Nubia Z60 Ultra Camera Review: Absolute Mobile Photography
The Nubia Z60 Ultra has, since its inception, focused heavily on its imaging capabilities. Launched back in April of this year in China and made available globally in July, this phone boasts one of the most powerful SoCs on the market and the most powerful camera system from Nubia.
In this review, we will focus on the imaging performance of the Nubia Z60 Ultra. We will examine its image performance in low and bright light conditions, as well as its room for expandability.
The Master Class 35mm: A Street Photographer’s Dream
The main camera sports a 35mm f/1.6 lens with OIS, paired with the flagship 54MP Sony IMX800 sensor. The 35mm equivalent focal length offers a more natural perspective closer to traditional photography, perhaps reminiscent of a rangefinder camera.
The 54MP Sony IMX800 has been widely used as the main shooter in many top-of-the-line smartphones like the Xiaomi 13 & Mix Fold 3, Honor Magic 5, Fairphone 5, and others.
The camera produces sharp and naturally colored images when shooting in brightly lit areas. It has a natural tone, creating harmonious images. The camera also exhibits minimal distortion in terms of optical aberration or color distortion.
In terms of night photography, images are naturally colored but appear oddly flat in terms of contrast, with minimal noise present. The camera preserves a reasonable amount of detail, unless the user zooms in significantly.
18mm Ultra-Wide: Infinite Horizons
The ultra-wide camera is an omni-directional camera that captures nearly everything within view. The 18mm f/1.8 lens boasts impressive low distortion, although there is still a slight barrel aberration, which is kept to a minimum with no color distortion whatsoever.
The sensor behind the lens is the Omnivision OV50E. This sensor is also used as the main shooter sensor in multiple phones, including the POCO F6 Pro, vivo V30, Honor Magic V3, and Huawei nova 12. Unlike the earlier phones using this sensor, these are more consumer-oriented devices, yet this sensor is often a key feature of their camera systems.
The image results are reasonably sharp, even when zooming in. However, the images retain significantly more texture than commonly found in cameras at this zoom range. This can be both a benefit and a drawback, as sometimes the details can be misinterpreted as noise.
85mm Telephoto: Versatile Intimacy
Finally, my favorite camera on the Nubia Z60 Ultra: the 64MP telephoto camera. This is perhaps the most impressive mobile phone telephoto camera I’ve tried. At 85mm f/3.3, it’s sharp and produces less noise than I expected.
The 64-megapixel Omnivision OV64B sensor, like the other two cameras, is used as the main camera in multiple phone models, including the POCO X6 & F5 series, Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Turbo, Oppo Reno11 F 5G, realme GT Neo 3T, and others.
Similar to the other cameras on the Nubia Z60 Ultra, the performance of this camera is nothing short of stellar. The colors are accurate with a slight tint of oversaturation. Overall, it seems like the color algorithm is trying too hard to compensate for the zoom range.
What impresses me most is how sharp the images are. Telephoto cameras on smartphones are often an afterthought by their manufacturers, resulting in poor image quality. However, on the Nubia Z60 Ultra’s 85mm telephoto, the images are sharp with no warping or deformation. Perhaps the OIS plays a crucial role in maintaining image sharpness, regardless, the results are spectacular.
Flexibility with High-Quality JPEG
The JPEG images produced by the phone are highly dynamic with a lot of data. I have no trouble recovering highlights from not only normally lit images but also underexposed ones.
Conclusion
The Nubia Z60 Ultra’s camera system is a versatile and powerful tool for photography enthusiasts. With its 18mm ultra-wide, 35mm main, and 85mm telephoto lenses, it offers a wide range of focal lengths perfect for capturing various scenes and subjects.
The high-quality images produced by this phone are so impressive that I often find myself leaving my main camera behind.
The Nubia Z60 Ultra is a fantastic option for anyone looking for a smartphone that can deliver professional-quality images. With that, we award it with our gold award, and highly recommend this smartphone for those who full a more complete photography experience on smartphone.
Malaysian Buyer Beware: Un-Sirim Certify Nubia Z60 Ultra Units are circulating in the market
If you are in Malaysia are interested in the Nubia Z60 Ultra, careful of circulation of grey units in market. These units are not registered with Sirim Malaysia, and will not be eligible for warranty from official channels like ZTE, Zitron, and MMG Distribution. For more detail, check out this article from our friend Zen the Geek:
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