Weekly poll results: the nubia Z60 Ultra is promising, but software updates are a concern

It’s not too pricey, it’s not too big and there are few that are better specced than it – but the nubia Z60 Ultra still needs to prove itself in reviews, judging by last week’s poll.

We spotted some concerns in the comments, so let’s clear those up first. The phone does have stereo speakers with the earpiece doubling as the second channel. This has been confirmed by people who received their phones early (shipping is supposed to start on January 15, but some pre-orders were sent out early).

The engineers managed to fit this in despite the razor thin bezel on top and the lack of a visible front-facing camera – despite some conflicting information, all Z60 Ultra units will have an under display camera. This turned out to be perhaps the biggest design win for the nubia, the rectangular screen with no cutouts or holes presents content as it was intended.

One other concern that people had was missing bands for the US market. The phone does support most relevant bands, but not all of them. For example, T-Mobile’s 600MHz band (n71) is missing. Verizon, AT&T and Sprint are covered, though. Still, you may want to double check the manufacturer’s page and your carrier to ensure compatibility.

Others were worried about software bloat, but reports from people who got their unit early indicate that the pre-loaded apps are kept to a minimum. A bigger concern was future software updates.

nubia doesn’t make long-term commitments to releasing Android updates and isn’t quick about it updates when it does. The nubia Z40 series from 2022 is expected to get Android 14 later this year. The Z40 Pro did get Android 13 (MyOS 13) in March of last year, so nubia’s updates arrive pretty late.

There were other criticisms of the phone too, like the barely above FHD+ display resolution, no eSIM, no wireless charging, along with the usual lack of 3.5mm jack and a microSD slot.

Even with all that, the nubia Z60 Ultra is a very powerful phone at an aggressive price, so it just needs to get a thumbs up from reviews and it will find an audience.