NUU B30 Pro 5G smartphone review – TUU good to be TRUU?

REVIEW -The NUU B30 Pro 5G phone is a new release from a, -new- brand to me. The phone carries an endorsement as the phone of the FC Dallas soccer team. Does that sway you or do you need me to tell you if the phone is a keeper? I’ll do my job and let you know the details. There is very little to complain about with the B30 Pro 5G, but have you ever met a perfect smartphone?

What is it?

The NUU B30 Pro 5G phone is a newly released smartphone from NUU.

What’s included?

• NUU B30 Pro 5G phone
• Clear phone case
• 30W fast charger
• USB-C to USB-C cable
• Factory applied screen protector
• Starter guide and NUU stickers

Tech specs

Design and features

NUU really was new to me, so here’s a bit about the company from their LinkedIn profile:

“We’re NUU. We make unlocked Android smartphones. We’ve been doing it since 2012.

NUU is a global company with strong, local roots and today we’ve grown across the globe from Hong Kong to Dallas, TX and beyond.

Our philosophy is simple — better smartphones, better prices.

We believe a good-looking, reliable phone doesn’t have to cost hundreds of dollars. We believe in protecting our customers with extended warranties and timely updates. We believe a friendly voice and top-notch customer service make a difference.”

The B30 Pro 5G works only on the T-Mobile network and the MVNOs who use T-Mobile’s network. Here’s the complete list.

Gen Mobile
Hello Mobile
Metro by T-Mobile
Mint Mobile
Q Link Wireless
SpeedTalk Mobile
T-Mobile
Tello Mobile
Ultra Mobile

The B30 Pro 5G comes with Android 13 installed but is Android 14 ready. A couple of weeks into my review NUU asked if I’d try out Android 14. Within seconds I gave a quick ‘yes’. They kindly pushed Android 14 to my specific phone and it worked pretty well. I helped identify a couple of bugs on Android 14 and hopefully they’ll be ironed out in the mass release.

This new NUU packs in a lot under its skinny hood. The specs above tell the complete story but in case you missed it, the B30 Pro has 5G, Wifi 6, a 5000mAh fast charge battery via the supplied 30W charger and cable, 120Hz screen refresh rate (downward adjustable), 108MP main camera plus macro and wide angle lenses, an in-display fingerprint sensor, NFC for Google Pay, 12GB RAM, 256GB storage, and, is available in one, shiny, mint green color I like a lot.

Assembly, Installation, Setup

As nice as it is that NUU includes a phone case in the box, it is minimalist, for sure.

The corners of the case are not any thicker than the body of the case and the sides provide no protection in case of a screen-down fall. The case sides are made low to show off the curved screen glass. There is zero protection for the screen.

The case sides are contoured exactly like the phone, so the case provides minimal grip, and not much more than the phone with no case. Consider the supplied case to be temporary while the one you order is coming. But good luck shopping. I couldn’t find any good cases for this phone. Several have poor ratings. A wallet-style case is probably the most protective, but every one I found charges shipping even on Amazon Prime. I pull this phone out of my pocket very deliberately and hold it with great caution while in use.

The NUU B30 Pro 5G phone is my third recent review phone that would not do setup when cabled to my previous phone. Setup went normally when I directed the system to use my most recent Google backup from the other phone.

I toned down the screen refresh rate from 120 Hz to 60 Hz to save a bit of battery. 60 Hz serves these eyes just fine on the B30 Pro.

Performance

On my 2nd day with the phone, my SIM card kept losing contact with the phone. The SIM tray in the B30 Pro has an identical upper and lower ‘shelf’ into which two SIM cards can fit. I moved the SIM to the lower section of the tray, the SIM 2 position, and contact stayed normal for the duration. I seem to alternate phones about every 1-2 weeks, so maybe my SIM was weakening somehow? (I rotate all my EDC, knives, pens, flashlights and phones.)

There was a call dropping problem too so NUU had me return the first phone and sent a replacement which operated flawlessly. To rule out a problem with the SIM I got a new one from T-Mobile. All went well for the duration. I bet every 1000th iPhone is wonky too. 

Phone calls had a pleasant, normal tone and volume on my end, and everyone I spoke with could hear me clearly. Calls on the B30 Pro didn’t drop any more frequently than they have with my other phones. One never knows which phone on a 2 cellphone call is at fault for the drop. I had some very long calls during this review and they stayed connected.

No one buys a $300 phone for audio quality. The B30 Pro has fine phone call quality even on speaker-phone, and podcasts and live radio news and interviews sound crisp and clear. I turned the volume up to 100% during a streaming news broadcast and the sound didn’t crackle or hiss. Music played through the B30 Pro speakers will probably enable you to ‘name that tune’, but you won’t be writing home about the quality of its sound. The speaker is clear and adequate for usual phone use.

The OS is very nearly plain Google Android. And that’s a big positive. NUU didn’t dink around with and complicate the Settings as even some big name phone makers do, so everything is where you’d expect it to be. And the normal Android Settings Search field is available to help you find any settings fast.

Battery life anyone? The 5000mAh battery in the B30 Pro seems to deplete no faster than any other 5K mAh battery I’ve handled.

One nice wrinkle NUU put in the B30 Pro Settings is the ability to set an upper limit to battery charging. It can contribute to longer battery life to keep a rechargeable lithium battery in the range of about 45% to 85%. I turned on the charging limiter and the device stopped charging at 84% every time I charged. Close enough for me.

I’m a slow battery charge kind of guy and as a result I get years of use out of my phones. I can’t prove conclusively that that contributes, but fast charging equals more heat equals less battery longevity, so I tend to reach for a standard charger over the fast chargers that come with my fast charging phones. Silly me? Maybe.

Here I’m mainly illustrating the charge current with the included fast charger. This is a very respectable charge rate. 

I used the fast charger and cable that came with the B30 Pro a bunch during this review. As a 50% charging speed test, I charged the phone from 45% to 95% in about 55 minutes.

The auto screen brightness feature worked well outdoors, but indoors I would often have to brighten the screen to make it more legible. After this issue recurred several times I turned off auto brightness indoors and turned it back on when outdoors. This issue should be fixable with a future software update.

You can guess the main deficiency of a $270 phone, and it is the camera. It isn’t terrible but in well-lit full daylight photos, where some cheaper phones succeed, detail is grainy and pixellated if you zoom in on a pic you’ve taken. Low light photos taken with the B30 Pro with the flash off do not turn out well. Plan on using the flash for almost all indoor pics.

There is little to no image stabilization when shooting video with the B30 Pro so, hold steady.

Near the end of my review testing the factory applied screen protector started showing scratches on its surface. Thankfully they were not visible with the screen on.

Phone settings has a ‘double-tap to wake’ feature and I turned it on immediately after setup. It frequently took multiple double taps to wake the phone. I sometimes had to press the power button to wake the phone. This is a need that could be addressed with a software update.

The in-screen fingerprint reader was among the best I’ve used. It only failed me when my fingers were damp and that confuses many in-screen print readers. 

What I like about the NUU B30 Pro 5G Phone

• Beautiful color, excellent design and build quality
• NUU Android 13 and 14 are very close to ‘vanilla Android’
• Nothing made the phone lag or freeze.

What needs to be improved?

• The B30 Pro is difficult to hold securely due to the sharply curved sides
• More protective, secure grip cases are needed
• Double-tap to wake and auto screen brightness need fine tuning

Final thoughts

I’m not moving my SIM to my regular phone now that my review is done. The NUU B30 Pro 5G is going to be my daily communicator at least up to my niece’s wedding, at which time I’ll need to take some really good photos. I think in spite of its few, slight shortcomings, if you aren’t concerned with art-quality photos from your phone, the NUU B30 Pro 5G represents a great value at its price.

Price: $299 Amazon.   $269.99 NUU.
Where to buy: Amazon and NUU
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by NUU and the company did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.