In a sea of budget phones that all look and feel the same, what does it take to truly stand out?

nubia has an answer with the nubia Music Pro. This new model flaunts a quirky design, a loud three-speaker sound system, and a laser focus on audio. It’s a bold bet, and one that won’t cost you much to explore.

Available now in the Philippines, the nubia Music Pro has a suggested retail price of P4,299 (about $75), though you can find it for even less after discounts and promotions. But is this unique smartphone worth the hype? Read on to find out.

Making a loud (design) statement

The nubia Music Pro isn’t just another option in the bargain bin — it’s arguably the quirkiest handset we’ve seen in the category. It’s loud, it’s colorful, and it makes no apologies for its main selling point, which is also the most prominent part of its design: an orange loudspeaker that nubia claims can pump out sound at 600% the volume of a typical entry-level unit. And, to be fair, the speaker absolutely gets loud, but we’ll dive into the details on that in a bit. nubia is clearly positioning this device as a two-in-one gadget, an Android phone that can replace your tiny, ubiquitous Bluetooth speaker.

But for us, the real showstopper — and the feature that sets this Pro model apart from last year’s nubia Music — is the RGB LED lighting. Positioned right next to the speaker and housed in a smoky, translucent casing, it’s a killer visual touch. It’s the kind of flashy, unexpected detail you almost never see on a smartphone this affordable. Plus, you can customize the Breathing Light system to respond to incoming calls and notifications with different colors, and even assign specific colors to individual contacts.

You’ll likewise find two large, separate camera rings on the rear, though only one actually houses a working camera. This single shooter packs a 50-megapixel sensor, and its performance is about what you’d expect from a low-cost device. That means decent photos in well-lit conditions, but the quality falls apart in low-light or dim environments. And the lack of ultrawide or macro lenses makes the system less versatile than what you’d find on slightly more expensive smartphones. Then again, at this price, a no-frills camera setup is perfectly understandable.

Sample shots

The chassis is all plastic, with a glossy back panel draped in a vibrant mix of red, blue, yellow, and white. It does a pretty good job of resisting fingerprints and smudges. The flat, silver plastic frame features all the hardware buttons on the right-hand side. The red-accented power button immediately catches the eye and is notably longer than the volume keys for easy access. And yes, that power key also doubles as a fingerprint reader that works exactly as advertised.

Here comes the boom

Now, about that speaker. The large orange driver on the back of the nubia Music Pro is easily the loudest loudspeaker we’ve tested on a budget phone. nubia claims the entire audio setup, which includes three full-range drivers (one up top, one on the bottom, and a third on the back), can hit a staggering 95dB of sound. The presence of a traditional headphone jack on the base is a welcome bonus, a nod to its audio-themed purpose.

While we can’t scientifically verify if it’s six times louder than the average entry-level handset, we can confirm it’s loud enough to fill a 30-square-meter room and effectively replace a small Bluetooth speaker — at least in terms of sheer volume. The catch, however, is that as loud as the nubia Music Pro gets, the overall sound quality leaves much to be desired, especially in the lower, bass frequencies. Does it sound better than a tiny Bluetooth speaker? If it’s a generic, white-box device from a random online store, then the answer is yes.

Pumping out sound isn’t the only trick the nubia Music Pro has up its sleeve. Keeping with its theme, the smartphone comes with a built-in FM tuner and a preinstalled app that lets you listen to local radio stations without needing to plug in a wired headset.

Additionally, the device comes preloaded with a few other unique audio-centric functions. The Touch-to-Share feature uses the phone’s NFC tag to instantly share media files with another nubia Music Pro unit with just a tap. There’s also a Bluetooth Speaker mode which, as the name suggests, turns the handset into a Bluetooth receiver that plays audio from a connected device. Once enabled, it can’t connect to other devices, but it’s a nifty feature that truly leverages one of its biggest strengths.

Sticking to the basics

Let’s get one thing straight: The nubia Music Pro is not a powerhouse, and it doesn’t pretend to be. At its core is a Unisoc T7200 chipset that is virtually identical to the older Tiger T606 from 2021. We’re talking the same CPU cores, the same Mali-G57 GPU, the same clock speeds. It’s a 12nm chip that gets the job done for everyday tasks. The benchmark scores, its budget price tag, and our own hands-on time all tell the same story: This is an entry-level experience through and through.

Thankfully, nubia threw in a 120Hz-refresh-rate option. Enabling it and setting Animation Speed to Fast makes scrolling and zipping around the user interface feel deceptively fluid. That smoothness is only skin-deep, though. The illusion shatters the moment you start pushing it. Juggle a few too many apps, and you’ll feel the system gasp for air. Apps take a bit longer to load, and the limited 4GB of RAM means the phone will aggressively kick them out of memory, forcing reloads. Look, we’re probably not the target market for this device, but it’s nice to see software toggles for refresh rate and animation speed that at least try to keep up appearances.

The software situation is a mixed bag. On one hand, the UI is mostly clean with minimal bloatware — all of which you can thankfully uninstall. However, the device ships with Android 14. In a world where Android 15 is rapidly becoming the standard across all price points, launching with last year’s Android OS is a tough pill to swallow. Our review unit is also stuck on a May 2025 security patch. We can only hope an OTA update is already in the works.

Can this smartphone game, though? We got modern Android titles like GTA: San Andreas, Dead Cells, and Titan Quest running, even if they were locked at a serviceable 30 FPS. Heavy gamers can just lean into emulation to scratch an itch. PSP games via an emulator ran surprisingly well, and it’s honestly the best way to game on this hardware. Trust us when we say that mobile emulation has come a long way, and even the modest chipset here can handle classics from the PlayStation 1 and PSP eras without breaking a sweat.

Now, for the other silver lining to that humble processor: battery life. The 5,000mAh cell might sound standard, but paired with a power-sipping chip and a 720p display, it’s a marathon runner. In PCMark’s battery-rundown test, the nubia Music Pro clocked a pretty impressive 14 hours and 5 minutes. In real-world terms, an hour of YouTube streaming at 50% brightness only sipped 4% of the battery, while an hour of music playback barely made a dent at 2%. This phone will easily carry you through a full day, and then some.

On the AI front, your options here are pretty limited. The smartphone doesn’t ship with Google’s Gemini enabled by default. That means you’ll have to manually switch it on if you want to use the familiar long-press-on-the-power-key gesture to summon the popular digital assistant.

The preinstalled AI Music app, meanwhile, can generate new tracks from music you record or upload. The results are varied, ranging from surprisingly listenable to the kind of chaotic racket you’d expect from a cat tap-dancing on a piano. But hey, at least it sticks to the music theme of this nubia model.

Another feature that grabbed our attention is Live Island, a Dynamic Island-inspired overlay that gives you quick access to notifications, recording status, timers, and even music-playback controls without having to open individual apps. While it’s not as polished as similar implementations we’ve seen on other Android devices, it’s a useful addition, especially for a budget-friendly unit like this one.

Final thoughts

Given everything the nubia Music Pro offers, it’s clear what kind of person this smartphone is for — someone who wants a handset that’s loud, long-lasting, and unapologetically quirky. It might not be a performance king, and its cameras and software are a step behind the competition, but those are compromises you’re making for its unique selling points — and, of course, the highly accessible P4,299 ($75) price tag.

The phone’s design alone makes a statement, its speaker is a legitimate room-filler, and its RGB lights and unique audio features provide a fun, distinctive experience that you simply won’t find anywhere else in this price range. So if you’re looking for a device that can blast your favorite tunes and go all day without a charge, the nubia Music Pro should hit all the right notes for you.

@nubiaphilippines Who wouldn’t be vibing with the super crisp base, extra volume, and awesome audio clarity of nubia #MusicPro? #nubia #nubiaphilippines #BeYourself #MusicPhone #SoundTrip #MusicClarity #NextLevelPower #CustomerApproved #BudgetPhone #AffordablePhone ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim

FYI, this is how the other nubia Music Pro version looks

nubia Music Pro specs

• 6.7-inch LCD screen with 120Hz refresh rate
• Unisoc T7200 octa-core processor
• 4GB RAM, expandable up to 8GB RAM
• 128GB storage
• Dual 50-megapixel main, AI rear cameras
• 5-megapixel front camera
• Side fingerprint reader
• 5,000mAh battery
• 2.1-channel speaker system with 600% volume
• RGB backlight
• MyOS 14 based on Android 14
• Color options: Pop Art, Melody Wave

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