Tag Archives: ZTE Corporation

nubia RedMagic 9 Pro gaming phone arrives with a new design, same tiny fan

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The year is almost over, but there’s plenty of time left to unveil new products, including new smartphones that could become gift ideas for people in some markets. We’ve seen quite a few make their way to the market a few days ago, but most of them revolve around “normal” phones for everyday use. Gaming phones, however, still make up a slice of that large pie, and one of the top brands in this market is taking out its big guns early. Former ZTE sub-brand nubia is reaching out to gamers with the latest RedMagic model, bearing a slightly new design that manages to keep key features that fans of the brand have grown fond of, whether they make sense or not.

Designer: nubia

What sets a gaming smartphone apart from regular smartphones, including those expensive ones, isn’t just their over-the-top performance. Most gaming-centric phones carry a certain aesthetic that really marks them for a certain crowd, one that appreciates a lot of RGB lighting, lines and geometric shapes, and other details that make the design look futuristic if not highly technical. The nubia RedMagic 9 Pro continues that tradition this year but makes a few tweaks that streamline the gamer design a little bit better.

Most notable is the relocation of the cameras from the middle of the phone to the side, something that’s almost a standard across all smartphone designs. The camera bump is also gone, with the lenses sitting flush against the entire back. That does mean that the phone is a little bit thicker than most of its kind, but a hefty and beefy handset is already expected for a device that’s designed to be a heavy-duty gaming machine. The rather odd design change is that only two of the three big circles are actually cameras, with the third deceptively hiding the cooling fan. The third camera is off to the side, though having a 2MP depth sensor makes it almost negligible.

The rest of the RedMagic 9 Pro has a similar vibe to its predecessor, with lines and shapes on the back that give the semblance of panels that cover futuristic machines like ships, robots, and similar. For those who prefer a more subtle appearance, the Sleek model has an aesthetic closer to the typical black smartphones, masking its identity for more discreet uses. The front still has an under-display camera, which means there’s nothing visually breaking the large screen.

There’s also still that miniature cooling fan, one of the brand’s gimmicks to help keep things cool and prevent the phone from throttling its performance. It may be effective to some degree, but the price that is paid is having no dust or water resistance guarantee. With a more efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and a newer “ICE 13 Multi-Dimensional” cooling system, such a fan might no longer be needed and is becoming more of a liability than a selling point in the long run.

The post nubia RedMagic 9 Pro gaming phone arrives with a new design, same tiny fan first appeared on Yanko Design.

ZTE nubia NeoVision Glass AR eyewear hides in plain sight as oversized sunglasses

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Although it does have the word “mobile” in it, MWC has long ceased to just be about smartphones and tablets. These days, anything you can pick up and use on the go is labeled as mobile, sometimes including laptops. When it comes to portability, however, wearables have become quite the fad, and this category isn’t just limited to smartwatches or “hearables” like earbuds and hearing aids. One strong presence at MWC 2023 this year seems to be headsets and eyewear, particularly those designed for augmented and virtual reality applications. Not to be left behind, ZTE’s nubia is showcasing its first-ever AR eyewear, and it seems to be trying to be a bit more fashionable at the expense of a bit of freedom of movement.

Designer: ZTE

As far as mixed reality headgear and eyewear are concerned, the trend seems to be going in the direction of cramming all the necessary hardware inside the device, unlike the first-gen Oculus Quest and HTC Vive headsets that needed to be connected to a powerful PC with a cable. A standalone headset does have tradeoffs, though, especially when you consider the weight of the hardware and the built-in battery. That’s why some devices still try to aim for a completely lightweight and comfortable design, even if it means offloading the brunt of the work to external devices.

The new ZTE nubia NeoVision Glass is one such type of device. It’s incredibly lightweight at 79g, but it’s not lacking when it comes to display quality. It boasts Micro-OLED screens with 3500 PPI and a binocular resolution of 1080p, giving the wearer the equivalent of a 120-inch screen floating before their eyes. It doesn’t skimp on the audio either, with two omnidirectional speakers and a cyclonic sound tank. All in all, it promises a full range of multimedia experiences for both your ears and your eyes.

The nubia NeoVision Glass also advertises high compatibility with a wide range of devices, including phones, computers, and consoles. It’s “plug and play,” which suggests that it doesn’t come with its own computer inside, though ZTE wasn’t exactly clear on that part. It does mean that you can use any device or platform you want, though it also means you’ll be rooted on the spot near that device unless it’s something you can carry around.

ZTE does, however, pay special attention to both the looks of the eyewear as well as its accessibility. Magnetic lenses make it trivial to swap out different sunglasses designs, and it supports zero to 500-degree myopic adjustment for those that need to wear prescription glasses. It’s still relatively bulky compared to typical sunglasses, but few will realize that you’re viewing the world through a different set of lenses, figuratively and literally.

The post ZTE nubia NeoVision Glass AR eyewear hides in plain sight as oversized sunglasses first appeared on Yanko Design.

ZTE nubia Pad 3D tablet offers an eyewear-free 3D experience for consumption and creation

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3D graphics and objects are becoming more prevalent in our modern lives, and not just because of their presence in movies and games. AR, VR, and everything in between all relies on the existence of virtual 3D objects to make their fabricated realities more believable. “Real” stereoscopic 3D, however, has had the stigma of requiring headgear or at least specialized eyewear to see, which was true only until recently. Some TVs and even some laptops have started offering the ability to view stereoscopic 3D without the eyewear, and ZTE nubia’s latest tablet is bringing that same experience to both content consumers as well as content creators in a more portable manner.

Designer: ZTE

Because of the way our eyes are positioned, we are able to see an object from different angles, creating this perception of a three-dimensional figure. Stereoscopic 3D systems mimic that phenomenon by forcing our eyes to see different parts of a flat image, practically turning it into an illusion. The simplest way to make this happen is by using some sort of filter between our eyes and the projected image, which is basically how those 3D movie glasses work. Fortunately, it’s now possible to make that happen without wearing anything, thanks to advancements in technology.

The ZTE nubia Pad 3D applies these principles using technology from a 3D company named Leia. If you’ve kept abreast with developments in this field, the technology might not sound that novel, but the partnership between ZTE and Leia does take things one step further. More than just display content created specifically for stereoscopic 3D viewing, the device can use AI to “convert” 2D content, like videos from streaming services, into a 3D experience, all in real time.

The tablet isn’t just made for viewing 3D content, though, since that would make it not too different from new “3D laptops.” It also comes with tools to create such stereoscopic 3D content, starting with dual 16MP cameras on the back and dual 8MP cameras on the front. The former helps in shooting and recording content in real 3D, while the latter can be used for making 3D video calls, presuming your platform of choice supports such a fancy thing.

As a tablet, the nubia Pad 3D is somewhat caught in the middle of the old and the new, powered by a last-gen Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor. The large 12.4-inch 2.5K screen, however, offers enough space for comfortable viewing of content, whether 2D or 3D, while four corner Dolby surround sound speakers complete the entertainment package. The full metal body design of the tablet looks a tad too plain, save for the dual cameras popping up from the edge, but a vegan leather case could help make it look a little more stylish, especially when shooting that 3D film masterpiece.

The post ZTE nubia Pad 3D tablet offers an eyewear-free 3D experience for consumption and creation first appeared on Yanko Design.

ZTE Axon 40 Ultra takes another stab at the full-screen phone design

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We might finally be close to reaching the point where there is little to no sacrifice needed just to hide that unavoidable selfie camera.

When we use our smartphones, 90% of the time, we spend it on the screen, either looking at it or touching it. Even when using the phone’s cameras, we still use the screen as a large viewfinder to frame the perfect shot. It’s not surprising, then, that almost all smartphone users and manufacturers want the front of the device to really be all about the screen and only about the screen. Due to limitations in technology and manufacturing, however, that wasn’t the case until recently. There is no shortage of attempts to banish any and all notches and holes from the phone’s face, but not all of them have ended happily. ZTE hasn’t given up yet, though, and the third time might really be the charm as it tries to prove that it has finally nailed down that elusive Under-Display Camera trick.

Designer: ZTE

There’s something almost disconcerting about seeing a hole or a cutout on your screen. Sure, your mind will eventually filter it out and become blind to it, part of the miracle of our human brains, but every now and then, it will call attention to itself and distract us. A lot of designers and engineers now want to wage war against those notches, but those didn’t exist until just a few years ago. It wasn’t really until smartphone makers tried to be smart and increase the space occupied by screens that they had to resort to cutouts.

Under-display cameras or UDCs are, to some extent, a solution to a problem of our own making. We wanted the best of both worlds, a full-screen phone with a good front-facing camera, but didn’t have the ability to deliver until recently. Even Samsung, a long-time player in this market, walked away with egg on its face for a disappointing first try, especially after ZTE has already seemingly perfected its UDC game.

The newly announced ZTE Axon 40 Ultra, at first, looks almost like more of the same things, just with slight improvements that widen the brand’s lead in this department. The highlight is, of course, the fact that you can’t even see where the front camera is hiding underneath the screen, not unless you inspect it very closely. There is still some debate whether the output of that front-facing 16MP camera will be decent enough, but it definitely can’t do worse than what Samsung put underneath the Galaxy Z Fold 3’s flexible display.

The Axon 40 Ultra isn’t just a rehash of the past two years, though, but you might find its new design oddly familiar at the same time. It finally says goodbye to the flat screens of its predecessors and makes its 6.8-inch AMOLED panel wrap to the sides with a gentle curve, meeting the equally curved edges of the back glass panel. The top and bottom edges, in contrast, are completely flat, so don’t be surprised if parallels to the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra are drawn, especially considering the same suffix.

While the front of the phone is beautiful because of its clean and seamless surface, the same can’t be said of its back. The camera bump looks larger than it needs to be, with lots of empty space devoted to labels. Curiously, ZTE takes it even further with a small “tab” that peeks out of that structure, an embellishment with no other purpose than the have yet another area for branding. Then again, that’s not surprising given today’s smartphone design trends, and, thankfully, we spend most of our time looking at the front of our phones rather than their backs.

The post ZTE Axon 40 Ultra takes another stab at the full-screen phone design first appeared on Yanko Design.

Eco – Mobius Phone

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The ECO-MOBIUS is a modular phone that can be easily assembled and upgraded. Its modules are easily replaceable and are assembled via sliding tracks. Basically the phone is divided into four independent modules – display, core, battery, and camera. The display module includes the screen and the lens; the core module is loaded with CPU, GPU, RAM, ROM, and other electronic devices.

  • In the core module, the CPU, RAM, etc. can be removed and are fixed by magnets.
  • The camera module is also fixed magnetically.
  • Specs include a cost-effective core with multiple functions; and a replaceable battery module.
  • The module exchange mechanism makes the most of materials, reducing environmental pressure from waste and pollution.

Eco-Mobius is a 2013 red dot award: design concept winner!

Designers: Peter Gao, Xiao Qihu, Able Chen, Chen Cuifeng, Fiona Chen, Chen Yan, Dong Feng, Xu Yuanyuan, Yu Chaoyang & Yu Yue from ZTE Corporation

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(Eco – Mobius Phone was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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ZTE Open Firefox OS Smartphone to be Sold on Ebay for $80

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There’s some good news for people who want a Mozilla Firefox OS smart phone. ZTE, the China-based company has decided to sell it on eBay for $80 per handset. And although it is a rare occurrence, in...