The highly anticipated Nubia Z80 Ultra is gearing up for its official release in China, as recently confirmed by ZTE Mobile Devices President Ni Fei. This upcoming flagship smartphone promises a formidable performance, driven by Qualcomm’s cutting-edge Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. Early teasers have also provided a glimpse into its camera capabilities, highlighting a significant 1/1.55-inch sensor. Furthermore, the device is confirmed to boast an immersive, full-screen display, offering a super smooth 144Hz refresh rate and a responsive 380Hz touch sampling rate. Positioned as the successor to last year’s Nubia Z70 Ultra, expectations are high for this new iteration.
Launch Details and Core Specifications
ZTE Mobile Devices President Ni Fei and the Nubia brand have officially confirmed that the Nubia Z80 Ultra will arrive in China this October. A key highlight is its integration of the brand-new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, ensuring top-tier performance. In a recent reveal, an executive shared a camera sample, confirming the phone’s main camera will utilize a substantial 1/1.55-inch sensor paired with an f/1.8 aperture and a sophisticated ‘seven-element lens setup’.
An image released on Weibo (presumably a camera sample from the Nubia Z80 Ultra) highlights the device’s photographic capabilities.
True to its lineage, the Nubia Z80 Ultra is expected to continue its tradition of offering a truly full-screen experience, free from notches or punch-hole cutouts. This strongly implies the integration of an advanced under-display front camera. The screen itself is set to deliver exceptional fluidity with a 144Hz refresh rate, a responsive 360Hz touch sampling rate, and an impressive instantaneous touch sampling rate of up to 3,000Hz, ensuring incredibly smooth interactions.
In related news, Nubia also recently unveiled the Nubia Air at IFA 2025, featuring a slim 5.9mm profile and a substantial battery.
The powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, which will power the Nubia Z80 Ultra, made its debut recently at the annual Snapdragon Tech Summit. Built on an advanced 3nm process technology, this new processor is engineered to deliver a significant 20 percent performance boost compared to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
Under the hood, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 features an impressive CPU configuration: two prime cores clocked at a blazing 4.6GHz, complemented by six performance cores running at 3.62GHz. Beyond Nubia, several other prominent smartphone manufacturers, including iQOO, OnePlus, and Realme, have also announced that their upcoming flagship devices will harness the power of this new Snapdragon chipset. Notably, Xiaomi’s new 17 series is among the first to integrate Qualcomm’s latest innovation.
The Nubia Z80 Ultra is poised to introduce substantial enhancements over its predecessor, the Z70 Ultra, which was released last year. For reference, the Z70 Ultra featured the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, offered up to 24GB of RAM, and packed a robust 6,150mAh battery with 80W fast charging. Its display was a vibrant 6.85-inch AMOLED panel, and it boasted a versatile triple rear camera system, highlighted by a 50-megapixel primary sensor and a 64-megapixel telephoto lens.
Other reports indicate that the upcoming OnePlus 15 will also feature a new Qualcomm chip and a high refresh rate display.
Upon its launch, the Nubia Z70 Ultra was priced starting at CNY 4,599 (approximately Rs. 53,700) for its 12GB RAM + 256GB storage variant.