nubia Z60S Pro Revew

Battery Tests

nubia Z60S Pro packs a 5100 mAh battery with 80W fast charging support. With nubia's AI "Zero" Power Consumption 2.0 it should provide "utlra-long battery life for uninterrupted adventures". Below we publish the results from our in-house battery life tests. The display of every device we test is calibrated to 200 cd/m². Battery-saving features are switched off where possible. The battery of our Z60S Pro unit charged from 0 to 100% in 44 minutes with the device's cable and charge. The battery management system during the development of the charging process and the battery temperature control are demonstrated in the graph. The charging process develops in several stages. The first is very fast and regains 40% of the battery charge in 14 minutes. This speed is maintained for the next 9 minutes during which the battery regains another 20% from its charge. There's a short slow down and the charging regains speed again during the next 8 minutes, adding another 20% to the battery charge. Again, there's a minor slow down and the last 20% are charged during the final 12 minutes of the process. The battery temperature starts from 28°C, reaches 38°C in 5 minutes, and 39°C, after another 7 minutes. It remains at this 39-40°C level until the end. The 40°C peaks coincide with every new stage of the charging process. During our intensive battery life test with the display's refresh rate set at 60Hz, the device endured for 14 hours and 43 minutes. The discharging process is very slow for the first 1 hour and 15 minutes. After that, it gains speed and maintains a relatively steady pace until the battery drops to 2% of its charge. At that point, the process slows down again. The battery temperature starts at 30°C, reaches 34°C in 1 hour and 15 minutes and remains at this level almost 2 hours. Then it drops to 33°C, 32°C, and increases again to measure 35°C in the end. With the display's refresh rate set at 90Hz, our review unit lasted for 12 hours and 39 minutes of non-stop intensive browsing. The discharging process develops in a similar fashion - a noticeably slower start and a slower end. The battery temperature is within the 34°C-36°C range from the start until the end of the process. There isn't a big difference in battery life when the display's refresh rate is set at 90Hz and at 120Hz. When it was set at 120Hz, the battery endured for 12 hours and 7 minutes of non-stop intensive browsing. That's only 32 minutes less than the previous 90Hz test. The discharging process draws an identical curve. The battery temperature starts at 28°C, reaches 36°C within 1 hour and remains at this level for 5 hours. Then it drops to 35°C and maintains this level until the end. The video test for battery life uses a 1080p video at 30 fps with a ~20 Mbps rate. Our review unit's score is 18 hours and 29 minutes. The discharging process follows the same pattern observed during the previous tests. There's a strongly pronounced slow start (the first 1 hour and a half) and a slow end (the last 30 minutes). The battery temperature remains within the very healthy range of 31-35°C. The 4K video battery life test uses a 2160p video at 30 fps with a ~55 Mbps rate. In this test, the battery of the Z60S Pro lasted for 16 hours and 51 minutes. Again, not a big difference in the result, even though the video resolution is much higher. The discharging process and the battery temperature follow the same pattern and levels as the ones during the FHD video test. The battery temperature is again in the 31°C-35°C range. Real Racing 3 is currently used for our 3D Graphics/Gaming tests. The battery of nubia Z60S Pro lasted for 10 hours and 22 minutes. Obviously, the chipset is powerful enough, hence 3D graphics and heavier games do not put a lot of strain on the device. The battery drains normally, hence our review unit shows a battery life result that's much better than the one of smartphones with larger batteries but weaker chipsets. The discharging process is slow for the first 1 hour, after which, it regains speed and maintains it until the battery drops to 2% of its charge. At that point, the process slows down again. The battery temperature begins at 34°C and when it reaches 35°C in one hour, it stays at this level until the end. With the display's refresh rate set to 120Hz, the battery lasted for 6 hours and 17 minutes. The discharging process follows the same pattern but the battery temperature reflects the increased pressure on the device. It starts at 35°C, reaches 41°C in 30 minutes, and after 3 hours and a half, it increases to 43°C remaining at this level until the end. The photos of the Z60S Pro below are taken with a FLIR thermal camera. The first one shows the device's temperature during charging. The hottest zone is in the center of the device with a temperature of 37.6°C. The second hottest area is the center of the upper half of the body with a temperature of 37.1°C. The second photo depicts the device's temperature during a 3D battery life test. In this case, the hottest part is in the top right area of the body with a temperature of 39°C. The second hottest area is the center of the chin with a temperature of 38.5°C.

Battery Software

The Battery menu offers several tools to manage battery life and maximize it in any situation. For starters, there's an "Optimize Battery Usage" button. It scans the device for a second or two and suggests a list of features, which you can manually optimize or not. Secondly, there's a "Power saver" toggle that kills off 5G access, uses 60Hz only, limits the background activities of some apps, including their ability to connect to a network, and turns off location services in non-navigation scenarios. These can be manually managed by the "Power saver settings". Finally, there's an "Ultra Power saver". It can be used when your battery's charge is nearing the minimum. It offers a more robust app restriction and shuts off several features. The entire UI becomes dark and is very simplified. You get access only to six apps. Two are provided by default - the phone and messenger, and you can add four more.

The nubia Z60S Pro charges really fast, but if you want to charge it faster, there's a "Turbo charge" toggle. It goes without saying that this feature will increase the temperature of the battery and device. There's an interesting feature called "Charge separation". You can plug the phone into the charger and while it powers the device, it will not charge the battery to prevent it from overheating.

The Battery menu also allows you more granular control over how the different apps and functions of the device are managed in terms of battery life. When you tap on "Apps AI-control" you can set for each app whether to auto-start, secondary launch, and background running should be allowed, not allowed, or automatic. For some apps, you don't have this control as they are system-controlled. Further AI features for battery optimization are incorporated in sleep mode and when apps are not in use. By default, the device can switch between 5G and 4G networks to save more battery life. This feature can be turned off. The system also provides reports on battery usage depending on the app and hardware.