They just announced the Nubia Neo 5 series in Pakistan, and this lineup has two completely different phones. The one named Nubia Neo 5 Max (Padphone) is already in stores and on ZTE’s official website, with a price. Then there’s the Nubia Neo 5 Pro, which is apparently a smaller but pricier version. This is everything we know about both phones.
ZTE Nubia Neo 5 Max
This newcomer has been in the news and teased extensively over the last week. Neo 5 Max is a giant handset, almost the size of a tablet. They’ve put a large 7.5” IPS LCD on it. This display is 1.5K resolution, which is appropriate for that size. And the max refresh rate is 120Hz. It will hit 1000nits.
You do get shoulder triggers on the frame with a 990 Hz touch rate. It’s a gaming phone after all, so this is the bare minimum. The same side rail has a fingerprint key and volume buttons. The phone does look like it has liquid cooling, but that’s just a design.
It has passive cooling with a VC cooling chamber (30,000 mm²) to take heat away from the chip and battery. Speaking of which, you’ll do gaming on the Mali-G610 MC2 iGPU. The SoC is mid-tier, by the way. A Dimensity 7100 platform, 2.4 GHz boost clock.
Not that it needs cooling in the first place, but sustained load can certainly make use of the VC cooling. It’s built around a 7100mAh battery with 45W charging (bypass). RAM module is 8GB LPDDR5X (5500MT/s). Storage seems to be 256GB UFS 2.2.
The newcomer does have stereo speakers. The adhesive holding the Neo 5 Max together makes it splashproof (IP64). There’s just one camera on the back (50MP) and a front unit (16MP). The official price for the Neo 5 Max in Pakistan is Rs 99,999.
ZTE Nubia Neo 5 Pro
This version is built around an AMOLED screen, which is why the Neo 5 Pro is pricier. They’ve put a 6.8” AMOLED on it at a 120Hz refresh rate. This is a simple FHD+ screen. There’s a punch hole on it, where a 16MP selfie camera is tucked away. Its chip is different, but not necessarily an improvement.
They went with a Unisoc T9100 SoC for Neo 5 Pro. This one does have a 2.7GHz boost clock, a fast CPU. But the GPU is a Mali G57 MP4, and the RAM is LPDDR4. Only one variant is being shipped in Pakistan, and it will get 12GB RAM and 256GB ROM.
This one has almost the same design and rear iconography/RGB, but there’s no transparent window. It’s just a solid color backplate. This phone is splashproof too, with an IP64 rating. Yes, it has the same camera setup. Though its video recording is much better.
They’ve put the same 50MP unit on the Neo 5 Pro as well, but the chipset made it possible to record 4K 30 FPS videos on it. And because it has an AMOLED, the Pro version has an optical screen-laced fingerprint reader. The battery size takes a hit, though.
Its frame is not as spacious as the Max verison, so the Neo 5 Pro fits a smaller 6000mAh battery. But it’s not all bad news. It has double the charging speed (80W) to make up for the lost capacity. Nubia Neo 5 Pro is expected to cost around Rs 119,999 for 12/256GB. Its official price wasn’t revealed.