This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
If you are looking for a flagship phone in the US, you can count your options on one hand.
You have your iPhones, of course, but then on the Android side of things you have Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra, and some people may also consider the Google Pixel series. And... that's mostly it!
But there is actually a brand new smartphone and it almost seems too good to be true.
Here is a summary:
Half the price of a Galaxy S24 Ultra
Faster processor than the Galaxy S24 Ultra
Futuristic all-screen design
Ambitious camera system
20% bigger battery than the Galaxy
Much faster charging speed
Sounds like a steal? It does to us, so... which is that mysterious phone?
Enter the Nubia Z70 Ultra
This is what a true edge-to-edge screen looks like
Beautiful, uninterrupted, all-screen design (Image by PhoneArena)
Nubia is not exactly a household name in the United States, but that does not mean it's a new company.
Quite the contrary – Nubia has been laser-focused on making camera-centric phones in the last few years, but it is this latest Nubia Z70 Ultra where the stars seem to align in just the perfect way.
And it starts with the very first impressions: Holy-moly, this is a truly edge-to-edge phone!
Yes, there is no selfie camera cutout, just a glorious all-screen appearance.
How is that possible?
Well, Nubia did not skip the selfie camera, but it went with this new technology of the camera hidden under the screen glass. This gives you the illusion of not having a selfie camera at all, and this beautiful all-screen look. The downside is that since the camera is technically under the glass, the quality of your selfies won't be as good.
Some people might not like this, but I am perfectly fine (and I think many others will be too). I don't use the front camera all that much, but even when I do I find this quality sufficient, as Nubia employs a newer generation of this fancy under-screen camera tech.
Are photos and videos as clean and sharp as on a traditional front camera, though? Not quite.
An absolute steal: $700 price
The Nubia Z70 Ultra features Qualcomm's latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, paired with a plentiful 12GB of RAM.
This is Qualcomm's finest processor for 2025. Expect to see it on the next Galaxy S25 Ultra, but... Nubia was there first! And it absolutely crushes the other big player Google with its Pixel phones that use a much slower Tensor chipset.
But what does that new chipset give you?
The Nubia Z70 Ultra flies through daily tasks, which is great to see. But to be honest, most phones in the past few years have done that.
Where this new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset truly shines is with games and more intense tasks.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra costs $1,300 and it is much slower than the Nubia! In fact, the processor on the Nubia is 50% faster than the one on the Galaxy S24 Ultra!
The Nubia Z70 Ultra not only outpaces the Galaxy S24 Ultra in the "high" gaming score, but it also is much better in the "low" score.
"Low" refers to the score you get after 20 minutes of gaming, or in other words, after the phone heats up and throttles. In simple terms, the "low" score is your "real" performance.
And in that "real" performance the Nubia Z70 Ultra is TWICE as fast as the Galaxy S24 Ultra!
Yes, that is absolutely crazy, and let's once again remember that we are talking about a phone that is half the price of the Galaxy.
Longer battery life AND faster charging
20% bigger battery than the Galaxy S24 Ultra (Image by PhoneArena)
The other advantage the Nubia has over the Galaxy is in battery size.
Samsung stubbornly includes the S Pen in the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and while some people use it, even more people seem to absolutely... not care about having it! However, because of the S Pen, Samsung has been stuck with a not-impressive 5,000 mAh battery size in the S24 Ultra.
Compare this to the 6,150 mAh battery capacity on the Nubia, nearly 20% bigger.
Naturally, this results in longer battery life (which is someone everyone cares about) and here is how that looks according to our tests:
The Nubia achieves a full hour extra of screen time, with an outstanding score for YouTube video streaming.
And on top of that, the Nubia phone charges much faster too. It supports 80W fast charging speeds compared to 45W on the Galaxy.
The Nubia charges faster and you get the charger in the box (Image by PhoneArena)
Did we mention you get that fast charger in the box with the Nubia? You do.
As for the slower Samsung 45W charger? It costs $50 and it is NOT included in the box. Yikes!
Camera
A different, more creative approach to cameras (Image by PhoneArena)
You might think that all cannot be perfect and that there is no way the Nubia can beat the camera on the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
In some ways you are right, but the answer is complicated.
In our testing, the Nubia Z70 Ultra camera scored below the Galaxy and Pixel phone cameras, with the main reasons behind its lower score being a tendency to produce oversharpened images and an ambition under-display selfie camera that does not capture as much detail as a traditional one.
But in other ways, we also appreciated the unique perspective that only this phone gives you.
What do we mean by that? Well, the choice of a 35mm main camera, for starters.
All other phones use a wider, 23mm to 24mm lens, which seems more practical for capturing landscape photos.
< Nubia Z70 Ultra 35mmGalaxy S24 Ultra 23mm >
But a 35mm lens is far better suited for photos of people, and I know many photographers who only care a 35mm prime lens on their mirrorless cameras. This is often considered the perfect focal length for "environmental portraits". With a wider lens, you just get too much distortion.
< Nubia 35mmGalaxy 23mm >
So if people photos are your priority, the Nubia absolutely has this advantage over all other phones.
< Nubia 35mmGalaxy 23mm >
Still, technically, we found the Galaxy to have the better dynamic range and it deals better with highlights, so don't quite expect the Nubia to beat it like it does with pure performance. It is that 35mm focal length, however, that really stands out in a good way.
The most underrated phone of 2025?
All of this combined, the Nubia Z70 Ultra is not only the cheapest phone with the truly first-class Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, it is the "flagship killer" of 2025.
There are a few compromises that have been made to arrive at that price, like the missing wireless charging, but I would argue you don't really need wireless charging when you get a day worth of use with a half an hour top-up.
The camera is definitely the most contentious aspect of the Nubia: it's both clever with that 35mm lens and somewhat lacking in technical execution with the way it deals with highlights and dynamic range.
For me, those small compromises are not deal-breakers. It's clear that Nubia is aggressively luring consumers in with this phone. It knows its incognito status on the US market and it know that only an incredibly good offer can convince iPhone and Galaxy users to switch.
Luckily, the new Nubia Z70 Ultra is just that: an incredibly good offer, and those looking to get the most bang for their buck should have it on their radar.
Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.
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