Our Verdict
The Nubia Z70 Ultra is a fantastic phone with top-tier gaming performance, brilliant cameras, and one of the best displays of 2024. The selfie camera lets the side down a little, and it can get toasty with gaming, but otherwise, it’s a great Android contender.
- Fantastic back cameras
- Gorgeous display
- Stellar performance
- Rapid charging
- Selfie camera isn’t great
- Limited software support
- Can get hot
Just when I thought the cell phone industry was quietening down until 2025 rolled around, the Nubia Z70 Ultra turned up. While Nubia isn’t quite as big a name in the Android smartphone world as Samsung or Google Pixel, I’ve been very impressed with what the brand has had to offer this year, and considering this is one of the first phones to arrive in the US with the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, I jumped at the chance to check it out.
Unsurprisingly, I found the Nubia Z70 Ultra to be a pretty impressive bit of kit, with one of the best displays I’ve seen on an Android phone this year and a triple camera set-up that rivals much more expensive flagship devices. However, it’s not all perfect, and while this phone might still be a contender for our guide to the best Android phones, there are a couple of issues I’ve found it hard to look past. With all that said, let’s get into the details.
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Price and availability
The Nubia Z70 Ultra is available now via either the official Nubia site or third-party retailers such as Amazon or Walmart. Prices start at $729 for the 12GB+256GB base model, but you can get more storage for $829 with the 16GB+512GB version or the mammoth 24GB+1TB version for $949. In terms of colorways, there’s either Yellow or Black, though you can find a special edition Van Gogh-inspired Starry Night design of the 16GB+512GB model for $849. For this review, we used the 12GB+256GB version in the lovely Yellow colorway.
Specs
Here are the Nubia Z70 Ultra’s specs:
Features and software
The Nubia Z70 Ultra comes with the brand’s own NubiaOS skin of Android 15 out of the box and the promise of three years of further software updates. That’s pretty middle of the road compared to other brands, beating out HMD’s two years but falling behind the seven years of the latest Google Pixel and Samsung devices. Still, three years is better than nothing, and given the device already has Android 15, support until late 2027 should be more than enough for most users.
While the Nubia Z70 Ultra’s software isn’t necessarily bad, it’s a bit tame compared to what’s on offer from the likes of Apple, Samsung, and others. It also lacks a bit of the charm of those brands’ operating systems. It’s hard to explain what I mean there, but there’s something about iOS and Samsung’s One UI that’s inviting, and that doesn’t apply here.
There’s also a lack of AI features, and while it’s compatible with Google Gemini, the only really useful native tool is NebulaTranslation, which, as you might assume from the name, can translate calls on the fly. Still, AI tools aren’t everything, and in general, the Z70 Ultra’s software is pretty easy to use. It’s also pretty light on bloatware, which is always a win in my book.
One thing I have to note is that I had no problems with the Z70 Ultra’s fingerprint scanner, which is an improvement on the Z60 Ultra I tested out just a couple of months ago. It’s now as seamless as I’ve experienced on any other Android phone, as is the facial recognition software, so unlocking the device never requires any fiddling around with numerical codes outside of when you first turn it on.
Design
The Nubia Z70 Ultra is a perfect case study of why we call brick phones brick phones. Yes, it’s a big old rectangle, and honestly, it might be a bit too big for some. Fortunately, I was blessed with big old sasquatch hands, so for me, it’s actually pretty comfortable to use. The camera bump on the back is also pretty big, but it lends to the sort of digital camera aesthetic that the phone has going on, and overall, it’s a nice-looking phone.
Like the iPhone 16, the Nubia Z70 Ultra boasts a special button on the side that you can use to load the camera and then quickly take a snap. Unlike Apple’s Camera Control, it’s not a capacitive button, so you can’t use it to control the zoom function, but it’s still a neat little addition that makes it feel like you’re using an old-school digital camera whenever you want to capture the moment.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Z70 Ultra is IP69-rated, which means it’s more than capable of surviving up to 30 minutes in the water. A lot of phones offer IP69 dust and water-proofing, but the Z70 Ultra is one of the few to take advantage of this design element by offering a special underwater photography feature in the camera app, so you can jump in the bath and try and recreate the cover art for Nirvana’s Nevermind without breaking your phone (though we can’t promise you’ll retain your dignity).
Display
As we’ve already mentioned, the Nubia Z70 Ultra boasts a lovely big OLED panel, with no camera cutout getting in the way of the on-screen content. Much like the RedMagic 10 Pro, the Nubia Z70 Ultra’s bezels are almost invisible, giving you plenty of display retail estate to play with. Combine all these factors, and you’ve got what might be the best display for watching videos I’ve seen this year. That’s saying a lot, considering alternatives like the Honor Magic6 Pro and Xiaomi 14T also have fantastic displays.
Not only is the screen big, but the Z70 Ultra’s display has a 144Hz refresh rate, which is more than the 120Hz of a lot of this year’s best Android phones and double that of the iPhone 16’s almost pitiful 60Hz. Admittedly, the difference between 144Hz and 120Hz is negligible, but as far as I’m concerned, the smoother the gameplay, the better, and it doesn’t get much smoother than this.
Finally, before moving on, I can happily report that brightness isn’t an issue. While the Z70 Ultra’s peak brightness of 2,000 nits isn’t quite as high as some other Androids in the same price range, it’s more than enough to use comfortably even in the direct glare of the sun, and the adaptive brightness feature is pretty intelligent, so you rarely have to adjust the settings yourself.
Nubia Z70 Ultra cameras
The Nubia Z70 Ultra’s selling point feature is its cameras. It packs a pretty impressive triple-camera set-up, including a 50MP 35mm main lens, 64MP 70MM periscope telephoto, and 50MP 13mm ultrawide. Honestly, these cameras are a little wasted on me, as I’m by no means an amateur photographer, but I tested them out as best I could to see how they hold up.
For a start, the 50MP main camera is this device’s pièce de résistance. As I always do, I took my dog out into the garden to get a few pictures that I could compare with previous examples using other phones, and honestly, the shots I got might be my favorite during my time testing phones. Even in less-than-ideal lighting conditions, shots on the Z70 Ultra offer incredible detail, precise colors, and a real sense of depth. In the example below, you can see where the grey fades into black around the mouth and the complex intricacies of my boy’s fur.
The periscope telephoto lens is similarly impressive at capturing the finest details, as you can see in the image below this paragraph. The doughnut ornament in the shot has a myriad of tiny beads across its design, and you can make them out almost perfectly without the need to zoom. Finally, there’s the ultrawide, which didn’t blow me away quite like the other two cameras and is more reliant on ideal lighting to pop with color in the same way the main camera does, but it’s better than decent, so I can’t complain all too much.
Weirdly, the thing that lets the side down when it comes to the Nubia Z70 Ultra’s cameras is the invisible selfie camera. It’s just not up to scratch, especially considering how impressive the cameras on the back are. No matter the lighting scenario, I find that the selfies I take are consistently lacking in quality and depth compared to the ones I’ve taken on other older phones, and even with no filters on, a processed image makes me look like I’ve got zombie makeup on. It’s not a big deal for me; I’m not a big selfie taker, and you can get around it by going old-school and using the timer on the main camera, but it’s still a little disappointing.
Performance
Considering the Nubia Z70 Ultra packs Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, it’s no surprise that it’s an absolute performance beast. It’s wild to think that this thing is cheaper than almost all of the latest Google Pixel 9 devices but blows every one of them away in performance tests, and you can feel it in everything from how snappy the Nubia is when loading apps to more performance-intensive tasks such as recording video or running games like Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail at the highest settings.
While the Z70 Ultra’s performance is wildly impressive, there’s a problem. After half an hour or so of gaming, I found the device getting a bit toasty, and it only got hotter as I kept playing. It never got so hot that I felt like I had to stop playing, but it could do with better heat dissipation, especially when everything else about both the phone’s hardware and software is so ideal for mobile gaming.
Battery
The Nubia Z70 Ultra packs a 6,150mAh battery that just goes and goes. I averaged about eight hours a day while testing the Z70 Ultra and would often go to bed with anything from 20-30% left, depending on the balance of gaming and streaming content while using the phone. If you’re using it sporadically, you can probably get around two days of use before reaching for the charger, which is as much as you can ask for outside of the world of rugged phones with seven-day battery lives.
In terms of charging speed, you can fully juice the Z70 Ultra from flat in around 45 minutes using the provided 80W charger, which is much faster than this year’s more expensive iPhone and Samsung Galaxy flagships. It’s not a massive outlier, as other Android brands such as Xiaomi and OnePlus offer similarly rapid charging, but those devices are difficult to get in the US, making the Nubia an even more attractive proposition.
There’s one caveat to the Nubia Z70 in that it doesn’t offer wireless charging, which wouldn’t have been a big deal just a few years ago but is a bit more disappointing at the end of 2024. Still, at least there’s a charger in the box, which is more than you get from a lot of brands these days.
Should you buy the Nubia Z70 Ultra?
If you’re looking for a phone with a set of rear cameras that rival the latest Apple and Google Pixel devices without spending over $800, this is the one. This isn’t just an impressive camera masquerading as a cell phone, though, as it also provides ridiculously rapid charging, reliable everyday performance, and an OLED display that is second to none. Simply put, it’s a great phone and even better value considering how much cheaper it is than some of the alternatives.
However, the Z70 Ultra isn’t without its drawbacks. The main issue is that the front-facing camera is not nearly up to the standard of the rest of the phone, and while I love the massive OLED display, I’d take a camera cut-out if it meant higher-quality selfies. Outside of the selfie camera, there’s also the fact that the Z70 Ultra gets a bit warmer than I’d like and doesn’t offer as robust software support as other Androids, but those issues are surprisingly commonplace, so it’s easier to look past them.
Alternatives
If our Nubia Z70 Ultra review hasn’t sold you on the flagship Android, check out our suggestions for alternatives below.
iPhone 16
If you’re looking for a slightly more charming user experience and a better selfie camera, we recommend the iPhone 16. The Apple flagship doesn’t boast quite as impressive a display as the Nubia, with its limited 60Hz refresh rate, but your choice depends on how much you value higher-quality selfies and access to the massive library of Apple Arcade games. If you want the full lowdown, see our iPhone 16 review.
RedMagic 10 Pro
If you’re less concerned with top-tier cameras and would rather have something that keeps cool while gaming, the RedMagic 10 Pro is a fantastic alternative. In terms of almost everything else, these devices are very similar, but if you’re more of a mobile gamer than a smartphone photographer, the 10 Pro is the way to go. For more details, check out our RedMagic 10 Pro review.