Nubia

Nubia
Information
Industry	Consumer electronics, Augmented Reality
Founded	2012
Founder	Li Qiang
Headquarters	Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Notable Personnel	Ni Fei (president), Li Qiang (brand founder)
Products	Smartphones, tablets, AR display glasses, glasses-free 3D tablets
Parent	ZTE
Website	https://www.nubia.com

Nubia (stylized nubia, legally Nubia Technology Co., Ltd.) is a Chinese consumer electronics company best known for smartphones, and a brand that grew out of ZTE. It was established in 2012 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. The brand was launched as a ZTE subsidiary and was spun out as a separately run company in 2015, although ZTE has retained a substantial ownership stake, so Nubia is usually described as a ZTE associate or sub-brand rather than a fully independent firm.

Although Nubia's core business is mobile phones, including its photography-focused Z series and the RedMagic gaming sub-brand, the company has produced two notable products relevant to extended reality. At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 it introduced the nubia Neovision Glass, a pair of tethered Augmented Reality display glasses, alongside the nubia Pad 3D, a glasses-free 3D tablet built on light-field display technology. Both were positioned as ways to view a large virtual screen or stereoscopic 3D content without a separate headset.

History

Nubia was created by ZTE in 2012 as a wholly owned subsidiary, with the goal of building a premium, more design-led smartphone brand that could compete with companies such as Apple and Samsung in the high-end market. Its early phones, including the Z7 and Z9, were marketed heavily on their cameras, and in 2015 Nubia released the Z9, which it promoted as a borderless or frameless design.

In June 2015 ZTE announced that Nubia would operate as a more independent brand in order to move faster in the competitive Chinese smartphone market. At the time the brand's president and founder, Li Qiang, said the company wanted to "be ourselves" rather than imitate larger rivals, and ZTE described the relationship as similar to that between a parent group and a semi-autonomous marque. In 2016 Nubia took outside investment from Suning Holdings Group and its retail arm, and by 2017 ZTE had reduced its holding to roughly 49.9 percent, at which point Nubia was reported as an associate company rather than a subsidiary of ZTE. In April 2018 Nubia launched a dedicated gaming phone line, RedMagic, which became known for putting active cooling fans inside smartphones.

The company expanded into adjacent product categories over time, adding tablets and, in 2023, its first wearable display and 3D tablet products under the nubia brand.

Extended reality products

Nubia's extended reality presence centers on two device families launched in 2023: the Neovision Glass AR display glasses and the Pad 3D glasses-free 3D tablet. Neither is a standalone Mixed Reality headset; both are designed to present immersive visuals from connected or onboard content while keeping the user's surroundings visible.

nubia Neovision Glass

The Nubia Neovision Glass is a pair of lightweight AR display glasses that ZTE described as Nubia's first AR eyewear. It was unveiled at MWC 2023 in Barcelona on February 28, 2023, and went on open global sale on June 19, 2023, at a price of 529 US dollars (549 euros, 479 pounds), with a mainland China price reported around 2,999 yuan. The glasses launched across the European Union, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and South Africa, but were not made available in the United States.

Each lens uses a Micro-OLED display outputting 1080p resolution per eye, with a pixel density of about 3,500 pixels per inch and a peak brightness of up to 1,800 nits, projecting what Nubia describes as a virtual screen scalable up to 120 inches with a 43-degree field of view. The glasses weigh about 79 grams and support 0 to 500 degrees of diopter adjustment for nearsighted users, so they can be worn without separate prescription lenses. Audio is handled by dual omnidirectional speakers; Nubia marketed the product as the first smart glasses to carry a Hi-Res Audio certification, and it was certified by TUV Rheinland. Like other glasses in this category, such as those from Xreal, Rokid, and Viture, the Neovision Glass is a tethered display rather than a self-contained computer: it connects over USB-C to a phone, tablet, laptop, game console (including Xbox, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch), or drone and mirrors that device's screen rather than running its own apps.

nubia Pad 3D

The nubia Pad 3D is a glasses-free 3D Android tablet announced at MWC 2023 alongside the Neovision Glass. It became available worldwide in April 2023 (with pre-orders opening in March) at a launch price of 1,199 US dollars (1,299 euros, 1,149 pounds). The tablet uses a 12.4-inch LCD with a 2,560 by 1,600 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate, combined with light-field display technology developed with Leia. An AI engine and a dual front camera array perform real-time 3D face and eye tracking so that a stereoscopic image is steered to the viewer's eyes, allowing 3D content to be seen without special eyewear; the system can also convert ordinary 2D video and games into 3D on the fly. The device runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, carries dual rear cameras for capturing 3D content, and was aimed largely at creative, medical, and education users.

A second generation, the nubia Pad 3D II, was shown at MWC 2024. It moves to a 12.1-inch 144Hz display, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, global 5G support, and an upgraded version of Leia's glasses-free 3D system (marketed as LeiaSR) with improved eye tracking. Nubia claimed roughly an 80 percent increase in 3D resolution and a 100 percent increase in 3D brightness over the first model, along with a large reduction in cross-talk to limit ghosting.

Products

The table below lists Nubia's publicly announced extended reality and 3D display hardware. Nubia remains primarily a smartphone maker, and these products represent a small part of its overall catalog.

Product	Announced	Type	Notable specs and notes
Nubia Neovision Glass	February 2023 (MWC 2023)	Tethered AR display glasses	Micro-OLED, 1080p per eye, ~3,500 PPI, up to 1,800 nits, 43-degree FOV, virtual screen up to 120 inches; 79 g; 0-500 degree diopter adjustment; Hi-Res Audio and TUV Rheinland certified; USB-C tether to phones, PCs, consoles, drones; on sale June 19, 2023 for 529 US dollars (not sold in the US)
nubia Pad 3D	February 2023 (MWC 2023)	Glasses-free 3D tablet	12.4-inch 2.5K (2560x1600) LCD at 120Hz with Leia light-field display and AI eye tracking; real-time 2D-to-3D conversion; Qualcomm Snapdragon 888; dual rear cameras for 3D capture; global launch April 2023 from 1,199 US dollars
nubia Pad 3D II	February 2024 (MWC 2024)	Glasses-free 3D tablet	12.1-inch 144Hz display; Snapdragon 8 Gen 2; global 5G; upgraded LeiaSR glasses-free 3D with better eye tracking; claimed ~80% higher 3D resolution and 100% higher 3D brightness versus the first model

Market position

Nubia is a mid-tier global smartphone brand whose strongest identity in recent years has come from gaming phones sold under RedMagic. In extended reality it is a minor participant rather than a category leader: its hardware so far consists of a single AR display product, the Neovision Glass, and the Pad 3D line of glasses-free 3D tablets, all introduced from 2023 onward. The Neovision Glass entered the same crowded segment of tethered display glasses as devices from Xreal, Rokid, Viture, and others, competing largely on its claimed Hi-Res audio and aggressive pricing, while the Pad 3D tablets gave Nubia a presence in glasses-free 3D through its partnership with Leia. Coverage of both lines has treated them as niche, enterprise-leaning, or media-consumption products rather than mainstream successes.