ZTE Nubia Z9: Bezel-Less Flagship

ZTE has launched its first bezel-less premium flagship smartphone - the Nubia Z9. It is only available for purchase online yet it's one of the few to sport a border-less or bezel-less design on a metal frame. Through FIT (Frame Interactive Technology), you can squeeze or slide over the side bezels of the Z9, and doing so will trigger one of a number of actions. For example, sliding down the side bezels with both fingers turns the screen off, while a double squeeze takes a screenshot.

Image by ZTE

Bezel-less design aside, the ZTE Nubia Z9 is very much a flagship Android smartphone. It packs a 5.2-inch 2.5D screen of 1080p Full HD resolution. It is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with an Adreno 420 GPU, 3GB or 4GB RAM, and 32GB or 64GB of internal storage. Imaging-wise, there is a 16-MP primary camera with a 1/2.6" Sony IMX234 with f/2.0 aperture, optical image stabilization (OIS), and 4K UHD video capture. The front camera maxes out at 8-MP, which is also Sony-made.

Image by ZTE

Another cool feature of the Nubia Z9 is the dedicated AKM AK4961 Hi-Fi chip for higher quality sound. Connectivity-wise, there is Bluetooth 4.1, MHL 3.0, NFC, Wi-Fi and LTE connectivity. The smartphone will be powered by a large 2,900 mAh battery. It will run Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box with ZTE's custom UI on top. The Nubia Z9 will come in black (3GB RAM/32GB storage) and gold (4GB RAM/64GB storage) color options and will cost $564 and $645 respectively. There is said to be a third version coming, which is equipped with a fingerprint scanner.