As many phones move to offer slimmer bezels and edge-to-edge screens, there has been the problem of what to do with the front-facing camera. Some phones have stuck their selfie camera in their chin, some have embraced the notch, and some have opted for a sliding form factor. The new Nubia X does something a bit different.
The Nubia X features a large display on its front with super slim bezels and a secondary display on the back of the phone to help you take selfies. As you can see in the video below, there's a functional display on the back of the device that can help you take selfies or just function as a regular screen. The main display is a 6.26-inch 2280x1080 screen, while the secondary display is a 5.1-inch 1520x720 screen.
The software on the Nubia X will try to predict which display you're looking at, but there are also dual fingerprint readers — one on each side — that'll let you manually change screens if you press them both at the same time.
In addition to functioning as a secondary display for things like selfies, you can also use the OLED screen on the back of the Nubia X to display dynamic photos or a clock. And when you're playing a game on your Nubia X, the main screen can show you the gameplay while the back screen can give you two extra buttons.
The back of the Nubia X is also home to a dual rear camera setup that offers 16MP and 24MP sensors. These cameras offer features like phase detection autofocus, AI scene recognition, and 240fps slow-mo video capture.
Inside are specs that you'd expect from an Android flagship in 2018. There's a Snapdragon 845 processor, up to 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of built-in storage, and a 3800mAh battery. There are dual fingerprint readers on the Nubia X, one each side, and you can touch them both to switch between the front and back screens. On the software side, the Nubia X runs Android 8.1 Oreo below a custom Nubia 6.0.2 user interface.
The Nubia X starts at 3299 yuan ($473 USD) for the model with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of built-in storage and tops out at 4299 yuan ($616 USD) for the 8GB/256GB model.
Nubia's way of solving the front-facing camera problem with full-screen phones by just skipping the front camera and putting a display on the back is an interesting one. Rear cameras are typically higher quality than front cameras, so the Nubia X's setup should result in better selfies, especially since you'll be able to see yourself while you use the rear cameras. The always-on display feature of the Nubia X's rear screen could come in handy, too.
What do you think of this design?