ZTE Nubia Z9

“When you create a unique product you get to set your own price. That's what ZTE did with the Nubia Z9 - it's undeniably unique, but it's only slightly cheaper than a Galaxy S6 edge. Does Nubia have the brand recognition to justify that price? Perhaps in China, but ZTE believes that's to be the case for the US too where the Z9 will launch soon. Still, Samsung cut a good $100 off the S6 price soon after launch in the US. ZTE may have to rethink the price too to allow the Nubia Z9 to reach its true potential market share. Which may well be the biggest market share a ZTE flagship has managed.”

“So the Nubia Z9 is a uniquely designed handset, with powerful hardware under the hood. But would we suggest one spends $600 on it? In its current state – most certainly not. While the Nubia Z9 does have the hardware and design down, and while the camera has great potential, the software is certainly on the other end of the spectrum. The UI's lack of functionality may have been a byproduct of an attempt to make it look “simple”, but resulted in it looking underdeveloped instead. The bugs are aplenty, as we felt the need to restart the phone at least once per day, because different parts of the software would just go haywire. And, of course, there's the issue of our chat notifications not showing up, which paints “unreliable” all over this handset.”