Nubia Z50 Smartphone Review – Budget-Friendly Phone with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

The Nubia Z50 has garnered attention as the most budget-friendly smartphone housing a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip currently available in the market. Despite its robust internal specifications, a notable number of users express reservations about the Z50’s design, contending that it lacks the visual allure expected from a device with such powerful capabilities.

Equipped with a 35mm main camera lens boasting an expansive F1.6 aperture and OIS optical image stabilization, the Nubia Z50 strives to deliver an enhanced photography experience. The camera features a customized IMX787 sensor with an impressive 64 million pixels and supports a sensitivity range of ISO 100-25600, promising optimal performance in low-light conditions. The device aims to streamline the photography process, providing users with the ability to capture and share moments without the need for extensive post-processing, thereby elevating the overall user experience.

With a hardware configuration that rivals flagship models right from the outset, the Nubia Z50 aims to bring premium smartphone features to a more accessible market segment, so is that true? Let’s review the Nubia Z50 to find out.

Unboxing

The Nubia Z50 comes enclosed in an elegant pure white box, adorned with the model name and brand logo on the front and side. Turning to the back, the label reveals the cutting-edge technology within—powered by the latest Qualcomm 8 Gen 2 SoC, ensuring high-performance capabilities. Notably, the device is equipped with Wi-Fi 6 support, reflecting its commitment to providing seamless connectivity for a superior user experience.

Opening the box, In addition to the Z50 smartphone, the accessories include a random gray-green protective case, which can provide an extra layer of protection during daily use. In addition, there is a charging head and a C-to-C charging cable that supports up to 9A. The charging head supports the PPS fast charging protocol, with a maximum output power of 80W, as well as a user manual.

Design

In terms of appearance design, The design of Nubia Z50 still maintains the simple style of the past, with small changes made in some subtle aspects. Z50 is launched in three colors this time, White, Black, and Mint. Among them, the back shell of White and Black (we got black) is made of glass, while mint has a plain leather back shell. The camera module is placed on the left side of the fuselage, and the word Nubia is on the right side.

The Nubia Z50 follows the integrated hyperboloid design of the Z40 Pro, but the curvature of the four corners is more rounded, making it naturally more comfortable to hold. The top and bottom of the fuselage are flattened and have a slightly concave design, which makes the hand feel better when holding the phone horizontally and fits the palm of the hand without irritating the hand.

The Nubia Z50, weighing in at 199g and boasting a thickness of 8.46mm, aligns with the standard dimensions of a flagship phone. Yet, its unique hyperboloid back shell visually enhances its slim and lightweight profile, creating an illusion of even greater finesse. Nubia’s design philosophy, akin to merging a square shape with a round form, is evident in this aesthetic choice. Additionally, the phone’s distinctive lens module, featuring a circle within a square, adds to its overall highly recognizable and sophisticated design.

The ZTE Nubia Z50’s main draw is likely its rear camera cluster. Nubia has entered the competitive camera arena, featuring two large rear lenses. However, it takes an innovative approach by incorporating a new process—diamond highlights CNC + aviation-grade anodizing. This enhances the professionalism of the camera area. The main camera is adorned with the classic red circle element, providing a finishing touch that not only accentuates the distinctiveness of the 35mm humanistic main camera but also contributes to an overall professional appearance for the entire camera module.

The Nubia Z50 dazzles with its 6.67-inch AMOLED curved screen, boasting an impressive 1.07 billion colors, a P3 color gamut, and a brilliant 1000 nit peak brightness with HDR10+ support. The visual experience is enhanced by a smooth 144Hz high refresh rate, ensuring seamless and silky daily use. With remarkably narrow borders on all sides, the upper and lower borders are expertly controlled, contributing to an outstanding 90.4% screen-to-body ratio. The result is a visually immersive display that leaves a lasting impression.

The Z50’s user-friendly design extends to the right side, where the power and volume buttons are strategically placed to protrude into the frame. The standout red power button not only adds a touch of distinction to the chassis but also ensures ease of use. This thoughtful design choice eliminates the common issue of sticky buttons found in other models, contributing to a seamless and hassle-free user experience.

The left side of the Nubia Z50 is completely blank. This thoughtful choice enhances the overall comfort of holding the device, particularly during extended use or gaming sessions. The absence of buttons or distractions on this side contributes to a seamless and ergonomic experience, allowing users to fully immerse themselves in their activities without any unnecessary hindrances.

Featuring an infrared sensor on its top side for advanced functionalities. On the bottom side, a well-organized layout includes a speaker grill, a Type-C charging port, a microphone, and a dual SIM slot, ensuring a seamless and versatile user experience.

The Nubia Z50’s design is overall beautiful and attractive, displaying a combination of sturdiness and modernity. With two soft curved backs and a frame, it exudes sophistication. Nubia has effectively optimized the user experience on this phone.

Display

The Nubia Z50 features a 6.67-inch AMOLED flexible screen with a resolution of 1080×2400. The screen boasts an overall resolution of 1.07 billion colors, 10-bit color depth, a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, and a contrast ratio of 3 million:1, the device delivers impressive overall picture performance and high color accuracy. The Nubia Z50 boasts a maximum brightness of 1000 nits, making it suitable for outdoor use. Notably, the screen incorporates fingerprint sensor technology, a feature appreciated by numerous users.

The Nubia Z50 features a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz with intelligent switching support and a 360Hz touch sampling rate. The high refresh rate enhances both viewing and gaming experiences, representing a significant qualitative improvement. The screen holds UL platinum level low blue light certification, ensuring minimal visual fatigue during prolonged phone use. Additionally, users can customize the screen’s color temperature and mode based on their habits, and activate night mode for added eye protection during nighttime usage.

The fingerprint’s pressing position and unlocking experience on the Nubia Z50 are commendable, particularly if you’ve encountered other smartphones employing short-focus fingerprint recognition.

Sound Quality

The Nubia Z50 is excellent for occasional music listening. Its dual-speaker surround sound performance is impressive, and the three-band performance surpasses expectations. Whether you’re watching videos or listening to music, you can experience a strong sense of immersion.

Hardware and Performance

In terms of hardware, As a flagship mobile phone released in December 2022, the Nubia Z50 is equipped with the 2nd-Gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 flagship platform, based on the industry-leading 4nm process. The CPU architecture employs a Kryo super core built on Cortex-X3, running at 3.2GHz, four performance cores (2xCortex A715 and 2x Cortex A710, both 2.0GHz), and three Cortex-A510 energy efficiency cores (small cores) on the GPU side. Adreno GPU’s new graphics rendering capability sees a boost of up to 25% compared to the previous generation, and energy efficiency reaches 45%, providing enduring and consistent performance.

let’s take a look at the actual performance. The AnTuTu benchmark score of Nubia Z50 score is 15,64,458 points, which is also a good level among the currently released Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 phones. At the same time, the machine has also been upgraded with a new Super Frame Stabilization 3.0, which makes operation recognition more accurate, temperature control more accurate, frame rate stability increased by 2 times, and power consumption reduced by up to 15%. In GeekBench 5, the single-core reached 1916 points and the multi-core exceeded 5500 points. The theoretical performance of the CPU is also excellent. In the Storage Test read and write test, the continuous read reached 3339MB/s, and the continuous write reached 2642MB/s, which is in line with the expected level.

Performance in Gaming

Judging from the Benchmakr results, the Nubia Z50 performs well, but what about its performance in gaming? Let’s go straight to the testing of the games. As the budget-friendly flagship phone, the performance of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in games has met my previous expectations, and it can only be said to be one of the top flagships currently. Paired with the Z50’s own game space, its potential can be further developed.

For the gaming performance test, we selected three mobile games: “PUBG Mobile,” “Asphalt 9,” and “Genshin Impact.” let’s take a look at how this phone performs in these games.

First, we tested “Asphalt 9”. With the screen configured at an exceedingly 60 frame rate + High-Quality graphics preset, the Nubia Z50 maintains the capability to run at the complete 60 frames, ensuring seamless and precise ongoing operations. The overall gaming experience remains relatively positive, and securing the championship proved to be effortlessly accomplished.

Following “PUBG: Mobile,” which has relatively high-performance requirements, when the Graphics Preset is set to HDR + Extreme, it achieves 60 FPS, and on Ultra HDR, the FPS is 40. The frame rate of the phone remains very stable during approximately 30 minutes of gaming. Throughout the game, the scenes depicting opening and closing doors, shooting, driving, and switching perspectives are all remarkably smooth, with no noticeable stagnation.

In “Genshin Impact,” titled as the “flagship phones performance tester,” upon activating the 60-frame extremely high graphics preset, the Nubia Z50 manages to uphold nearly 60 frames throughout the 30-minute gaming session. The overall visual experience remains remarkably stable, underscoring the mobile phone’s exceptional optimization for the “Genshin Impact” mobile game.

As for heat dissipation, the Nubia Z50 comes equipped with an ultra-luxurious multi-dimensional three-dimensional heat dissipation system, utilizing ten layers of heat dissipation materials such as ultra-large area VC, diamond thermal gel, etc., covering a total area of 36462mm. The device showcases excellent heat dissipation performance. Following a 30-minute gaming session of “Genshin Impact” with the highest measured image quality, I conducted temperature tests on both the front and back of the phone. The recorded temperature on the front of the phone was below 40°C, and on the back, it was below 37°C.

MyOS 13 with Android 13

The MyOS 13 by Nubia, built upon Android 13 with local optimizations, can be described as notably conscientious. By default, system ads are turned off, rendering it one of the purest mobile phone systems. This interface bears a resemblance to iOS, but users can navigate to the settings and switch to a more familiar pull-up drawer mode. The system offers an array of options, allowing users to customize features such as a smaller window on the display and various gestures.

The Nubia Z50 in my possession is a 12G+265G model, equipped with 12GB of independent operating memory. The system storage space can also be utilized to expand the memory to a maximum of 8GB, enabling the entire machine’s memory to reach a maximum of 20 GB. This ample memory support ensures smooth usage and refreshing of individual software applications. Even when running multiple software simultaneously in the background, the transition between applications remains seamless, without any noticeable lag issues encountered thus far.

The device provides robust support for personalized settings, allowing users to freely adjust themes, desktops, and lock screen components. Furthermore, it boasts a variety of dynamic wallpapers to infuse a positive vibe into each day. Beyond the pure Android localization interface, users can opt for a simplified preset system, effortlessly switching between spaces by long-pressing the desktop, thereby unlocking a highly customizable world of mobile interfaces.

In everyday life, the NFC function proves handy for simulating access control cards, facilitating a light and worry-free travel experience. The device supports Bluetooth 5.3 protocol, ensuring comprehensive connection support for wireless audio devices.

Camera

Nubia’s latest device features a 64MP primary sensor with a standard lens and a 50MP ultra-wide-angle sensor that incorporates a distinctive circular LED light assist, contributing to the production of exceptional image quality. The rear camera cluster is capable of recording videos up to 8K, delivering super sharp footage.

The primary camera, powered by the IMX787 sensor and boasting a 1/1.3-inch outsole, is enhanced by OIS optical anti-shake, resulting in impressive shooting capabilities. Notably, the Nubia Z50 supports a 14mm equivalent focal length and a 116-degree ultra-wide angle, along with a 2cm macro shooting capability, expanding the versatility of mobile phone photography.

On the front, a 16MP camera with wide-angle support is situated in a punch hole on the screen, facilitating effortless filming, photography, and video calling. Below, we will use sample photos of various scenes to genuinely experience the camera performance of Z50.

First, let’s examine the performance of this 35mm main camera. Z50 features a 35mm lens on its main camera (64MP, 1/1.7”, Sony IMX787). This provides a balanced compromise between a portrait lens and the typical smartphone main lens (which tends to be notably wider, averaging around 24mm). In any case, this lens possesses a bright f/1.6 aperture and OIS. The main camera is easily distinguishable by its red trim.

It can offer a safer shooting distance, more artistic composition, and reduced edge distortion! effectively meeting the needs of shooting in various scenes, including landscapes, portraits, and food. In the provided sample, the main body of the picture stands out! the composition is more complete, and it aligns better with the human eye’s perspective. Simultaneously, with the amalgamation of a 64 MP, customized Sony IMX787, and a 35mm lens! the pixel density per unit area sees a 123% increase compared to the traditional 23mm lens. This results in a higher resolution for the picture, and the generous f/1.6 aperture ensures ample light in the shooting scene, enhancing the picture’s brightness and clarity.

In night mode, the 35mm+f/1.6 large aperture brings a greater amount of equivalent light input. The picture is clean and has no obvious noise with the new Mandrill algorithm. The sharpness is very good, and it can also produce good images in dark light. Imaging quality: it suppresses highlights just right under complex light while retaining details in dark areas well, making night scenes more gorgeous. At the same time, each lens of the 7P lens used by this phone has 16 layers of optical coating, effectively suppressing glare.

Additionally, the Z50 boasts an exceptional imaging experience thanks to the inclusion of a 50MP ultra-wide-angle with ultra-macro two-in-one main camera alongside the primary camera. This particular lens offers a 14mm equivalent focal length and an impressive 116-degree ultra-wide angle, resulting in a broader shooting perspective and more impactful images. Upon reviewing the provided sample photos, it becomes evident that scenes captured with the ultra-wide-angle lens exhibit a heightened sense of magnificence, effectively emphasizing the grandeur of tall buildings. Remarkably, the brightness and overall picture quality remain consistent with those from the main camera, with minimal deviation. Of particular note is the negligible impact on the picture edges, as distortion is almost imperceptible, contributing to a more realistic perception.

With top-notch hardware, the Nubia Z50 introduces an upgraded Lightning Capture 3.0 feature, boosting photo speed by 30% and filming rate by 20%. Through the incorporation of an ultra-sensitive focus-tracking algorithm, AI motion enables the detection of target objects. Regardless of the subject’s movement, the focus can accurately track it in real time. The AI partition image quality optimization enhances image quality by 30%. Employing the Nubia Z50 to capture moving cars reveals clear images of not only fast-moving vehicles but also surroundings like trees and buildings, avoiding any blurring.

Additionally, the Nubia Z50 introduces newly upgraded Starry Sky images, a fresh Galaxy Super Night algorithm, and the original ten Starry Sky algorithms have undergone an upgrade to eleven algorithms. The system possesses the capability to automatically recognize starry sky shooting scenes and autonomously adjust shooting parameters. Simply press the shutter, and you can capture an image of the unbeatable Starry Sky. Regrettably, the recent weather conditions have been unfavorable, preventing me from experiencing actual starry sky samples. The aforementioned effects are several features integrated into the system.

Portraits captured using a specially crafted main camera with a 35mm equivalent focal length exhibit a natural background blur while maintaining clear edges around the subjects. Despite the enhancement of the subjects’ features, the resulting natural beautification effect retains a remarkably realistic appearance.

Front Camera

The 16-megapixel front camera also performs very well. It adeptly recognizes a person’s gender and skin type, automatically optimizing them. Additionally, various beauty parameters can be manually adjusted. Whether capturing selfies or engaging in video connections, its performance remains exceptional.

During the experience, we also discovered small details of the Nubia Z50 camera, its camera family menu on the far left of the camera homepage provides a very rich range of personalized gameplay, such as shooting star trails, light painting, multiple exposures, micro-stepping, etc. Although not everyone can use it frequently, When needed, these functions can often add fun to our recording life.

Charging and Battery

The Nubia Z50 boasts a 5000mAh battery, a rather substantial capacity. Thanks to this capacity, you can conveniently utilize it throughout the entire day. The Qualcomm processor’s energy-saving capability further contributes to significantly prolonging usage time. Equipped with a large battery capacity and supporting 80W fast charging, the company has upgraded from 67W to 80W charging support—an impressive speed that markedly reduces the waiting time for charging.

In the practical charging test, the phone achieves a 30% charge in 10 minutes, 80% in 30 minutes! and a full charge in 45 minutes. At the same time, there is a certain disparity compared to the fast-charging specifications of some leading flagships! this charging speed still allows you to swiftly replenish the battery during your free moments! alleviating any concerns about battery life.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Nubia Z50 presents itself as a compelling option for users seeking a budget-friendly smartphone with impressive internal specifications. While the design may not meet the expectations of some users! the device manages to strike a balance between modernity and sturdiness, offering a beautiful and attractive aesthetic. The AMOLED curved display, features a 144Hz high refresh rate! contributes to a visually immersive experience with vibrant colors and smooth transitions. The thoughtful placement of buttons and the absence of distractions on the left side enhance the overall user-friendly design! promoting a seamless and ergonomic user experience.

The hardware and performance of the Nubia Z50, powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 flagship platform, showcase excellent capabilities. The device’s gaming performance, coupled with efficient heat dissipation, impresses users! providing a smooth and stable gaming experience even in demanding titles like “Genshin Impact.”

The camera system, featuring a 64MP primary sensor and innovative imaging technologies, delivers exceptional photo and video quality. The upgraded Lightning Capture 3.0 and Starry Sky images contribute to enhanced photography capabilities. Additionally, the 80W fast charging support for the substantial 5000mAh battery ensures a quick and convenient charging experience. In summary, the Nubia Z50 successfully combines affordability and performance! and camera excellence, making it a noteworthy contender in the smartphone market.