Nubia is one of the best smartphone companies to provide a flagship gaming smartphones. With the Red Magic 5G, the company manages to achieve a couple of feats that no other smartphone can currently boast of. Red Magic has been known for bold designs, powerful features, high refresh rate displays, and giant batteries. Even with the bar set so high, the Red Magic 5G improves upon on all those aspects. While it is the first 5G-enabled gaming phone from the company, it is also the world’s first smartphone ever to feature a display that supports up to 144Hz refresh rate. The phone not only promises to excel in gaming capabilities, but it also has a better photography department since it is equipped with Sony IMX686 64-megapixel triple cameras. The Red Magic 5G has a big battery that supports 55W fast charging. Nubia Red Magic 5G is now up for pre-order in China and is scheduled to go on sale from 19th March. The company also confirmed that the device would become available globally in the coming months. The Red Magic 5G is priced at yuan 3799 ($541) for the 8GB RAM + 128G version; yuan 4099 ($584) for the 12GB RAM + 128GB version; yuan 4399 ($627) for the 12GB RAM + 256GB version; and yuan 4999 (~$712) for the variant with 16GB RAM and 256GB of storage. You will be able to purchase any of the above configurations in Cyber Neon, Mars Red, and Hacker Black colors.
There’s also a special edition with a transparent back, which shows off the fan and other components. Nubia Red Magic 5G transparent Edition comes in 12GB RAM +256GB and 16GB RAM + 256GB and is priced at yuan 4599 ($655) and yuan 5199 ($740) respectively.
Nubia Red Magic 5G Design and display
The design is one of the things that make gaming phones different from normal smartphones. The Red Magic 5G is no different as it comes with a gaming-centric design. The display on the front has no notch or a punch-hole, and there are noticeable top and bottom bezels. The phone has stereo speakers, so the primary speaker is on the bottom while the secondary speaker is a front-firing one placed underneath the earpiece. There are lots of lines as well as colors. It doesn’t matter if you choose the Cyber Neon color variant, the Iron Man-inspired Mars Red, or the classic Hacker Black; this phone can definitely turn heads. It has three camera sensors on the back side. The phone has two touch control shoulder buttons. Nubia says these buttons have 300Hz pressure sensitivity. Nubia has added a set of 7 contact pins on the left side of the phone. These pins are for a dock, which, when connected, allows you to charge, connect earphones and also connect a network cable all at the same time. The phone features an RGB-lit Red Magic logo that glows while gaming and for notifications.
The Red Magic 5G is the first phone in the world with a 144Hz refresh rate. The metal-bodied Red Magic 5G houses a notch-less 6.65-inch AMOLED display with an in-screen fingerprint reader. It is a TUV Rheinland low blue light certified display that can effectively filter harmful blue rays. The company promises that the screen can refresh 144 times in just one second, which makes it 20 percent faster than a 120Hz refresh rate display. It offers enhanced experience not only while playing games but also during general use as there are many apps that support high frame mode, claimed the company. The screen also supports DC dimming and offers a 240Hz touch sampling rate. There is a dedicated microphone on the device for gaming. There is also a linear motor inside the device for in-game 4D vibrations. With wireless screen projection support, users can make use of wireless casting technology to enjoy games on a larger display. Moreover, the Nubia Red Magic 5G has an under-display fingerprint sensor.
Front and rear cameras
The dual-tone colored back panel of the new flagship gaming phone has a triple camera setup that includes a Sony IMX686 64-megapixel primary sensor. It is assisted by an 8-megapixel ultra-wide lens and 2-megapixel ultra-macro sensor. It has a front-facing camera of 8-megapixels. The phone offers photography features like video stabilization, super night scene mode, and AI portrait mode. The 64MP primary rear camera of the phone has f/1.8 aperture, 26mm, 1/1.72", 0.8µm pixels, and PDAF technology. The Red Magic 5G gaming device can record 8k videos. You can record only Full HD videos at 30fps by using an 8MP selfie shooter.
Software, processor, and battery
The phone is preloaded with Red Magic OS Cyber Edition based on Android 10. It has more features and has been designed to appeal to the younger generation. There are also lots of customization options, including sound effects and game performance. The Nubia Red Magic 5G draws power from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Chipset equipped with LPDDR5 RAM. As far as benchmarks are concerned, the smartphone has managed to score 639,856 and 575,341 points in AnTuTu and Master Lu platforms, respectively. Nubia said that the high refresh rate experience is not limited to just gaming phones but also tens of other apps, including browsers, chat apps, and social media apps. The phone arrives with up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256GB UFS 3.0 storage. The Red Magic 5G supports SA and NSA bands n41, n78, and n79. While it has dual SIM support, you can only use 5G on the primary SIM slot only. There is also Wi-Fi 6 and dual-frequency GPS. It packs a 4500mAh battery with support for 55W (10A high-current) air-cooled turbo fast charging. The Red Magic 5G’s charger also supports PPS fast charging as well as Quick Charge 4.0 and Power Delivery 3.0. The phone comes with an elbow-shaped fast charging cable that allows you to play games while charging without it getting in the way. By charging for 15 minutes, the phone can gain a 50 percent battery.
The Nubia Red Magic 5G has dual cooling technology that is termed ICE 3.0, and it is a combination of air cooling and liquid cooling. There is a cooling fan with a maximum speed of 15000 RPM that can reduce the CPU’s temperature by up to 18°C (along with liquid cooling). Nubia claims, “the air duct area for the cooling fan has been increased by up to 56% compared to that of the previous generation.” There is also a liquid cooling system with an L-shaped cooling pipe, thermal gel, multi-layer graphite, and a high-conductivity copper foil. Furthermore, it also delivers DTX X Ultra certified sound effects, and it also features the 3.5mm audio jack.