ZTE Nubia Z17 review: Driven by ambition

Synthetic benchmarks

The Nubia Z17 is a true flagship offer and a beastly one at that. It is built around the latest Snapdragon 835 chipset. This means a potent 4x2.35 GHz Kryo & 4x1.9 GHz Kryo CPU setup and Adreno 540 GPU. Naturally, this lets the Z17 rub shoulders with the cream of the crop of today's smartphone market.

The Snapdragon 835 powerhouse is still found in only a number of handsets. These include the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ pair, Sony Xperia XZ Premium and HTC U11 - all more expensive than the Z17. However, there are other rivals out of China which have also taken up the hard task of integrating a Snapdragon 835 chip on a budget - most notably, the OnePlus 5 and the Xiaomi Mi 6. In a perfect scenario, free of all the additional availability and support concerns, these are the contenders the Nubia Z17 has to face and beat.

Making it in this fairly new, ultra-value, sub-$500 niche is probably one of the toughest challenges a manufacturer can take on in 2017. After putting the Z17 through its paces quite thoroughly, we are happy to report that it aces the performance round.

Kicking things off with the pure CPU-based GeekBench, we can see the Nubia Z17 hold its own with a multi-threaded workload and even out-inch the other Snapdragon 835 phones in single-core tests.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 6
  6719
• ZTE nubia Z17
  6622
• OnePlus 5
  6604
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  6301
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  5460
• LG G6
  4175

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Z17
  1966
• OnePlus 5
  1932
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  1929
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  1836
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  1832
• LG G6
  1767

Now, it is important to note that Nubia has included a special per-app Performance mode in Nubia UI 5.0. It promises to push the phone that extra bit harder for a while at the expense of more heat and a bigger battery draw. Naturally, we gave it a go, but the difference in purely synthetic performance wasn't all that big. On the flip side, the phone did start to heat up quicker, so we opted not to use it.

That being said, all the posted results are achieved without any additional trickery or boost modes. There mere be a more noticeable performance difference in certain real-world scenarios, but during our tests, we really didn't manage to trip up the Z17 not even a tiny bit. And we tried. The Snapdragon 835 simply has more than enough power to go around, without any additional tweaking. It is also worth noting that we have the 6GB RAM version of the Z17. We don't really think having 8GB will net you any significant performance improvements either, but that's a topic for another discussion.

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 5
  6404
• ZTE nubia Z17
  6275
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  6132
• Huawei Mate 9
  6112
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  6106
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  5837
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  5245
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  4333
• Xiaomi Mi Note 2
  4278
• LG G6
  4209
• HTC U Ultra
  4201
• ZTE Axon 7
  3990
• Nubia Z11
  3926
• Sony Xperia XZ
  3868
• LG V20
  3824
• HTC 10
  3621

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Z17
  2065
• OnePlus 5
  2031
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  2026
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  1943
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  1915
• Huawei Mate 9
  1898
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  1854
• Xiaomi Mi Note 2
  1824
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  1815
• Nubia Z11
  1755
• LG G6
  1733
• HTC 10
  1708
• ZTE Axon 7
  1702
• HTC U Ultra
  1647
• Sony Xperia XZ
  1578
• LG V20
  1576

Basemark OS 2.0 is a little bit less kind to the Nubia Z17, but its score is still nothing short of impressive. We have to confess that our original expectations for the Chinese review unit were pretty low, considering all the added bloat the ROM is lugging around. As it turns out, however, Nubia is keeping a tight grip on the background activity and other unnecessary loads.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• OnePlus 5
  3601
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  3547
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  3319
• ZTE nubia Z17
  3281
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  3174
• Huawei Mate 9
  2637
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  2434
• Xiaomi Mi Note 2
  2381
• ZTE Axon 7
  2346
• HTC U Ultra
  2222
• LG V20
  2159
• Sony Xperia XZ
  2151
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  2128
• LG G6
  2126
• HTC 10
  1839
• Nubia Z11
  1790

Pretty much the same can be said about AnTuTu as well. It is another compound benchmark that takes a lot of metrics into account, meaning things like RAM and storage speeds are also up to code on the Nubia Z17.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• OnePlus 5
  180331
• ZTE nubia Z17
  178629
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  177326
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  168133
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  155185
• HTC 10
  154031
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  144223
• LG G6
  143639
• LG V20
  141945
• Xiaomi Mi Note 2
  140324
• HTC U Ultra
  139750
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  132084
• ZTE Axon 7
  129926
• Nubia Z11
  129099
• Sony Xperia XZ
  124266
• Huawei Mate 9
  122826

The Z17 shows off some impressive muscle in the graphics department as well. We are just a little bit skeptical of the Open GL 3.0 and 3.1 off-screen scores, since 3 frames is a big difference on the exact same Adreno 540 GPU. Regardless, the Z17 definitely performs on par with the competition.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Z17
  63
• OnePlus 5
  60
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  59
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  57
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  50
• HTC 10
  47
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  44
• LG G6
  41
• HTC U Ultra
  41
• Xiaomi Mi Note 2
  40
• LG V20
  40
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  38
• Sony Xperia XZ
  37
• Nubia Z11
  31
• Huawei Mate 9
  30
• ZTE Axon 7
  15

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Z17
  56
• OnePlus 5
  56
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  56
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  47
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  47
• Xiaomi Mi Note 2
  41
• Sony Xperia XZ
  37
• Nubia Z11
  34
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  34
• HTC 10
  28
• Huawei Mate 9
  28
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  27
• LG V20
  25
• LG G6
  24
• HTC U Ultra
  24
• ZTE Axon 7
  12

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Z17
  43
• OnePlus 5
  41
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  41
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  39
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  39
• Sony Xperia XZ
  31
• HTC 10
  31
• ZTE Axon 7
  31
• Xiaomi Mi Note 2
  30
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  30
• LG V20
  29
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  28
• HTC U Ultra
  27
• LG G6
  26
• Nubia Z11
  22
• Huawei Mate 9
  22

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Z17
  41
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  41
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  41
• OnePlus 5
  40
• Sony Xperia XZ
  32
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  32
• Xiaomi Mi Note 2
  30
• Huawei Mate 9
  23
• Nubia Z11
  22
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  18
• LG V20
  17
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  15
• HTC 10
  15
• ZTE Axon 7
  15
• HTC U Ultra
  13
• LG G6
  12

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Z17
  25
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  25
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  25
• OnePlus 5
  24
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  23
• Sony Xperia XZ
  20
• Xiaomi Mi Note 2
  20
• LG V20
  20
• HTC 10
  18
• HTC U Ultra
  18
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  18
• Nubia Z11
  16
• LG G6
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  15
• ZTE Axon 7
  15
• Huawei Mate 9
  13

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Z17
  25
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  25
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  25
• OnePlus 5
  24
• Xiaomi Mi Note 2
  20
• Sony Xperia XZ
  19
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  19
• Nubia Z11
  17
• ZTE Axon 7
  16
• Huawei Mate 9
  14
• LG V20
  12
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  12
• HTC U Ultra
  10
• HTC 10
  9.9
• LG G6
  8.5
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  7.9

Basemark X and Basemark ES 3.1 paint a bit of a different story. Again, we can't really deduce what caused the lower scores for sure, but they don't look all that trustworthy. We are confident the Adreno 540 can do better.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• OnePlus 5
  38844
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  38541
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  38507
• Huawei Mate 9
  36519
• Xiaomi Mi Note 2
  36506
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  36062
• HTC U Ultra
  35875
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  34951
• ZTE nubia Z17
  33513
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  32345
• ZTE Axon 7
  32243
• LG G6
  30507
• Sony Xperia XZ
  29548
• LG V20
  29385
• HTC 10
  28882
• Nubia Z11
  23899

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 6
  861
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  842
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  817
• OnePlus 5
  796
• Huawei Mate 9
  794
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  732
• ZTE nubia Z17
  619
• ZTE Axon 7
  606
• HTC U Ultra
  582
• Sony Xperia XZ
  577
• Xiaomi Mi Note 2
  556
• LG G6
  541
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  538
• LG V20
  526
• Nubia Z11
  432

The Nubia Z17 clearly has some trouble with synthetic tests. Some of the results we got are a bit suspiciously high, while others fall just a little short. After some careful evaluation and a lot of re-tests, with and without Performance mode, we are certain the Z17 makes proper use of its Snapdragon 835 chipset and can live up to the flagship performance expectations that come with it.

Most inconsistencies we recorded seem to be linked to the OS. We experienced absolutely no issues or slowdowns while using the phone for real-world tasks. Hopefully, we can get our hands on a proper international version of the phone soon so we can re-test everything. In case you are looking into the Nubia Z17, definitely scout out a non-Chinese version, as well. We really do think it will save you some headaches. If nothing else, Google Services are enough of a bonus in our book.