Nubia Z70S Ultra Photographer Edition Review: 2025's Imaging Flagship

In today's era where mobile phones are becoming increasingly homogenized, finding a phone that stands out is more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack. The Nubia Z70S Ultra Photographer Edition is like a bombshell, creating waves in the tech world and successfully capturing the attention of digital enthusiasts.

Appearance: Retro Camera Style, Full of Personality

When I first held the Nubia Z70S Ultra Photographer Edition, I was immediately drawn to its unique design. Holding it in my hands, it felt just like a vintage camera, exuding nostalgia and elegance.

The back cover is made using a 3D micro-etched leather-glass technique, mimicking the texture of calf leather. It feels smooth to the touch, offers a good grip, and is non-slip, ensuring you won't worry about the phone "slipping away." This design isn't just beautiful, but also durable, so you won't have to worry about scratches. The rear camera area is divided into two parts: the upper part houses the new "Light and Shadow Master 990" custom 35mm main sensor, made using a vacuum plating dual-coating multi-level texture process, giving it a futuristic feel, akin to a luxury watch; the lower part houses the periscope telephoto and ultra-wide-angle lenses, making it highly recognizable—on the street, others will immediately spot that you’re using the Nubia Z70S Ultra Photographer Edition.

On the right side of the body, there’s the volume button and a red power button. The red power button is not only visually appealing but also makes it easy to operate, echoing the red ring around the camera module and enhancing the overall design. The most surprising feature is the two-stage mechanical shutter button on the right side, which operates just like a traditional camera—press lightly to focus, press harder to take a photo. It provides the tactile feedback of a real camera button, allowing you to instantly reconnect with the hands-on experience of a traditional camera. The AI custom slider on the left side of the body is also very practical, allowing you to quickly access tools like the camera, voice recorder, and translation app, making it extremely convenient for daily use.

The front features a 6.85-inch AMOLED flexible display, using BOE Q9+ luminescent materials. It boasts a 100% DCI-P3 wide color gamut, 10.7 billion colors, 2000 nits peak brightness, and other features that make color reproduction, contrast, and image clarity top-tier in the industry. Even under strong outdoor lighting, the screen remains clear. What's even more impressive is its use of the exclusive seventh-generation under-display camera technology, which optimizes the main display and under-display area to achieve an ultra-high pixel density of 430 PPI with a screen-to-body ratio of up to 95.3%, making the experience immersive when watching videos, playing games, or browsing the web.

Imaging: 35mm Focal Length, A Reliable Performer

As a flagship phone focused on imaging, the Nubia Z70S Ultra Photographer Edition truly delivers. It delves deep into the 35mm focal length, balancing optical precision with computational photography, offering stunning performance.

The main camera features a 50MP Light and Shadow Master 990 fifth-generation native 35mm custom flagship sensor with a wide F/1.7 aperture and OIS optical image stabilization. This setup makes it a photography marvel! In its native 35mm shooting mode, it delivers accurate depth and spatial rendering with minimal edge distortion, and the color style emphasizes true-to-life reproduction with rich, detailed textures.

For example, when shooting plush toys, the fur is captured in fine detail; when shooting glass building exteriors, both the texture and reflections are perfectly represented. The street photography mode in the 35mm focal length excels, capturing the relationship between the subject and the environment, enhancing contrast and saturation, and creating a unique light and shadow effect typical of street photography. The resulting images are striking and full of storytelling and visual impact. In this mode, there are also built-in film styles such as GRCC and FJ200, so you can capture images that have an artistic touch without needing post-editing. Even photography novices can produce professional-level shots in seconds.

In addition to the main camera, the periscope telephoto and ultra-wide-angle lenses perform admirably. The 64MP periscope telephoto lens supports 85mm-140mm focal lengths and 15cm macro focus, making it ideal for capturing flowers and insects, with beautifully blurred backgrounds while preserving intricate details. The 50MP ultra-wide-angle lens offers a 122° field of view and supports 2.5cm macro photography, making it great for wide-angle and creative shots.

When capturing large landscapes, the ultra-wide lens takes in more content, presenting the grandeur of the scene. The macro mode lets you discover the small and beautiful details of life, like dewdrops on flower petals or the texture of insect wings. With the added power of the Taishan AI Imaging System 4.0, Neo Master, DCG dual-conversion gain HDR, and retro filters like GRCC and KD200, the imaging performance reaches new heights. The phone also supports third-party LUT file imports and star trail effects, providing even more creative potential.

Whether it's day or night, under complex lighting, or for creative shots, the Nubia Z70S Ultra Photographer Edition can handle it all with ease, delivering excellent results across the board.

Performance: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, No Limits on Gaming

In terms of performance, the Nubia Z70S Ultra Photographer Edition is equipped with the powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, enhanced LPDDR5X RAM, and UFS 4.0 storage, making it feel like a supercharged engine. Its performance is outstanding, and app launches are nearly instantaneous. Switching between apps is smooth, with no stuttering.

When gaming, the phone shines. In "Honor of Kings" at maximum settings, it maintains an average frame rate of 120.3 FPS over 30 minutes, with only 3.2W of power consumption and a peak temperature of 37.6°C. The frame rate remains stable, ensuring smooth gaming without lag. In "Genshin Impact" and "Honkai: Star Rail," the phone also maintains great performance, consistently achieving high frame rates without noticeable slowdowns.

Equipped with a 3D VC cooling system, the phone efficiently reduces heat, preventing performance throttling during long gaming sessions, allowing for uninterrupted gaming enjoyment.

Battery Life: Large Battery + Fast Charging, No Worries

Battery life is a critical consideration for modern smartphone users. The Nubia Z70S Ultra Photographer Edition delivers on this front as well. It boasts a 6600mAh third-generation high-energy silicon-carbon anode battery with semi-solid-state technology, providing high energy density and impressive battery life.

After a 5-hour heavy usage test (gaming, video, social apps for 1 hour each), the phone still had 75% battery left. Even power users need not worry about running out of battery. Plus, with 80W fast charging, it can be fully charged in around 38 minutes, so even if you wake up to find the phone low on battery, you can quickly recharge during your morning routine without missing a beat.

It also supports charging separation technology, which reduces battery wear during gaming while charging, extending battery lifespan.

System: Rich AI Features, Upgraded Experience

The Nubia Z70S Ultra Photographer Edition runs on the Nebula AIOS 1.5 system, which brings several key upgrades. The AI-powered imaging tools are extremely useful, with AI Erase eliminating pedestrians and clutter from photos, AI Enlargement improving composition, and AI Portrait Mode allowing you to take studio-quality portraits with one tap, significantly improving post-processing efficiency.

The multi-device ecosystem is also convenient, supporting NFC one-touch transfer, cross-device app flow, and 4K 144Hz ultra-low latency casting, making work and play more seamless.

For local users, the voice assistant supports dialect recognition, including Wu and Sichuan dialects. It also covers a variety of scenarios like booking tickets and generating documents, creating a localized experience that ensures effortless communication with your phone.

With its unique design, powerful imaging capabilities, performance, long-lasting battery, and AI features, the Nubia Z70S Ultra Photographer Edition is the most unexpected imaging flagship of 2025. If you're a photography enthusiast or have high expectations for phone performance and appearance, this phone is definitely worth owning.