Nubia Z40S Pro review: 35mm humanistic main camera with Snapdragon 8+ chip

In addition to continuing the Nubia 35mm focal length characteristics, the Nubia Z40S Pro has a considerable change from the previous generation in terms of design. Flat screen and Snapdragon 8+ is also the most popular combination at present. The Nubia Z40S Pro is very attractive to users who like photography or pursue performance, and it is quite competitive in the price range of 3000 CNY.

Nubia Z40S Pro specs and features:

• 6.67-inch OLED Flexible Screen
• 144Hz Refresh Rate, 2400×1080
• Snapdragon 8+ Processor
• 64MP+50MP+8MP Triple Camera
• 80W 5000mAh/120W 4600mAh
• $570 – Check latest price on AliExpress

01/ Appearance: Flat screen design, with special buttons for taking pictures

The Nubia Z40S Pro no longer uses the micro-surface design like the Nubia Z40 Pro, but instead uses a tougher BP frame. The overall style is sharper and more capable, and the grip is quite comfortable. The weight of the mobile phone is about 205g, and the thickness is about 8.05mm. In the current market of large-battery mobile phones, the body shape can be considered thin and light, but at the same time it brings a stable and solid texture.

Here we focus on the physical camera button on the left border of the Nubia Z40S Pro. When you are walking on the street, you don’t need to make any extra settings, you can enter the humanistic street shooting mode with one click, so that you don’t miss any wonderful moments. It is worth mentioning that this physical camera button has the highest priority in the mobile phone. In any other usage scenario, you can immediately enter the street shooting mode with a single tap.

The Nubia Z40S Pro is equipped with a 6.67-inch OLED flexible flat screen with a front-centered hole-digging design. The width of the left and right borders is as narrow as 0.95mm, and the width of the lower border is also controlled very reasonably, there is no obvious wide chin, the screen ratio is very high, and the visual perception is very open. Screen resolution up to 2400×1080. The refresh rate can reach up to 144Hz, and it can be intelligently switched between 60Hz, 120Hz, and 144Hz refresh rate according to different usage scenarios. While bringing users a smooth and smooth control experience, it can also effectively reduce power consumption and improve battery life.

The back of the Nubia Z40S Pro is made of starlight AG process glass, and millions of micron-level microcrystalline surfaces are etched on the back cover of the mobile phone, which can bring a delicate and silky touch. Under the illumination of light, it can also present a sparkling and agile visual perception.

02/ Photography: Focusing on humanistic photography, the overall shooting performance is outstanding

Let’s take a look at the camera hardware of the Nubia Z40S Pro first, and its rear lens module is also very conspicuous. It adopts the classic ladder shape design, and is supplemented by the glass bright surface technology, which has a three-dimensional texture.

The Nubia Z40S Pro adopts a rear three-camera solution, and the 35mm humanistic main camera is located in the upper left corner of the module. The main camera area is large enough and has a striking red circle design on the periphery, so it looks very conspicuous. At the same time, the specifications of the main camera are also very luxurious, using a 64MP Sony IMX787 sensor, which has super resolution and sensitivity. At the same time, this lens also adopts 7P structure and supports OIS optical image stabilization. On the right side of the main camera is a 50MP 116° super wide-angle + super macro two-in-one lens, which not only has ultra-low distortion, but also supports 50px macro shooting. The lower side of the main camera is an 8MP periscope telephoto lens, which supports up to 125mm equivalent focal length. The lower right corner of the lens module is an integrated ring flash + flicker, which brings excellent fill light and eliminates light stroboscopic to the Nubia Z40S Pro.

35mm Humanities Street Proofs

First, let’s take a look at the photo performance of the 64MP 35mm humanistic main camera. Especially when taking street shots, there is no need for the characters to be deliberately posed, and there is no need to compose for a long time. It is easier to capture the wonderful moments of the street, and it is easier to highlight the subject.

In addition, Nubia Z40S Pro also added special filters for portraits such as inspiration, encounter, and heartbeat, which can make portraits show different styles and textures.

Portrait Mode Proofs

At the same time, this 35mm humanistic main camera also supports 50mm portrait mode. Compared with the 26mm and 35mm focal lengths, the focal length is longer, which can better present the details of the faces of the characters, and the overall picture is more concise and easier to highlight the subject.

14mm focal length wide-angle shooting effect

35mm focal length shooting effect

50mm focal length shooting effect

125mm periscope telephoto shooting effect

Of course, if you want to meet the shooting needs of different scenes, only a 35mm main camera is not enough. The wide-angle and telephoto lenses of the Nubia Z40S Pro are also quite good. Compared with the 35mm and 50mm focal lengths, the 50MP 14mm ultra-wide-angle lens is more suitable for shooting scenes or buildings. While bringing a wider shooting angle of view, the distortion is also controlled quite well. The 8MP 125mm telephoto lens has a longer focal length, which can better show the details of the subject.

It is also worth mentioning that the wide-angle lens of the Nubia Z40S Pro also supports 8K macro video shooting. Because the macro mode is very close to the subject, it can show the subtle changes of the subject very realistically. Coupled with the 8K super resolution, the whole picture is very clear.

Night scene shooting proofs

The night scene shooting performance of the Nubia Z40S Pro is also very good. It uses a new RAW domain night scene algorithm, which can enhance the resolution and dynamic range of dark areas. As can be seen from the night shot proofs, the brightness of the picture has been significantly improved, the lights on the buildings and the color of the sky have a very good display effect, and the layers of the picture are very rich.

In addition to boasting luxurious camera hardware, the Nubia Z40S Pro also has a camera family menu. It contains a variety of unique shooting functions, such as light track, car track, time-lapse photography, electronic aperture and so on.

03/ Performance: Snapdragon 8+ chip

The hardware upgrade is one of the most obvious changes to the Nubia Z40S Pro. It is equipped with the new Snapdragon 8+ flagship chip, built with TSMC’s 4nm process technology, and still uses a 1+3+4 three-cluster architecture, consisting of 1 X2 super core, 3 A710 large cores and 4 510 small cores. Among them, the frequency of the super core has been increased from 3.0GHz of the Snapdragon 8 chip to 3.2GHz, and the operating frequencies of the large core and the small core have not changed. Compared with the Snapdragon 8 chip, the performance is improved by about 10%, the power consumption of the CPU and GPU is reduced by 30%, and the overall power consumption of the platform is reduced by 15%.

Compared with the Snapdragon 8 chip, what is the performance improvement of the Snapdragon 8+ chip? We also have to look at the actual running score. The Nubia Z40S Pro scored 1,053,654 points in the AnTuTu evaluation. The previous best score of the Snapdragon 8 chip was around 1 million, which has indeed improved a lot in terms of performance. This conclusion has been confirmed in the other two software, its score in 3DMrk Wlid Life Extreme mode is 2849 points, the multi-core score in Geekbench 5 is 3908 points, and the single-core score is 1282 points, the performance is quite good.

In addition to the blessing of the Snapdragon 8+ chip, the Nubia Z40S Pro is also equipped with LPDDR5 memory and USF 3.1 flash memory, which can improve the multitasking capability and data read and write speed of the mobile phone. The three form a performance iron triangle, so that the Nubia Z40S Pro is not afraid of the challenges of various high-load tasks.

In order to maximize the performance of the Snapdragon 8+ chip, the Nubia Z40S Pro uses a pass-through cold-sealed cooling system. It contains up to 10 layers of heat-dissipating materials, and has a large-area aerospace-grade micro-nano-cavity graphene phase-change VC vapor chamber, diamond thermal conductive gel, etc., which can keep the mobile phone cool under high load conditions.

In order to more intuitively reflect the actual performance of the Snapdragon 8+ chip, we tested three common mainstream games, “Honor of King”, “Game For Peace”, and “Genshin Impact”. Record the number of game frames and the temperature of the back of the phone to check the smoothness and heat dissipation of the phone.

In “Honor of King”, set the frame rate and resolution to the highest setting, so that you can turn on 120fps. The entire game process lasted about 12 minutes. The game frame rate of Nubia Z40S Pro is above 115 frames, and in most cases, it is basically maintained at around 118 frames, which is close to full frame operation, and the overall game experience is very smooth. At the beginning of the game, the CPU core temperature was 35°C, and after the game was over, the temperature was 40°C, and the temperature only increased by 5°C, and there was no obvious overheating.

In “Game For Peace” we set the quality to HDR and set the frame rate to the limit. The game frame rate of Nubia Z40S Pro is basically close to 60 frames, and the overall picture quality is very smooth, which proves that the mobile phone can run the game perfectly with extremely high special effects. The core temperature of the CPU was 37°C when the game started, and 39°C after the game ended. There was no sharp increase in temperature during gameplay and no overheating.

“Genshin Impact” is a game with a high load. When testing this game, we set the overall picture quality to extremely high and the frame rate to 60 fps. The number of frames of Nubia Z40S Pro in the game scene basically reaches 60 frames. The frame rate drops only during game loading scenes and cutscenes, so the overall gameplay experience is fairly smooth. During the game, the CPU core temperature is basically maintained at 42°C-43°C, the temperature change is not large, and there is no obvious overheating. Even in high load scenarios, the Nubia Z40SPro performs very well.

04/ Battery Life: Balanced specifications

The Nubia Z40S Pro I got uses a 5000mAh battery with an 80W fast charging solution. After actual measurement, the battery can be charged to 42% in 15 minutes, 68% in 30 minutes, and fully charged in about 47 minutes. In addition, there is a combination of 120W super fast charge and 4600mAh. Officials claim to charge about 60% in 10 minutes and 100% in about 19 minutes.

Longer battery life or faster charging speed, both have their own advantages and disadvantages. They are both flagship-level battery life combinations, and you can choose the corresponding specifications according to your own needs.

05/ Conclusion

Overall, the Nubia Z40S Pro has a very good performance in terms of practical experience and photography. In terms of photography, the 35mm humanistic main camera is still the focus of the Nubia Z40S Pro. Compared with the 26mm focal length, the shooting angle is more unique, and the work has a more sense of story, especially suitable for street shooting. The performance of the wide-angle and telephoto lenses is still excellent, which can meet the shooting needs of different scenes. In addition, Nubia Z40S Pro has its own unique advantages in portrait, night scene, 8K video and other fields.

The blessing of the Snapdragon 8+ chip allows the Nubia Z40S Pro to run various large-scale games and high-load tasks smoothly. The new flat screen design can make the phone look tougher. The 5000mAh large-capacity battery, 80W fast charge, and AG process shell are also bonus items for this phone. Therefore, the Nubia Z40S Pro is not only an excellent photography flagship, but also a performance flagship phone. Whether you are a photography enthusiast or a senior gamer, Nubia Z40S Pro is a good choice for you.

Check the Nubia Z40S Pro price:

• Check latest price on AliExpress