ZTE Nubia Z50S Pro Smartphone Review

Since the Nubia Z40 series, Nubia has always used a 35mm focal length as its primary camera. This method has been tested for over a year and has proven to be quite effective. Nubia officially released the Nubia Z50S Pro a few days ago, which is equipped with a new generation of 35mm customized large aperture lens module coupled with a super large aperture of f/1.59, which significantly improves the light sensitivity of the primary camera, resulting in the industry’s most significant amount of light.

Our initial impression of this smartphone is pretty appealing, particularly the dual-tone design layout, which has a distinct character. The gadget has an excellent display, a sturdy hardware combination, the latest software shell, a long battery life, and many other features, which we will go over in the ZTE Nubia Z50S Pro smartphone review.

ZTE NUBIA Z50S PRO KEY FEATURES

The Z50S Pro follows a camera strategy that ZTE/nubia has been pushing for several smartphone generations. It has a 35mm-equivalent primary unit, which is a staple focal length in the Nubia Z range and ZTE Axons. It differs from its other 35mm-equipped stablemates, and the 1/1.49″ sensor is the largest employed by ZTE thus far. It’s not a bad start, but the other cameras are less impressive. At the very least, the AF-capable 50MP 13mm ultrawide appears more promising than the meager 8MP 80mm telephoto.

A slider switch on the phone’s side may be used as a shortcut for the camera app, working in tandem with a body designed to conjure memories of a period when cameras were not smartphones.

However, the Nubia Z50S Pro is a smartphone, and it is quite well-specified. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 inside is only now being surpassed by the Gen 3 as the most powerful Android chipset, and with up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, you won’t be short on memory.

The bright and high-resolution 6.78-inch OLED display will undoubtedly keep you interested; the 5,100mAh battery will keep it going for a while; and the 80W charging will allow for quick top-ups when ‘a while’ isn’t enough.

ZTE NUBIA Z50S PRO UNBOXING

The Z50S Pro comes in packaging designed to resemble a vintage camera, preparing you for the look of the phone within. Along with the device, you receive a snap-on clear rear protective cover that also envelops the edges in rather tacky shiny plastic – practical, yes, but also polarizing in terms of appearance.

The charging approach will be more widely appealing: an 80W adaptor with a USB-C cable.

CAMERA

The ZTE Nubia Z50S Pro features a triple camera arrangement. First, there’s a 50MP main sensor capable of producing high-quality images in a variety of lighting circumstances. Furthermore, it delivers outstanding details, clear photos, and improved color grading in each shot. Second, there’s a 50MP ultra-wide lens for shooting accurate wide details. Finally, the phone has an 8MP telephoto sensor for magnified images.

Undoubtedly, the camera app is meant to provide a natural field of vision, allowing users to create stunning portrait shots. Furthermore, the ultra-wide sensor will cause less distortion, although the telephoto lens may not be as good as other camera options. Nonetheless, it didn’t cause any problems and generated good images. The camera app includes typical night, portrait, and macro settings to help you improve your photos.

Aside from that, the phone’s low-light image quality is worth noting. Not only that, but the phone’s main camera can record videos in 4K resolution. Moving to the dot-notch 16MP selfie camera, you will get acceptable color grading, clear contrast, and adequate saturation in the majority of the images. However, this lens can only record 1080p films at 30fps. Overall, the images are excellent, but the video recording experience, particularly with the front camera arrangement, is less so. Furthermore, gyro-EIS functionality is lacking from the smartphone, thus movies may appear unsteady.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

At first glance, the phone appears to be rather stylish and sleek, with a leather and metallic finish in gold and black. Both of them seem fantastic and enticing as flagship phones. In addition, you will receive a silver color option with a glossy rear panel and a white camera panel. Aside from that, the smartphone features an aluminum side panel with several utilitarian buttons.

The ZTE Nubia Z50S Pro will undoubtedly charm you once you hold it, and it features a flat 6.78-inch AMOLED panel with exceptional brightness support. You won’t have any troubles outside because the screen brightness can reach 1200 nits, making everything visible even in direct sunlight. At the same time, it’s worth mentioning that the phone supports a 120Hz refresh rate.

This provides a seamless user experience and improved touch response for gaming and multitasking. We recommend that you set the screen settings to 120Hz refresh rate by default to improve overall screen consumption. Aside from this, smartphone manufacturers provide FHD+ resolution, allowing you to watch material in the highest quality available. However, they did not provide any proof regarding the Corning glass protection. Aside from that, the display supports 1 billion colors, and the device weighs approximately 228 grams. Overall, the display section is satisfactory, and you will have no problems with user experience. However, an OLED panel and a faster refresh rate are expected from a smartphone in this category.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 runs inside the Nubia X50S Pro, and it’s an enhanced version of the chipset SM8550-AC with a faster CPU clock on the primary core – the 3.36GHz Cortex-X3 is accompanied by 2×2.8GHz Cortex-A715, 2×2.8GHz Cortex-A710, and 3×2.0GHz Cortex-A510 CPU cores. The Adreno 740 GPU is responsible for graphics.

We know of three memory variants for the Nubia Z50S Pro: the 12GB/256GB base model, our review unit’s 12GB/1TB spec, and one with 1TB of storage but 16GB of RAM.

In our benchmark runs, the Z50S Pro performed admirably, consistently placing toward the top of the charts. In both GeekBench and Antutu, this nubia was roughly tied with the Red Magic 8S Pro for first place, with a Zenfone 10 in the same ballpark in GeekBench and slightly behind in Antutu.

In the offscreen runs in GFXBench, the nubia has another slight advantage over rival models, however the difference is usually too minor to notice. In the onscreen tests, however, the Z50S Pro’s greater display resolution puts it at a disadvantage, while phones with 1080p displays (and, of course, the SD 8 Gen 2) score significantly higher. The Nubia Z50S Pro returns to the top of the offscreen 3DMark rankings, confirming its status as one of the most powerful handsets available.

The Nubia Z50S Pro also demonstrated its ability to handle continuous heavy loads gracefully. After an almost immediate 10-ish percent drop in performance in the CPU throttling test, we saw a gradual decline to around 80% of the initial result, which the phone maintained for about half an hour before dropping slightly further to around 75%, which we believe it can maintain indefinitely.

In the 3DMark Wild Life stress test, the phone also showed a slow fall in results, with several great stable plateaus, eventually achieving an okay stability rating of 71%.

Buy it if...

• The slider has an appealing design, is well-built, and can be handy.
• Excellent display: sharp, bright, and color-accurate.
• Above-average battery life, with fast charging.
• Loud stereo speakers.
• Flagship-grade performance with excellent stability.
• Excellent main camera in all shooting settings; the 35mm focal length may be just what you’re looking for.

Don't buy it if…

• There is no IP rating.
• No wireless charging.
• It’s a little bulky, slippery, and uncomfortable to grip.
• More slider options could be very beneficial.
• No HFR gaming and less polished software than competitors.
• There is a large coverage gap between the ultrawide and main cameras.
• Telephoto and selfie cams are mediocre.

FULL SPECIFICATION