We have in our hands one of the contenders for best mobile of 2025: the nubia Z70 Ultra. The sequel to the great nubia Z60 Ultra that we reviewed earlier this year is here and It comes with many interesting improvements, but above all with the intention of settling pending accounts. And, although the Z60 Ultra’s camera was not bad at all, it really fell one step behind the flagships of Samsung, Google, Apple and Huawei in photography.
Incorporating the world’s first custom 35mm variable aperture optical lens, the nubia Z70 Ultra offers a brutal camera that will rival that of the best mobile phones in this section. And the best thing is that its price is below 850 euros. Of course, not without making sacrifices. I’ve been using it and I’ll tell you what I thought below.
nubia Z70 Ultra: a beast with Snapdragon 8 Elite, all-screen design and variable aperture camera
In addition to having a more advanced camera, the nubia Z70 Ultra surpasses its predecessor in power, screen and autonomy. It comes with the new high-end Snapdragon 8 Elite processor that For many benchmarks it is right now the most powerful in the world. It also features a higher resolution and brighter screen, as well as a larger 6150 mAh battery. Of course, it incorporates the latest version of Android (Android 15) and the new IP69 resistance standard.
Technical data sheet of the nubia Z70 Ultra
Characteristics |
Nubia Z70 Ultra |
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Dimensions and weight | 164.3 x 77.1 x 8.6mm. 228 grams. |
Screen | 6.85″ 1.5K (2688 x 1216 pixels) with OLED panel, 144 Hz refresh rate, 2000 nits peak brightness, touch sampling up to 960 Hz and HDR10. |
Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite with Adreno 830 graphics. |
RAM | 12GB/16GB/24GB LPDDR5X. |
Storage | 256GB/512GB/1TB in UFS 4.0 format |
rear camera | Triple: 50 MP main (IMX906) with f/1.6-4.0, PDAF and OIS. 50MP Ultra Wide Angle (OV50D) with f/2.0, 122º field of view and PDAF. 64 MP telephoto lens (OV64B) with f/2.5, 2.7x optical zoom, PDAF and OIS. LED flash and video recording in 8K @ 30 fps / 4K @ 120 fps. |
front camera | 16MP (OV16A1Q) with f/2.0 (under the screen). |
Connectivity and extras | Wi-Fi 7, Dual SIM 5GBluetooth 5.4, GPS (L1/L5) + GLONASS + BDS + Galileo, USB-C 3.1, stereo speakers with 24-bit Hi-Res sound, NFCinfrared, alert slider, camera shutter button, IP68 + IP69 protection and fingerprint reader under the screen. |
Battery | 6150mAh with fast charging 80 watts. |
Operating system | Android 15 under MyOS 15. |
Aesthetically impeccable, but be careful with its large size
The nubia Z70 Ultra changes almost nothing from the design of its predecessor. It is still an “all-screen” huge and very square. It doesn’t weigh that much for being so big (about 228 grams), but the fact that it measures 16.4 cm long and 7.7 cm wide makes it difficult for small hands to hold. The good news is that its edges are curved, which improves grip a little.
Of course, I must say that its design has fascinated me. It is very clean thanks to having almost no bezels and having the front camera hidden under the screen. Its back cover is extremely elegant, with a glass finish and the camera module evenly occupying a third of the available space. It is true that this rear camera is somewhat bulky, but in my opinion it doesn’t look bad, as it gives it the style of a digital camera.
In terms of build quality, I also loved: feels solid, robust and durable. Its frame is made of aluminum and its screen is protected by second-generation Longxi glass. In addition, it has achieved certifications IP68 and IP69which means it resists both dust and water immersion (up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes) as well as high-pressure jets (at a temperature of up to 85 °C).
It has a red metallic power button and the volume keys on the right side, an “Alert Slider” (mechanical sliding switch to activate or deactivate the mobile sound) on the left and a USB-C 3.2 port on the bottom. At the bottom of the right side, it has a additional two-press button designed to control the camera more professionally: press halfway to focus and press full to take the photo.
It also has stereo speakers with 24-bit Hi-Res sound They really sound very good and with a lot of volume. Regarding wireless connectivity, it offers the best of the best: WiFi 7, GPS (L1/L5), NFC, Dual-SIM 5G, Bluetooth 5.4 and even infrared. It only lacks support for eSIM.
Its distraction-free 2000 nits AMOLED display is best for watching movies and gaming
The problem with mobile screens when consuming multimedia content or playing games is that they usually have a notch or perforation that is superimposed on the image. This forces some apps to reduce their size to prevent that black dot from being seen in the image. With the nubia Z70 Ultra that does not happen, since its selfie camera is hidden underneath, allowing you see the entire screen without distractions or factors that modify the content.
In addition, the screen of the nubia Z70 Ultra has a brutal image quality. It measures 6.8″ and offers a resolution of 2688 x 1216 pixels, which gives a pixel density of 431 ppi perfect for clearly portraying even the smallest details. By the way, this panel is AMOLED and supports a refresh rate of 144 Hz. It supports HDR10, can display 1 billion colors and reaches a maximum brightness of 2000 nits. It looks great!
It’s a wonderful screen and it’s probably what I enjoy most about this phone. Its very large viewing space, very high fluidity of images and the clear reproduction of vivid and brilliant colors they make Watching videos and playing video games on the nubia Z70 Ultra is very satisfying. And in case you’re wondering, unless you start looking for the lower resolution area where the front camera is located, you won’t even notice that there is a hidden camera on this screen.
By the way, The fingerprint reader of this phone is also integrated into the screen and it works well. It responds quickly and, unless your fingers are wet or dirty, immediately unlocks your phone with a single attempt.
A camera at the height of the most demanding
The rear camera of the nubia Z70 Ultra is the same as that of the Z60 Ultra in megapixels: 50 MP (main) + 50 MP (ultra wide angle) + 64 MP (telephoto). However, they have changed the main sensor and the ultra wide angle sensor for more advanced ones.
The main sensor is a Sony IMX906 with 35 mm optics and a variable aperture between f/1.59 – f/4.0. Thanks to it, it manages to take vibrant and well-balanced photos that are at the level of a Pixel 9 Pro, for example. You don’t need perfect lighting to take quality photos and it has AI-powered improvements that make up for its small shortcomings.
The color reproduction of this main camera is fantastic and its stabilization is unbeatable; Even with moving objects, photos look sharp. However, ultra-wide-angle and telephoto sensors do have room for improvement, since they do not offer good performance in unfavorable lighting conditions and tend to present inconsistent results in different situations.
The Z70 Ultra’s selfie camera remains one of its weak points. Its photographic quality is far behind the rear camera. Not ideal for taking high quality selfies. It can take good photos and video calls, but don’t expect them to look as good as you would with the rear camera. In fact, they look much worse.
You can’t ask for more power: the Snapdragon 8 Elite is a beast
In terms of performance, the nubia Z70 Ultra passes with honors. The great person responsible for his superlative performance It is the Snapdragon 8 Elite that it has, the most powerful processor today. With a score of 2701464 on AnTuTu, It is one of the most powerful mobile phones in the worldso you can do anything with it (multimedia editing, games, social networks, office automation or everything at once).
It has up to 24 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1 TB of storage in UFS 4.0 format, although its cheaper version of 12 GB of RAM + 256 GB of storage (the one we tested) is more than enough. Their memories are very fast and provide plenty of space to use any app or game, and save many photos and videos.
During normal use, the nubia Z70 Ultra does not heat up at all. However, When you play a demanding game like Genshin Impact, the top half of the phone gets quite hotalthough this does not cause the games to slow down or present bugs.
It comes from the factory with Android 15 under MyOS 15. It is a fairly simple customization layer, without many unnecessary functions or apps. I would even say that it is too minimalist, since it does not offer as many AI functionalities as the flagships of the most popular brands.
It should also be noted that nubia only guarantees 3 years of system updateswhile Google and Samsung already offer 7 years of system updates, and Xiaomi and OnePlus give 4 years of updates in their high-end. This is something that the brand must improve to be more competitive.
The nubia Z70 Ultra It is currently the high-end mobile phone with the most battery of the market. It has a capacity of 6150 mAh for an average autonomy of 13 hours of active use. However, it must be clarified that one of the mobile trends for 2025 is to incorporate larger batteries in thin mobile phones, so high-end smartphones that follow Nubia’s example will surely come out soon.
On the other hand, it supports 80 W fast charging via cable compatible with PD 3.0 and QC4 to recharge it. from 0 to 100% in less than 50 minutes. Unfortunately, like the Z60 Ultra, this phone does not support wireless charging.
Our opinion of the nubia Z70 Ultra: its quality-price ratio makes it difficult not to recommend it
Like any other mobile phone, the nubia Z70 Ultra is not perfect. Its selfie camera could be better, it doesn’t have wireless charging or eSIM and is perhaps too big for some people. But if none of that is a problem for you, you’ll love this phone. For less than €850It gives you the best processor on the market, an almost 7″ AMOLED screen that is very colorful and bright.a gigantic 6150 mAh battery, a very high quality main camera and total protection against water and dust (IP68 + IP69).
It is very cheap for a mobile phone with Snapdragon 8 Elite and a 50 MP main camera with a 35 mm optical lens and variable aperture. If you want an ultra-powerful smartphone with a good camera, but without spending a fortune, for me the nubia Z70 Ultra has no rival right now.
You can get it with €30 discount for a limited time in the official store using the code SAVE30 and this button:
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