On April 9, 2018, Smartisan released a new generation of Nut series smartphones in Beijing. This is the second generation of the phone, but it’s called the Smartisan Nut 3. So there are too many questions we should try to find answers in this review.
As Smartisan CEO Luo Yonghao said at the launch event, 2017 was a tough year for the company, but it could survive. Actually, the manufacturer launched a couple of new models. But they all were the customized versions of the Smartisan Nut Pro launched way earlier. As the company CEO said, the Nut 2 actually existed, but because of misfortunes due to various reasons, it was not launched.
However, thanks to the mentioned models including the Smartisan Nut Pro Gintama version and the Special Edition, the difficult situation of the company has changed. As a result, there were sold over 1 million Nut Pro smartphones in the first half of 2017. The Smartisan Nut Pro 2 was released earlier this year. And it gained a good reputation due to the same features of the cost-effectiveness and appearance.
As for the Smartisan Nut 3, it’s a tri-bezel-less smartphone like the Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S. This handset has no borders on the top, left, and right sides. Plus, it uses a rare double-sided glass + metal frame structure. The body thickness is 7.16mm.
This smartphone is priced at 1299 yuan ($205). So in this sense, it’s a regular thousand-yuan machine. But thanks to a stylish look, powerful hardware, and optimized software it is capable of providing a top-notch performance.
Unlike the rest of Smartisan smartphones, the Smartisan Nut 3 comes in five color options including the burgundy, light gold, carbon black, dazzling black, and bright red. But not all color variants are available with all the memory combinations.
Well, we have got our hands on the lowest variant with a 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.
The Smartisan Nut 3’s packaging doesn’t differ from the previous models.
On the back, it carries the key features of the phone.
Inside, we can see a white box that carries the phone.
The Smartisan Nut 3 sports a 5.99-inch screen with a resolution of 1080p and an aspect ratio of 18:9. What we liked most is the Mi MIX-like design with the canceled forehead. It gives a feeling of innovation unlike the bangs screen found on the most of current flagships. By the way, the Xiaomi Mi 7 is assumed to sport a similar design.
The screen design uses the same title as the previous Nut Pro 2. If you remember, it’s ‘Almost Full Screen.’
The Nut 3 basically continues the design of the Nut Pro series with fine red lines, sharp edges, and corners. So we can say the difference is in the front. Moreover, the fingerprint scanner has been moved from the back to the front. As you can see, the manufacturer has put a home button below the screen that integrates the fingerprint recognition feature. Next to it, we can find the proximity and light sensors and a front camera.
The Nut 3 is the first mobile phone to use the Home button in the Nuts series. It implements a few functions. Say, a simple touch will take you back, a long press will return to the main screen, and so on.
Though the Home button supports fingerprint identification, the front camera next to it supports face recognition (Face++). The latter can identify 1024 face features
The headset is on the very top of the screen. As you can see, there is a small gap made between the screen and the frame.
The phone uses a full-glass material on the back. That’s why it is identical to the front.
The dual-camera is placed horizontally on the upper left corner.
There is a red line around the perimeter. It is not interrupted even on the bottom side where the speakers and the USB Type-C port are placed.
On the opposite side, we can find the noise reduction microphone.
The power button and the volume rocker are on the right side.
The SIM card slot and a physical button that allows users to implement various functions are on the left.
Of course, it supports dual-SIM cards.
The phone is packed with a Snapdragon 625 chip. Actually, it’s the lowest model from the 600 series, but Qualcomm has put too many efforts in this chip. And not accidentally, it’s considered as the best offer in the market. It is based on a 14nm process node.
Also read: Xiaomi Surge S1 vs Snapdragon 625 vs Helio P25 vs Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 655
AnTuTu
The Smartisan Nut 3 scores 80.643 points at this benchmark, which is twice more than the low-end models available on the market, but it also yields the Snapdragon 653- and 660-powered smartphones.
GeekBench
To learn the CPU’s performance, the phone was tested by GeekBench. The single core performance is at 825 points, while the multi-core performance is at 4323.
GFXBench
This benchmark also shows it’s a regular mid-ranger.
PCMark
Compared to the 5697 points of the Charm Blue E3, it can be seen the overall difference between the Snapdragon 625 and the Snapdragon 636 is not great.
Androbench
The continuous reading speed is around 280MB/s, which is a standard eMMC performance.
As for the main camera, it is placed on the back with a horizontal layout. If you think the arrangement should be vertical, we have to recall Luo Yonghao’s explanation on this occasion. He said the Apple’s iPhone X rearranges the rear dual-camera because the front-facing camera area has a large number of components. So if the back camera is arranged horizontally, it will cause interference. Anyway, this camera comes with two 13MP sensors (color + black and white). They work under the control of the ArcSoft professional algorithm to provide better bokeh effect, professional noise reduction, 0.3 seconds PDAF phase focus support, multiple anti-shake options, TDK video electronic image stabilization, and 4K video recording.
Thanks to the dual-camera setup it is capable of taking quite clear and bright photos daytime. In the long-range shooting, the Nut 3 can clearly restore the distant scenery, including the trees beside the buildings and the reflection in the river.
In the macro mode, the dual-camera of the phone plays a key role in identifying the objects in short and long distances. So the background blurring is implemented at a good level.
How the EIS works.
When taking photos under many lights, the Smartisan Nut 3 is capable of maintaining a good control. The noise in images is at an acceptable level, if taking into account we are dealing with a thousand-yuan machine.
The front camera is placed on the chin next to the home button. It has an 8MP resolution and comes with an aperture of f/2.2. It supports ArcSoft technology that comes with a fine-grained real-time beauty algorithm, portrait background blur, and many more.
Here are some selfies with no beauty feature, and with the option enabled.
You can even blur the background when taking selfies.
The Smartisan Nut 3 is packed with a 4000mAh battery, which a bit larger in comparison to many thousand-yuan smartphones available on the market. Moreover, it is equipped with a Snapdragon 625 that provides quite a good power consumption performance.
When we started testing the endurance, the volume was at 40%, the brightness at 50%, and the remaining power was 97%. After playing a video online for 30 minutes, the power dropped to 93%. Thus, in 30 minutes it consumes only 4% of the battery power.
As for gaming, we started playing the ‘Honor of kings’ when the remaining power was 93%. After 30 minutes, it dropped to 85%.
At last, we used PCMark to test the overall endurance. The benchmark showed the Smartisan Nut 3 can last for more than 12 hours on a single charge. This is the same battery performance as the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 that sports a 4100mAh battery.
However, we had been quite interested in the charging process. By default, it comes with a 9V2A charging adapter that supports an 18W fast charging technology. When we started the charging test, the remaining power was 5%. It took 2 hours to fully charge the phone.
- Mainstream design
- Acceptable performance
- Dual-camera
- Face unlock support
- Large battery
- Various memory combinations
- Low price tags
- Relatively longer charging time
Many call the Smartisan Nut 3 as the cheaper alternative to the Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S. Maybe it’s true in some sense. But this brand has already managed to prove it’s chosen its own way and follows it. In this sense, the Nut series smartphones are quite distinguishing. Agree that thin red line makes the phone look way more attractive.
Apart from the appearance, the Smartisan Nut 3 sports a decent specs list. The hardware under the hood is capable of providing smooth and stable performance, while the camera sensors provide great shooting experience. So we can conclude, the Nut 3 is among the best thousand-yuan smartphones.
