On July 27, 2024, NIO revealed the 2nd-gen NIO Phone at the NIO IN Innovation Technology Day in Shanghai at a price of CNY 6,499 - 7,499. See the event highlights here.
Just today, a domestic phone reviewer by the name of Zhishi Fenzi (芝士分子 or "Cheese Molecule") shared his experience and overall review of the phone based on 4 core pillars: design, performance, camera, and software.
Here is a recap with additional insights from other reviewers:
1. Design: quad-curved “dome” screen
The 2nd-gen NIO Phone features a design language that is unlike the "large camera ring" design of mainstream flagship phones. Instead, it kept the simplistic 1st-gen design with a matte finish at the lower portion of the phone with a gradual soft curved transition to the top with a glossy finish and a three-camera + flash module setup.
Despite the matte-to-glossy finish, the back cover is made of a single piece of hot-molded glass, leaving a borderless visual effect. The 2nd-gen NIO Phone also offers two color variants with a rear leather texture, including the new Nebula Red. Other colors include Pine Green, Golden Sand Rice, Moonlight Silver, and Space Blue, all of which match the exterior colors of NIO cars.
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The EP edition was also upgraded with an overall black color and a nano-microcrystalline ceramic design with the classic red lines separating the finish transition.
The 2nd-gen NIO Phone upgraded from the conventional curved screen to a quad-curved "dome" screen with pronounced curvature that extends to all four edges of the device with a bending depth of 0.724 mm.
This dome screen offers a comfortable grip and appealing visuals, with another review describing it as "it feels like water is about to overflow".
The rear camera module was cut using high-precision manufacturing techniques, such as jewelry-grade diamond-tipped cutting tools.
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The NIO Phone 2 features a 2K resolution 6.82-inch Samsung screen, an ultra-high pixel density of up to 510 PPI (pixel per inch) with variable refresh rate of 1-120 Hz, HDR10+, DCI-P3, and peak brightness reaching 2,600 nits. For reference, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a peak brightness of 2,500 nits.
In terms of form factor, the length of the phone shrank slightly from 165.19 mm to 163.9 mm, while the width increased from 75.54 mm to 77.5 mm.
2. Performance: flagship on paper and in real life
The 2nd-gen NIO Phone is equipped with flagship hardware configurations, including the 3rd-gen Snapdragon 8, LPDDR5X (DRAM), and UFS4.0 (Universal Flash Storage).
NIO's new phone scored high on Antutu's performance benchmark with a score of 2,091,967 points, which would rank second of all phones tested as of June 2024, behind the Asus ROG 8 Pro with a vapor chamber cooling system. Another reviewer obtained an even higher score of 2,114,656 points. In comparison, the iPhone 15 Pro Max scored 1,481,204 points. Antutu generates a comprehensive performance score based on CPU, GPU, and memory performance.
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The NIO Phone also performed well on the 3DMark Wild Life EXTREME test with a score of 5,127 points and an average framerate of 30.7, compared to 3,649 and 21 FPS for the iPhone 15 Pro Max. This test measures the device's GPU capabilities by simulating different graphics workloads and measuring the device's framerate.
Real-world testing was also done on the device by playing two graphical intensive games "Genshin Impact" and "Honkai: Star Rail" for 30 minutes at ultra-high resolutions and 60 FPS settings. Results reflect benchmark results with near max. average frame rate with slight fluctuations.
The phone is equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery, increasing the average battery life to 1.16 days. The phone also comes with an emergency mode that extends low-battery phone calls by 30 minutes.
3. Camera: triple module
The NIO Phone features a triple camera module with a 48-megapixel main, 48MP ultra-wide angle, and 50MP telephoto camera. The main camera uses a Sony LYT-T808 sensor with double-layer transistor technology, the wide-angle lens uses IMX882, and the telephoto at the bottom uses IMX890.
In daylight, the phone delivers a realistic imaging style with colors that closely match real-life colors. The phone also offers UltraHDR, which captures a broader range of brightness levels for improved contrast and depth.
In low-light conditions, the photos are equally impressive, managing to highlight details in shadows with minimal ghosting. In one of the pictures, we can see the details behind and on the neon sign without any light scattering alongside the edges of the turquoise neon text.
4. Software: simplicity and car integration
The NIO Phone 2 operates on the company's self-developed Android-based SkyUI 2.0 with NIO Link. SkyUI offers a unique experience compared to other domestic OS due to its simplicity.
SkyUI features only 19 built-in applications and is free of system ads and commercial pre-installations, similar to NIO cars' infotainment user interface.
In the browser app, for example, instead of the cluttered interfaces found in typical mobile browsers with news and trending topics, you only see a simple search bar. The same can be said of the app store, where even the editor's recommendations can only be visible by scrolling down.
The phone also features advanced AI integrations with NOMI GPT. Future updates are expected to introduce call and text summaries, AI noise reduction, and large-scale model search in the photo gallery.
The phone features a custom car control button that serves as a shortcut to the NIO car's functions. For instance, a long press can be set to turn on the car camera, flash the lights, or honk the horn.
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NIO's Sky Window, which enables streaming the NIO Phone's screen onto to car's infotainment screen, has been upgraded with superior framerate from 40 FPS to 60 FPS and improved performance by 45%.
The phone's "super-sensing" car key function, which uses UWB ultra-wideband technology to precisely unlock the car based on measured distance and position of the phone relative to the car, has enhanced the unlocking success rate from 99% to 99.5%.