Review: The Nubia Z70 Ultra is almost the perfect camera phone, but not for everyone

But as with most niche devices, this photographer’s phone comes with some compromises. Size, some design choices, and other little issues are a few of the things I have to nitpick about.

Nubia Z70 Ultra

7.5/ 10

The powerful Nubia Z70 Ultra embodies cutting-edge innovation and sleek sophistication. It offers an immersive display, powerful performance, professional-grade photography, and all-day durability—all wrapped in an elegant, streamlined design with the advanced Nebula AIOS for seamless productivity.
 

Pros

• Gorgeous display
• Blazing fast Snapdragon 8 Elite
• Pro photography options for amazing shots
• Practically no bezels

Cons

• Gets hot when gaming
• A little too big for one-handed use
• Subpar video

$729 at Nubia

Price, availability, and specs

The Nubia Z70 Ultra comes in gold, black, and a dreamy starry night colorway. They all have the same specs, so it is really a matter of color choice. Nubia sent me the gold-colored device, which gave me 1970s vibes.

The base model has 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $729, and it goes up to 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for $949. They all feature the Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile platform SOC and that monster 6,150mAh battery, so you get your money’s worth either way. It can be ordered directly from Nubia with free shipping.

What’s good about the Nubia Z70 Ultra?

Phenomenal cameras and the new Snapdragon

Let’s first talk about the Nubia Z70 Ultra’s camera. Nubia is rightfully proud of the camera on this device, and for good reason. It blew me away. The variable aperture lens, the ease of use, and the professional-grade options on the pro setting make this a photographer’s must-have. I would say the photos rival the Pixel 9 Pro and even outshine the iPhone 15 Pro Max. (I haven’t tested the 16 Pro yet.) Images constantly come out sharp, vibrant, and well-balanced.

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The camera interface is the same as on every other Nubia device I’ve played with, including the Redmagic line. There are several presets and a professional settings option. It took a bit of fumbling around, but I have the settings array figured out.

• Photo mode: Basic point-and-shoot, with a main 35mm camera, an 18mm ultra-wide, and a spectacular 80mm telephoto.
• Street mode: A preset to emulate a 1990s Fujifilm urban vibe. The main shooter is set to F-stop 1.59, ISO 25600, and a shutter speed of 1/10s.
• Milky Way night mode: Fine-tunes the ultra-wide angle and syncs it with the earth-sky separation to make the night sky more vibrant. In plain speak, it captures more stars.
• Pro mode: This is where users can get granular, with controls for shutter speed, white balance, ISO, aperture, and more.
• Starburst mode: A night setting that adds weird star effects to your images.
• Portrait mode: Centers the subject and creates a bokeh effect behind them.

Then there’s a Camera Family menu in the camera app; it’s full of special effects you can add to your images. More than a dozen effects are featured, including star trails, time-lapse, multi-exposure shots, and a document scanner.

The Nubia Z70 Ultra is a solid piece of hardware. It’s also big. Ten years ago, this device would have been called a phablet, but I guess we’re past that now. It feels cool and metallic, and the edges are slightly curved, so it fits comfortably in my palm. And the camera array is a big bulky square that takes up the top 1/3 of the device. There’s a red metallic power button and the volume rocker on the right side, and a mechanical slide switch on the left. (I mapped this to the camera.) I give this phone two thumbs up on build quality.

Nubia says it is both IP68-rated for submersion in water, and IP69-rated for heated and pressurized water, so if you accidentally put it in the laundry it should survive. I wasn’t brave enough to put this claim to the test.

I really enjoyed the Z70 Ultra’s display. It is a 6.85-inch AMOLED display with practically no bezels. The screen has a refresh rate of up to 144Hz and all the animations felt satisfyingly smooth. I had a blast watching videos and playing games because the screen was so wonderful. Kudos to Nubia here. They make a good screen.

This was my first time experiencing Qualcomm’s latest chipset. I’ve written about it before, back when we had nothing but rumors, and I am happy to report that issues of excessive power draw don’t exist, and heating is only an issue when gaming — more on that later. And the SOC was blazing fast.

Everything flew on this device. I never once experienced a slow-down, stutter, or crash. I threw plenty of apps at it, and I am convinced that the app that can hang up the Snapdragon 8 Elite does not yet exist. I also put the RAM through the wringer and kept multiple apps open simultaneously, including while running PUBG: Mobile in the background. Then I went back to see if any apps had to redraw, and none did. This device is fast and powerful; I can’t believe it is only $729.

The phone has a whopping 6,150mAh battery and it lasts forever. I averaged two to three days on a single charge when I wasn’t playing games, and at least a day and a half when I pushed it. It has an 80W fast charger that takes it from 4% to 100% in under 20 minutes.

The little details also matter. The Z70 Ultra’s speakers are amazing. There’s a speaker grill on the bottom and a small opening on the top that emits sound, giving it a bit of a stereo effect. It handles music nicely, balancing lows and highs, while getting really loud.

The Nubia software is famously bare-bones and reminds me of Google’s old Nexus phones for being near-stock Android. There is not much bloat here. The settings menu is easy to navigate, and I love the addition of the Z-smart sidebar found on all ZTE devices. This is a blatant copy of Samsung’s Edge panel, but I’ll take it.

What’s bad about the Nubia Z70 Ultra?

Uncomfortable design language and bad video

Despite all the great things I have to say about the Nubia Z70 Ultra, there were a couple of downsides. For starters, its appearance. I realize this comes down to personal taste, but the gold unit Nubia sent me reminds me more of a 1970s vibe than actual gold, as if it should be surrounded by wood paneling and a tacky shag carpet. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.

It’s also huge. I have big hands, and I had difficulty operating this device one-handed. Reaching the top of the screen was impossible. I get that it is an “ultra” device, but it is just a little too large and bulky.

Speaking of bulky, the camera housing on the back is massive. I don’t know if this was a design choice or if the housing is needed for all the tech they packed in there, but I don’t like its appearance. Android Police editor Matt Scholtz disagrees with me and quite enjoys it though, so your opinion may differ.

I’m of two mindsets regarding the Nubia Z70 Ultra’s video. For starters, it took fantastic footage when I was standing still. I found recording 4K at 60fps was the sweet spot, and the video was true to life and crisp. However, the moment I started moving, the video became grainy. The same was true for anything moving, such as a school bus I tried to video. Recording at night was even worse, as the video was so bad it looked like I recorded it on my old Nexus 5 ten years ago.

Gaming on the Z70 Ultra is generally fine. The SOC is fast, and I didn’t run into any issues, aside from heat. The top half of this phone gets super hot when playing a game with heavy graphics. Call of Duty: Mobile and Genshin Impact both made the device really hot. The games never slowed down, however.

I know I praised Nubia for its near-stock software, but sometimes, it feels a little too bare-bones for such a powerful device. It has none of the fun features you find on a Pixel or the vast library of helpful apps and settings you find on a Samsung. Nubia says it has an AI engine built right into the device, but at no point did I ever use it or see it.

Should you buy it?

A niche device for photography nerds

Nubia touts the Z70 Ultra as the greatest mobile photography device ever made thus far, and in many respects, they’re not wrong. If you love photos, don’t want a DSLR, and don’t care about things like software features or ecosystem, then yes. You should absolutely buy this device. At $729 for the base model, it is a steal, and I feel it is worth every penny for the cameras alone, especially given that comparable camera-led phones from the likes of Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo don’t launch in the US at all.

But if you’re looking for something a little more, something that handles gaming like a champ, syncs with an ecosystem of connected devices, or is jam-packed with great software, then look elsewhere. The Nubia Z70 Ultra is no Pixel 9 or Galaxy S24 Ultra. But it is the best camera on a phone I’ve seen so far.

Nubia Z70 Ultra

7.5/ 10

The powerful Nubia Z70 Ultra embodies cutting-edge innovation and sleek sophistication. It offers an immersive display, powerful performance, professional-grade photography, and all-day durability—all wrapped in an elegant, streamlined design with the advanced Nebula AIOS for seamless productivity.
 

$729 at Nubia

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