ZTE nubia Z60 Ultra
- u
- user
- mMa
- 17 Apr 2025
Bought it because it looks solid on paper. After spending 5 hours with it, I returned it.
Let me explain. I was looking for something to replace my old Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (Pie). Unfortunately, it was dying day by day. Naturally, I was looking for a phone that would last a few years. I hate AI, camera bumps, and notches.
The build quality of the phone is TOP, despite the box smelling like cheap Chinese plastic. The good thing is that it comes with a case and a charger. However, the setup gave me some headaches. I couldn't scan the QR code for Wi-Fi because the autofocus didn't work. Then, adding NFC payment just hung up and reset the setup to 0%. After the third attempt, I gave up on setting up NFC. You cannot disagree to automatic updates when setting up the phone. The good thing is that Google made seamless data copying to the new phone easy—just press the button to copy, and tada! (It also copied proprietary Samsung apps, but not the sideloaded ones I use every day.) Unfortunately, the whole process took 2 hours.
The Nubia has a big battery and ships with 55% charge, but it only lasted 5 hours for me and just made it to 30% on-screen time. The tutorial after the setup was bugged. I couldn't pass the Google Assistant gesture. It also displayed how to open the drawer and change the wallpaper after using the phone for an hour, which I had already done.
After setup, there were plenty of notifications. The most annoying one was "Your device is at risk, please update," but when I checked for security patches, it said "Your device is up to date." Another annoying notification was about the MyOS update, which constantly triggered vibrations and reappeared after killing the process. Some apps did not work properly; they did not sync or open (e.g., Meta Instagram/Facebook). MyOS build 4.0.9 (if I remember correctly) is what it came with. Developer options are hard to reach; they did not display in settings for me, but they are accessible from search. The whole UI is, I don't want to use strong words, garbage. It's not seamless; some apps are ZTE, some just pure Google, and some hybrid. It's really hard to look at when everywhere you have different fonts and styles. Some apps look like they're from 2015—low effort. Everything is too big, even when I changed the resolution in developer options. The app drawer does not have any space between apps, making it dense and hard to look at and find what I'm looking for. I downloaded other launchers, but they crashed when trying to change the wallpaper. The notification pane is not well thought out; the notification content (like a message from someone) is only one line and then cut, using only the center portion of the screen (50%). When you receive pictures, they are weirdly offset. Also, the notification snooze button is out of place, very small, and uses the Google icon. I believe that Android has a swipe gesture to reveal the snooze button. The whole pane was weirdly shifted to the bottom, leaving small space for buttons/notifications, just wasting screen space.
Every Nubia app has a license agreement that they will collect data. Come on, just let me use the camera or files app to search my phone. This was annoying. They also copied Samsung edge panels, but just for shortcuts, and it was hard to find the setting at first to disable them.
In addition, the camera has problems with white balance. I couldn't set it properly; for me, it was too warm and oversaturated. The pics were sharp and high-res; I could see every detail, even of challenging objects like trees, rugs, and hair. Maybe a GCam port would fix the issue with white balance. I did compare it to an iPhone, and Nubia's are better if you fix the colours after taking the pic witch editors. The fingerprint scanner did not work well for me; after adding a finger, I couldn't unlock the phone this way.
The good things: In short, mostly hardware, but there are some ZTE quirks. Nice features added like gestures (shaking, swiping), nice animation options on the launcher, vibrations to music when someone is calling, weather alarm clock, no bloatware, AMOLED screen—really good one, 120Hz, crisp, good colours (not oversaturated), very bright too, NO notch but the camera is noticeable (greenish tint), VERY loud speakers and stereo (They sound better in real life than in the recording in the GSMArena review), very bright flash LED, top solid quality, big battery, additional programmable switch, strong cameras (but white balance is way off).
Bad things: Software... It has some potential, but bad design choices were made, plus bugs. I hope LineageOS will come soon for this phone. I used a ZTE phone (Grand X In) before, and the UI was more consistent.
TL;DR: On paper, an awesome phone, but the software is far behind the competition.
- ?
- Anonymous
- XKP
- 18 Mar 2025
MFK1999, 16 Mar 2025Can anyone please confirm me does it support officially 120... more60fps only
- ?
- Anonymous
- raM
- 16 Mar 2025
MFK1999, 16 Mar 2025Can anyone please confirm me does it support officially 120... moreNo 60fps only.
- M
- MFK1999
- 2Tu
- 16 Mar 2025
Can anyone please confirm me does it support officially 120fps in pubg mobile, means does it has extreme ultra option in frame rate on smooth graphics?
- Z
- Z60
- nD8
- 15 Mar 2025
Faiz, 22 Jul 2024I use this phone for 5 days now, the stock camera is kinda ... moreHi Faiz,
Would you able to post some Gcam photos of some outdoor images online to see how the images look?
- b
- babyelephantt
- CGY
- 12 Mar 2025
Lowemon, 07 Feb 2025Currently testing Nebula AIOS with Android 15 beta. AI impr... moreI have Nubia Z60 Ultra. Can you share links to the firmware you are using? I managed to change my firmware from Chinese to EU Global.
- L
- Lowemon
- xJb
- 07 Feb 2025
Currently testing Nebula AIOS with Android 15 beta. AI improvements are huge, but many of them are reserved for CN version, since global version is expected to have gutted a lot of AI features in favor of Google apps. Performance and battery life are slightly improved, so I will see how it performs.
- ?
- Anonymous
- sk8
- 02 Jan 2025
M, 25 Dec 2024Welcome! Does anyone know what I can do to view the picture... moreWorks with Google Photos
- M
- M
- nDN
- 25 Dec 2024
Welcome! Does anyone know what I can do to view the picture taken with the nubia z60 ultra? Because the camera app doesn't allow any app to view the recently taken picture, I have to go into the gallery to see the picture which is not ok. Why can't I view it directly from the camera app?
- O
- O
- txE
- 23 Nov 2024
It's look good but look so heavy thought like 246 grams and almost 250 grams?
- CamoGeko-XDA
- AJX
- 13 Nov 2024
DroidBoye, 13 Nov 2024Nah. QHD is a "nice to have" but not a necessity ... moreIt's on my flagship checklist, if it doesn't have it it's not a flagship.
- DroidBoye
- Tit
- 13 Nov 2024
CamoGeko-XDA, 16 Oct 2024They really dropped the ball by not giving this phone QHD.Nah. QHD is a "nice to have" but not a necessity at this size of screen.
- 1
- 1plus2015
- nDP
- 28 Oct 2024
I use my Z60 Ultra for a few weeks. International version. Bought from a shop in my country.
Phone works Very Good.
Before i got it i was in panic because the soft is bad... So i wead online..
It's Not!
If it have wireless charging like Oneplus 12 it was a 10+++
- R
- RealZim
- fr%
- 15 Oct 2024
Just want to know if the panorama does 360 degrees?
- J
- Jacob
- r%0
- 12 Oct 2024
I've had this phone for a few months now. I thought it would work on ATT but it did not because Nubia has not paid for a certain certification and got blacklisted. so I had to switch to T-Mobile.
The under screen selfie camera only works reasonably well in a very brightly lit environment and it's a little "smeary" but good enough for me because I don't take a lot of selfies anyways and I'm much happier without a hole punch. If you're looking for those pixels you can kinda see em, and sometimes the algorithm to color them in is a bit glitchy but personally I rarely notice it
The biggest issue I've had is pretty constant jittering in certain apps, especially YouTube and other Google apps, where scrolling freezes and starts again and videos sound like an early days zoom call. Apparently this is a problem with Android 14, but it kinda does suck.
Also the default gallery is Google cloud storage. Which is fine until Google starts telling you that you're running out of space and have to pay for storage. I downloaded a different photo gallery app that isn't ideal but at least saves photos to the phone only and not some online server.
Great main cameras btw. The default camera software is not QUITE on par with most flagships, but it's pretty good and definitely top tier camera hardware. My coworker has an iPhone and couldn't believe his eyes when he saw a random picture I was showing him.
- DroidBoye
- DxV
- 06 Oct 2024
I'm kind of disappointed that this phone does not support LHDC bluetooth audio codec. LDAC works though.
- 1
- 1plus2013
- nDP
- 26 Sep 2024
Tref, 27 Aug 2024This or OnePlus 12?This for Realy Beautiful Design!
Far better phone OnePlus 12.