
Much like a smartwatch, this external display has several cards you can swipe through, including a calendar, pedometer, and camera app. Opening the latter turns the external display into a small round viewfinder. The display only has a resolution of 466 x 466, so it’s not very user-friendly, but it’s good enough for lining up selfies.
At the moment, there isn’t much information about the cameras surrounding the external display, with the only details confirmed being that one of them is a 50MP main lens and the other is a 2MP depth sensor. This combination feels a little weak to me. Dual cameras are pretty standard on flip phones, but the secondary camera is usually of higher quality. The 2MP lens is the kind of thing I’d like to see on ultra-low-cost phones.
At least the selfie camera brings more megapixels. Flip the phone open and you’ll find a 16MP sensor below the display near the top bezel. If Nubia was going to cut corners, I would have cut corners here. Foldable phones, thanks to their design, make it easy to take selfies with the “rear” camera, so it makes much more sense to put your money there and leave the attached lens for the built-in display. That’s true.
Pixel distribution complaints aside, the display looks pretty decent. It’s the same 6.9-inch panel as the Razr 40, but with a slightly higher resolution (2,790 x 1,188 compared to 2,640 x 1,080). There’s no word on the refresh rate, but we expect it to be 120Hz based on how smooth the navigation was when we played around with the test model.
When it comes to overall comfort, the Nubia Flip 5G comes with decent hardware. The 2.4GHz Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset is the same platform used in the Razr 40 and can be paired with either 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, or 8GB and 256GB.
The battery is said to be a bit larger than the Razr 40 (4,310mAh vs. 4,200mAh) and charging speeds up to 33W with support for wired connections. This is slightly better than his 30W wired offering on the Razr 40, but the latter is combined with his 5W wireless charging support.
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Nubia Flip 5G Hands-On Review: Early Verdict
That’s all the information we have to go on at this point. It is expected to be released in March, with prices starting at $599 (UK pricing is currently unknown as it has not been confirmed that it will be released in the UK). At the trial event, he was available in two color variations. A plain black model and a flashy gold number pictured here. So we can expect both to be offered when this phone finally hits stores.
Working on the assumption that the Nubia Flip 5G is coming to the UK, there are a number of things that could go wrong for the Razr brand. I like the display on the cover better, but the hardware is comparable and could also be considerably cheaper, depending on what the exchange rate is.
Brand recognition definitely works against you, but in times of financial crisis when everyone wants to pay as little as possible, a low-cost alternative to the big flip phone brands is a dark horse in the flip phone market. There is a possibility that it will happen.
