A serial tipster has revealed the upcoming Nubia Z70 Ultra could feature a stepless variable aperture primary camera
(Image credit: Basil Kronfli)
Prolific phone tipster Digital Chat station is at it again, this time revealing details about the upcoming flagship phone from Nubia: the Z70 Ultra. According to this latest leak, the phone's primary 50 megapixel, 35mm camera module will feature a variable lens aperture. Where the current Z60 Ultra also boasts a 50MP primary camera, its aperture is fixed at f/1.6. The Z70 Ultra is claimed to feature a 6-blade aperture diaphragm capable of stepless aperture adjustment, though we don't yet know what the aperture range will be. Interestingly you can see the variable aperture in action in this video:
Camera phones with a variable apertures are still relatively unusual, but this isn't the first time we've seen a phone with such a feature. Xiaomi has included a variable aperture primary camera in its last two flagship phones, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra and 13 Ultra. If you extend the definition of 'variable' to include phone that could switch between two or three fixed apertures, then the Samsung Galaxy S9 could manage this in 2018, as could the Nokia N86 back in 2009.
Variable lens apertures in camera phones are nothing new - Nokia did it back in 2009 with the N86 (Image credit: Nokia)
It'd be fair to say that a variable aperture is less important in a camera phone than in a standalone lens made for an APC-C or full-frame interchangeable lens camera. The relatively small image sensors and lenses in a camera phone lend themselves to producing a very deep depth of field, which in turn means changing apertures has much less visible impact on image quality than it does with a lens designed to be used with a larger image sensor. This is why phones have to rely on portrait mode digital effects to replicate the shallow depth of field that a 'proper' camera is able to produce optically with a large lens aperture.
In addition to a variable lens aperture, the upcoming Nubia Z70 Ultra is also said to sport a 1220p+ display with an under-display selfie camera and extremely thin screen bezels. We'll have to wait until the end of the year to know more, assuming the Z70 Ultra is released close to the end of December, as the Z60 Ultra was last year.
Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.
