ZTE Nubia Z80 Ultra

The ZTE Nubia Z80 Ultra has a standard, non-folding form factor measuring 164.5 mm tall, 77.2 mm wide, and 8.6 mm thick, with a total volume of 109.21 cm³ and a weight of 227 g. It carries an IP68 ingress protection rating, confirming full waterproof capability at depths of up to 1.5 metres. The device does not feature a rugged build, so while it handles water exposure confidently, it is not designed for heavy-duty physical protection.

The ZTE Nubia Z80 Ultra features a 6.85″ OLED/AMOLED touchscreen with a resolution of 1216 x 2688 px and a pixel density of 431 ppi, producing a sharp and detailed image across its large panel. It supports a 144Hz refresh rate along with both HDR10 and HDR10+, and an Always-On Display mode keeps key information visible without fully waking the screen. Dolby Vision is not supported, and there is no secondary screen on the device.

The device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, a 3 nm 64-bit octa-core SoC clocked at 2 x 4.6 GHz and 6 x 3.62 GHz across 8 threads, with a thermal design power of 8.2W. It employs big.LITTLE architecture with Heterogeneous Multi-Processing for efficient workload distribution, and ARM TrustZone for hardware-level security. Accompanying the CPU is 16 GB of DDR5 RAM running at 5300 MHz across two memory channels, with a maximum memory bandwidth of 85.1 GB/s and ECC support, while 1024 GB of internal storage is included and the chip supports up to 24 GB of RAM in total. The Adreno 830 GPU runs at 1200 MHz with 1536 shading units, supports up to two displays, and is compatible with DirectX 12, OpenGL 3.2, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 3. Cache is arranged across L1 at 192 KB, L2 at 12 MB, and L3 at 8 MB, and the SoC also integrates LTE. Geekbench 6 scores are recorded at 3234 single-core and 10059 multi-core.

The ZTE Nubia Z80 Ultra features a triple rear camera system with sensors at 64 MP, 50 MP, and 50 MP, paired with apertures of f/2.4, f/1.7, and f/1.8 respectively, covering a focal range from 18 mm to 70 mm with 2.7x optical zoom. All three lenses are supported by optical image stabilisation, and focusing is handled through a combination of laser autofocus, phase-detection autofocus, and touch autofocus, with continuous autofocus available during video recording. The main camera uses a CMOS sensor — though not back-illuminated — and video capture reaches up to 4320 x 30 fps with HDR10 recording supported; slow-motion recording and timelapse are also available, while Dolby Vision recording and 3D video are not. Manual controls extend to exposure, ISO, focus, and white balance, though manual shutter speed is absent, and the camera can shoot in RAW format alongside burst mode and in-camera panoramas, but 360-degree panorama is not supported. The dual-tone LED flash consists of two LEDs at the rear; the front 16 MP camera has an f/2.0 aperture but lacks its own flash and is a single-lens setup positioned above the display rather than beneath it.

The device runs Android 16 as a free and open-source operating system, supporting multiple user accounts and offering a range of privacy controls including clipboard warnings, location privacy options, camera and microphone access management, and the ability to block app tracking — though cross-site tracking blocking and Mail Privacy Protection are not included. Personalisation options cover dark mode, dynamic theming, theme customisation, widgets, and an extra dim mode, while productivity is aided by split-screen multitasking, Picture-in-Picture, full-page scrolling screenshots, a media picker, sharing intents, and the ability to play games while they are still downloading. On-device machine learning is present alongside offline voice recognition and voice commands, and users also have access to Live Text, customisable notifications, notification permission controls, a child lock, app offloading, battery health check, and device tracking. OS updates do not come directly from the vendor, and the device does not support Wi-Fi password sharing, focus modes, or Quick Start.

The ZTE Nubia Z80 Ultra is equipped with a 7200 mAh rechargeable battery that supports fast wired charging at 90W and wireless charging at 80W, giving flexible options for quick top-ups. A battery level indicator is built in, and the device does not have a removable battery. Reverse wireless charging is not available, meaning the handset cannot be used to wirelessly charge other devices.

Audio output is handled by stereo speakers, and the device supports aptX, aptX HD, and aptX Adaptive for high-quality wireless audio over Bluetooth, though aptX Lossless is not included. There is no 3.5 mm headphone jack, so wired headphones require an adapter, and the handset does not have a built-in radio.

The ZTE Nubia Z80 Ultra supports 5G cellular connectivity alongside a dual SIM configuration, and wireless networking spans Wi-Fi 4, 5, 6, 6E, and Wi-Fi 7, with download speeds reaching up to 10,000 Mbits/s and upload speeds up to 3,500 Mbits/s. Bluetooth 5.4 is on board together with NFC, and the USB Type-C port operates at USB 3.2 speeds; there is no external memory slot or HDMI output. Biometric security is provided by a fingerprint scanner, while 3D facial recognition and an iris scanner are absent, and no stylus is included. Sensors include a gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, GPS with Galileo support, and an infrared sensor, but the device lacks a barometer, heart rate monitor, and motion or optical tracking. Crash detection, emergency SOS via satellite, ANT+, DLNA certification, and a built-in projector are all not featured.

The device includes a video light to assist with illumination during video recording, while the display is flat rather than curved and uses neither sapphire glass nor an e-paper panel.