So many laptop computer firms bragged about glasses-free 3D at CES 2023. Seems you don’t want that form of energy to drag it off — the ZTE Nubia Pad 3D pill does precisely the identical, and with fairly spectacular outcomes!
Echoing the Asus ProArt Studiobook 3D’s strategy of making a picture that pops out of the display screen with eye-tracking know-how, ZTE creates a window into your content material with actual depth. Plus, the group has applied some AI smarts that convert normal 2D content material to 3D with (largely) first rate outcomes.
However very similar to when everybody obtained enthusiastic about fads like 3D TVs, and watching Avatar in 3D on the theater, one query is clear: Does this get together trick truly make for an excellent pill? Or is that this going to be one other flash within the pan?
ZTE Nubia Pad 3D value and configurations
First strike towards it’s the value. The Nubia Pad 3D (opens in new tab) is offered for $1,199/£1,149, which is a monstrous value for an Android pill.
Positive, you get that glasses free 3D tech, however if you end up wanting on the precise spec sheet right here, for the remaining 90% of the time, you’ll be utilizing this pill in 2D, in order that value begins to look extortionate.
For context, that’s $100 greater than the Microsoft Floor Professional 9, and the 12.9-inch M2 iPad Professional. Whereas now we have reviewed the Floor Professional 8 and M1 iPad Professional, the size and expertise stay largely the identical, apart from the massive efficiency will increase in these two that depart the Nubia Pad 3D within the mud (extra on that later).
ZTE Nubia Pad 3D design
The utilitarian, blocky aesthetic makes the ZTE Nubia Pad 3D feel and look slightly like a prototype. However past that, it interprets right into a chunky, heavy chassis for what you get.
After all, at 10 x 6.5 x 0.3 inches, and a weight of 1.14 kilos, it’s a little smaller and lighter than the Floor Professional 9 (11.3 x 8.2 x 0.37 inches, 1.9 kilos), and the M2 iPad Professional (11.05 x 8.46 x 0.25 in, 1.5 kilos). However when in comparison with equally specced tablets just like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 (10 x 6.5 x 0.25 inches, 1.1 kilos), the Nubia Pad 3D is sort of the beefcake.
Fortunately, the burden is distributed evenly throughout the pill, so that you’re not going to really feel overwhelming fatigue holding it — although it’s possible you’ll wish to relaxation it in your lap anyway.
However to its credit score, this does really feel like a premium, upmarket machine with that aluminum enclosure and glass sheet throughout the highest, along with your energy and quantity buttons throughout the highest edge, and the one protrusion being that refined digital camera enclosure.
For tablets, I would favor extra of a curved edge over the flat edges, in order to not dig into the palms of your arms with that clear, angular edge. It’s a robust look, however now we have a methods to go right here.
ZTE Nubia Pad 3D show
Inside that barely prime heavy bezel (to accommodate the dual-selfie cameras) is a 12.4-inch, IPS LCD show with a 1600 x 2560-pixel decision and a 120Hz refresh charge. Within the first couple weeks of testing, I seen that whereas the display screen was good and vivid, the brightness couldn’t sustain with direct daylight.
So whereas Spider-Man: No Manner House seemed nice indoors, with depth emanating from darker scenes and Physician Unusual’s spells shining off the display screen, the spectacular results rapidly dissipated exterior.
However let’s be sincere; that’s solely half the story right here. This has a 3D lightfield show. Translation: stereoscopic glasses-free 3D, and the impact is absolutely spectacular. It’s able to each imagery that pops out the display screen, and content material that reveals depth throughout the show.
Utilizing the LeiaViewer app reveals off how one can manipulate fashions that float in mid air in entrance of you. The Dungeon visible demo offers you a glimpse of what 3D pill gaming might seem like. None of those created any actual eye pressure throughout prolonged use, however the apparent query is, how a lot 3D content material is there? The reply is a bit more than I anticipated. Positive, there are different 3D content material viewing apps like LeiaPlayer, LeiaFlix, and LeiaChat, however chances are high you’ll barely use them attributable to very restricted libraries.
However the one I spent most of my time with was LeiaTube, which makes use of AI and machine studying to transform 2D YouTube movies into 3D. At first, I used to be skeptical — certainly this impact goes to finish badly, proper? Effectively, surprisingly, it performs higher than anybody would’ve predicted. For about 80% of the movies I examined, the 3D impact capably dealt with objects at a number of ranges of depth in a scene, and didn’t get too confused. Nonetheless it’s value noting that there’s a little bit of DLSS 3.0-esque artifacting round fast-moving objects in direction of the entrance of the scene.
General, the 2D expertise you’ll spend more often than not utilizing is nice sufficient (bar the low brightness), and the 3D expertise reveals early indicators of being greater than only a gimmick.
ZTE Nubia Pad 3D audio
A pill wants sturdy sound for listening on-the-go with no earbuds, and its quad audio system present an honest social listening expertise that’s match for TikTok doom scrolling and falling down YouTube wormholes.
Positive, you can also make them distort barely at increased volumes. When put below intense stress with bass-heavy, intense metalcore comparable to The Ghost Inside’s “Mercy,” they’ll crackle a bit. However more often than not, the whole lot is obvious and finer particulars will be picked out.
For one of the best audio expertise, you have to to seize a few of the greatest wi-fi earbuds, as a result of this slab lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack.
ZTE Nubia Pad 3D efficiency
The second strike comes at a component the place you’ll begin to assume, “Wait, I paid how a lot for this!?” Beneath the hood, you’ll discover a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset with Adreno 660 graphics, 8GB of RAM, and as much as 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage.
Not that you just wanted to see this in black and white (you predicted it already), this setup is totally annihilated in testing by the M1 iPad Professional and the Floor Professional 8 — each in CPU duties and something graphically intense.
| Benchmark | ZTE Nubia Pad 3D | M1 iPad Professional (12.9-inch) | Microsoft Floor Professional 9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 5 single-core | 1114 | 1722 | 1633 |
| Geekbench 5 multicore | 3655 | 7298 | 8541 |
| 3DMark Wild Life | 5864 | 16990 | n/a |
Fortuitously, this doesn’t at all times translate right into a sluggish expertise. Once you do put it below some normal multitasking stress, comparable to having Chrome open with just a few tabs, taking part in YouTube whereas having Actual Racing 3 operating within the background, I didn’t see a touch of slowdown. Plus, 3D apps don’t appear to be inflicting any breaks in body charge both.
However as you do put extra intensive video games like Genshin Impression, or CPU pressuring apps like Premiere Rush rendering, you can begin to really feel a slight lag in contact response. Not the tip of the world — till you notice you paid $1,200 for this factor.
I’m all for releasing a proof of idea concept to the general public. It drives the market ahead and will increase competitors with invention, however to take action with subpar specs at a value like this isn’t actually acceptable.
ZTE Nubia Pad 3D battery Life & charging
One upside to underpowered specs is the truth that the 9,070 mAh battery lasts comparatively lengthy on a cost. Whereas we haven’t completed any lab testing on the stamina of this pill, I used to be assured within the worry-free battery lifetime of the Nubia Pad 3D.
Waking up at 8 a.m, I went by means of a whole day to 10 p.m. with the same old work/leisure (emails, calls, social media, taking some fast photos, Spotify by day, gaming and YouTube by evening) and ended with an excellent 40% left. On prime of that, after I left it on standby at 100% and went to New York for per week, I returned to see it holding a roughly 35% cost.
33W wired charging means you can be ready a pair hours for it to spice up again as much as 100%, however all in all, it is a rosy image for pill energy customers.
ZTE Nubia Pad 3D cameras
So we might discuss concerning the high quality of the 16MP digital camera spherical again (advantageous, however slightly noisy in low mild), however the get together trick right here is that there are an extra two shooters.
That’s proper! The Nintendo 3DS’ gimmick has come to a pill with stereoscopic 3D pictures, utilizing machine studying to measure the depth of the scene in entrance of you and making use of a 3D impact.
The general look from each entrance and rear is a color-rich, contrasty end that appears slightly extra paying homage to the hyperreality of Samsung’s coloration science. And the 3D impact works somewhat nicely — precisely judging depth more often than not. In additional advanced scenes, it does create some blurriness amongst sure objects, however in easier scenes (e.g., a portrait), you’ll get a enjoyable shot to take a look at.
Picture 1 of 2
Video seize, nonetheless, is problematic. In 2D, the 1080p seize is nice sufficient to seize a fast clip of the household (if slightly too wealthy in coloration for my style). The 3D impact is way too blurry and causes eye pressure after just a few seconds of attempting to look at it.
And eventually, what concerning the 8MP twin selfie shooters? Effectively, they only do not work… I do not know what else to inform you! That could be a large crimson flag when it comes to software program operability, however we’ll get to that proper beneath.
ZTE Nubia Pad 3D software program
The third strike comes with the software program — Android 12L with a somewhat ugly pores and skin excessive that makes it run much more like an enormous smartphone than a pill by turning off any of the side-by-side multitasking.
There may be, thankfully, an honest stage of customization to icons, system fonts, and colours to curve a few of the default selections. However we run into two key issues, which is that bugs and crashes are prevalent. Frequently, I might run into one of many Leia 3D apps freezing, or only a full crash sending me again to the house display screen. For a pill at any value that’s simply unacceptable, however for a premium-priced pill, it’s ludicrous.
There’s a lingering query about software program assist, although. ZTE has not made clear how lengthy they intend to offer software program updates for the Nubia Pad 3D. Going off previous expertise, ZTE units usually obtain solely a one-year software program model replace, together with a pair years of safety enhancements, however any extra concrete info stays up within the air.
Examine this to as much as 5 years of main OS updates for the iPad Professional, and the relentless Home windows 11 replace cycle on the Floor Professional 8, and this problematic state of affairs appears even worse for the corporate.
Backside line
ZTE deserves its roses for attempting one thing slightly extra “on the market.” The Nubia 3D undoubtedly stands out amongst the ocean of Android tablets with a well-executed idea of glasses-free 3D. Not solely that, however LeiaTube means you’re not caught simply wanting on the preset number of fashions — increasing it to content material you’ll be able to watch.
However each side of this pill screams “prototype” to me, from its buggy OS and restricted software program choice to the chunky chassis and sky excessive price ticket for underwhelming internals.
The corporate is onto one thing good right here, however as a glorified proof of idea, solely those that are determined for a 3D pill can purchase it. For everybody else, await the Nubia Pad 3D 2, and let’s hope ZTE brings that value down.
