Dress to IMPRESS

The Nubia M2 is a case of great hardware design let down by poor software and unfortunate pricing

You know what they say about first impressions. When you first lay eyes on the Nubia M2, it is hard not to appreciate it on some level. Unboxing it to see the sleek black pane of glass with gold accents on the sides and a hint of red around the camera and below the display, you can tell that some thought went into its design. This is a phone that makes you notice it, and want to like it.

The specsheet is no joke either. The M2 comes with a 5.5-inch AMOLED display panel, a respectable Snapdragon 625 processor, which is known to perform well with 1080p displays like the one on this phone, 4GB RAM, 64GB onboard storage and a beefy 3,630mAh battery to back it all up. So far so good.

Turn it on, and the phone displays a large canvas of bright image thumbnails — hinting at its camera prowess — as it’s got a dual 13MP camera setup at the back and a 16megapixel front-facing sensor.

Interface experience

Unfortunately for this phone that we really wanted to like, this is where things begin to go downhill. Nowadays, most users — and even manufacturers — have realised that keeping Android close to stock form is usually preferred, with add-ons inserted only if they really make a difference. Nubia did not get this memo, and saddled this otherwise great-looking phone with its clunky Nubia UI V4.0. The smaller issue here is that this UI is baked on top of the ageing Android 6.0.1 with the security patch last updated in March, with no updates available as of writing. The larger one is that Nubia UI seems a little unpolished. Sure, there’s enough added functionality to make Samsung’s TouchWiz from five years back look underpopulated, but even most of these features don’t seem to solve any real problems. The UI offers edge-based gestures for everything from app switching to reducing screen brightness, but the phone’s regular, non-curvy screen makes using them a difficult feat to accomplish. For example, double-clicking the narrow left edge takes you back one screen, which feels more convoluted than just using the traditional, and swappable, back key below the display. The point here is, in an age where phone UIs are about intuitive interactions, learning these extra features feels more like mastering your favourite fighting video game character’s moveset. The names of some of the settings, which seem like they were labelled for the ease of developers and forgotten about later, don’t help its case either.

Our complaints with the UI aside, the phone goes about day-to-day tasks with relative fluidity, and we didn’t have trouble getting anything done. The display is not the brightest or sharpest, but does offer some colour-tuning options, and while the fingerprint sensor takes a second to unlock the screen, it was usually accurate.

The daily grind

On the camera side, things get murky again. The dual cameras let the M2 do the depth effect portrait shots that are all the rage these days, but the software can get confused in identifying the subject’s edges.

The image quality in low light is nothing great; however, the M2 does manage to resolve a decent amount of detail in bright outdoor environments. 4K video from the rear camera is also good in the right lighting, and for those who enjoy fiddling with settings, there is a Pro mode included.

In general, the M2 per- forms rather decently, and lasts a long time, thanks to its efficient chipset and screen combination and large battery. The reason we’re being a bit hard on it is its price — which is ₹21,499, and therefore makes it a hard sell. While it has the looks to justify this, the sub-par software experience is what you would expect of a phone in a much lower price bracket.

Interestingly, the M2 Lite model, which sacrifices one rear camera, and downgrades to a 720p screen and a slower processor with a 3,000mAh battery, while retaining similar design and storage options, is priced a full ₹10,000 lower, which makes the UI experience a lot more acceptable.

If you’re looking for a phone in this price range, the Moto Z Play or the slightly more expensive OnePlus 3T (while stocks last) make for far more value for money.