Following reports from earlier this month which showed images purported to be Nubia’s upcoming Z18 flagship, further images have leaked suggesting the manufacturer will use a rear-facing display to avoid notches altogether. The images maintain the previously revealed nearly bezel-free design but now show the rear panel fully lit up with imagery. Moreover, one is marked with Nubia Z18S branding, so the two devices might be nearly identical aesthetically. At the same time, there is still no forward-facing selfie camera present on either, with only a slimmed down earpiece occupying the front of the smartphones. The current speculation is that the second screen will be multi-purpose but that it primarily serves as a way for the main shooter to be used for selfies. The company could choose to include a mechanically hidden camera for selfies as well, which would be similar to a couple of others recently revealed from the region.
On the other hand, the rear display could also easily be utilized for an always-on display functionality. Namely, it may be used to show users pertinent messaging, calendar, clock, and other important information without activating the primary screen. Conversely, it might be used to show those or incoming call information on demand, since it does appear to be somewhat dimmer than the main screen. Used that way, it would almost certainly save a substantial amount of battery. Leaving the display aspects of the handsets behind, there is no indication of a fingerprint scanner on either the front or back of the presumed Nubia Z18 or Z18S either. Instead, there appear to be two such scanners on the left and right edges. An edge-mounted sensor has been included with previous Android smartphones but this would be the first time a device included two. While that’s unusual, it wouldn’t necessarily be impractical. A forward or rear-facing scanner is dominant-hand agnostic. Only installed along a single edge, it might be difficult for right-handed or left-handed users to access the sensor comfortably. Placing one on either side solves that issue and might even be a way to add further functionality via taps and swipes on the sensors. There seem to be multiple hardware keys on either side of the devices as well.
If the previous speculation about this handset bears out, the Nubia Z18 will be a 5.99-inch device with a fullHD display at a resolution of 2160 x 1080. That will drive Android via a Snapdragon 845 SoC backed by either 6GB or 8GB RAM and 64GB or 128GB of storage. According to the source, those particular figures could be incorrect and the Z18 may ship with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. Meanwhile, that rear-facing camera is rumored to be a dual-shooter at 8 and 24-megapixels respectively. A 3,350 mAh batter equipped with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 or 4+ is expected to be a part of that package. The Nubia Z18S would most likely ship with slightly less impressive specs at a lower cost.
