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The battle between flagship phones may be exciting to watch but the best battle can be seen in the mid-range and price segment.
The Nubia Air 5G could be mistaken for a high-end device due to its ultra-thin design. Not only that, but it also has a triple ingress protection rating of IP68, IP69, and IP69K which translates to the phone’s resistance to immersion in water as well as high-pressure water jets and high temperatures. It’s actually tougher than it looks.
At 5.9mm and 172 grams, it’s one of the smallest and lightest phones out there. The 6.78-inch AMOLED screen is incredibly bright and vibrant with a 120hz refresh rate. It is very easy to see even from the outside. Perhaps the only downside is the screen’s tendency to overpopulate some colors. Eye comfort and reading mode settings can help reduce enhanced colors for those who prefer less eye candy. The under-display fingerprint sensor is fast and responsive.
The phone comes packed with a 5000mah battery and 33W fast charging. It won’t break battery endurance records, but it’s on par with phones with the same battery capacity, giving you a full day of battery life under normal use. For contactless payments, the phone is equipped with NFC. Sadly, there is no wireless charging.
On the back is a prominent hump that houses the camera. There is a large 50MP sensor with auxiliary lens and LED flash. It’s a great shooter that does all the work and in good lighting conditions, the images it produces are decent enough to upload to social media. Look elsewhere if you’re looking for sharper images or noiseless low light and night shots. The lack of an ultrawide lens may offset some of the image buffs. Video is limited to a maximum setting of 1080p/30 fps.
The Unisoc T8300 chip under the hood copes well with daily tasks such as browsing, productivity, basic communication, and light gaming. If you try to switch quickly between tasks and under heavy load, there may be occasional stuttering or slowdown. The 6-nanometer 8-core chipset may not dominate benchmarks but as long as the graphics settings are not set to high, the Nubia Air 5G is surprisingly good at most 3D games.
Those who experience working with multiple languages will appreciate the AI Translate feature but that’s a pretty good measure of the AI features baked into the phone. You have to rely on other AI apps like Gemini for other tasks.
In terms of value proposition, you get a lot of phone for just a hair under P11,000 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. If you’re willing to live without top-of-the-line features but need a mid-range device that you can use as a daily driver or second phone, the Nubia Air 5G ticks all the boxes for a small, premium-looking phone without a hefty price tag. – Ed G. Geronia Jr.
