Nubia Z60 Extremely overview: Thrilling on paper

We’ve reviewed quite a few telephones from Nubia’s gaming sub-brand, Redmagic, which provide unbeatable gaming efficiency at lifelike costs. Nevertheless, they battle to compete outdoors of their gaming area of interest. The Nubia Z60 Extremely is the corporate’s try and ship an inexpensive flagship smartphone, pairing flagship {hardware} with a mid-range worth.

Beginning at $600, the Z60 Extremely competes with wonderful telephones from established manufacturers like Google, Samsung, and Motorola, placing it in a tricky spot at launch. However regardless of some noticeable flaws, the Nubia Z60 Extremely is usually a good selection for individuals who like a cellphone that lets them tweak practically each facet whereas providing excessive efficiency.

Worth and availability

Do not anticipate good protection in every single place

The Nubia Z60 Extremely prices $599 in its base 8+256GB configuration, $649 for 12+256GB, and $779 for 16+512GB. That is cheaper than most of our favourite Android telephones that provide comparable {hardware}, however it’s definitely not a finances system. Nevertheless, with simply three years of software program and safety updates, the worth of the Z60 Extremely is not pretty much as good because it appears on paper.

The Nubia Z60 Extremely is obtainable in america, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Singapore, Pakistan, Chile, Egypt, Kuwait, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE by its international retailer. Additionally it is obtainable for the UK and European Union international locations by the UK and EU shops, respectively. Nubia’s FAQ says it does not have a definitive timeline for transport to India or Canada.

The Z60 Extremely works on all related networks within the US; nonetheless, it does not assist some bands required by the most important carriers. Whereas all essential bands are lined, some backup bands wanted for constant protection (e.g., Band 71 for T-Cellular) are absent. As we focus on in a while, this ends in a spotty connection.

Design

Trendy and barely impractical

We have reviewed quite a lot of Nubia’s Redmagic telephones at this level, and it is clear that the corporate has settled on a design language. The Z60 Extremely is a blocky, brutalist system that forgoes subtlety in favor of a barely uncomfortable however uncontroversial design. Not like its predecessor, the Z50 Professional, there are not any rounded edges, however probably the most important distinction is the digital camera bar.

The Z60 Extremely’s digital camera bar takes up a 3rd of the cellphone’s again. Every digital camera is separated into distinct areas on the raised bar, which shrinks a number of millimeters away from the cellphone edge. The crevices created by the raised digital camera bar and lenses are lint magnets; I consistently needed to wipe away mud from these areas throughout use. Whereas the digital camera bar is undoubtedly eye-catching, it is uncomfortable to carry with out a case as your fingers will catch on the lenses, digital camera bar, and corners.

Other than a strip alongside the digital camera bar, the Z60 provides a matte floor that, whereas trendy, is slippery.

Other than a strip alongside the digital camera bar, the Z60 provides a matte floor that, whereas trendy, is slippery. I do not belief the flimsy clear plastic case Nubia ships with the cellphone to maintain it secure; it is necessary to make use of in the event you do not wish to really feel such as you’re holding a slippery bar of cleaning soap. It is a big cellphone, so folks with small arms will discover it exhausting to maintain a agency grip even with a case.

The bezels are minuscule, permitting the flat display screen to take up practically the entire of the entrance. The entrance digital camera hides below the display screen; there is not any punch-hole right here or notch to interrupt up the show. Nubia has pre-applied a display screen protector, which is nice for defense however irritating while you’re catching your fingers on the aspect each few seconds. I want Nubia would ship the display screen protector individually to offer us the selection.

The ability button and quantity rocker relaxation on the aspect of the Z60 Extremely in portrait, alongside a change that may be programmed to carry out numerous actions. It is set to open the digital camera by default, the place I left it for my overview. It is handy in the event you like having plenty of shortcuts at your fingertips, however the location means it might have been quicker to allow us to double-tap the ability button as a substitute, because it’s awkward to achieve right down to flip it.

I admire Nubia’s minimalistic design, however there is not any denying that the cellphone is uncomfortable to carry for lengthy stretches. You may wish to purchase a case to guard the digital camera lenses and cease the sq. cellphone from digging into your hand.

Show

Simply the most effective function of the cellphone

The Z60 Professional provides an AMOLED 6.8 inch 1116×2480 show with a 20:9 facet ratio. It may attain 1500 nits in peak brightness; I by no means had an issue viewing the display screen in shiny daylight. It helps a 60Hz or 120Hz refresh fee, however due to the spectacular battery life (extra on that later), you’ll be able to lock it to 120Hz with out dropping a lot display screen time.

The display screen is among the greatest I’ve used for cellular gaming and watching movies. Whereas the under-camera show causes issues with selfies (extra on that later), and the angular corners aren’t comfy within the hand, the result’s a display screen that makes full use of the area obtainable, edge to edge, and it is beautiful.

The display screen is among the greatest I’ve used for cellular gaming and watching movies.

The Z60 Extremely provides three software program colour modes: Colourful, Normal, and Gentle. Whereas I used the Normal mode for many of my overview, it was usually too harsh on my eyes, particularly at max brightness. Gentle mode is far simpler to view in darkish environments however nonetheless shows vivid colours in daylight. We not too long ago reviewed the Nubia Redmagic 9 Professional, which galvanized us with its 960Hz contact sampling fee. The Z60 Professional blows this out of the water with a 1200Hz peak sampling fee; it is one of the crucial responsive telephones available on the market.

Software program and efficiency

Buggy software program paired with sensible {hardware}

Nubia’s MyOS14 appears near inventory Android on the floor, however dig slightly deeper, and you will find a wealth of customization choices you will not discover on Google’s or Samsung’s telephones. The fingerprint unlock animation, app icon form, and always-on show have loads of customization selections which might be often solely present in third-party launchers or app-icon packs from the Play Retailer.

There are a few sensible methods, too. Swiping in from a translucent bar brings up a shortcut menu that exhibits as much as 15 apps in a floating window. This bar will be moved, however it can’t be eliminated. Frustratingly, there is not any strategy to open apps to full-screen routinely.

Sadly, my time with the Z60 Extremely was stricken by minor software program bugs and connection points

Fortunately, Google Pay works out of the field, not like Nubia’s RedMagic telephones, and Google Assistant is as straightforward to arrange as it’s on Pixel telephones. You’ll be able to customise the Z60 Extremely to be near a inventory Android expertise, which is useful in the event you’re somebody like me who prefers a simple interface. All these distinctive customization choices are buried in menus; you do not have to work together with them in the event you do not wish to.

Sadly, my time with the Z60 Extremely was stricken by minor software program bugs and connection points. A standard downside was that the cellphone would refuse to ship me notifications for apps. Instagram would cheerfully replace me with messages, whereas vital messages on WhatsApp would go unread till I opened the app, and it bombarded me with all my notifications directly.

This wasn’t an app-specific downside both; there was no sample to what apps refused to work with the notification system.

Additionally problematic was that alarms (on each preinstalled Clock apps) would refuse to ring, and whereas I preferred having tap-to-pay once more, it ceaselessly took me two or three goes to make a profitable transaction. This may occasionally must do with the digital camera bar interfering with connectivity.

Connectivity issues weren’t restricted to NFC communication both. I hardly ever noticed the 5G icon seem for quite a lot of minutes at a time, and my 4G LTE connection would additionally randomly drop out in suburban areas the place my Pixel 7 Professional would often give me a dependable connection.

These bugs and connectivity points made the cellphone irritating to make use of each day. Whereas a number of strong software program updates might resolve most of those, a lot of our issues with MyOS have been famous since our early critiques of RedMagic telephones; I do not maintain out a lot hope for the long run. The place the Z60 Extremely practically makes up for its bugs is its efficiency and battery life, that are the most effective I’ve skilled on any cellphone but.

The Z60 Extremely would possibly appear to be a flashy digital camera cellphone, however it’s a gaming powerhouse below the hood. I used to be anticipating the Snapdragon Gen 3 chipset to deal with any recreation, and I wasn’t disenchanted. Minecraft, Genshin Influence, and Lifeless Cells all ran at a rock-solid 60fps with the settings cranked as much as max. Whereas this wasn’t stunning, I used to be impressed by how the cellphone stayed comparatively cool throughout my testing. It does get heat to the contact, however by no means a lot that I needed to cease taking part in. It is simply in a position to deal with the entire most demanding video games on Android.

I used to be impressed by how the cellphone stayed comparatively cool throughout my testing. It does get heat to the contact, however by no means a lot that I needed to cease taking part in.

The cellphone additionally carried out superbly outdoors of gaming. The UI by no means struggled to maintain up, even once I was watching a video in a floating window, downloading music within the background, and scrolling Instagram concurrently. It is an ideal expertise however marred by the aforementioned bugs.

Sadly, whereas the top-of-the-line {hardware} can be related for years, it feels redundant when the cellphone will solely obtain three years of software program assist. It might final for over twice that lengthy, however except you wish to threat utilizing a cellphone with out-of-date safety patches, you will not wish to. You may additionally must cope with Nubia’s replace cadence, which is spotty at greatest.

Battery life

You may by no means must run for a charger

Wonderful efficiency can come at the price of battery life, however not within the case of the Z60 Extremely. Even after locking the refresh fee to 120Hz, I discovered that the cellphone’s 6,000mAh battery would comfortably final me all day, averaging about six hours of on-screen time to convey me to round 50%. When you’re cautious, you may get two and even three days out of the cellphone. The largest drain was recording with the cameras; 4K recording will drain it extremely quick.

Whereas I could not check the boxed charger on account of area incompatibility, my 45W Anker charger solely took 43 minutes to cost the cellphone from 0% to 100%, due to the cellphone’s Turbocharge function. Whereas the cellphone grew heat throughout charging with this function, it by no means overheated.

A nifty function of the Z60 Extremely’s battery is cut up charging. This offers your system energy with out charging the battery; it’s good if you wish to preserve your cellphone topped up throughout media or gaming with out overheating.

Cameras

Difficult to work with

The Z60 Extremely’s cameras are flashy and crowd pleasing, however there’s far more to a very good cameraphone than slapping the most important lens you’ll be able to on the again. Whereas I used to be excited to check out these cameras, I quickly discovered myself disenchanted with the inconsistent outcomes I received.

The 50 MP, f/1.7 essential lens provides a wider focal size than most fashionable cameras. 35mm looks like rather a lot, and I seen the distinction instantly when capturing outdoors. It is accompanied by a 64 MP, f/3.3, 85mm telephoto digital camera and a 50MP, f/1.8, 18mm ultrawide digital camera. Outcomes had been oversharpened and wanted higher colour correction. I missed my Pixel’s software program methods that optimize images after the shot.

The Z60 Extremely appears to shift a shot’s colours within the unsuitable path, whether or not turning the already bleak world of England in January extra gray or oversaturating indoor images to the intense. The ultra-wide lens is dramatically wider than the first, and I loved utilizing it for outside panorama images, although it suffered from the identical post-processing issues as the principle lens.

The telephoto lens, alternatively, is terrible. It may zoom as much as 30x, however I do not advocate it; the outcomes are blurry and unusable. A 15x zoom is satisfactory, however I am stunned Nubia enabled 30x zoom in any respect when the outcomes are so disappointing.

The selfie digital camera can also be disappointing. Whereas I’m not anticipating magic, the oversharpened outcomes it produced require heavy modifying earlier than you publish them to social media. Nevertheless, regardless of their flaws, the Z60 Extremely’s cameras can end up nice images in the correct atmosphere. And in the event you get pleasure from tweaking your lenses, the Professional mode on the digital camera unlocks an enormous vary of settings.

Competitors

There are extra dependable telephones for related costs

The Z60 Extremely is $600 for its base mannequin, placing it up towards stiff competitors. For $100 extra, the Samsung Galaxy S23 provides important enhancements in each space, bar charging, however for $500, you get the Pixel 7a, which offers the most effective software program expertise on Android, plus implausible cameras as well.

The Pixel 7a does not supply the AI methods of the Pixel 8 sequence, nor does the Z60 Extremely. Whereas the Tensor G2’s efficiency is not near the Snapdragon Gen 3’s capabilities, it is nonetheless a dependable chipset for gaming and media. However in fact, the Pixel expertise means good cameras, and right here it wins arms down. It’s going to additionally get software program updates till 2026 and safety updates till 2028. Nevertheless, it’s essential to cope with subpar battery life and gradual charging speeds.

The Galaxy S23 is dearer however provides a gorgeous display screen, long-lasting battery, and One UI, which beats out MyOS relating to reliability and design. The Snapdragon Gen 2 chip is not a lot of a downgrade both; it is an environment friendly chipset that may deal with all video games simply in addition to the Gen 3 with out overheating.

Do you have to purchase it?

The Z60 Extremely is spectacular on paper however struggles to again up its guarantees after a number of days of use. Whereas its efficiency and battery life are excellent, the unreliable software program and disappointing cameras are irritating each day. It looks like a cellphone that ought to have gone by a number of extra rounds of testing earlier than it made its strategy to the general public.

If Nubia manages to enhance these points with software program updates, we might contemplate it the most effective Android telephones round, however I do not maintain out a lot hope with solely three years to go.