Nubia Z70 Ultra Review

Introduction

Nubia’s impressive glasses-free 3D display tech may not be present, but what’s hiding under the hood of the Nubia Z70 Ultra is still well worth getting excited about.

That’s because by being jam-packed with top-tier tech including the Snapdragon 8 Elite, fast chraging capabilities and even an iPhone-esque dedicated camera button, the Nubia Z70 Ultra is a traditional flagship in all but price, coming in at a more affordable £749.99 than similarly-specced smartphones.

So, what’s the catch? I’ve spent the past week with the smartphone, and here’s what I’ve learnt.

Design

• Plenty of buttons and switches
• Tall, thin, and very comfortable
• Available in some stunning finishes

Tall, thin, and oh-so smooth, the Nubia Z70 Ultra is a delight in the hand. It’s just narrow and rounded enough to grasp well without putting too much pressure on the dedicated two-stage camera button that sits under your palm.

Available in Black, Gold, Orange, and a gorgeous Starry Night finish depending on your chosen configuration, it’s the professional matte black finish we have on hand here. And boy does it look sleek.

Resisting fingerprints better than expected, it’s only the glass fixtures on the screen and around the secondary camera cluster that’s prone to evident smudging.

On the right side sits a slightly off-centre textured power button with a red/gold finish. A black volume rocket stands above that blends into the chassis well. Beneath all that is the aforementioned camera shutter button that’s about half the size of the power key.

The bottom houses most of what you’d expect there: a USB-C port (rated for 3.2 features), a powerful, clear, yet compact speaker grill on the right, and a pinhole microphone nestled between the charging port and dual SIM tray in place of a storage expansion slot. 

Keeping no side free of neat features, there’s a notification toggle at the top of the left side, with the very top of the device housing another microphone for stereo recording and what could be the screen’s ambient light sensor.

Screen

• 6.85-inch 144Hz AMOLED display
• 1216 x 2688
• Fingerprint sensor and selfie camera underneath

The tall 6.85-inch display comes in at around 1.2K in the resolution department. That’s not the highest number on the market, but it’s all you need at this size.

Being an AMOLED panel, colours are rich and intense where it matters, and deeply dark when needed. Rated to hit 2000 nits peak brightness in the right conditions, it fends off the glare of harsh sunlight to great effect and makes HDR content beam to life in more reasonable conditions.

It should be noted that Netflix is one app that won’t output HD or HDR due to the phone’s unfortunate Widevine L3 reporting. That’s a sadly all-too common issue with phones from the less popular brands. Thankfully, YouTube doesn’t suffer from the same issue.

Best of all, at least for the gamers looking to put its powerful 3nm chipset to the test, is the 144Hz refresh rate.

That’s not quite as high as you’ll find on dedicated gaming handsets like the ASUS ROG Phone 9 Pro, but it’s still above the 90–120Hz offerings of most others even above this price range.

The difference over the latter is marginal, but it’s certainly noticeable against the former (and especially so against typical 60Hz speeds).

In practice, that means a silky smooth scrolling experience with minimal blur. You can skim through Instragram feeds and slide down articles at a speed that suits you. When the time comes for competitive play, your foes won’t know what hit them when you respond to plays they’d struggle to see on their lesser-powered devices.

Graphically intensive RPGs from the likes of Hoyoverse rarely have the option to go above 60fps on Android, but competitive titles like Wild Rift and Real Racing 3 will glide.

Performance

• Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC
• Incredible real-world and synthetic performance metrics
• Up to 16GB of memory

The Nubia Z70 Ultra sports Qualcomm’s latest and greatest chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, under the hood. That’s the same chipset as you’ll find in truly top-end 2025 smartphones like the Oppo Find X8 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, combined with up to 16GB of RAM depending on the variant you opt for.

In practice, that means just about everything you do will sing. In part thanks to UFS 4.0 storage, apps open instantaneously, most camera shots are processed in the blink of an eye, and even the latest 3D titles that seemed impossible on mobile just a few years back play like a dream.

Falling back to synthetic benchmark testing, it manages 3032 and 9389 in single and multicore Geekbench testing respectively, easily beating out some of our favourite phones of 2024 and keeping pace with 2025 flagships.

That’s even within touching distance of the ROG Phone 9 Pro that runs the same chip with a sliver of more memory at an inflated price tag. You don’t get the core gaming features of that handset, but you get a stronger camera system here. More on that in a bit.

And with the base 256GB model coming with the lowest amount of memory at 12GB, higher capacity models come with noticeable performance boosts, too.

Camera

• 50MP standard and ultrawide sensors
• 64MP telephoto with 2.7x Optical zoom
• Invisible 16MP wide selfie snapper

If there’s one eye-catching part of the Nubia Z70 Ultra, it’s the camera array. Set into something bigger than a mere module or bar, the photography system takes up around 30% of the back of the handset.

Bring this on set and fancy photographers may have a genuine interest in what you’re packing rather than scoffing at the thought of a pocketable powerhouse.

That’s because there’s a 50MP main sensor, a 64MP telephoto, and another 50MP ultrawide. It’s a no-compromises approach with a powerful flash, great depth sensing, and the ability to record up to 8k at 30fps in HDR.

But that’s not the end of it. A 16MP selfie camera hides under the display. It’s wide, too, so it won’t be a struggle to fit in a detailed group shot or video call.

In practice, it’s a delight to use. The type of camera that can either convince someone to give its Pro mode a shot, or reignite the spark of a photographer who might have fallen out of love of the practice.

The two-stage shutter button, which is sadly still seldom seen, has just the right amount of tactility to its press cycle, locking in the desired focus with a half-press and immediately taking the shot with a deliberate push.

And the results speak for themselves. No matter the focal length, shots come out incredibly crisp, detailed, and primed for reframing. They’re a tad cold on the colour in my experience, and the automatic bokeh effect around the edges of the frame may not be to everyone’s taste, but most of its impurities just take one tap to fix.

You can even make a real-time filter that automatically applies as you take the shot, letting you dial in (and keep) your preferred look.

Video is also strong with great image stabilization, plenty of frame rate and resolution options, and support for object focus tracking.

Software

• No bloatware
• Google Discover feed replaced by an ad-heavy clone
• Plenty of modern features through Android 15

Push through the increasingly lengthy Android setup process and you’ll land on a clear landing page with Nubia’s Nebula AIOS skin. The AI part solely relates to the contents of the app bar pullout accessed from the left, and a real-time translation tool built into calls.

Outside of that, the only sign of this being a non-stock experience is Nubia’s disappointing take on the Google Discover feed accessed by sliding away from the dashboard.

With recommended apps smushed into the top, larger games beneath that, and “news” that’s essentially the egregious and sensationalised “article” ads seen on most web pages, it’s not a great look, but likely how Nubia expects to front the bill for its surprisingly well-priced smartphone.

Thankfully, you can turn each section off individually, having it become totally empty sans the Google search bar. You still get recommend ads pop up as you type, and you can’t swap it out for the official Google Discover feed, but it’s better than the alternative.

Aside from that, things are clean. There’s no pre-installed bloat cluttering the dashboard, and all the usual Google apps are accounted for. Interestingly, you can hop into the Theme settings to change individual pieces of the interface, including the look of the in-screen fingerprint reader.

The only real disappointment is the software promise, with Nubia committing to just one major OS upgrade that’ll take the phone to Android 16 and no further. Considering similarly priced phones offer at least three, if not five, major OS upgrades, it’s a rare chink in the Z70 Ultra’s armour.

Battery

• 6150 mAh battery
• 80W fast charging
• Capable charger included

To keep its gubbins going, the Nubia Z70 Ultra packs a large 6150mAh battery into its relatively compact body.

It is capable of ridiculously fast 80W charging—with a capable plug included, no less—so juicing the ginormous cell takes no time at all.

A 15-minute burst nets a jolly 30%, with things tapering down slightly to 60% at the half-hour mark. A full charge takes just a smidge over an hour, but you’re safe and set for the day with just 20 minutes hooked up to the wall.

Falling fairly in line with most high-powered handsets, the Nubia Z70 Ultra drops around 6% during an hour-long Netflix break.

Take up the controller and an intense 3D action game like Zenless Zone Zero chugged back 8% in half an hour. That’s at its maximum settings at a rock-solid 60 frames per second.

Even with a 3nm chipset, the raw power fuelling the everyday experience here, and perhaps its inability to vary its refresh rate to match the scenario, means the Nubia Z70 Ultra isn’t a shining star in terms of battery performance. But it charges fast.

Should you buy it?