Nubia Z70 Ultra review: Smartphone cruiserweight hits hard

Final yr’s Nubia Z60 Extremely might not have made many end-of-year tech lists, but it surely definitely caught the eye of these within the know. It was an enormous, daring flagship cellphone with some severe high-end specs for a decidedly less-than-flagship worth.

What it lacked, in the end, was the extent of refinement we’ve come to count on north of £600/$600. All of the Nubia Z70 Extremely needed to do was sharpen up on the minor particulars, and we might have the sort of flagship killer we final encountered when OnePlus first burst onto the scene.

With a cutting-edge Snapdragon 8 Elite chip offering an early glimpse on the chip that can probably dominate 2025, an appealingly fluid and unobstructed show, an attention grabbing variable aperture digital camera, and a fully ginormous battery, the Nubia Z70 Extremely captures the eye proper out of the field.

Within the occasion, it’s a cellphone that gives a broadly acquainted number of strengths and weaknesses, but it surely’s undoubtedly a extra exact effort than its predecessor. Nubia isn’t fairly there but, but it surely’s getting nearer.

Design & Construct

• Hefty however distinctive design
• Big slab of a digital camera module
• Extra {hardware} buttons

The Nubia Z60 Extremely left us a bit conflicted with its blocky seems and distinctive end choices. The Nubia Z70 Extremely follows go well with, however with just a few small refinements.

That is nonetheless a brick of a cellphone, and it even has a fractionally bigger 164.3 x 77.1mm footprint. Nevertheless, at 8.6mm thick and with a weight of 228g, it feels barely simpler to stay with.

The design language could be very related, with a pronounced sq. digital camera module that takes up the highest third of the rear floor. The round important digital camera stands out even farther from this raised space, and within the unlikely occasion that you simply missed it, Nubia has helpfully ringed its star snapper in pink. Refined it ain’t.

My mannequin is available in a classically sober black, with a stealthy darkish body to match. Nevertheless, you may also specify it in a barely sickly pale yellow with a metallic body.

The highest-spec mannequin additionally comes with the choice of a Starry Evening design, which applies some Van Gogh-esque galactic swirls to the again of the cellphone, complemented by a blue body. It’s a bit busy for my tastes, however I’m by no means going to complain when an organization tries one thing daring with its color choices.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

I additionally haven’t any complaints concerning the soft-touch glass end of the rear panel both – it feels good and efficiently fends off fingerprints. There are different indicators that Nubia has upped its construct high quality sport, with an IP69 ranking becoming a member of the extra widespread IP68 ranking. Which means that it could survive publicity to high-pressure water jets in addition to extended immersion – automotive wash attendants take notice.

The entrance of the cellphone is rather more understated than the rear, with hardly any bezels to talk of and no show notch in any respect. That is as near an all-screen cellphone because it’s attainable to get – at the least whenever you view it head-on.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

The Z60 Extremely was certainly one of treasured few Android telephones to function a bodily slider change, although it’s right here set to launch the digital camera reasonably than as an iPhone/OnePlus-style mute change. This may be modified within the Settings menu, but it surely feels a bit sloppy given the contemporary addition of a bodily digital camera shutter button this time round.

In addition to launching the digital camera, this two-stage bodily button can be utilized to lock focus after which take pictures, very similar to the Sony Xperia 1 VI. It’s a beautiful factor to make use of, and in contrast to the iPhone 16‘s Digicam Management button, it’s positioned correctly proper the place your forefinger rests.

Display & Audio system

• 6.85-inch 1.5K AMOLED show
• Enhanced 144Hz refresh price
• Stereo audio system are effective

Provided that the Z60 Extremely’s display screen was certainly one of its stand-out options, it’s a must to hand it to Nubia for going the additional mile. The Z70 Extremely’s display screen is healthier in each manner.

It’s fractionally greater at 6.85 inches, and it packs in additional pixels with a 1216 x 2688 or ‘1.5K’ decision. The latter gives an interesting candy spot in between QHD+ extra and bathroom commonplace FHD+, making every part look crisp with out hogging too many assets.

Nubia has additionally cranked up the brightness, with 2000 nits at peak handily trouncing the Z60 Extremely’s (nonetheless first rate) 1500 nits. That is removed from the brightest show in the marketplace, but it surely’s comfortably vivid sufficient in most situations, particularly for a cellphone at this worth.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

I do have a minor quibble with the auto-brightness setting, which by no means fairly appeared to be proper for me. This isn’t an issue that’s unique to Nubia, nonetheless, and I discover myself switching the operate off with many of the telephones I take advantage of.

Nubia has additionally taken its display screen refresh price to the subsequent degree, from 120Hz to 144Hz. These aware of Nubia’s gaming cellphone work gained’t be shocked by this, as that is precisely the identical element because the Redmagic 10 Professional. Most video games gained’t reap the benefits of such elevated refresh charges, however the Nubia Z70 Extremely is prepared for those that do.

The aforementioned lack of a show notch makes this top-of-the-line cellphone screens round for viewing video content material, proper up there with the Sony Xperia 1 VI.

There’s loud, clear stereo audio too, although solely one of many audio system is front-firing. It’s completely first rate, however not up there with the easiest that Samsung and Apple have to supply on the subject of depth and nuance.

Specs & Efficiency

• Powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite
• As much as 24GB RAM and 1TB storage
• Wonderful efficiency

One of many details of curiosity with the Nubia Z70 Extremely for many individuals can be its standing as one of many most cost-effective telephones to make use of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. That is going to be the go-to chip for flagship Android telephones in 2025, so even if you happen to’re not within the cellphone itself, the Z70 Extremely represents an attention-grabbing sneak peak.

The excellent news is that this factor is significantly quick. It doesn’t fairly match its shut cousin the Redmagic 10 Professional or the Asus ROG Telephone 9 Professional within the Geekbench 6 CPU benchmark take a look at, but it surely’s not far off.

Extra importantly, it obliterates the 2024 flagship cellphone crowd just like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely, the OnePlus 12 and Google Pixel 9 Professional XL.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Issues are a bit trickier to gauge on the GPU entrance. For no matter motive, Nubia’s telephones appear to have an odd quirk when operating our typical GFXBench GPU benchmarks, maxing out at a locked 60 fps. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is able to a lot quicker – greater than double the frames per second in most situations – so take these outcomes with a pinch of salt.

Nubia Z70 Extremely benchmarks

I ran just a few completely different GPU-focused assessments to cowl for this difficulty, and certain sufficient, the Nubia Z70 Extremely was able to performing about in addition to the Redmagic 10 Professional and the Asus ROG Telephone 9 Professional briefly, intense 3DMark exercises. The place it falls brief is on the latter’s sustained efficiency assessments, the place the shortage of an enormous cooling system and accompanying tuning results in a reasonably common stability rating of 62.5%.

Once more, these different gadgets are devoted gaming telephones, so this isn’t a poor outcome by any stretch. Simply know that the Nubia Z70 Extremely may throttle again its efficiency after some time on prolonged gaming periods. On the plus facet, Nubia’s extra aggressive throttling meant that the cellphone didn’t get tremendous scorching beneath load.

Speaking of gaming efficiency, the cellphone runs Genshin Affect and Wreckfest fluidly on maxed-out graphical settings. This factor is sort of as quick as telephones get in 2025, and also you’ll want to purchase a devoted gaming cellphone (with the entire compromises they create elsewhere) to beat it.

Cameras

• 50Mp important digital camera with variable aperture
• 64Mp 3.3x telephoto
• 50Mp ultra-wide
• 16Mp in-display selfie cam improved however nonetheless poor

We had been typically impressed at Nubia’s balanced digital camera setup for the Z60 Extremely Main Version. It could have been simple, and even acceptable, if the corporate had gone with the very same set-up with the follow-up and diverted its restricted assets elsewhere.

I’m happy to report that Nubia hasn’t rested on its laurels with the Z70 Extremely’s digital camera. Most notably, when you get the identical 50Mp Sony IMX 906 important sensor because the Z60 Extremely Main Version, there’s additionally an intriguing new variable aperture.

Dive into the Professional images mode and also you’ll discover which you can regulate the aperture from f/1.59 to f/4.0. It is a real mechanical course of, and your extra eagle-eyed topics will be capable of see the aperture closing as you bump as much as these greater F-numbers.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

You gained’t discover the consequences of this usually point-and-shoot snapping, but it surely comes into its personal when taking time to border close-up topics within the Professional mode. The decrease the aperture, the extra mild is let in and the extra pronounced the depth of area or ‘bokeh’ impact within the background.

This additionally affords extra effective management whenever you wish to get extra of a really close-up topic in focus. Meals pictures, particularly, might be specific beneficiaries of this. Flagship telephones with extensive fastened apertures can typically go away an excessive amount of of this sort of shot out of focus, however Nubia offers you the means to mitigate the impact – although clearly you’ll must stability the necessity for enough lighting.

This isn’t the primary time we’ve seen such a function in a cellphone, however all earlier examples have been from dearer premium flagships just like the Xiaomi 14 Extremely and the Sony Xperia Professional-I. The Nubia Z70 Extremely gives you a strong implementation for simply £649/$729.

All this could be for nothing if the Z70 Extremely didn’t take good pictures, but it surely performs fairly effectively on this regard. Photographs in good lighting have loads of element and color, whereas the robotically enabled Evening mode produces spectacular readability in low lighting, aided by optical picture stabilisation (OIS).

Nubia’s Sensible AI typically understands the scene effectively, although it’s not flawless. On one admittedly difficult low-lit bar scene, it didn’t focus correctly on the topic’s face and partly phased out the glass of their hand.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Whereas the primary sensor and telephoto are typically first rate performers, the ultra-wide represents fairly an enormous drop-off in sharpness, tone, and distinction. This isn’t uncommon in cheaper telephones, but it surely’s not the drop you count on to see within the higher flagship telephones in the marketplace.

In the meantime, the 16Mp in-display selfie digital camera stays fairly dangerous, missing element and smudging pores and skin tones. Sure, it’s an enchancment over the woeful Nubia Z60 Extremely, but it surely nonetheless falls behind many telephones promoting for half the cash.

It ought to be famous {that a} PCMark Work 3.0 battery take a look at rating of 8 hrs 18 minutes is fairly poor, and drops nearly 4 hours in need of the Nubia Z60 Ultra, not to mention rival flagship phones.

However, this needs to be taken within the context of a display that runs sharper and faster than before. I was running the screen at its unusually high 144Hz peak refresh rate throughout, rather than the default Auto or even a more standard 120Hz – either of which would doubtless extend that figure.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Nubia has also upped the wired charging speed to an impressive 80W. What’s more, it’s one of the few remaining manufacturers to include said fast charger in the box.

Using this supplied brick, I was able to get the Z70 Ultra from empty to 38% in 15 minutes, and to 67% in 30 minutes. A full charge took about 50 minutes. That’s not particularly outstanding, but you need to remember that extra capacity here – bigger batteries take longer to charge.

Less forgivable is the continued omission of wireless charging. Some will continue to dismiss this as a needless luxury, and an acceptable compromise in a non-flagship phone. But many much cheaper phones offer the feature, so I think Nubia should be thinking about it for its otherwise ambitious flagship range.

Software & Features

• New Nebula AIOS, same old issues
• Busy UI, but not too much bloatware
• Nasty Z-board screen

Nubia’s software has never been among the best in the Android world, with its clunky UI, pointless preinstalled apps, and the odd typo. Perhaps that’s why it’s opted to start again, ditching MyOS in favour of the new Nebula AIOS.

Except it hasn’t started again. Not really. This is a new OS in name only, with much the same UI design and many of the same problems. It runs over Android 15, but you wouldn’t know it.

While it’s relatively smooth and reliable, there are countless minor annoyances that add up here. You still get that weird default web browser, the pointless Z-board screen to the left of the main screen (you can turn it off, but why can’t you switch it for Google Feed?), and the aforementioned camera watermark.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

There are new annoyances too, like the slider switch duplicating the function of the new camera shutter button out of the box. Nubia hasn’t completely ironed out the typos either. I noticed the poorly translated line: “Genshin Impacthas add [sic] in Game Space”. It’s all just a bit sloppy.

This does feel like the most usable version of Nubia’s UI yet

On the plus side, this does feel like the most usable version of Nubia’s UI yet. I appreciated the ability to switch over to the more visually pleasing stock Android icons, though it would have been nice to have the option of switching to the menus as well.

Nubia has attached AI to a lot of its terminology – including its ‘new’ UI and, weirdly, to the new two-stage shutter button – but this is actually one of the lighter AI implementations out there. It’s certainly not the Pixel 9 or Samsung Galaxy S24.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

The main implementation of AI seems to be through real-time call translation and live caption features, though there are the usual imperceptible camera enhancements and an AI Gallery Search function. Google Gemini is also supported.

Nubia makes no mention of the number of updates the Z70 Ultra is going to get, which makes me think it’s not going to be much more than the two years offered with the Z60 Ultra. If true, that’s very disappointing.

Price & Availability

As we’ve already mentioned, what’s truly impressive about the Nubia Z70 Ultra is that it offers several flagship features and specifications for a relatively low starting price of £649/$729. This is for the model tested here with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

There’s also an upgraded model with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for £749/$829, while the range-topping 24GB/1TB model costs £899/$949. All very reasonable.

All models are available directly from Nubia’s website in the UK and US, while you’ll also find Amazon UK and Amazon US promoting the cellphone.

Nevertheless, you may’t get the cellphone on contract, so that you’ll have to purchase it outright and pair it with a SIM-only deal.

Must you purchase the Nubia Z70 Extremely?

The Nubia Z70 Extremely is one other excellent-value smartphone from the model, with spectacular energy and a worth that undercuts the established competitors by lots of.

Outfitted with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, it runs like a dream, whereas its 1.5K 144Hz OLED show is sharp and fluid. And with one of many largest batteries round, it’s good for a full two days of utilization on a single cost.

Whereas not among the many highest digital camera methods in the marketplace, a robust important sensor with a variable aperture definitely helps the Z70 Extremely to carry its personal.

Nubia nonetheless has to iron out some creases if it’s to earn a caveat-free suggestion – the selfie digital camera is horrible, the blocky design wants work, Nubia’s software program stays a piece in progress, and there’s no wi-fi charging.

However for anybody who desires a heavyweight smartphone with out the accompanying price ticket, it deserves to be a part of the dialog.

Specs

• Android 15
• 6.85in, 1.5K, OLED, 144Hz, flat show
• In-display fingerprint sensor
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite
• 12GB/16GB/24GB LPDDR5X RAM
• 256GB/512GB/1TB storage
• 50Mp, f/1.59-f/4.0 important digital camera
• 50Mp ultra-wide digital camera
• 64Mp telephoto digital camera
• As much as 8K @ 30fps rear video
• 16Mp front-facing digital camera
• Harmon Kardon stereo audio system
• Twin-SIM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be/7
• Bluetooth 5.4
• 6150mAh battery
• 120W charging
• 164.3 x 77.1 x 8.6 mm
• 228g
• Launch colors: Black/Yellow/Starry Evening Version