It looks like the ZTE Nubia Z9 Maxi and Z9 Mini are not the only Nubia Z9 series ZTE has got up its sleeves. The Chinese company just took the curtains off the ZTE Nubia Z9 smartphone that packs a punch inside this borderless phone, including allowing you to squeeze the phone to trigger shortcuts.
First up, the Nubia Z9 comes with a 5.2” Full HD display with the ever-popular 2.5D glass. Beneath that is an octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor with Adreno 420 GPU. There are different variants to pick from, with the highest end sporting up to 4GB RAM and 64GB of built-in storage.
Camera wise, the Z9 has a 16MP 1/2.6” Sony IMX234 camera with f/2.0 aperture, OIS and 4K video recording. The front camera isn’t too shabby either, equipped with an 8MP Sony IMX179 sensor (f/2.4 with wide-angle lens). Other specs include dual-SIM support, 2900mAh battery, LTE connectivity, Fingerprint sensor (Exclusive version), AKM4961 Hi-Fi processor with Dolby 7.1 surround, and runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box.
And now on to the interesting parts. What makes the ZTE Nubia Z9 stand out from a crowded room of flagship smartphones in the market? Its bezel-free design of course, and a rather interesting technology on the bezels. The Nubia Z9 isn’t completely borderless of course – it needs to be held together by something, but the bezels measures at only 0.8mm, making it look almost invisible. The effect is made possible using similar technology to what we seen before on the Oppo R7, and it looks absolutely stunning on the 2.5D glass though I’m not quite sure how it would look with a non-edge to edge screen protector.
As for the “squeeze technology”, ZTE calls it the FIT (Frame Interactive Technology). You can squeeze or slide over the side bezels of the phone, and it will trigger a pre-set shortcut or action. For example, slide down on both sides of the bezel simultaneously to turn the screen off, double squeeze to take a screenshot and such.
Click on images to see the animation
The ZTE Nubia Z9 will come in three configurations – the most basic version, “Classic” with 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage costs 3,499yuan (RM2,012), Elite edition has 4GB RAM and 64GB storage for 3,999yuan (RM2,300), and the most expensive Exclusive edition has 4GB RAM, 64GB storage and fingerprint recognition technology (TIO) costs 4,499yuan (RM2,590).
(Source: PhoneArena, GizChina)
