nubia Air Review - Thin and affordable, but at what cost?

After a month of daily usage, we share our thoughts on the nubia Air, including the controversial design decision that bears a striking resemblance to a competitor's ultra-slim phone.

nubia Air

To recap, the nubia Air features a 6.78-inch 120Hz OLED screen, a UNISOC T8300 octa-core processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging despite its super slim 5.9mm thin profile.

The cameras at the back are a 50MP main camera, a 2MP f/2.4 secondary camera, and a 0.08MP auxiliary lens with an LED flash. While in front is the 16MP selfie camera.

In the Philippines, the price starts at only PHP 12,999 for the 8GB/256GB model.

In our unboxing, we were surprised by the omission of an ultra-wide camera.

For our review part 1: nubia Air Unboxing, First Impressions, and Camera Samples

Multimedia Experience

nubia Air's display

In front is the 6.78-inch OLED with a 2720 x 1224 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. It covers 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut and is Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protected.

The panel is super bright, at 4,500 nits peak brightness. This means it's more than readable under direct sunlight. The colours pop, while the text and fine details are crisp, too.

It supports 10 multi-touch points, making it good for multitasking or games that support multiple simultaneous touch inputs. It responds quickly and accurately to our taps and gestures.

The bezels around the panel area are thin and nearly symmetrical. The bottom bezel is slightly thicker than the rest. On the top bezel is the super slim earpiece, while below it is the punch hole that houses the selfie camera.

Delightfully thin and super bright!

While it understandably skips LTPO, the OLED keeps the profile sleek without major compromises.

nubia Air top and bottom

The phone is equipped with a single bottom-firing speaker for audio. Around the phone are microphones used for noise cancellation in calls and audio recording.

The sound from the speakers is surprisingly loud. However, the distortion is noticeable above 85 percent as well. The sound is easily muffled when covering the speakers.

The microphones do a good job of picking up sounds from a meter away, while the noise-cancellation for calls is good too.

Cameras

nubia Air's rear camera module

The back features a 50MP f/1.6 main camera, a 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor, and a 0.08MP auxiliary lens with an LED flash.

The stock camera app includes Photo, Video, Sport, 50M, Night, Portrait, Time-lapse, Pro, Document, Panorama, Multi-exposure, Dual-capture, Monocolor, and VLOG.

The Pro mode allows for controls of ISO (100-6400), Shutter Speed (1/5000 - 1 sec), EV (+- 3), Focus, Metering (Spot, Center-Weighted, Average), and White Balance.

Rear Camera Samples

nubia Air rear camera daylight 1x

nubia Air rear camera daylight 3x

The images from the main camera are sharp and vibrant, but the sharpness looks artificial. 

While the 2x crop looks sharp at first, when looked at closely, the noise reduction has reduced the detail on the windows and the balcony grills. The 2x crop also has a slight tinge of magenta.

nubia Air rear camera close-up

The close-up images' areas that are in focus are sharp, while the out-of-focus areas have a nice fall-off. The colors are vibrant but lean towards warmer tones. The noise is also noticeable despite being shot with a well lit indoors.

nubia Air rear camera indoors 1x

nubia Air rear camera indoors 3x

Indoors, the images are similar to daylight, where the 1x is sharp, detailed, and vibrant, but the 2x loses detail because of noise reduction.

nubia Air rear camera low light 1x

nubia Air rear camera low light 3x

For low light, the camera app automatically runs Night Mode-like shots.  And like the rest of the photos, the 1x is sharp and detailed but leans towards warmer tones. Despite the night mode-like shots, the 2x remains soft and less detailed.

Overall, the rear camera produced decent images but leaned towards warmer white balance. The 2x crop is not recommended.

Hopefully, there will be a software update to address the noise issue.

nubia Air front-facing camera

In front is the 20MP f/2.0 selfie camera found in the punch hole on the display.

Camera modes include Photo, Video, Portrait, Dual-Capture, and VLOG.

Selfie Camera Samples

nubia Air selfie camera daylight

Daylight selfies from the nubia Air come decently sharp, detailed, and contrasty, but the colors and especially the skin tones are not as accurate as we would like. 

nubia Air selfie camera Portrait

Similar to the portrait mode bokeh of the rear cameras, the edge detection has difficulty with hair fibers on Neil's left cheek.

The Bokeh blur is decent, but it has these weirdly shaped bokeh balls.

nubia Air selfie camera indoors

Indoor selfies are a mixed bag. If you look closely, the hair and glasses are sharp, but the mustache and beard are soft. The lips and skin tones are slightly off, too. Light sources also overexpose easily.

nubia Air selfie camera lowlight

In low light, the selfie looks okay but is generally soft, and the light sources overexpose easily.

Overall, the front cameras produced okay selfies, but the sharpness, skin tones, and detail are inconsistent.

The rear and front cameras can record up to 1080p at 30fps. The footage is soft with noticeable noise.

The rear camera has an anti-shake feature, but the crop is noticeably larger than we would like.

Performance

nubia Air AnTuTu and GeekBench scores

Inside the nubia Air is the 6nm UNISOC T8300 octa-core processor, Mali-G57 MP2 GPU, 8GB RAM, and 256GB storage. The RAM can be expanded up to 12GB via software, Dynamic RAM.

During the AnTuTu test, the phone's temperature increased by 2.9 degrees while the battery lost 5 percent power.

In GeekBench, the nubia Air scored 876 in the single-core test and scored 2,078 in the multi-core test.

nubia Air 3DMark and CPDT

In 3DMark, the nubia Air scored 1,238 overall score with an average fps of 7.42. The 256GB internal storage got 304.01 MB/s in sequential read speeds and 201.39 MB/s in sequential write speeds.

nubia GeekBench AI and PCMark Battery benchmark

In GeekBench AI, it scored 510 in Single Precision, 512 Half Precision, and 1,030 Quantized Score.

nubia Air benchmarks:

1. AnTuTu - 595,863
2. Geekbench 6 - 811 (single-core), 2,074 (multi-core)
3. GeekBench AI - 510 (Single Precision), 512GB (Half Precision), 1030 (Quantized)
4. 3DMark - 1,238 overall score, 7.42 average fps
5. CPDT - 304.01 MB/s sequential read speeds and 201.39 MB/s sequential write speeds

The nubia scores in AnTuTu, Geekbench, and GeekBench AI offer scores that are within the range of what is expected in its price range. There are phones priced higher with comparable scores.

nubia Air Genshin Impact graphics settings

Our takeaway is that when playing demanding games on the nubia Air, such as Genshin Impact, the game is playable even at the lowest graphic settings, but it will experience frame rate drops when multiple animations flood the screen.

nubia's MyOS 15

In our experience, the phone can handle the majority of tasks like navigating through the OS, opening apps, web surfing, and social media without struggling.

The phone has an optical In-Display fingerprint sensor and face unlock for security. The initial setup and subsequent uses are quick, and it detects our biometrics instantaneously. It works even if your finger is a little sweaty.

The face unlock only struggles when the camera is dirty. The screen brightens up when used in the dark. It detects the face and unlocks the phone super fast, too.

Regarding connectivity, we have the following: WiFi 6, 5G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, OTG, GPS, GLONASS, and Dual Hybrid SIM support.

Connections are usually stable for WiFi, and we get 4 to 5 bars of mobile data signal most of the time.

Inside the phone is a massive 5,000 mAh battery. In our usual PCMark Battery Benchmark, it lasted for only 10 hours. In our time with the phone, we would unplug the phone at 8 AM, use it all day, and get less than 15 percent of battery at 10 PM.

The battery charges via USB-C with the included 33W wall charger, which charges the phone 100 percent in under 100 minutes.

Other features of nubia Air

It is running on nubia Air based on Android 15, which further leans into visual tweaks and performance improvements while adding new AI features. nubia seems to use nearly stock icons and themes.

Included in the OS are AI features. Currently, only AI Translate is available for the nubia Air. It is in beta and is currently free to use. It allows for real-time translation and adding call subtitles.

While Live Island is nubia's take on Apple's Dynamic Island, which pops out when needed around the phone's punch hole. So far, it works with charging and media players, and streaming apps.

Pros - Eye-catching 5.9mm thin design, IP69K rating,  lightweight build, 120Hz 4,500 nits FHD+ AMOLED screen, fairly strong battery,s

Cons - 2x crop camera shots are soft, camera white balance tends to go warmer, single speaker

nubia Air Specs

Display: 6.8-inch OLED screen w/ 120Hz refresh rate, 2720 x 1224 resolution at 386 ppi
CPU: 2.2GHz 6nm UNISOC T8300 octa-core processor
GPU: Mali-G57 MC2
RAM: 8GB
ROM: 256GB
Back Camera: 50MP f/1.6 w/ PDAF + 2MP f/2.4 depth + 0.08MP auxiliary lens + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 16MP
Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 33W Fast Charging, Bypass Charging
OS: Android 15
Connectivity: WiFi (2.4GHz/5GHz), 5G SA/NSA, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.4, OTG, NFC, GPS, dual SIM
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
Others: In-Display fingerprint sensor, DTS:X Ultra, USB-C, Colors: Titanium Black, Titanium Desert
Dimensions: 164.2 x 76.6 x 5.9 mm
Price: PHP 12,999

Verdict

nubia Air's web surfing experience

nubia made it possible. The nubia Air is super thin at 5.9mm and weighs 172 grams while carrying a 5,000mAh battery.

However, to get that thin at this price point, it had to compromise on other features. The most obvious are single speaker, the camera's softness and white balance issues, and the choice of SoC. While the SoC performs within the range of what the price range offers, it could be better with better cooling, normally found on slightly thicker devices.

nubia claims that the Air is built durably with internal labs testing the phone to withstand 600,000 touch screen durability tests, 6,000 times of continuous drop tests, 600 times of repeated drop testing, and 5 rounds of free-fall tests.

We can understand that similarly thin phones only have one speaker, but the rest can be major deal breakers to some.

Overall, we recommend the nubia Air for people who want a super-thin and lightweight phone with an IP69K rating, a 4,500 nits 120Hz FHD+ screen, and a 5,000mAh battery.

Otherwise, check the nubia Neo 3 GT 5G or other phones.

What do you guys think?

Build/Design - 4

Multimedia Experience - 4

Cameras - 3.75

Performance - 3.75

Average - 3.875/5