There is no shortage of excellent flagships in the market, with the Galaxy S23 and the iPhone 14 series sitting on the top. However, this does not mean that we can look away from all the other offerings from other companies. The OnePlus 11 is another great phone, the Pixel 8 series is launching in less than two weeks, and we have the recently announced Asus ROG Phone 7. The exorbitant price is the one thing that is similar between all these devices. These days, if you want a flagship, you must be prepared to spend at least $699. Well, Nubia Z50 wants to change that as it is the cheapest Android flagship in the market, starting at just $362, and it packs a lot.

The ZTE Nubia Z50 shows that flagship smartphones don't have to break the bank but can the user experience live up to it?

The Nubiza Z50 starts at 2,499 Yuan for the base 8/128GB variant with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which roughly converts to $362. This puts it in competition with the base Galaxy S23 which starts at $799, or the OnePlus 11, which starts at $699, making this one of the best deals one can get, The phone comes with up to 1TB storage and 16 gigs of RAM and that variant is going to cost you 5,499 Yuan which is around $800, which is the starting price of the Galaxy S23.

The Nubia Z50 is actually an impressive package overall. You are getting a 35mm 64-megapixel main camera and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera. The primary sensor can also zoom up to 2x optically. On the front, you have a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, and the phone is running MyOS 13, which is Nubia's own skin.

So, if the Nubia Z50 is so impressive, why is no one talking about it? Well, the phone was announced back in December and went unnoticed in the international markets. I mean, the device surely looks impressive, but there is a lot more to a modern-day smartphone than just raw specs. For instance, the overall software experience matters a lot and while I have not had the chance to use a Nubia phone in my life, I am sure that MyOS 13 cannot rival what One UI or even Oxygen OS has to offer. Similarly, software support is also an important aspect since there is no point in spending money on a phone if you are not getting timely updates.

With that said, Nubia Z50 is an excellent alternative, provided you can get your hands on the phone outside China and you are okay with the somewhat uncertain future of the device.