Nubia announced their mid range selfie focused smartphone, the M2 Lite in India in May 2017. Nubia has been India for quite some time and they had released the Nubia Z11 Mini S (review) which is quite a good device. Nubia M2 Lite is a selfie focused smartphone with a 16MP front camera and 13MP rear camera. It packs a 5.5 inch HD display and runs on Mediatek MT6750 Octa core processor with 4GB RAM and 32GB storage.
So how does the phone perform in the segment? Is it a good device to buy? Let’s find out in this detailed review.
Design and Build:
The design is one of the strong aspects `of the Nubia M2 Lite. It features a full metal unibody design with chamfered edges. The unit which we tested was the black gold variant which has superior black matte finish with gold color edges. The phone definitely looks great and feels good to use with premium build quality. The right side houses the power and SIM card slot, while the volume keys are on the left side. The bottom section has 3.5mm audio jack, micro USB charging slot and also speaker unit. The rear panel has 13MP camera, LED flash and the Nubia branding.
The front panel has 5.5 inch display, front 16MP camera and also the home button which acts as fingerprint scanner. There is back and multitasking buttons which are on either side of home button and are backlit. The rear camera has a red colored ring which adds to the beauty of the device. The home button also has a circular ring. Overall, in terms of build quality it is one of the best in the sub 15k price segment in India.
Display:
While most of the popular smartphones in the sub 15k price segment have moved to Full HD display panels, Nubia has used a HD panel (720p) on the M2 Lite. While the panel is just HD, the quality of display is actually quite good. The color quality and sharpness levels are satisfactory. The display brightness is also adequate. The touch response of the display is also quite good with a 2.5D glass on the display.
Software:
Similar to any Chinese OEMs, the Nubia M2 Lite also runs a custom UI on top of Android. The phone comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow and has Nubia UI 4.0 on top of it. The UI comes with a custom notifications and quick toggles along with multiple home screens devoid of an app drawer. The settings panel is also a custom one offering additional features.
The phone supports a handful of gestures in two categories- edge gestures and regular gestures. The edge gestures allows you to switch between apps or even clear all the background apps in one go. There is also option to have split screen view, where you can run two apps at the same time side by side.
The phone also features dual instance which allows you to run two instances of the same app, for example you can use two WhatsApp or two Facebook accounts. The phone also comes with bundled tools like sound recorder, flashlight, FM radio and long screenshot option. It also features an in-built screen recorder.
The fingerprint scanner also comes with some added features apart from unlocking the device. You can use the fingerprint scanner for locking apps and also for super screenshot.
While the UI comes loaded with features, one thing missing on the UI is the ability to customize the looks. Sadly, the phone does not come with support for themes, a feature usually found on most Chinese OEMs. You can customize the quick toggles by drag and drop.
Performance:
Nubia M2 Lite is powered by Mediatek 6750 Octa core chipset coupled with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The MT6750 is not a powerful chipset for this price segment and we have seen this chipset on Vivo V5S and Oppo F3. Nubia M2 Lite performs quite well in day to day tasks and there isn’t any major issues in terms of performance. The gaming experience was satisfactory and there wasn’t any lag considering the chipset isn’t a powerful one. There was no heating on the device.
The phone also features dual SIM card and micro SD card expansion slot which is a hybrid one. The phone packs 32GB of storage and you get close to 25GB of storage in the first boot. The call quality on the device is also good and there is support for VoLTE as well. The fingerprint scanner performance was also quite decent and it can also be used to super screenshot and also lock apps. At times, there is some minor lag when unlocking the device using the fingerprint scanner.
Camera:
Nubia M2 Lite packs a 13MP rear camera with F/2.2 aperture and LED flash. While on the front panel there is a 16MP selfie camera with f/2.0 along with screen and soft flash. The camera interface is quite similar to what we have seen on other Chinese OEMs. It packs a pretty good interface with lots of modes and filters to choose from. The phone also comes with manual mode and beauty mode.
Now coming to the photo quality of the M2 Lite, the daylight shots taken had decent color quality and sharpness levels. But at the same time it is not of the quality of Z11 Mini S which was class leading. The close up images also had some good detailing, but when it comes to low light images, this is where the phone struggles and you could see a lot of noise in the low light captures.
Coming to the selfie camera, the phone has good performance in selfie department and the clarity of selfies was good. It is definitely a good selfie option in the sub 15k price segment. Here are some of the samples taken with the device.
Battery Life:
Nubia M2 Lite packs a 3000mAh battery, but there is no fast charging on the phone. The battery life on the device is quite decent and you can a day of battery life on a average usage including calls, social networks, browsing, gaming and camera usage.
Verdict:
Nubia M2 Lite is priced Rs 13999 and available exclusively on Amazon. While M2 Lite does not have the powerful specs like Honor 6X or Redmi Note 4, it provides decent experience and good selfie camera with excellent build quality. If you are looking for a good selfie focused smartphone in the sub 15k price segment, then Nubia M2 Lite makes good sense.
