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ZTE's Nubia Phones Go Wild at MWC 2025: From a Flip Phone to One for Music Fans

These personality-driven phones are launching alongside a sequel to their cheaper flip-style foldable phone.

Headshot of Mike Sorrentino
Headshot of Mike Sorrentino
Mike Sorrentino Senior Editor
Mike Sorrentino is a Senior Editor for Mobile, covering phones, texting apps and smartwatches -- obsessing about how we can make the most of them. Mike also keeps an eye out on the movie and toy industry, and outside of work enjoys biking and pizza making.
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Mike Sorrentino
2 min read
A hand holding the ZTE Nubia Music 2 Phone at MWC

ZTE's Nubia Music 2 has a large speaker next to its cameras.

Tara Brown/CNET

ZTE's slate of Nubia phones, which debuted at Mobile World Congress 2025, scores high on personality. They include devices with a large music speaker, a big camera with a rotating lens ring and a sequel to its lower-cost flip-style foldable phone.

Starting with the ZTE Nubia Music 2, this colorful phone has a big speaker in the upper-right corner, followed by a series of colors that re-create a music visualizer. ZTE says the phone's speaker can blast music at up to 95 decibels, just above the level that activates my Apple Watch's noise alert.

This should help make the phone act like a mini Bluetooth speaker for anyone looking to use it as a quick way to add sound to a room. The front of the phone has a 6.7-inch display that runs at a 120Hz refresh rate and the "Versatile Live Island 2.0," which appears to be ZTE's take on Apple's Dyanamic Island. Global pricing wasn't immediately available, but the phone sells for RM389 in Malaysia, roughly converting to $90.

ZTE Nubia Focus Ultra 2 in hand at MWC

This is the ZTE Nubia Focus 2 Ultra.

Tara Brown/CNET

Moving onto the ZTE Nubia Focus 2 Ultra, this phone has a large rotating lens that can be used to control features like the zoom and the aperature. That rear 108-megapixel camera has five focal lengths, and around the front, there's a 32-megapixel front-facing camera. This device will have 6.8-inch display running at a 120Hz refresh rate and is priced at 299 euros, which roughly converts to $325.

ZTE Nubia Flip 2 in hand=

The ZTE Nubia Flip 2 has a vertical 3-inch screen on its exterior. 

Tara Brown/CNET

The Nubia Flip 2 5G is the sequel to last year's Flip, which was notable for being priced at $600 -- far below the price of other flagship phones with a similar style. The Flip 2's inner 6.9-inch screen runs at a 120Hz refresh rate, and its outer display is a 3-inch AMOLED display that should be more practical for running apps than the circular display offered last year. The phone has a 50-megapixel main camera and a 32-megapixel front camera. However its price has gone up to 699 euros, which roughly converts to $750. That puts the phone into a similar price range as Motorola's lower-cost Razr, which is priced at $700.

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