Nubia RedMagic 8 Pro review – Gaming smartphone with 100% performance

The Nubia RedMagic 8 Pro design already clearly identifies it as a gaming smartphone. It is available in Matte and Void color versions. The latter has a partially transparent back with an illuminated RGB LED fan and more storage (16/512 GB), whereas our matte review sample has a black back.

There, the RedMagic logo and other elements can be illuminated with customizable LED illumination. The build quality is good and convinces with tight and even gaps. The display-to-surface ratio of 88 percent is also very good, mainly due to the camera underneath the display (UDC).

The two touch surfaces on the right long side can be configured as additional input elements for games and have not changed in terms of the sampling rate (520 Hz) compared to those of the predecessor. The mobile connectivity of the RedMagic 8 Pro is inconspicuous in the test and can fall back on a broad frequency band support. The voice quality is good when held to the ear, but not too much should be expected from the ambient noise suppression.

With Wi-Fi 7, the smartphone supports the most modern WLAN standard and also shows a strong improvement in connection speed tests. The transmission rates are very good in the 6 GHz network, but only VHT80 is supported in the 2. 4 and 5.

0 GHz networks. The RedMagic smartphone ships with Google Android 13 and the RedMagic OS 6. 0 interface.

The security patches are on November 1, 2022 at the time of the test and thus no longer up-to-date. There are currently no concrete statements about the duration or the interval of the update supply from the manufcturer. However, experience shows that at least one major upgrade can be expected.

Biometric security is provided by an optical fingerprint sensor integrated into the display, which does its job satisfactorily and can even measure the pulse. Alternatively or additionally, a less secure facial recognition via the front camera can be used. Besides the two additional capacitive shoulder buttons, there is also a prominent red button in the bezel that switches the smartphone to a special gaming interface.

Settings for the individual games can be made there and the RGB lighting can be configured. The front-facing camera of the Nubia RedMagic 8 Pro is not located in the display, but underneath it. It is once again a so-called under-display camera (UDC), which is hardly visible.

The photos do not necessarily shine with rich details or color brilliance, but the UDC is definitely one of the better ones of its kind. Videos are recorded in Full HD (30 FPS) at best. The triple camera on the back can rely on an additional ultra wide-angle and a macro lens.

However, their quality is rather mediocre. The 50 MPix main camera, on the other hand, takes good pictures in daylight with comparatively natural color reproduction. It can even record videos in 8k.

The RedMagic 8 Pro once again has a 6. 8-inch AMOLED display that has a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. This can be set to either 60, 90, or 120 Hz, but the system does not automatically adjust it.

The brightness of the gaming smartphone increases considerably and climbs to an average value of 817 cd/m² ( 7S Pro : 627 cd/m²), and even 995 cd/m² (APL18) are possible at the peak. The HDR standards HLG and HDR10 are supported. The OLED panel uses pulse-width modulation, but with a very constant and flat curve.

We can only measure a frequency of 60 Hz, which indicates permanent DC dimming. Measurement series with fixed zoom level and different brightness settings The RedMagic 8 Pro is powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and can use 12 or 16 GB of LPDDR5x working memory depending on the model. Thanks to the integrated fan, the SoC’s performance remains permanently stable and the surface temperatures are not even lukewarm.

In return, the small fan gets quite loud and climbs above 44 dB(A) under full load. Since it also whistles at a very high frequency, the noise is quite annoying in the long run. The two speakers do a decent job.

However, headphones are more suitable due to the fan, especially since the audio jack proves to be quite low-noise (SPL: 87. 47 dBFS). Broad audio codec support (SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX TWS+, and LDAC) is also offered for wireless headphones.

The 6,000 mAh strong battery lasts for an enormously long time even with 120 Hz enabled. The Nubia RedMagic 8 Pro is a real gaming smartphone, which also underlines this in terms of design and integrated RGB lighting. The fan puts the icing on the cake and proves to be very effective in the test, but unfortunately also quite loud.

The additional sensor keys on the long side are also a real added value when gaming. A full-fledged audio jack is also a rarity. This is rounded off with fast and modern communication equipment.

The RedMagic 8 Pro offers a lot of gaming power at an attractive entry-level price. In contrast to the higher-priced competition, you have to do without a few HDR standards, among other things, and the panel is also not quite as bright. An automatic adjustment of the refresh rate would certainly have been desirable.

The cameras cannot convince in all areas either, but the UD camera offers the big advantage of not leaving a visible interruption in the display. The biggest compromise is the uncertain duration of the update supply. More than one major update will probably not be possible.

Our test model is already available directly from RedMagic starting at 649 Euros. Those who want to own the Void design version with more memory will have to shell out 799 Euros. Strong alternatives, but still with last year’s SoCs, are the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro , ROG Phone 6D , and the Black Shark 5 Pro .

The Nubia RedMagic 8 Pro can be purchased directly from the manufacturer’s store at https://eu. redmagic. gg/de/products/redmagic-8-pro but is also available on Amazon .

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