Nubia Z60 Ultra Leading Version

Nubia has once again brought its passion for full-screen to the table with the Nubia Z60 Ultra Leading Version, a 100-point answer to today’s full-screen flagships.

Although the name is only the Leading Version, but the new machine compared to last year’s Nubia Z60 Ultra upgrade is not a star: the world’s only sixth-generation under-screen camera (last year it was the fifth generation), the exclusive Snapdragon 8Gen 3 Leading Version (the main frequency of up to 3.4GHz of Qualcomm’s most powerful processor), the exclusive AI dialect interpreting and translation, and the exclusive support for WeChat calls of the AI translation

Design

The straight frame, the main camera with its red circle, and the customizable slider are all there. All the features, such as NFC, IP68 certification, and USB 3.1 Gen 1, have not been cut, and even the weight is the same. The vibration motor is pretty well tuned, and very crispy, which is relatively rare to see in a large-sized phone.

The only downside is that it doesn’t support storage expansion. However, there is a 1TB storage version available, which is a way to solve the storage problem. The only difference in design between the Leading version and the regular version is their color schemes. Obviously, the color scheme of the Leading version has been well-designed. They say the design is inspired by the snowy mountains, and I agree 100%

Processor

So why is this phone called the Z60 Ultra Leading version? The answer is actually that the processor’s name is also called the Leading version. Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading version is simply an 8 Gen 3 overclocked version. The CPU and GPU peak clocking have been increased, but in terms of scores, there doesn’t seem to be much of an improvement.

Gaming

And what about the gaming experience? Well, it’s not much of an improvement either. Can you tell which one is a bit flatter in these two lines? Even if you look at the average frame rate, that 0.05 difference is really negligible. Lower Power consumption and lower temperatures are probably the only advantages of this Leading version. Of course, there’s also the fact that Nubia has already tuned the regular 8 Gen 3 too well, so the difference between overclocking and not overclocking really doesn’t matter that much.

Whether it’s the Z60 Ultra Leading version or the regular version, it has a very, very large number of options for the gaming mode. In addition to Bypass charging and various auxiliary functions, you can also adjust the touch sampling rate, sensitivity, and other more detailed options.

There’s also Diablo mode, which is even more powerful than Rise mode, so turn it on and put on a phone cooler and you’ll get a gaming experience that rivals the gaming phones. All in all, it may still have flaws, but I’m sure of one thing: It has the best gaming experience of any non-gaming phone in the world.

Display

The current Under-Display camera technology doesn’t do a perfect job of hiding itself, but it’s still the same thing: you can’t even notice there’s a camera here when you’re using it on a day-to-day basis. I don’t know how many people still like such a complete screen, but those who do really don’t have much choice.

With a manual maximum brightness of 600nit, HBM around 1000nit, and a resolution close to 1200P. You don’t need to worry about the basic specs of this screen, what you need to worry about should be that camera down there. Honestly, it did a better job than I thought it would. This time they used a new AI algorithm, and selfies in better lighting conditions still look acceptable.

Camera

The 35mm main camera is still good. Especially when taking photos of food, the 24mm main camera on a regular phone is too wide and you need to zoom in manually. But the field of view on Z60 Ultra’s main camera is just right, which is convenient. Clarity and dynamic range are top-notch, and sharpening is just right.

The telephoto camera is 85mm, and it excels at both portraits and landscapes. If you know a bit about photography, you should know how well these two focal lengths work. Then there’s this ultra-wide camera at 18mm. Please don’t forget, that it has OIS. Together with the extra large sensor, this camera should be the best ultra-wide camera in a flagship phone of 2024.

Because the field of view of the main camera is not as wide as other phones, plus the EIS crops the footage, the stabilization is not as good on the video. But after switching to this ultra-wide camera with OIS, the stabilization is much better. It still performs at night. Except for a little more noise, there is no obvious drawback. By the way, this time you can switch between the three cameras in 4k recording as well.

Battery & Charging

Z60 Ultra’s 6000mAh battery dominated the regular phone market for half a year. To this day it is still one of the phones with the biggest battery. The Leading version inherits this advantage. Although there is no difference in battery life with the regular version, it has been unbeatable.

Charging

The charging power is 80W as always, and it takes 40 minutes to fully charge it, which is pretty good. The Leading version doesn’t have wireless charging, but it does support high-power PPS, which is one of the strengths of Nubia’s phones.

MyOS

The Z60 Ultra Leading version we have is the global version, so MyOS is also modified to be more like stock Android. except for a few MyOS-exclusive features like GameSpace and Camera, which are made by Nubia itself. Most of the operating logic and features are pretty much the same as stock Android, just the UI has been redesigned. So getting started with this phone should still be pretty easy.

My view

Z60 Ultra Leading version is meant to replace the regular version. Surely you wouldn’t pay the same price for the regular version that was released last year, right? Not to mention that the Leading version does consume less power for gaming and the back cover color looks a bit better. With the help of AI, for example, the sharpened photos has also been enhanced in details.

The sweet points of the regular version have also been retained, such as the great gaming experience, the truly full screen, and the great camera system. You can certainly wait for the more powerful Z70 Ultra in the future, but if you’re already happy with the Z60 Ultra now, the Leading version will be an even more satisfying replacement

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