Nuu G3 Review – $200 Budget Android Smartphone!

The Nuu G3 comes with a 5.7-inch 18:9 aspect ratio screen with resolution of 1440×720, the screen is bright and you will not have problems with it using in the sun. On the back you will find a dual camera setup with a 13MP main camera and 5MP secondary camera, used primarily for portrait mode. As for the processor, the G3 is equipped with MediaTek 2.3Ghz Octa-core processor along with 4gigs of RAM and 64 gigs of storage. Also you will find dual SIM slots, which you can use for dual SIMs or one single SIM and microSD card.

Design & Feel

In my unboxing of this $200 budget Android smartphone, I was rather surprised to find Samsung Galaxy-like design. In fact, this is probably somewhat a clone of the Galaxy S9 as there are many similarities. The phone feels actually quite good as it looks. The phone looks beautiful and if you didn’t know this was $200, you probably think this was at least a $700 smartphone. That’s how good it looks and feels. I dig the design even though it is much cloned from a Galaxy.

18:9 Aspect Ratio Display

Nuu G3 has an 18:9 aspect ratio similar to many of flagships out today. One obvious benefit to this aspect ratio is easier and longer browsing when viewing websites along with better use of screen space. While I dig the aspect ratio the resolution is only 1440×720 or 720P elongated.

While the screen is super bright and gives you great screen outdoors in the sunlight, there are a few problems. Like when I am watching a YouTube video in 720P at its maximum resolution, you will really notice the pixels. Watching 720P on my Galaxy S9+ vs. the Nuu G3 is a completely day and night experience. In other words, if you watch a lot of YouTube or online videos, you will be very disappointed with its display. However, playing games didn’t really affect it, display looks pretty good when playing games or just browsing the web.

Portrait Mode Camera

The biggest selling point of this phone is the dual camera setup with portrait mode which can work quite well in certain situations. In fact, that’s probably one of its best features. If you post a lot of photos to social networks like Instagram, you are going to be able to fake some nice DSLR shots with this phone. Now, camera does work well in bright light but low-light performance is abysmal so if you need to good low-light camera, you may want to go with another phone. Video camera is decent but nothing to boast about. Video recording is actually one of the worst I have seen so if you take a lot of videos, you may want to go with another phone.

Selfies on the front camera work pretty good. Only 3MP but in good lighting conditions, you will get some decent selfies.

Camera samples: (Click on photo to enlarge)

Selfie Samples(Click on photo to enlarge):

Speakers, 4G LTE, & Voice

Speakers are very loud, actually louder than most flagships with one speaker. The sound does get a bit distorted at its loudest setting but if you use your phone speakers often for calls or listening to music, they are louder than most out there.

4G LTE works quite well, seems to support all the 4G LTE bands on T-Mobile. Voice calls work great, especially in speaker mode, it is really loud.

Battery

Since the G3 has a 720P screen with 3000mAh battery, the battery lasts forever. If you need a good $200 smartphone with long lasting battery, this will not disappoint you. Even with the screen at its brightest setting all day long, you will get plenty of all-day battery life.

Security – Fingerprint Sensor & Face Unlock

Fingerprint sensor works well with very good positioning. While it has Face Unlock, which works well, you can’t use it simultaneously with fingerprint sensor and it does not work well in low-light situations.

UI & Performance

The MediaTek MTK6737 processor is plenty fast with Antutu score of around 75,000. The G3 comes with Android 7.0 Nougat and pretty much pure vanilla Android. Performance is probably the highlight of this phone as touchscreen is very responsive and absolutely no lag when using the phone. If you need a simple phone that does not lag, you will be happy with the G3.

Overall

Overall, $200 is not bad but I think you can do much better by buying an older flagship smartphone like the LG V20 which goes for about $200 right now or perhaps something like the Huawei 7X. But if you are looking for a lagfree dual-SIM smartphone that has excellent battery life & great portrait mode for Instagram, this can be a good buy. Also if you play a lot of games all day long, the G3 is recommended as 720P is plenty enough for most games and battery life is very long.

Now, if you watch a lot of YouTube or online videos in 720P or higher, you may be very disappointed. Or if you need great video camera for recording your baby or kids grow for the next year, this may be one of the worst choices.  Personally though, I would not buy this as I watch a ton of YouTube videos usually at 1080P or higher and I do take a lot of videos with the video camera. But if it suits you, check it out.  Available on Amazon or eBay.

Pros

  • Great Design & Feel
  • 18:9 Aspect Ratio, super-bright and long screen
  • Great portrait mode camera
  • Fast performance, no lag
  • Great battery life
  • Fast Fingerprint sensor
  • Loud speakers
  • Dual SIM

Cons

  • 720P screen
  • Bad low-light performance for camera (both photos/videos)
  • No stabilization for video recording

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Max Lee

Max Lee is the founder of HighOnAndroid.com. Max makes Android tutorials and review videos for people who want to get high on Android over at his YouTube channel and Korean YouTube channel.