It’s 2026 and we’re in the middle of a RAM crisis. With the price of phones soaring at an unprecedented level – most above 30% – 50% from what it was last year, manufacturers have to get really creative with new features that don’t involve RAM or storage.
Brands usually push for better cameras or better battery life, but nubia took a more holistic approach, learning from the past to predict the present: welcome to the return of the phablet.
A “phablet” was a term used to describe smartphones that were stuck between candybar phone size and tablets. In the past, these were usually 6.5 inch devices, but current flagship models have adopted this form factor and size as an industry staple. So nubia went ahead and added an additional inch. The nubia Neo 5 Max 5G is a gaming phablet that measures 7.5 inches. At a time where foldables are quickly becoming the in-thing, people have forgotten that you can get really good screen real estate with … making the screen bigger.
Truth be told, there’s a market and huge use case for phablets. As consumers have moved on to multimedia consumption as the primary use for smartphones, a bigger screen for Netflix or Call of Duty Mobile won’t hurt.
The nubia Neo 5 Max is not a high-end gaming device. It sits in the middle with a MediaTek Dimensity 7100 5G chipset with a decent graphics card that can handle most games on medium settings. Wuthering Waves was highly demanding, but I was able to get it smooth on balanced settings with low resolution. In terms of memory, you can really see the pinch at 8GB RAM with an additional 12GB allocated for virtual RAM. I guess the additional caveat is we have a device with only 256GB storage, albeit it’s LPDDR5X. WIth the AI crunch all around us, you can see how nubia is trying its best to cope with specs vis a vis performance and they are making ends meet with a larger screen and bigger battery at 7100mAh.
In terms of gaming performance, the nubia Neo 5 Max borrows the “magic” from its gaming sibling, Red Magic. Twin shoulder haptic triggers are a staple so we are no longer surprised to find this as a feature. The large form factor really legitimizes it as a gaming handheld. In the photos I am using it paired with a Gamesir G8+ controller and it really feels amazing. This is a completely anecdotal observation but I do believe their game mode settings do make a difference. Bypass charging support and pushing settings up to maximize the processor can add that extra punch to getting better frame rates. I believe this is also why the kit included a cooling fan with a semiconductor plate to really chill the device when in this mode.
The nubia Neo 5 Max 5G sells for P25,999 for the 256GB model. It’s honestly on the upper brackets for a mid-range phone – a gaming phone at that, but this is the reality we are in now given that RAM pricing is through the roof. I think it’s great. The phablet size with a bigger battery saves it for me.
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