Nubia Red Magic 6 Pro Gaming Phone Review: The Advantage is Real

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One place that has continuously evolved in the Android space is gaming phones. While traditional smartphones are always moving forward, gaming phones tend to push the limits even further. Perhaps that’s because gaming phones are newer. Or maybe it’s because gamers demand more from their hardware. It could be a little of both.

Whatever the reason, the Nubia Red Magic 6 Pro gaming phone is definitely all about pushing the limits of what we expect from a smartphone. It’s packed with all kinds of gaming-focused features and specs that rival some of the most expensive Android flagships on the market.

However, it manages to rival those phones are a $699 price tag, which is quite reasonable for what the phone brings to the table.

Red Magic 6 Pro Specs

Because this is a gaming phone, it’s really all about the specs. Starting with the processor, you’ll find a Snapdragon 888. When it comes to flagship smartphone processors, this is the current model that the best devices are using (along with Samsung’s latest Exynos chipset).

It also has 16GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal storage. You’ll have a hard time finding a mobile application or game that requires more than 16GB of RAM, so everything should run with ease.

Since it is using a Snapdragon 888 processor, you’ll get 5G connections across all the major bands. Of course, you’ll need to live in an area with 5G support, but even if you don’t, it has full support for LTE as well.

To put it simply, the Red Magic 6 Pro has everything you could want under the hood. Playing games that push smartphones to their limits requires specs that can hang, and the Red Magic 6 Pro brings all of that and then some.

If you want to save a little money, you can drop down the Red Magic 6, which features 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. You still get a Snapdragon 888 and all the other benefits, but the RAM and internal storage are slightly lower. Though if you’re concerned about optimal performance, you’re probably better off spending the extra money.

We went with the Pro version for our testing, as we wanted to make sure we’re running the best version of the phone through its paces.

Screen and Size

The screen is a solid 6.8-inches with a 2400 X 1080 resolution. Obviously, it would be nice to get a 4K display, but at this price, FHD+ with a 20:10 aspect ratio is solid enough.

What makes this screen stand out isn’t the size or resolution, though. It’s the ridiculous adaptative refresh rate. You can set the screen to refresh as fast as 165Hz, which is absurd. Of course, very few apps and games support such high refresh rates, but you do notice the smoothness when scrolling through the OS.

It’s a really lovely screen overall, especially when you consider the price. Videos, games (which we’ll dig into more heavily in the next section), and just about everything else looks really good on the display.

Gameplay Performance

This is a gaming phone, so gaming performance is essential. In fact, it’s the most critical aspect to look at when deciding if this device is suitable for you.

Before we get into the actual gameplay experience, let’s first talk about the device’s performance from a benchmark standpoint. Whether you’re testing the processor or graphics card, this phone truly impresses on all of the popular tests.

For example, when you run it through GeekBench, you get an absurd single-core score of 1125 and a multicore score of 3719. To put that into perspective, the OnePlus 9 Pro scored 1081 on the single-core score, while the ASUS ROG Phone 3 achieves 951. Basically, it scores highly across the board.

Moving over the 3DMark’s Wild Life test, the phone excelled there as well. It scored a 5,904, which makes it the 12th most powerful phone in terms of performance. However, only two of the phones that scored higher are Android devices, so realistically, it’s the third most powerful phone in its class.

Personally, I don’t enjoy mobile gaming all that much. I like the feel of actual buttons when I’m playing games, and as much as smartphone game developers get creative with their controls, they just can’t replicate the feeling of actual buttons.

However, the Nubia Red Magic 6 Pro does a great job of making the mobile gaming experience as enjoyable as possible. It offers several key features that make this possible.

First, there are customizable touch-trigger buttons on the top of the phone. These replicate the triggers of a controller, though without the tactile feel offered by actual buttons. Still, the high sampling rate makes them accurate and functional.

There’s also the absurd 500Hz touch sampling rate, which means that your every action is read by the phone quickly. In some cases, this can lead to real competitive advantages over your opponents in games like Call of Duty or PUBG. It’s almost cheating.

And even if you’re not playing competitive games, having a high sampling rate means that you can rely on the phone to react according to your presses. For example, a game like Dead Cells that requires twitch reactions and precision platforming will play better with the high touch sampling rate.

There’s also a dedicated gaming mode in the OS that you can access via a physical switch on the side of the phone. Simply flick it to get rid of all the annoying notifications and other phone stuff. Instead, you’ll see a simple screen with all of your installed games and several options you can use to customize your gaming experience.

In the gaming mode, not only do you have a quick way to launch your games without distractions, but you can control some of the other functions of the phone. For example, you can set up the location for the shoulder triggers, change the RGB lights on the back of the device, and adjust the fans.

All in all, this is the best experience I’ve ever had playing games on a smartphone. Will it convert me into a dedicated smartphone gamer? Probably not. But it will make the times I decide I want to play mobile games a more fun experience, and that’s all you can really ask.

Cooling

Keeping itself cool is where this phone really shines. There are seven different cooling methods and heat transfers tucked inside the device, and they all do an excellent job of keeping things cool. You’ll find fans, a vapor chamber, high thermal conductivity copper foil, thermal gel, a cooling graphite thermal pad, and an aviation-grade aluminum heat sink.

Unlike traditional smartphones, there are actual vents along the side of the phones that allow the air to leave the device and keep things flowing nicely. You can actually hear the fans spin up when you start playing games, so you know they’re working.

Fortunately, they’re relatively small, so they don’t make too much noise. If you’re playing a game with the sound on, it’ll block out the fan noise easily.

If that’s not enough for you (it was plenty for me), there are even cooling accessories that you can buy to keep the device running like ice. ZTE Nubia sent us one of the cooling fans that attach to the phone and is powered by the USB-C port and while it’s cool, it seems like overkill. The phone stayed plenty cool enough in my testing that I just didn’t feel like I needed an additional fan.

On top of that, having a cable running from the extra fan to the phone felt cumbersome. Unless you’re really struggling with heat issues (and I don’t see how you could with all the other cooling mechanisms) I’d avoid the additional fan, as it just doesn’t seem like a worthwhile purchase.

All in all, the Nubia Red Magic 6 knocks it out of the park in terms of cooling. No matter what game I ran, it felt significantly cooler than any other phone I’ve used before.

Camera System

The camera definitely isn’t the focus of this phone, but it’s not something Nubia just tossed aside and forgot about either. The phone comes with a triple camera system. It has the primary 64MP camera with an f/1.79 aperture. There’s also an 8MP ultra-wide lens with an f/2.2 aperture and a 2MP lens.

On the front, you’ll find a basic 8MP camera. It takes decent enough selfies, but they’re certainly not going to blow your mind.

One thing that annoyed me about the camera is the watermark it places on your photos by default. Sure, you can go into the options and turn it off, but it really shouldn’t be there in the first place. No one cares that my photo was shot with a Red Magic 6. In fact, seeing the watermark is more likely to annoy them than convince them they need to own this phone themselves.

Video is one place where the Red Magic 6 shines. It’s not so much that the lenses capture great video in terms of quality (though it is good enough), but it’s the ridiculous quality of options and framerates available that make it stand out. You can capture video at up to 8K resolution at 30fps. You can film in 4K at 30 or 60fps, 1080p at 30 or 60fps, and 720P at 30fps.

There’s also support for 1080P at 240fps and 720P at 480fps if slow-motion videos are your thing.

The front-facing camera can record video in 1080P or 720P at 30fps, which is definitely sufficient for a selfie camera.

All in all, photos and videos captured with this won’t rival flagships like the Galaxy S21 or Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro, but they will look good enough that you can share them proudly on social media without feeling like you’re left behind. And if anyone questions your photos, just challenge them to a game of Call of Duty Mobile and make them suffer.

Battery

The battery in this phone is definitely one of its unsung heroes. While most of the marketing focuses on the performance of the Nubia Red Magic 6 when it comes to playing games, the large battery deserves just as much love. It comes with a 5050mAh battery, which is more than sufficient for extended gameplay sessions.

Of course, the phone needs a large battery to power that 165Hz display and the fans to keep it cool. Fortunately, the phone easily made it through a full day with battery to spare with normal usage, which included a decent amount of time spent gaming.

As big as the battery is, the fact remains that at some point, you will run out of juice and you will need to charge your phone. Fortunately, the phone comes with 30W quick charging out of the box and supports up to 66W quick charging. However, for the latter, you’ll need to purchase a separate charger, as the 66W charger isn’t included.

Still, even with the slower charger, you can still get a lot of power in a short time. You can fully charge the phone in a little over an hour, which is excellent for those times when you need to get back out there shooting fools in Call of Duty or PUBG.

As always, you can use the phone while it’s charging too. So really, there’s no reason to ever have to stop gaming, assuming you can find an outlet nearby.

Final Thoughts

All in all, the Nubia Red Magic 6 Pro is a great gaming phone. It’s not the best phone on the market compared to the software offered by devices like the Samsung Galaxy S21, but it’s pretty close. When you consider the price, anyone looking for a gaming phone should consider this one, as it offers impressive specs for the dollar amount.

Source: makeuseof.com