Nubia Z70 Ultra Review: Smartphone Cruiserweight Hits Hard

Value When Reviewed

From $729

Greatest Costs At the moment: Nubia Z70 Extremely

$749

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

What it lacked, finally, 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 type 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 eye catching variable aperture digicam, 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 provides a broadly acquainted number of strengths and weaknesses, nevertheless it’s undoubtedly a extra exact effort than its predecessor. Nubia isn’t fairly there but, nevertheless it’s getting nearer.

Design & Construct

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

The Nubia Z60 Extremely left us a little bit conflicted with its blocky appears to be like and distinctive end choices. The Nubia Z70 Extremely follows swimsuit, however with a number of 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 dwell with.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

The design language may be very comparable, with a pronounced sq. digicam module that takes up the highest third of the rear floor. The round major digicam stands out even farther from this raised space, and within the unlikely occasion that you just missed it, Nubia has helpfully ringed its star snapper in crimson. Delicate it ain’t.

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

The highest-spec mannequin additionally comes with the choice of a Starry Night time design, which applies some Van Gogh-esque galactic swirls to the again of the cellphone, complemented by a blue body. It’s a little 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 in regards to 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 recreation, with an IP69 score becoming a member of the extra widespread IP68 score. Because of this it may possibly survive publicity to high-pressure water jets in addition to extended immersion – automotive wash attendants take notice.

The entrance of the cellphone is far 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 potential to get – no less than whenever you view it head-on.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

The Z60 Extremely was one in every of valuable few Android telephones to characteristic a bodily slider swap, although it’s right here set to launch the digicam quite than as an iPhone/OnePlus-style mute swap. This may be modified within the Settings menu, nevertheless it feels a little bit sloppy given the recent addition of a bodily digicam shutter button this time round.

In addition to launching the digicam, this two-stage bodily button can be utilized to lock focus after which take pictures, very like 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 screen & Audio system

• 6.85-inch 1.5K AMOLED show
• Enhanced 144Hz refresh fee
• Stereo audio system are high quality

On condition that the Z60 Extremely’s display screen was one in every 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 presents an interesting candy spot in between QHD+ extra and lavatory commonplace FHD+, making all the pieces look crisp with out hogging too many sources.

Nubia has additionally cranked up the brightness, with 2000 nits at peak handily trouncing the Z60 Extremely’s (nonetheless respectable) 1500 nits. That is removed from the brightest show available on the market, nevertheless it’s comfortably shiny 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 gave the impression to be proper for me. This isn’t an issue that’s unique to Nubia, nevertheless, 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 fee to the subsequent degree, from 120Hz to 144Hz. These acquainted with Nubia’s gaming cellphone work received’t be shocked by this, as that is precisely the identical element because the Redmagic 10 Professional. Most video games received’t benefit from 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 respectable, however not up there with the easiest that Samsung and Apple have to supply with regards to depth and nuance.

Specs & Efficiency

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

One of many details of curiosity with the Nubia Z70 Extremely for many individuals will probably be its standing as one of many least expensive 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 for those who’re not within the cellphone itself, the Z70 Extremely represents an attention-grabbing sneak peak.

The excellent news is that this factor is critically quick. It doesn’t fairly match its shut cousin the Redmagic 10 Professional or the Asus ROG Cellphone 9 Professional within the Geekbench 6 CPU benchmark check, nevertheless it’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 cause, Nubia’s telephones appear to have an odd quirk when working our ordinary GFXBench GPU benchmarks, maxing out at a locked 60 fps. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is able to a lot sooner – 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 a number of totally different GPU-focused checks 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 Cellphone 9 Professional briefly, intense 3DMark exercises. The place it falls brief is on the latter’s sustained efficiency checks, the place the dearth of an enormous cooling system and accompanying tuning results in a fairly common stability rating of 62.5%.

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

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

Cameras

• 50Mp major digicam 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 digicam setup for the Z60 Extremely Main Version. It will 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 sources elsewhere.

I’m happy to report that Nubia hasn’t rested on its laurels with the Z70 Extremely’s digicam. Most notably, when you get the identical 50Mp Sony IMX 906 major 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 you can alter the aperture from f/1.59 to f/4.0. It is a real mechanical course of, and your extra eagle-eyed topics will have the ability to see the aperture closing as you bump as much as these increased F-numbers.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

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

This additionally affords extra high quality management whenever you wish to get extra of a really close-up topic in focus. Meals pictures, particularly, could be explicit beneficiaries of this. Flagship telephones with vast mounted apertures can usually depart an excessive amount of of this sort of shot out of focus, however Nubia provides you the means to mitigate the impact – although clearly you’ll must stability the necessity for ample lighting.

This isn’t the primary time we’ve seen such a characteristic 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 presents you a strong implementation for simply £649/$729.

All this could be for nothing if the Z70 Extremely didn’t take good photographs, nevertheless it performs fairly effectively on this regard. Pictures in good lighting have loads of element and color, whereas the routinely enabled Night time mode produces spectacular readability in low lighting, aided by optical picture stabilisation (OIS).

Nubia’s Good 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 respectable performers, the ultra-wide represents fairly an enormous drop-off in sharpness, tone, and distinction. This isn’t uncommon in cheaper telephones, nevertheless it’s not the drop you count on to see within the higher flagship telephones available on the market.

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

A few of Nubia’s digicam UI choices are additionally annoying. The beautification impact is on by default, and lends that pretend smoothed-out impact to human pores and skin. Equally, an active-by-default watermark prompts a pointless dive into the Settings menu to deactivate it.

Nubia’s remedy of photographic focal lengths is a little bit opaque, too. By default, you get 35mm (the primary digicam), 18mm (ultra-wide), and 85mm (telephoto). What’s simple to overlook is {that a} second faucet on any of those gives you a secondary extra zoomed-in focal size. You may get a extra traditional smartphone zoom interface by touching and holding on one in every of these, nevertheless it doesn’t really feel super-clear.

Battery Life & Charging

• 6150mAh battery
• 80W wired charging
• No wi-fi charging

The theme of gradual however noticeable progress continues with the Nubia Z70 Extremely’s battery life and charging provision. You’re getting a good bigger 6150mAh battery, which actually is large by fashionable requirements.

Positive sufficient, on an unusually intensive day with greater than 5 hours of display screen on time, I discovered that I used to be left with simply over half a tankful. So good was the Z70 Extremely’s stamina, I resorted to charging it up solely each different evening, and I wasn’t caught brief as soon as.

It needs to be famous {that a} PCMark Work 3.0 battery check rating of 8 hrs 18 minutes is fairly poor, and drops nearly 4 hours in need of the Nubia Z60 Extremely, to not point out rival flagship telephones.

Nevertheless, this must be taken inside the context of a show that runs sharper and sooner than earlier than. I used to be working the display screen at its unusually excessive 144Hz peak refresh fee all through, quite than the default Auto or perhaps a extra commonplace 120Hz – both of which might likely prolong that determine.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Nubia has additionally upped the wired charging pace to a powerful 80W. What’s extra, it’s one of many few remaining producers to incorporate mentioned quick charger within the field.

Utilizing this provided brick, I used to be capable of get the Z70 Extremely from empty to 38% in quarter-hour, and to 67% in half-hour. A full cost took about 50 minutes. That’s not significantly excellent, however it’s good to do not forget that further capability right here – greater batteries take longer to cost.

Much less forgivable is the continued omission of wi-fi charging. Some will proceed to dismiss this as a pointless luxurious, and an appropriate compromise in a non-flagship cellphone. However many less expensive telephones provide the characteristic, so I feel Nubia needs to be excited about it for its in any other case bold flagship vary.

Software program & Options

• New Nebula AIOS, usual points
• Busy UI, however not an excessive amount of bloatware
• Nasty Z-board display screen

Nubia’s software program has by no means been among the many greatest within the Android world, with its clunky UI, pointless preinstalled apps, and the odd typo. Maybe that’s why it’s opted to begin once more, ditching MyOS in favour of the brand new Nebula AIOS.

Besides it hasn’t began once more. Probably not. It is a new OS in title solely, with a lot the identical UI design and lots of the similar issues. It runs over Android 15, however you wouldn’t realize it.

Whereas it’s comparatively clean and dependable, there are numerous minor annoyances that add up right here. You continue to get that bizarre default net browser, the pointless Z-board display screen to the left of the primary display screen (you may flip it off, however why can’t you turn it for Google Feed?), and the aforementioned digicam watermark.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

There are new annoyances too, just like the slider swap duplicating the operate of the brand new digicam shutter button out of the field. Nubia hasn’t fully ironed out the typos both. I observed the poorly translated line: “Genshin Impacthas add [sic] in Recreation Area”. It’s all only a bit sloppy.

On the plus aspect, this does really feel like probably the most usable model of Nubia’s UI but. I appreciated the power to modify over to the extra visually pleasing inventory Android icons, although it could have been good to have the choice of switching to the menus as effectively.

Nubia has hooked up AI to a number of its terminology – together with its ‘new’ UI and, weirdly, to the brand new two-stage shutter button – however that is truly one of many lighter AI implementations on the market. It’s definitely not the Pixel 9 or Samsung Galaxy S24.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

The principle implementation of AI appears to be by real-time name translation and dwell caption options, although there are the standard imperceptible digicam enhancements and an AI Gallery Search operate. Google Gemini can also be supported.

Nubia makes no point out of the variety of updates the Z70 Extremely goes to get, which makes me suppose it’s not going to be far more than the 2 years supplied with the Z60 Extremely. If true, that’s very disappointing.

Value & Availability

As we’ve already talked about, what’s really spectacular in regards to the Nubia Z70 Extremely is that it presents a number of flagship options and specs for a comparatively low beginning worth of £649/$729. That is for the mannequin examined right here with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

There’s additionally an upgraded mannequin with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for £749/$829, whereas the range-topping 24GB/1TB mannequin prices £899/$949. All very cheap.

All fashions can be found instantly from Nubia’s web site within the UK and US, when you’ll additionally discover 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.

Do you have to 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 tons of.

Geared up 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 best digicam programs available on the market, a powerful major 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 advice – the selfie digicam 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 needs 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 major digicam
• 50Mp ultra-wide digicam
• 64Mp telephoto digicam
• As much as 8K @ 30fps rear video
• 16Mp front-facing digicam
• 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 Night time Version