Nubia Z40S Pro Review: Snapdragon 8+ With 35MM Prime Lens

Snapdragon 8 Plus, under the blessing of TSMC’s 4nm process, has a better energy consumption ratio, better continuous performance, and temperature performance, so its performance can indeed be described as “supernatural”. With its launch, many manufacturers followed closely and released an upgraded version of their flagship, and a more perfect flagship was born.

In this wave of upgrades, one is very special. Different from the simple “core charge”, it brings a new set of configurations and designs with sincerity, which is Nubia. The Nubia Z40S Pro, as an upgrade in the second half of the year, its biggest selling point is naturally that it is equipped with this cool and more powerful new SOC – Snapdragon 8 Plus. And with it, there is a whole set of design languages. From the former smooth transformation to the founder, the new hard-core style of vertical edge + straight screen brings a different user experience.

As a rare right-angle frame straight-screen flagship, the Nubia Z40S Pro has excellent frame control. The extremely narrow frame of 0.95mm brings a very high screen ratio, and the frontal immersion even surpasses that of the iPhone. Comparable to a curved screen.

As a feature of the Nubia Z series, the flagship imaging system is not absent. The exclusive customized 35mm main camera not only has a special focal length but also pays special attention to the optical design of the lens, with excellent edge distortion suppression rate and smaller optical distortion. The secondary camera is also unambiguous, with a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle and ultra-macro two-in-one lens and an 8-megapixel periscope telephoto lens. Counting up the shots” is very different.

In addition, Nubia Z40S Pro has many upgrades and changes, let’s take a look.

Next, let’s experience the Nubia Z40S Pro in detail, and see how it is different under the new design language and the new core blessing.

Design

When the Nubia Z40S Pro was released this time, there was also a special limited edition of “Ling Cage”, and the test machine we received this time happened to be this version. Compared with the packaging of the ordinary version, the packaging of the Nubia Z40S Pro “Ling Cage” limited edition looks sincere. The large-volume packaging box is designed in a mecha style and is full of content.

Open the package and you can take out the Nubia Z40S Pro. This generation adopts a straight-screen design with edges as narrow as 0.95mm, providing a very high screen-to-body ratio. It looks much better than the design of the previous generation with a rounded R-angle + right-angle body.

As a limited edition of “Ling Cage”, the desktop also adopts a highly customized theme, including icons and wallpapers, which are very suitable for the style of “Ling Cage”. On the back, the ID design of the Nubia Z40S Pro has also changed a lot. The camera module has changed from the original vertical position to the horizontal position, and two sub-cameras and a ring LED fill light are arranged around the 35mm main camera, bringing a new look and feel. The back cover glass is made of matte rough surface material, which is almost free of fingerprints, and there is no need to worry about slipping when holding the bare metal.

In addition, as a limited edition, the back cover also adopts additional decoration, the texture of the mecha style, and the LOGO of “Ling Cage”. As a joint limited edition, it looks better than simply having a shell or simply printing a character. more advanced.

In terms of interfaces, the Nubia Z40S Pro supports dual-speaker stereo, but the top uses the earpiece to sound. At the bottom are the conventional Type-C interface and SIM card slot. On the side, in addition to the common power button and volume button, an innovative two-stage physical button has been added, which can quickly enter the camera by pressing it, which is more in line with the positioning of its image flagship. You can also customize functions such as one-key mute, one-key entering the game space, etc. As a joint version, the degree of UI customization inside the phone can be described as very in-depth.

It not only includes icons, wallpapers, lock screens, etc. but also unique screen animations, charging animations, fingerprint unlocking animations, etc. for users to choose from. Especially the icons, the mecha style is very carefully adopted, and the third-party icons will also try their best to use filters to adjust the color tone + nested icons for processing, and there will be no “violation” of the third-party icons.

Especially the three customized themes, namely Ling Cage, Wild Hunter, and Landwalker, can not only apply the corresponding wallpapers with one click but also have a matching bright screen unlock animation, which is full of coolness. Experience the scavenger theme directly. While unlocking the screen, the screen saver will also zoom in from Mark’s close-up to the full screen. The other two themes have similar dynamic screen unlocking effects. Full of surprises.

In addition, if you want to customize, Nubia has also prepared a lot of wallpapers for users to choose from. For example, the classic scenes, stills, or characters of “Ling Cage” are very diverse. As a joint limited edition, the accessories of this Nubia Z40S Pro are too rich.

In addition to a large number of “Ling Cage”-themed stickers and postcards, there are also 120W super fast charging chargers designed with the theme, two half-pack mobile phone cases, a hanging ornament, and even the SIM card needles are made into “Ling Cage” LOGO The shape of the joint name can not be said to be careless.

Hardware

In terms of performance, the Nubia Z40S Pro is also equipped with the flagship core Snapdragon 8 Plus in the second half of this year. Under the blessing of TSMC’s 4nm process, its performance and energy consumption ratio improvement is obvious to all.

The first is the theoretical performance test, let’s take a look at the performance release of the Nubia Z40S Pro.

1. AnTuTu

The AnTuTu comprehensive performance test scored 1,083,716 points. Nubia does not have a global performance model. The scheduling of the running points is very conservative. Compared with the previous generation equipped with Snapdragon 8, the score of 950,000 points has improved significantly.

2. Geekbench

Geekbench 5 single-core score can reach 1262 points, multi-core 4025 points. The results in the Snapdragon 8 Plus flagship are not very impressive.

But still the previous sentence, Nubia does not have a global performance model, so the scheduling is more conservative. Horizontally compared to the previous generation, the single core is increased by 5%, and the multi-core is increased by 20%. With the blessing of TSMC’s 4nm process, the performance release is more stable.

3. Androbench

The continuous reading speed is 1733.56 MB/s, and it is a proper UFS 3.1 flash memory.

4. GFXbench

Using GFXbench to test GPU performance, the GPU performance of Nubia Z40S Pro is greatly improved. Running multiple test items in a row, the last T-Rex off-screen test result of the previous generation was only 305 FPS, while this generation reached 403 FPS.

In terms of games, we selected three mainstream online games for testing.

1. King’s Glory

“Honor of Kings” supports 120-frame mode, with an average frame rate of 117.99 FPS. Except for the frame drop caused by the middle screen cut, the whole frame rate can be said to be very stable.

At the same time, the heating of the mobile phone SOC is not serious, and the temperature in the core area is only 36.3 °C.

2. Peace Elite

“Peace Elite” does not support high frame rate mode. We tested with high-load HDR high-definition image quality, and the average frame rate can reach 59.92 FPS.

The load is higher and the natural temperature is higher, and the SOC core area of ​​the back cover can reach 37.5 ℃.

3. Yuanshen

“Genshin Impact” opens 60-frame mode under extremely high image quality, and uses a fixed test circuit to test. The average frame rate can reach 56.79 FPS. Looking at the frame rate chart the frame rate does not fluctuate much. The main reason is that the game locks to about 55 FPS after 6 minutes, which reduces the overall average frame rate.

The advantage of controlling the upper frame rate in this way is that the temperature of the back cover will be greatly reduced. After the “Genshin Impact” test is completed, the back cover is only 41°C, which is the same as the temperature performance of the Snapdragon 8 playing “Honor of Kings”.

Cameras

In the Nubia Z series, no matter how the design changes, the image is always unavoidable.

It still uses the rare 35mm focal length on the market as its main focal length and combined with IMX 787 and custom optimization on the optical lens, this main camera not only has a special angle of view but also has excellent image quality.

In addition, the 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle and super-macro 2-in-1 lens and the 8-megapixel periscope telephoto lens are by no means too many to take beautiful photos.

The Nubia Z40S Pro has four preset focal lengths on the camera interface. In addition to wide-angle and telephoto, there is also a 1.4X option, which corresponds to the 50mm focal length that is most suitable for portraits.

Thanks to the high pixel and extremely high lens quality of IMX 787 64MP, the loss of image quality at 1.4X is almost imperceptible. This is also an advantage of the 35mm main camera, that is, taking into account the two focal lengths of the main camera and the portrait, both can obtain excellent picture quality.

When taking pictures, the biggest advantage of the 35mm main camera is that it can obtain a more focused field of view than the common 24mm~28mm. You don’t have to consider the cluttered environment when composing the picture, and you can directly get a photo with a very prominent subject. With the cooperation of an excellent optical lens and custom IMX 787 sensor, the image quality is also very satisfactory.

Compared with the 50 Megapixels on the market, the resolution of the Nubia Z40S Pro is higher, and there are no obvious optical defects such as glare and purple fringing. Algorithmically, it pays great attention to restoring the real look and feel, without the “plastic smell” brought by the bright colors and high brightness.

Nubia Z40S Pro’s main camera and ultra-wide-angle both support night scene mode, but in comparison, night scene mode is mainly because the brightness of the picture is greatly improved, the resolution of the dark area is also stronger, the color reproduction of the picture is more realistic, and the picture has a sense of hierarchy. It is also stronger, but if there are no special needs, the imaging in automatic mode is actually enough to meet our needs.

When shooting at night, the Nubia Z40S Pro does not use multiple exposures to flatten the dynamic range of the picture, but there are bright and dark, still maintaining the overall layering of the picture. Of course, if you like the traditional very bright night scene, there is no problem. As mentioned above, the night scene mode of Nubia Z40S Pro can satisfy you.

The periscope telephoto of the Nubia Z40S Pro uses a small bottom, which has a certain advantage in the focal length and can meet the needs of daily telephoto. The color and color are not bad, basically consistent with the main camera style.

The ultra-wide angle of the Nubia Z40S Pro has 50 Megapixels and a large viewing angle of 116°, which can meet the needs of recording large scenes in daily life. This generation also adds a macro function to the wide-angle, using a high-pixel ultra-wide-angle lens to take macro photos, the picture quality, and details will be better.

This time, the Nubia Z40S Pro still brings a wealth of camera gameplay. You don’t need to learn superb shooting skills, you can shoot the desired effect by selecting the appropriate mode. The author usually uses the humanistic street shooting mode. The color style of the analog film is very suitable for recording daily life.

Battery

The Nubia Z40S Pro we received is a 120W super fast charging version, which charges very fast, but the battery is also small, only 4600mAh.

Measured the charging speed, the Nubia Z40S Pro can be fully charged in only 22 minutes, and the charging speed is very stable throughout the whole process without much change.

Under the 4600mAh battery, the battery life is not too bad. It consumes 82% of the power in 7 hours, and the battery life is about 8 to 9 hours when fully charged.

Read Also: Nubia Z40S Pro Review: Design, Hardware, and Features

Verdict

As a rare 35mm main camera in the industry, the improvement of the Nubia Z40S Pro is mainly reflected in two points:

• The first is to upgrade the core. The new Snapdragon 8 Plus has a better energy consumption ratio and stronger performance release, which can meet the dual needs of users seeking performance and stable low temperatures.
• The second is the appearance, which breaks away from the conventional curved surface design, and the shape of a straight screen + vertical edge can be described as popular. The Nubia Z40S Pro finally has its characteristics in design.
• Holding the Nubia Z40S Pro in your hand, the square and tough shape is very solid to hold, and what is more reassuring is its performance.
• TSMC’s 4nm God Oil lives up to its reputation. This Snapdragon 8 Plus processor can outperform its predecessor without the need for a performance mode. The performance in the game is even smoother. Even “Genshin Impact ” can ensure that the temperature is only 41°C when the frame is close to full frame, which refreshes our understanding of the performance of Android flagships in the past two years.

In addition to these two points, the Nubia Z40S Pro upholds consistent image advantages.

Every time I experience the 35mm main camera, I feel more and more that the current increasingly “wide” main camera is not suitable for me. Focus on the center of the field of view and highlight the subject. For ordinary people, the 35mm focal length is better. In addition, it also has an image configuration of all focal lengths, super wide-angle super macro, and periscope telephoto. Although the specifications are not top-level, it is much better than the number of lenses.

At the same time, some algorithms are close to realistic colors, and a variety of camera gameplay as an aid. The Nubia Z40S Pro may not be the most aggressive among the current image flagships, but it is not an exaggeration to say that its camera experience is in the first echelon of mobile phone images.

In addition, it also supports 120W super fast charging, the optional 80W version has a larger battery, and has a flagship large-size X-axis linear motor, etc. The peripheral configuration will not let you have any regrets.

Among the direct-screen machines, the Nubia Z40S Pro is worthy of the name of the flagship, and it is also the flagship of the direct-screen image.

The image configuration of a straight screen, vertical edge, 35mm main camera, and full focal length, plus a Snapdragon 8 Plus, the best processor on the Android side, if this combination makes your heart, I believe this Nubia Z40S Pro is the best. The choice that suits you.