Nubia Z80 Ultra review
In a world with too many smartphones, why do we need another one and – crucially – what might set one apart from another?
The Nubians might have originated in the Nile Valley, but Nubia today is a Shenzhen, China-located smartphone manufacturer that is now looking to tap into the core functions we use our devices for today.
Would that be phone calls? Spoiler alert, not really no… it’s “elite” gaming and photography, with a dose of soical media app use, the odd email alert and maybe (just maybe, on special occasions like birthdays and holidays) a phone call.
Nubia launched the “overseas version” of this smartphone on November 6. Given the frustrations many of us had with Chinese devices that wouldn’t run core Western apps like Google Maps and more, it is perhaps pleasing to see the company deliver a product specifically aligned for other markets.
Full-screen display
The Nubia Z80 Ultra (often written as nubia in lower case) is built with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile platform for performance and multitasking. It’s gaming power comes from the RedMagic-inspired Cube Gaming Engine and the technology is enhanced by a customised BOE X10 1.5K full-screen display.
Step into your local smartphone dealer and ask the young counter assistant what’s special about the Nubia Z80 and this is what they’ll mention i.e. the full screen display means that there’s not been a cut-out in the manufacturing process for a front camera, although an under-screen front camera does exist. The company calls it a 1.5K “under-display camera full-screen display” in fact.
The Z80 has a dual focal-length system featuring 5th-generation 35mm and 18mm lenses for photos and videos, it runs with a 7200 mAh battery (really, you can get more than a day out a charge unless you’re taking 18 videos of your pets for some reason. There are 80W wired and 80W wireless charging capabilities.
“Innovation has always been the core of nubia’s brand identity and the driving force behind our progress, creating a versatile smartphone that excels in both photography and gaming.” Ni Fei, president of Nubia Technology Co., Ltd.
The device comes in black, white and blue… so while those colours aren’t quite as snazzy as some of the “paint jobs” offered around these days, if you’re looking more closely at the back of your phone than the front, what are you really doing, right?
Physical button shutter
The personalised touch here comes from the physical button shutter, for enhanced control when taking photos. This is complemented by a professional-grade Al imaging model to simplify photography by optimising settings for different scenarios.
Because we’re all getting impatient now, the Z80 has a 3000Hz “instant touch” sampling rate, so your fingers will work… and it’s quite a precise form of touch that feels like we’ve moved on with this particular aspect of technology. Brightness comes in at 2000 nits so visibility is guaranteed in bright sunlight.
As explained here, “Nits is a unit of measurement used to quantify the luminance or brightness of a screen. One nit represents one candela per square meter (cd/m2) – the standard unit of luminous intensity in the International System of Units. This metric reflects how much light is emitted from a display, visible to the human eye over a specific area.”
The Nubia Z80 Ultra is good in low-light photography conditions and has a an 18mm optic for ultra-wide-angle shots, a macro lens for close-ups and zoom range from 18mm to 85mm. The company has also included 21 photo filters, so there’s plenty to play around with if you are creative.
Cool, cooling system
We’re all getting more concerned about smartphone heat (and if you’re not, you should be) and anyone flying regularly will know that wireless lithium battery charger packs are not allowed in checked luggage bags, so Nubia has provided what it calls an “upgraded cooling system” to keep this device nice and tepid.
An advanced composite liquid metal and oversized 3D Ice Steel VC cooling system means that this technology boosts cooling area coverage by 35% for efficient heat dissipation.
If you’re a “sustained high-frame-rate gameplay” person (and that is now a term), gamers may appreciate the device’s support for Super Resolution and Super Frame Rate technologies – again, these are industry standard terms that some people obsess over, in a good way.
“The phone is built to last with IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance. Its custom smart controls, tactile mechanical buttons and programmable dials optimise photography workflow from assembly to storage, transforming the act of shooting into a cherished ritual,” notes the colourful language of the product statement for this device.
Overall look & feel
It seems strange to say it, but people aren’t buying phones to make calls any more.
There are of course lessons for software application development professionals here that work in the mobile space i.e. if it’s all about gaming and snapping photos, what could the next killer app be? It probably won’t be a chat app of some kind, but then again it could be exactly that; the power of modern devices is such that we can’t accurately guage how they will be used next, at what level they will start to “replace laptops” (look, there are a lot of TikTok ads out there for handy folding keyboards) and perhaps we’ll move to a new level of Natural Language Processing interaction if NLP gets further turbo-chraged by generative and agentic AI.
Personal use opinions
So then, do I like the Z80 Ultra? Well, I like a smartphone, so (like puppies) I kind of like them all. What I really do like about this device is the battery life (well, well over a day)… I mean, I had a model from another Chinese company that shall remain nameless and the back cover sprang completely off to reveal the inner workings and battery. If you’ve also looked inside a device, you’ll know that MOST of the internal space is taken up by the battery, so it’s about time firms like Nubia made devices that last longer than 24 hours and the Z80 Ultra does have that capacity in normal use.
The outstanding feature here is quite definitely the large 6.85-inch “Sky Full Display” with no punch-hole or notch. While I generally would only consider working on a foldable, the screen real estate here is so big that the Z80 is probably something I could use on a plane with a keyboard, too. Given that we interact with our devices by “looking” at them, it seems like a no-brainer to provide every millimetre of the 6.85 inches to the user.
Personally, I’d like a 7-inch smartphone and I’d even go to 8-inches, but sadly that form factor seems as-yet untapped, the Z-80 is therefore close.
Additionally, then – even at my age – I’m a huge gamer and an Xbox devotee. The fact that this device is so aligned for game use has driven me to download and try more Android RPGs. Looking forward, Nubia has at times been criticised for pushing out device updates that gravitate from China in Chinese, for non Chinese users (even the Honor Store forced me to update Spotify from its backend this week rather than from the Google Play store, so this kind of thing does happen)… so far, Nubia seems to have circumvented that issue, but let’s keep an eye on it.
The Nubia Z80 Ultra stands out as an all-around smartphone for photography and gaming for sure, if only it were foldable, then I could really fall in love with it.
