ZTE Nubia Z9 mini Short Description or Review

150g of polycarbonate and 5 inches of a full-HD display. Amazing what they'd call a mini these days. Technically, the ZTE Nubia Z9 mini is the compact version of the bezel-free Z9 but size isn't the first thing that sets these two apart.

The difference in screen diagonal is minor and both have 1080p resolution, means the 5-inch mini has a tad crisper screen. The battery capacity is the same, which is also a point in the Nubia Z9 mini's favor. A memory card slot is another.

But well, there's probably no way to break the bad news gently, so there we go. No edge-to-edge display for the Nubia Z9 mini. Other than that, the two look nearly identical and that's a compliment to the mini, which uses plastic where the bigger Z9 had glass.

Key features

·Dual SIM support, dedicated SIM and microSD slots, no sharing

·5.0" 1080p capacitive LCD (441 ppi)

· Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 615 chipset: quad-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 and quad-core 1.0GHz Cortex-A53, Adreno 405 GPU; 2GB of RAM;

·16MP autofocus camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording

·8MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording

·Android OS v5.0.2 Lollipop with Nubia UI 3.0.8

·16GB of built-in storage; dedicated microSD card slot

·Cat. 4 LTE (150Mbps); Dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac; Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0; GPS/GLONASS/; FM radio; microUSB port

·Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic

·Non-removable 2900mAh battery

Main disadvantages

·No NFC

·Non-removable battery

·No quick charging or wireless charging support

·No Gorilla Glass display protection

The ZTE Nubia Z9 mini is making its way through a crowd of midrangers which can turn hostile to ambitious newcomers. ZTE knows it needs to raise its profile in the developed markets and the Nubia line is at the spearhead of their campaign. Without the edge-to-edge screen, the mini is counting on the eye-catching exterior and the novelty factor to lure users away from the big name rivals.