Nubia has been making noise for quite a bit in the international markets with their smartphones giving you a nice quality build and impressive specs at an inexpensive price. Its Z50 model can be considered one of the cheapest smartphones to have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. But how well does it hold up with its $500 price tag?
Style
Nubia has made the Z50 with two colorways of Black and Cyan which I’m covering. Cyan has a faux leather backing which feels nice and soft in the hand providing a nice grip on things. The fact the body is also curved helps with that as well. While focusing on the back you will see the Nubia insignia in silver next to those huge dual lenses.
As you go down its metallic frame you will notice the shiny volume rocker and power button that has a bit of texture for grip while on the bottom is a USB-C port and nanoSIM card tray. The Z50 does have stereo speakers which aren’t too bad and get surprisingly loud. The phone itself weighs just under 200g making it light to carry around.
Nubia Z50 comes with a silicone case, power adapter and USB-C cable.
2nd Gen Power
This thin phone is packing some heat inside. It has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 chipset, Adreno 740 GPU, 12GB RAM / 256GB storage (there are other configurations available) and a whopping 5,000 mAh battery. These specs put it in line with the OnePlus 11 that came out earlier this year. It supports 80W charging and can tap into that if you can utilize its included power adapter. There is even support for 15W wireless charging. Something we couldn’t even get in the OnePlus 11.
A Bright View
While it is a light phone it does feel a bit tall and that’s in part to its 6.67” curved AMOLED 144Hz display. It has a resolution of 1080×2400 with 395ppi with a bright 1000nits. It does have blue light filtering which can be enabled via its Night Light mode. There you can adjust the intensity to your liking. With it having a 144Hz display zipping through menus and apps it looks snappy with no lag.
MyOS13
Out the box you are getting MyOS13 which is Nubia’s OS of Android 13. It is one of those skins that looks to have a resemblance of iOS. But you can go in the settings and change to more of the pull up drawer mode you used to. It does have a sizable number of options like if you want to have a smaller window on the display or access various gestures.
Disclaimer: As I’m using the China variant of the Nubia Z50 some apps I have found won’t open or I can’t log into them with Google such as games like Brawlhalla or Asphalt 9. I was able to get into Fortnite though and that game ran smoothly for the lengthy periods I played it. Also, the phone itself stayed cool to the touch which was impressive. I know it’s not the most hardware intensive app but still surprised how it is managed with ease.
Dual Camera Shots
The Nubia Z50 is packed with two dual rear cameras that are 64MP and 50MP (ultrawide), while the front has 16MP lenses. I only used the selfie camera a hand full of times and shots were okay taking pix but faltered a bit in the portrait ones. As far as the back cameras’ images were surprisingly decent giving a nice color accuracy on the various subjects. Even using the 2x zoom on areas. I even found low light shots not to be that bad.
Verdict
Spending the past couple of weeks with the Nubia Z50 is a capable mid-ranger that has a nice amount of power behind it. Its display allows you to watch daily content and navigate a breeze but its OS I’m not a major fan of. Also tied in with this being a China variant and not being able to access some apps. Picture taking should satisfy those wanting to snap a photo here and there.
It could be a more compelling phone if ZTE could take it under its wing in the U.S. and add competition to the phone market. I was able to pop in my T-Mobile sim and get service FYI.
Otherwise, it’s going for $549 and only available internationally.
You can see our unboxing of the Nubia Z50 on Tiktok and Instagram.
