NUU B30 Pro 5G Smartphone Review – Is TUU as good as TRUU?

review -The NUU B30 Pro 5G smartphone is a new product from a brand that is “new” to me. This smartphone is the endorsed smartphone of the FC Dallas soccer team. Does this sway you or do you have to let me decide if this smartphone will stay with you? I will do my job and let you know the details. I have very few complaints about the B30 Pro 5G, but have you ever come across such a perfect smartphone?

What is it?

The NUU B30 Pro 5G smartphone is a newly released smartphone from NUU.

What’s included?

• NUU B30 Pro 5G Smartphone
• Clear phone case
• 30W fast charger
• USB-C to USB-C cable
• Comes with a factory-installed screen protector
• Starter Guide and NUU Sticker

Technical Specifications

Design and Features

NUU was a really new company to me, so I’ll tell you a bit about the company from their LinkedIn profile.

“We are NUU. We manufacture unlocked Android smartphones. We have been doing so since 2012.”

NUU is a global company with strong local roots, and today we have grown from Hong Kong to Dallas, Texas and around the world.

Our philosophy is simple: better smartphones at a better price.

We believe that a good-looking, reliable phone doesn’t necessarily have to cost hundreds of dollars. We believe in protecting our customers with extended warranties and timely updates. We believe that a friendly voice and top-notch customer service makes the difference.”

The B30 Pro 5G only works with the T-Mobile network and MVNOs that use the T-Mobile network. Here’s the full list.

GenMobile
Hello Mobile
T-Mobile Metro
Mint Mobile
Q-Link Wireless
Speed ​​Talk Mobile
T-Mobile
Tello Mobile
Ultra Mobile

The B30 Pro 5G comes with Android 13 installed but is compatible with Android 14. A few weeks after I started my review, NUU asked me if I wanted to try out Android 14. I quickly said yes within a few seconds. They were kind enough to push Android 14 to my phone, which has worked out great. I helped identify a few bugs in Android 14, but am hopeful they’ll get those ironed out with the mass release.

This new NUU packs a lot under its thin hood. The specs above say it all, but in case you missed it, the B30 Pro has 5G, Wi-Fi 6, a 5000mAh fast-charging battery with an included 30W charger and cable, 120Hz screen refresh rate (adjustable downwards), a 108MP main camera, macro and wide-angle lenses, an in-display fingerprint sensor, NFC for Google Pay, 12GB RAM, 256GB storage, and it comes in one color, a glossy mint green, which I love.

Assembly, installation and setup

It’s nice that NUU includes a phone case in the box, and it’s certainly minimalist.

The corners of the case are not thicker than the case itself and the sides do not provide any protection if the screen is dropped face down. The sides of the case are lowered to show off the curved screen glass. There is no protection for the screen whatsoever.

The sides of the case are shaped exactly like the phone, so grip is minimal and not much different than the phone without a case. Think of it as a temporary case until the case you ordered arrives. But good luck shopping around. I couldn’t find a suitable case for this phone, and some have low ratings. A wallet-style case is probably the most protective, but all I found cost shipping, even with Amazon Prime. I take this phone out of my pockets very carefully and hold it with great care while using it.

The NUU B30 Pro 5G is the third phone I’ve reviewed recently that I couldn’t set up even when cabled to my previous phone. Once I told the system to use the most recent Google backup from my other phone, the setup completed successfully.

To save a bit of battery, we lowered the screen refresh rate from 120Hz to 60Hz, and 60Hz is plenty on the B30 Pro.

performance

On the second day of using the phone, the SIM card kept losing connection with the phone. The SIM tray on the B30 Pro has identical “shelves” on the top and bottom that hold two SIM cards. I moved the SIM to the bottom part of the tray, the SIM 2 position, and the connection was fine during that time. I seem to change phones every 1-2 weeks, so maybe the SIM was getting weak somehow (EDC, knives, pens, flashlights, phones are all in rotation).

I also had issues with dropped calls, so NUU sent me back the first phone and sent me a replacement that worked fine. I got a new one from T-Mobile to rule out SIM issues. All was well in the meantime. I bet 1 in 1000 iPhones have this problem too.

For me, the call tone and volume were pleasant and normal, and everyone I spoke to could hear me clearly. Calls on the B30 Pro didn’t drop out as often as other phones; when calling on two phones, it’s hard to tell which call was dropped. I made several long calls during this review and the connection remained intact.

Nobody buys a $300 phone for sound quality. The B30 Pro has good call quality on speakerphone, with podcasts, live radio news, and interviews sounding crisp and clear. I cranked the volume up to 100% during streaming news broadcasts and there was no distortion or hiss. The B30 Pro’s speakers will play music well enough that you’ll probably be able to “name that song,” but not enough to make you fussy about the quality. The speakers are clear and good enough for normal phone use.

The OS is pretty much vanilla Google Android, which is a big plus. NUU hasn’t messed around with settings and made them complicated like the big phone manufacturers, everything is exactly where you’d expect it to be, and there’s the usual Android settings search field to help you find settings quickly.

What’s the battery life like? The B30 Pro’s 5000mAh battery doesn’t seem to drain as quickly as other 5K mAh batteries I’ve handled.

One great feature that NUU has worked into the B30 Pro’s settings is the ability to set a battery charge limit. This can help extend battery life by keeping your rechargeable lithium battery in the range of about 45% to 85%. With the charge limiter on, the device stopped charging at 84% every time I charged it. That’s close enough for me.

I’ve had phones for years that have a slow battery charger. I can’t definitively prove that it’s the cause, but I tend to use standard chargers rather than the fast chargers that come with fast-charging phones because fast charging leads to increased heat and shorter battery life. Am I just stupid? Maybe.

Here we mainly show the charging current using the included fast charger, which is a very good charging speed.

We used the fast charger and cable that came with the B30 Pro a lot throughout this review, and in our 50% charge speed test it charged the phone from 45% to 95% in about 55 minutes.

The automatic screen brightness feature worked well outdoors, but indoors I needed to make the screen brighter to make it easier to read. I had this issue recurring a few times, so I turned automatic screen brightness off indoors and back on outdoors. This should be fixed in a future software update.

The main drawback of the $270 phone is the camera. It’s not awful — bright daytime photos are better than some cheaper phones can take — but zooming in on a photo leaves the details grainy and pixelated. Low-light photos taken with the flash off on the B30 Pro just don’t come out as well. Plan to use the flash for almost all photos you take indoors.

When shooting video with the B30 Pro, make sure you hold steady as there is little to no image stabilization.

Towards the end of our review test, the factory-applied screen protector started to show surface scratches – thankfully, the scratches weren’t visible with the screen in place.

The phone has a “double tap to wake” feature in the settings, and I turned it on shortly after setting it up. I found I had to double tap multiple times to wake the phone. I also sometimes had to press the power button to wake the phone. This is a need that could be addressed with a software update.

The in-screen fingerprint reader is one of the best I’ve ever used. The only time it stops working is when your fingers are wet, which is where most in-screen fingerprint readers falter.

What I like about the NUU B30 Pro 5G smartphone

• Beautiful colours, great design and build quality
• NUU Android 13 and 14 are very close to “vanilla Android”
• The phone never lags or freezes.

What needs to be improved?

• The B30 Pro has sharp curves on the sides, making it difficult to hold firmly
• Needs a more protective and grippy case
• Double tap to wake and auto adjust screen brightness require some tweaking

lastly

Now that the review is over, I don’t plan on transferring the SIM to a regular phone. I plan on using the NUU B30 Pro 5G as my daily communication device at least until my niece’s wedding, when I’ll need to take really good photos. There are a few minor drawbacks, but if you’re not looking to take artistic quality photos with your phone, I think the NUU B30 Pro 5G is worth the price.

price: $299 on Amazon. $269.99 on NUU.
Where to buy: Amazon and NUU
sauce: A sample of this product was provided free of charge by NUU, who did not have the final say on the review, nor did they provide a preview before the review was published.