ZTE isn't a company you hear about all that often, and that's mostly because the company targets their home country of China with many of their releases. But occasionally you hear about a very cool product from the company, and their latest flagship Android smartphone, the Nubia Z9, is just that.
The bezels to either side of the Nubia Z9's 5.2-inch 1080p display are just 0.8mm thick, which essentially makes this device bezel-free. ZTE also touts the display as coming with "2.5D curved glass", which seems to refer to the way the glass panel on the front curves away around the edges.
Thanks to the small bezels, ZTE has implemented a feature called Frame Interaction Technology, which is a set of gestures you can perform along the bezel-free edges of the display. For example, sliding your fingers down both edges will turn down the display's brightness, while placing your fingers in all four corners of the screen will open the camera.
Internally the Nubia Z9 is a beast. It packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC with either 3 or 4 GB of RAM depending on whether you purchase the 32 or 64 GB models. There's also a 2,900 mAh battery to keep the device powered throughout the day, and you get the usual connectivity features including Wi-Fi ac, LTE and Bluetooth 4.1.
The camera array is also very impressive on the Nubia Z9. The rear sensor is a 16-megapixel Sony IMX234, the same sensor used on the upcoming LG G4, and it's paired with an optically-stabilized f/2.0 lens. The selfie camera on the front packs eight megapixels and an 80-degree-wide lens, allowing you to get all your friends in a shot.
The Nubia Z9 goes on sale in China on May 21, and the basic model with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage will set you back a reasonable 3,499 yuan (around US$565). The 4 GB model with 64 GB of storage will cot 3,999 yuan (US$645), and there will also be an "Exclusive" edition with a fingerprint sensor for 4,499 yuan (US$725)
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