ZTE Nubia Z70 Ultra PhoneArena Camera Score: Skip this one
The Nubia Z70 Ultra is the latest high-profile flagship phone hailing from China, bringing a ton of exciting features, namely a 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and availability in the US. On paper, there are some exciting camera features that could make the Nubia a hidden hit!
Setting itself apart from most other phones with a pretty memorable and distinct camera placement that's more similar to a point-and-shoot camera from a decade ago than a late-2024 Android behemoth, the Nubia Z70 Ultra definitely has an exciting specs sheet. Oh, and it also has a two-step hardware shutter button on the side.
Let's see what camera system Nubia has put at the rear and how it compares to the older Nubia Z60 Ultra in comparison. After that, we'll put the new phone through the paces of the PhoneArena Camera Score test.
| Specs | Nubia Z70 Ultra | Nubia Z60 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| Main camera | 50MP F1.6/F4.0, 35mm Sensor size: 1/1.56" Pixel size: 1.0 μm | 50 MP F1.6, 35mm Sensor size: 1/1.49" Pixel size: 1.0 μm |
| Telephoto camera | 64MP F2.5, 70mm Sensor size: 1/2" Pixel size: 0.7 μm | 64MP F3.3, 85mm Sensor size: 1/2" |
| Ultra-wide camera | 50MP, F1.8, 13mm | 50MP, F1.8, 18mm |
| Front-facing camera | 16MP | 12MP |
The new Nubia Z70 Ultra brings some notable differences in comparison with the Nubia Z60 Ultra. For one, the main camera now has a switching aperture that can vary between F1.6 and F4.0, however this only applies when using the Pro camera mode. The aperture doesn't seem to automatically switch in regular camera mode, even with ample lighting available; on such occasion, the aperture is always wide open.
Also read: Nubia Z70 Ultra review: A value-packed flagship with cutting-edge performance
The telephoto camera, on the other hand, gets a slowly shorter native optical zoom––70mm 2X optical zoom, down from the 2.4X 85mm on the Nubia Z60 Ultra. The new phone still allows you to shoot at the familiar focal length, but it's now using some digital zoom and not purely native one.
The ultra-wide camera also gets wider: it's a 13mm one that allows a 122-degree field-of-view. It also lets you shoot at 18mm and 24mm, which are both significantly tighter yet still wide, but the quality isn't top-notch.
At the front, you will find a under-display 16MP camera which is very hard to discern from the display surrounding it, but doesn't really impress with quality.
Software-wise, the camera app is feature-rich, but most of the available shooting modes are blatant gimmicks. The interface isn't intuitive at all, with the available zooms/focal lengths being extra confusing.
Overall, the upgrade package that the new phone delivers is a small step backwards, as it fails to reach the same still photo and video quality as it predecessor, leading to a slightly disappointing score in our test.
Nubia Z70 Ultra Camera Score compared to its rivals
| Phone | PhoneArena Camera Score | Photo Score | Video Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nubia Z70 Ultra | 129.1 | 134.0 | 124.1 |
| Nubia Z60 Ultra | 137.3 | 136 | 138.7 |
| Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra | 156.4 | 161.9 | 150.9 |
| Pixel 9 Pro XL/Pixel 9 Pro | 150.5 | 159.4 | 141.6 |
Well, here it is, and it's pretty disappointing to see: despite our high hopes, the Nubia Z70 Ultra fails to impress in comparison with the most popular Android flagship in the US right now, the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Pixel 9 Pro/XL.
The Z70 Ultra gets a total score of 129.1, combined between a 134-point still photo test and 124.1-point video test, which are both on the disappointing side. The Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Pixel 9 Pro XL easily beat that with 156.4 and 150.5 points in our Camera Score test, respectively.
What's even worse is that the Nubia Z70 Ultra fares worse than its predecessor, the Nubia Z60 Ultra, especially in video mode, where the spread is drastic. The older Nubia achieves a total of 137.3 points thanks to a good still photo result and significantly better video-recording score which elevate it past its successor.
Nubia Z70 Ultra camera spider chart
Main Camera
The main camera delivers good dynamics and okay details, but the dynamics and color temperature aren't on par with the phone's rivals. We get slightly under-exposed photos and the main camera seems to love crushing shadows and doesn't like bringing those highlights up. There are some oversharpening artifacts present when inspecting detail from up close. Colors are sometimes too vivid, which is in contrast with the more realistic telephoto and dreary ultrawide.
Zoom Quality
The 2X telephoto is okay, with mostly okay dynamics, decent sharpness with some oversharpening present, and fairly realistic colors. Of all cameras on the phone, this one is the most consistent.
Ultra-wide Camera
The ultrawide camera is very wide, fitting a lot of scene in the frame. There is a fairly normal amount of distortion near the corners of the frame, though. The dynamics here aren't ideal––the photos are on the darker side, with crushed shadows visible.
Front Camera
As all under-display selfie cameras, it took the Nubia Z70 Ultra just 20 seconds to leave a sour taste in the mouth. If you don't zoom, things are fine but inspecting the selfie up close reveals a watercolor painting without any semblance of fine detail, definitely not something we like to see.
Main Camera - Video
4K@30fps videos taken with the Nubia Z70 Ultra aren't great. In fact, they are quite disappointing thanks to the unimpressive dynamics and overblown highlights in the sky, crushed shadows, and oversharpened details.
Ultrawide camera - Video
The same generally applies to the ultrawide camera, too, but here it's even more extreme: dynamics are somehow even worse and the footage is grainy even at decent daylight.
Zoom camera - Video
The telephoto camera is too soft when shooting video. It simultaneously fails to deliver good sharpness and gives us lots of oversharpening artifacts and blotchiness.
Selfie camera - Video
Selfie camera video maxes out at 1080p@30fps, and it pretty much speaks for itself: the quality is terrible. No saving graces here.
Conclusion
Overall, the Nubia Z70 Ultra is a mess when it comes to its camera.
Starting from the illogical and unintuitive camera app, moving on to the obvious hardware downgrades in comparison with the Nubia Z60 Ultra, and culminating with the incoherent camera quality between the different cameras, it's challenging to find any redeeming graces with the Nubia Z70 Ultra.
That's disappointing, as the camera package really has some potential on paper. However, while the hardware is great, Nubia definitely has to work on software and the camera optimization, which could fix many of the issues we have with this camera.
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