nubia Z60 Ultra Leading edition vs. nubia Z60 Ultra
nubia has done a little facelift on the Z60 Ultra, treating us to a new 'Leading Version' of the high-end model. This new nubia Z60 Ultra Leading comes with only minor changes in the specsheet and we expect it to eventually replace the 'regular' nubia Z60 Ultra on the market as soon as stock of the latter runs out. We figured we'd do something like a comparison between the two models and see what's changed - sort of an update to the original model's review, if you will.
Table of Contents:
You can start by comparing the complete specs sheets or you can just head down for our commentary in the following paragraphs.
Size comparison
Physically, the two phones are very similar - the formula remains unchanged and you get a large blocky slab that's flat on the front and flat on the sides and weighs more than most of the current large-screen foldables. That's not necessarily a downside, of course, because large size in this case very much means a large display, and there's also a sizable battery to go with it.
There are a few stylistic touches that set the new model apart from the previous variant. Our Leading Version review unit is in the particularly appealing Silver colorway that has a marble effect and reflects lights in all sorts of flashy ways - it may not be the most incognito option, but it does look pretty striking.
There is another, more subdued alternative for the Leading version - Black, which has a vertical striped pattern on the back and a black frame in place of the silver one on the Silver colorway. Mind you, this black is not the same black as the shimmery black on the regular Z60 Ultra. In any case, the back panel is made of glass, and both versions are IP68-rated for dust and water resistance.
There's not a lot of subtlety when it comes to the camera cluster, though it's not looking like nubia was going for it either - it's more like the centerpiece of the Z60 Ultra's back, Leading or regular version alike. The relocation of the logo and the reshaping of the ultrawide camera surround barely count as differences.
Display comparison
The displays are the same on the two Ultras - massive 6.8-inch OLEDs with minimal bezels and nearly invisible under-display cameras. nubia didn't go all out fitting 1440p panels and the resolution is 1116x2480px in a 20:9 aspect ratio. There's a 120Hz maximum refresh rate and 2160Hz PWM is used for dimming.
We measured the brightness levels on both phones, and got essentially the same results - a little over 1000nits in adaptive brightness mode and around 600nits when maxing out the slider by hand.
The refresh rate handling isn't the most advanced, with the adaptive adjustment only bringing it down to 60Hz, when the phone is idling - both in the 120Hz mode, and in Auto mode. On a positive note, high frame rate gaming is possible, with both 2D arcade titles and 3D games triggering the 120Hz refresh rate mode and also rendering above 60fps (as reported by the in-house gaming utility).
One thing that's worth pointing out is that the Leading version does have Widevine L1 and Netflix will serve you FullHD content. Technically, the plain model also has L1 (as per hardware scanning apps), but for whatever reason, Netflix only reads it as L3 and limits the resolution. Either way, there's no HDR in Netflix, though there is HDR support in YouTube (on both phones).
Battery life
The nubia Z60 Ultra Leading gets the same battery as the regular version and, at 6,000mAh, it's one of the largest power packs around. As part of testing the new model, we also re-tested the original one side by side, and it got a bit of a downward adjustment from test scores we got when reviewing the phone, but it's a fairly minor one. The Leading version is, in turn, a little bit behind, but we're not ones to scoff at a 14+-hour Active Use Score.