ZTE Nubia Z20 review: dual screen phone’s rear display great for selfies and flipping between apps

The Z20’s back screen allows users to take selfies with the phone’s main (and only) camera system, which sports a 48-megapixel Sony sensor

Although phone doesn’t include Google apps out of the box, Nubia’s official website offers an almost stock version of Android that can be easily installed

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The Nubia Z20 is an impressive two-screen phone that actually works, with a decent battery life that will last you all day long. Photo: Ben Sin

Published: 10:15am, 26 Nov 2019Updated: 5:44pm, 27 Nov 2019

Of all the quirky ways that Chinese phone brands have come up with to skirt the iPhone notch design – from pop-up selfie modules to flip-over cameras to drilling a hole in the corner of the screen – putting an entire separate display panel on the backside is perhaps the most extreme.

Vivo tried this approach with last year’s Nex Dual Screen Edition, but ZTE’s sub-brand, Nubia, was actually the first to market a two-screen phone.

The Nubia X was full of compromises such as a low-res second screen, a mediocre camera system and a terrible Chinese Android skin that couldn’t run Google apps at all, but Nubia has fixed all of that with its sequel: the Z20.

Yes, it can run Google apps too.

The Nubia Z20 has a 4,000mAh battery and is charged via USB-C. Photo: Ben Sin

Design and hardware

The Z20 sports a 6.4-inch screen on the front and a 5.1-inch screen on the back. Unlike last year’s X, whose back screen was a noticeably inferior LCD display, both panels on the Z20 are made from superior OLED technology. The 1080p front screen is still of a higher resolution than the 720 x 1520 back panel, but the difference is negligible. The back screen allows users to take selfies with the phone’s main (and only) camera system, which consists of the usual main/wide/telephoto triple-lens system used by almost literally every phone this year.