nubia Z50S Pro review

35mm main camera is the star of the show

The nubia Z50S Pro takes the 35mm smartphone camera a step up and replaces the 1/1.7"-ish sensor of previous ZTE/nubia efforts in the field with a larger, 1/1.49" imager. The ultrawide is a moderately promising unit too, featuring a high-res sensor and autofocus, and that only leaves the modest telephoto as a bit of letdown on paper.

The primary camera is based on the Sony IMX 800 - a 54MP sensor with a somewhat odd aspect, from which the nubia is only using 50MP in a 4:3 crop. The 4-to-1 binning of 1.0µm pixels results in 12.5MP default photo resolution and 2.0µm effective pixel pitch. The 35mm-equivalent lens has an aperture of f/1.6 that should make for nicely thin depth of field - hopefully, that's your thing. Optical image stabilization is also on the menu.

The ultrawide employs the OV50D sensor - this 50MP OmniVision 4-cell design with a 1/2.88" optical format and 0.61µm pixels also outputs 12.5MP images. The lens on this camera has a focal length listed at 13mm and its aperture is f/2.05 (we'd go ahead and call it f/2.0, but figured we'd mention what the EXIF says). Crucially, this camera features autofocus.

The telephoto camera reports to be using the SK hynix Hi-847 sensor - a 1/4.4" 8MP unit. The lens has an 80mm equivalent focal length and an f/2.4 aperture and is stabilized.

The selfie camera on the front uses the OmniVision OV16A 16MP sensor with a 1/3.06" optical format, 1.0µm pixel size, and a conventional Bayer filter array. The fixed-focus lens has an equivalent focal length of 26mm and an f/2.45 aperture going by the file info (f/2.4 in specs).

Camera app and features

The camera app covers the basics like any other camera app - a side-swipeable mode carousel, a zoom selector in immediate vicinity of the shutter button, and a few quick toggles at the far end with less common settings a few more taps away. A Pro mode is also available offering manual exposure and focus (with peaking), a live histogram and even an intervalometer.

The nubia's special touch is in the Street mode, which can be accessed from the mode selector or by flicking the mechanical slider on the right side of the handset (unless you choose to assign that to something actually useful).

It gives you access to filters, shows the exposure parameters (but doesn't really let you alter them), and allows the option for manual focus. Also in here is a toggle for adding two types of artificial grain - the assumption probably being that the best street photography is done on film and film has grain.

Camera UI

Daylight photo quality

Daylight photos out of the Z50S Pro's main camera are good. Noise is barely a thing, and detail is ample, but random textures like grass and leaves can look a bit artificial. White balance is accurate, and colors have a good level of saturation when shooting outdoors, though, in indoor photos, we had more of a mixed experience - both sofa shots are a bit lifeless. The contrast is great, and the dynamic range is nicely wide with well-developed tonal extremes.

The unusual focal length (for a phone) means you'll be getting different perspectives from the ones you're probably used to. On occasion, you might be forced to step back to get more in the frame (or resort to the ultrawide camera), but, on the other hand, you may be better able to focus the attention on a subject simply because of having fewer distractions in your photo.

Daylight samples, main camera (35mm)

Meanwhile, shooting objects at or close to minimum focusing distance makes for a nicely shallow depth of field and smoothly blurred backgrounds without the relatively pronounced distortion you'd get from a 24mm-equivalent focal length.

Daylight samples, main camera (35mm)

The nubia's Street mode has filter presets that emulate different film stock - or at least allude to those, because the default FJ 100 doesn't specifically mention Fujifilm, nor is KD 400 explicitly called Kodak. In addition to the filtered colors and whatnot, there's a separate toggle for adding film-like grain. It has two options - Old/Frosted and Thick/Thin, which you can combine to your liking.

Street mode, grain: Old Thick • Old Thin • Frosted Thick • Frosted Thin

The full-res 50MP photos are more of an upscale job than a differently demosaicked image from the sensor, so we see no detail advantage.

Daylight samples, main camera (35mm), 50MP

The nubia's main camera can also output images at a 50mm equivalent focal length. While not as pin-sharp as the native focal length's results, the photos do still have a decent level of detail and look better from up close than the 50MP shots above.

Daylight samples, main camera (50mm)

The telephoto, while having an 8MP sensor, still outputs 12.5MP images to match the other two modules' results. With that in mind, these photos aren't the sharpest, but we'd say that detail is easily good enough, though fine random textures are once again not the nubia's forte. Exposures are on point, though, and dynamic range is good. White balance and colors also don't leave much to be desired.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (80mm)

There's also a 170mm button in the viewfinder, and that stretches the telephoto camera's capabilities pretty thin. If you refrain from up-close examination, you'll probably be okay with these shots, but for anything beyond fit to screen viewing, you'd see the lack of pixel-level sharpness.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (170mm)

The ultrawide's results in bright daylight are very good. The field of view is rather extreme, which can make for some nice perspectives. Dynamic range is excellent, white balance is accurate, and color saturation is on point. Detail is good as well, and it's only the moderate amount of grain that could pass as a complaint, albeit a minor one - and that's not the Street mode artificially added grain, mind you.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (13mm)

The full-res mode on the ultrawide camera is once again pointless.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (13mm), 50MP

That somewhat explains the relatively lackluster detail in the 'Macro' mode shots - the 13mm-equivalent ultrawide tries to match the 35mm-equivalent main camera in coverage, effectively zooming in digitally almost three times. The images still look striking if you don't examine them at 1:1 though.

'Macro' samples

Low-light photo quality

In low light, the nubia has an Auto Night mode implementation in Photo mode that will show a pop-up icon when the phone decides to engage that extra level of processing. The icon is actionable, and you can deactivate the Night mode right there and then, but the auto behavior will return if you switch cameras or the next time you launch the camera app.

On the main camera, out of the scenes below, the Auto Night mode kicked in explicitly only for the last two images, but looking at all the photos, there's got to be some under-the-hood advanced processing at all times.

The photos are rather brightly exposed - some would say that they're too bright and don't correctly represent reality, but the counterargument also exists that you'd rather see things in your shadows than have them 'accurately' captured. If you subscribe to the latter school of thought, nubia's photos will delight you.

Along with the lifted shadows, the highlights are also very well contained, and the phone manages to deliver excellent dynamic range with its main camera at night. There can be some haloing around light sources, but it's not too dramatic, and a significant part of what you're seeing around bright signs is due to the haze on that particular night of shooting. Colors are mostly great too, detail is excellent.

Low-light samples, main camera (35mm), Photo mode

The same scenes in the dedicated Night mode look mostly identical, with the exception of the fifth photo that's been brightened up further still - perhaps now excessively so. The lack of significant differences does a lot to convince us that the main camera is doing most of the same Night mode trickery in Photo mode without telling you. Either that, or the camera is so good that it doesn't need to use Night mode, and when you do force it on, it can't do much better.

Low-light samples, main camera (35mm), Night mode

That said, for the two scenes that the viewfinder said were captured with Night mode processing in Photo mode, we also captured Night mode-less versions, and those are significantly darker and with a more limited dynamic range.

Low-light samples, main camera (35mm), no Night mode

The 50mm zoom level behaved similarly, with what we believe is implicit Night mode processing across the board, only there's no dedicated Night mode for this magnification. The photos maintain the exposure characteristics of the 35mm shots and detail is quite alright - better, we'd say, in the low-light context than the 50mm shots are in the day.

Low-light samples, main camera (50mm), Photo mode

Only for the last scene did the Night mode icon light up, and here's how it looks with the toggle disengaged.

Low-light samples, main camera (50mm), no Night mode

In the dark, the telephoto camera works at 12.5MP in Photo mode (whether the auto Night engages or not) and 8MP in the dedicated Night mode. Once again, the Photo mode shots are brightly exposed, and dynamic range is wide, only now the shadows are noticeably softer, and there's a bit of an overall haziness to detail.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (80mm), Photo mode

The telephoto's Night mode shots are sharper on a pixel level; it's just that there are fewer pixels. We wouldn't say there's any meaningful difference in the global parameters.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (80mm), Night mode

The ultrawide camera is more honest with what it's doing in terms of Night mode action - in all of the scenes, the Night mode icon in Photo mode lit up, and we got largely the same results shooting this way that we got in the dedicated Night mode.

Once again, we're treated to brightly exposed photos with wide dynamic range and competent color rendition. These aren't the sharpest shots, but are pretty solid in that respect too.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (13mm), Photo mode

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (13mm), Night mode

Disabling Night mode on the ultrawide will result in darker shots with blown-out highlights - dynamic range takes a dive. Noise gets more prominent, too. We'd stick to Night mode on this one, whether auto or forced.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (13mm), no Night mode

Once you're done with the real-world samples, head over to our Photo Compare tool to see how the nubia Z50S Pro stacks up against the competition.

nubia Z50S Pro against the Xiaomi 13T Pro and the OnePlus 11 in our Photo compare tool

Portrait mode

The nubia can capture portraits at three focal lengths - 80mm with the telephoto is the default, and you also get 35mm and 50mm options from the main camera.

The 35mm results are the best when it comes to detail. The focal length is already pretty good for phone camera portraits where you'd be far enough for it not to be uncomfortable and not to get distorted facial features. The separation is quite competent, though the wooden paneling did get the algorithms a little confused.

Portrait mode samples, main camera (35mm)

The 50mm results get noticeably softer when looking at subject detail, but are still pretty usable.

Portrait mode samples, main camera (50mm)

The 80mm focal length makes for a more traditional portrait look and places you farther from the subject. Image quality is a bit behind what you'd get at 35mm but pretty solid again.

Portrait mode samples, telephoto camera (80mm)

Selfies

Selfies are more of a so-so affair on the nubia Z50S Pro. Despite the 16MP resolution, the detail is somewhat sketchy. Skin tones and colors, in general, are good, and the dynamic range is nicely wide as well, though backlit scenes do suffer from loss of contrast.

Selfie samples

Video recording

The nubia Z50S Pro can record video up to 8K30 with its main camera, which also supports 4K30 and 4K60, but also 4K120. The ultrawide is also capable of 4K at both 30 and 60fps, while the telephoto maxes out at 1080p30. There's optional electronic stabilization in all modes on all cameras except 8K and 4K120. The default codec is h.264, but h.265 is also available in settings.

8K footage out of the main camera is no more detailed than 4K - it's just larger, and files are three times as big (105Mbps vs. 35Mbps).

The 4K30 footage is properly nice, though. Dynamic range is excellent, contrast is great, colors are on point. Detail is very good and somewhat more organically rendered than in photos. 4K60 (at 62Mbps) is about the same in most respects, only with a small crop and ever so slightly warmer colors for some reason.

The 50mm zoom level produces very usable footage that's only slightly softer than the 35mm results when comparing the 30fps modes. The 60fps is once again cropped in a little bit and is a tad softer still, while also maintaining the warmer white balance.

The 1080p clips from the telephoto camera are more in the meh category. It's decent FullHD, but it's still just FullHD in terms of detail. Dynamic range and color are solid, though - no complaints.

The ultrawide camera's 4K30 footage is pretty good as well, if a bit bland - contras could be a bit higher, and saturation could use a nudge. Weirdly enough, the 60fps results are a little better detailed.

Low-light video quality is very good out of the nubia's primary cam. Dynamic range is respectable, and both tonal extremes are reasonably well developed, while colors maintain a good level of saturation and are mostly accurate. Detail is alright as well. Some ghosting can be seen (the bright white spots) when you have lights blasting straight at the camera, but that's all too common with phone cameras.

The ultrawide can't quite handle darkness and its footage tends to be either too dark, or too noisy, or both. It's hardly alone in its ineptitude, though - good low-light ultrawide videos are rare.

The telephoto is no better - it captures soft and blocky 1080p clips at night.

Stabilization is very good on the nubia Z50S Pro. The main camera and the ultrawide iron out walking shake well and pan smoothly. The telephoto is ever so slightly more fidgety, but is still pretty stable too.

Here's a glimpse of how the nubia Z50S Pro compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.

nubia Z50S Pro against the Xiaomi 13T Pro and the OnePlus 11 in our Video compare tool