Upgrading its killer flagship, OnePlus introduced the OnePlus 3T in India earlier this month. The device is priced at Rs 29,999 for 64GB variant and is up for sale starting today exclusively on Amazon.in. On the other hand, Nubia today in an event held in Delhi launched two new smartphones – Nubia Z11 and Nubia N1. While the latter is a budget offering, Nubia Z11 is what we will talk about here. Priced at Rs 29,999, the flagship from Nubia looks a perfect competitor for the OnePlus 3T. So, can the OnePlus 3T hold on to its throne or Nubia Z11 is the next flagship killer? Let’s find out.
Design and Display
Starting with the newly launched Nubia Z11, the device comes with an all metal unibody construction with the back of the device slightly falling towards the chamfered edges. The power button and volume rockers sit on the right side while the SIM tray is placed on the left. At the top lies the IR blaster, the secondary microphone and the 3.5 mm Headphone jack. While at the bottom, we get a USB Type-C port and two speaker grills. Regarding the display, the Nubia Z11 sports a 5.5-inch Full HD (1080 x 1920 pixel resolution) edge-to-edge display which makes the device look even more beautiful.
On the other hand, OnePlus 3T comes with an identical design as the OnePlus 3. The metal unibody construction curved around the edges offer a premium look and feel in hands. Baring the camera hump at the back of the device, OnePlus played safe in terms of the design. The power button is located on the right with with the SIM tray and the volume rockers placed on the left side with the famous ‘Alert Slider’. There is nothing up top while the bottom of the device house the USB Type-C Port, 3.5mm headphone jack, speaker grill and the primary microphone. Regarding the display, the OnePlus 3T sports the same 5.5 inch Full HD display but the on the 3T is an Optic-AMOLED display.
Performance and Memory
Digging inside, things continue to portray a similar story. Nubia Z11 is powered by a 64-bit 2.15GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Processor with Adreno 530 GPU and 6GB RAM. It comes with 64GB internal storage which is further expandable up to 256GB via microSD card. Coming to the microSD card, the device houses a hybrid Dual SIM slot which can take in two Nano SIMs or a Nano SIM and a micro-SD card.
The other side of the picture i.e. the OnePlus 3T is powered by a 64-bit 2.35GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 Chipset with Adreno 530 GPU and 6GB RAM. No Memory card slot here. However, the device do come with Dual SIM functionality which can hold two Nano SIMs.
Both the devices run on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with Nubia UI 4.0 on top on the Z11 and Oxygen OS 3.5.1 on the OnePlus 3T.
Going blindly by the spec sheet, we don’t expect a lot of difference in the performance although a higher clock speed on the OnePlus 3T might stretch it out in some situations. Being a fan of stock android, we will give the software aspect to the OnePlus 3T.
Camera
While we are still testing the camera on the OnePlus 3T, we haven’t had the opportunity to test out the camera on the Nubia Z11 as yet. Nevertheless, the OnePlus 3T sports a 16-megapixel primary camera with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection Autofocus (PDAF), OIS, 1.12 micron pixel size and LED flash. The front camera is a 16-megapixel shooter as well, with f/2.0 Aperture and a the size of each pixel is 1.0 microns.
On the other hand, the Nubia Z11 features the a 16-megapixel rear camera with Sony’s IMX298 sensor, OIS, phase detection autofocus (PDAF), f/2.0 aperture and dual tone LED flash. At the front, there is an 8-megapixel camera with 1.4-micron pixels, f/2.4 aperture, and 80-degree Wide-Angle lens.
Well, OnePlus 3T does have an upper hand in terms of megapixel on the front facing camera but we would recommend you to hold on for our detailed review of both the devices before comparing the camera performance.
Battery and Connectivity
In the battery department, OnePlus 3T takes the lead with its 3400 mAh non-removable battery as compared to a 3000 mAh battery present on the Nubia Z11. Moreover, OnePlus’s Dash Charging technology still sits at the top with its amazing results.
For connectivity, both the devices come with built-in Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 4G-LTE, Bluetooth v4.1 on Nubia Z11 and v4.2 on OnePlus 3T, GPS, and USB Type-C.
Wrapping Up
Now for the verdict, it get’s really intense between these two devices. Nubia has done a commendable job of introducing a device of this caliber at the price of Rs 29,999. The almost bezel-less design with red accents spread all across the device looks extremely premium and attractive. On the other hand, OnePlus 3T though plays safe on the design element, just manages to have an EDGE in terms of battery, processor and the front facing camera. Long story short, if you are willing to spend 30K on a smartphone, go for the OnePlus 3T.