ZTE Nubia Z20 announced with dual displays and Snapdragon 855 Plus

(Image credit: Nubia)

The Nubia Z20 is the latest flagship from ZTE and offers one of the boldest designs in any smartphone by adding an entire second screen on the back. Just announced in China, here’s everything that Indians might need to know about the ZTE Nubia Z20, as it’s likely to make it to India later.

ZTE is no stranger to wacky design choices with a dash of practicality. The Nubia Z20 is no different and adopts one of the smartest approaches to get rid of the notch that eats away into the display. The device has a 5.1-inch HD+ AMOLED display on the back and has all the functionality of a standard screen. The main idea here is to use this display as a viewfinder for selfies using the primary set of cameras as there’s no dedicated front camera on the Z20. If you look closely at the images, there’s also a second earpiece along the top edge of the back panel and is likely for receiving calls using the secondary screen.

 ZTE Nubia Z20 Specifications 

The design is one of the key highlights of the Nubia Z20, with the front being adorned by a curved 6.42-inch AMOLED panel at an FHD+ resolution. The bezels are incredibly slim too, and no notch or hole obstructs the viewing experience. Interestingly, there’s no in-display fingerprint scanner, and the biometrics are handled by dual side-mounted fingerprint scanners, catering to both lefties and righties.

The latest Nubia flagship is powered by the new Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset with 6 or 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 3.0 storage. The battery is rated at 4,000mAh and supports 27W fast charging. 

(Image credit: Nubia)

As for cameras, the ZTE Nubia Z20 has a triple camera array on the back consisting of a 48MP f/1.7 optically stabilized the primary camera, a 16MP ultra-wide camera and an 8MP 3x telephoto camera that can create shots with 30x digital zoom. It can also record in 8K or at 1,920fps slow motion, HDR10 recording, and night mode. All of those will be available for selfies too.

The Nubia Z20 runs Nubia UI 7.0 over Android 9 Pie and comes with additional features that help increase the functionality of the phone using the second screen. Since each screen is operated individually, users can have two different apps or two instances of the same app open at the same time. This AMOLED panel can also be used as an always-on-display. Most interestingly, taking a leaf out of Red Magic’s notebook, specific areas of the rear panel can be custom mapped to act as shoulder triggers for gaming.

 ZTE Nubia Z20 Price 

The Nubia Z20 is now available for pre-order in China starting today (August 8) and will ship August 16 onwards. Available in black, blue and red colour options, the phone is priced at CNY 3,499 (INR 35,000) for the 6 + 128GB variant, CNY 3,699 (INR 37,000) for the 8 + 128GB variant. The top model with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage will retail for INR 4,199 (INR 42,000).

There’s no information on Indian availability yet, but will be coming to USA, Canada, and Europe sometime in September.

Aakash Jhaveri

Aakash is the engine that keeps TechRadar India running, using his experience and ideas to help consumers get to the right products via reviews, buying guides and explainers. Apart from phones, computers and cameras, he is obsessed with electric vehicles.