nubia Red Magic 6 review

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Introduction and specs

The mobile gaming segment is rapidly expanding, and nubia is at the forefront. The company has a history of doing things differently and has employed the same strategy for its gaming phones. Pretty much all of the previous Red Magic releases had something new and exciting to bring to the table, and the latest Red Magic 6 is no exception.

This time around, however, there's not just a fancy built-in fan. Both the Red Magic 6 and the Red Magic 6 Pro are the first phones to launch with a 165Hz display and 500Hz single-finger touch sampling rate. We are yet to see how that affects battery life and if gaming above 144Hz is possible, given how limited the support for Android games is above 60fps, to begin with. Additionally, the panel has grown in size from 6.65" to 6.8". In the gaming world, more is always better.

ZTE nubia Red Magic 6 specs at a glance:

• Body: 169.9x77.2x9.7mm, 220g; Gorilla Glass front, glass back, aluminum frame; Pressure sensitive zones (400Hz touch-sensing), Built-in cooling fan.
• Display: 6.80" AMOLED, 1B colors, 165Hz, 630 nits (typ), 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 387ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G (5 nm): Octa-core (1x2.84 GHz Kryo 680 & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 680 & 4x1.80 GHz Kryo 680); Adreno 660.
• Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 128GB 12GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
• OS/Software: Android 11, Redmagic 4.0.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm, 1/1.72", 0.8µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.0, 120˚, 13mm, 1/4.0", 1.12µm; Macro: 2 MP.
• Front camera: 8 MP, f/2.0, (wide), 1/4.0", 1.12µm.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
• Battery: 5050mAh; Fast charging 66W, Power Delivery 3.0, Quick Charge 4.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); NFC (global version); 3.5mm jack.

Other gaming-related features include a blazing-fast 400Hz, pressure-sensitive shoulder triggers that make certain games a delight to play. This current implementation improves upon the previous two generations that had 300Hz triggers.

And in case that's not enough, nubia will gladly sell you a couple of additional accessories like a gaming adapter for port expansion (DisplayPort 1.4 included). The Ice Dock from last year makes a return as a Dual-core Ice Dock that provides some extra cooling capabilities while gaming and in our previous review of the Red Magic 5S, we found it to be pretty useful.

The rest of the hardware, although quite powerful, matches the industry's standard with a Snapdragon 888 chipset, 8GB/128GB memory configuration as base and up to 5,050 mAh battery capacity depending on which version of the phone you choose. The Pro model comes with a smaller 4,500 mAh unit as it trades the 550 mAh capacity for the speedy 120W charging, which is exclusive to China. Outside of China, both devices ship with 66W fast charging support .

The differences between the vanilla Red Magic 6 and the Pro model don't end there. There's also an extra heat-dissipation plate on the Pro model that nubia says can decrease the surface temperature up to 3-5C degrees. This leaves us with no solid reason to go for the Pro model, but we can't say for sure, given that we've only seen the vanilla Red Magic 6.

Unboxing the nubia Red Magic 6

The phone's box contains the usual user manuals and a USB-C to USB-C cable. The bundled stock charger with this non-Pro version is rated at 30W, while the Chinese version gets the 66W charger. The latter can be purchased separately if you are getting the global version.

This year, it appears that the Red Magic 6 skips the bonus protective case, which we had before.

Design and ergonomics

The overall design and feel haven't changed much since the Red Magic 5G. We get the same glass sandwich build but with a couple of notable differences. The Red Magic 5S and 5G came with Gorilla Glass protection on the front and back, whereas the current Red Magic 6-series settle for an unnamed version of Gorilla Glass on the front and a standard glass sheet on the back.

Another thing we noticed right off the bat is the unwieldy nature of the handset. It's not only big with a 6.8-inch screen, it's also super slippery. The back has an oval shape and the glass surface doesn't help with the grip either. Using the phone with one hand is a struggle. And yet, the dimensions of the Red Magic 6 don't deviate too much from the Red Magic 5S', even with a bigger screen. In fact, the Red Magic 6 is narrower and slimmer (in both cases less than a millimeter but still) while carrying a bigger display.

Speaking of, the front won't surprise you with the smallest bezels around, and there's a good reason for that. Just like the previous designs of the series, this one leaves enough headroom for a comfortable grip in horizontal orientation. The slightly thicker top and bottom bezels help reduce accidental touches during gameplay. And the top bezel is big enough to house the earpiece doubling as a second loudspeaker. The usual sensors for ambient light, proximity and the front-facing camera are nearby.

The fact that the display doesn't have any cutouts and has flat edges will surely get some positive attention.

Not much has changed in terms of aesthetics too. The patterns on the back are once again designed with gamers in mind. We got the Eclipse Black color that seems to be a good fingerprint magnet. Since we got the Chinese version of the phone, there's "Tencent Games" written right next to one of the LED strips. The global version doesn't have the Tencent logo. Still, "Powered by nubia" can be found on both variants next to the other LED strip. As before, the Red Magic logo at the bottom can light up, but it can only do it in red. Only the two (rather discreet LED strips) offer the full RGB spectrum.

The camera island is rather minimal, and it protrudes ever so slightly. It hasn't changed its position, but it's now rectangular-shaped rather than a triangle-like element. The LED flash is embedded behind the glass panel right below the camera bump.

Since this is a gaming phone, there are quite a few elements of interest along the frame of anodized aluminum.

At the bottom, we see the SIM card tray, which has only two SIM card slots and no room for a microSD. The bottom-facing speaker grille, main microphone and the USB-C connector are adjacent. The interesting bit is that the top and bottom parts of the frame are concaved. The top only has the 3.5mm audio jack and the noise-canceling microphone.

nubia Red Magic 6

The iconic red, patterned hardware switch to launch the Game Space software remains on the left with the intake vent for the cooling fan next to it. The volume rocker is also on the left, leaving the right side equipped with the power button, another noise-canceling microphone, the exhaust vent and the two shoulder triggers.

Since the shoulder triggers themselves lay flush with the flattened frame, the slightly rounded corners provide the tactile feedback, so you'd know where to place your fingers while playing. All buttons are well-positioned and are within reach without the need for finger gymnastics. Moreover, the intake and exhaust vents don't get in the way when holding the phone either horizontally or vertically.

Even though the Red Magic 6 doesn't offer a complete overhaul of the design, it's a small step up from the previous generation in terms of ergonomics only due to the fact that it offers a bigger display in the same footprint as its predecessor. Still, the 6 is one big and slippery phone, and with all that hardware and cooling components, it's no surprise that it weighs a hefty 220g.

The fastest display on the market

As it currently stands, the Red Magic 6 and the 6 Pro have the fastest displays on the market. The Asus ROG Phone 5 caps at a refresh rate of 144Hz, while this one goes all the way up to 165Hz. We all know that those numbers matter for hardcore gamers, but can they be really utilized with the current Android gaming standards? We try to answer this in the following paragraphs as well as on Page 5 of the review. Now off to some interesting details about the screen.

Coming from the previous version of the phone, this one has a slightly taller aspect ratio at 20:9 achieved with a fairly standard 1080 x 2400px resolution. All those pixels fit in a 6.8-inch diagonal (sensibly more than the 6.65" from last year). But that's not the only upgrade.

Nubia promises higher peak brightness and 1 billion colors (read true 10-bit color depth) and 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage. The control over brightness is said to be pretty granular with 4,096 levels.

And last but not least, the display offers a 500Hz touch sampling rate with one finger and 360Hz upon multi-touch. That's pretty fast indeed, and more experienced gamers in fast-paced games will appreciate it.

Now, when it comes to real0life testing, we couldn't achieve the advertised 630 nits of brightness. In manual mode, the display reached only 444 nits, and we weren't able to trigger the Max Auto mode.

Display test	100% brightness
	Black,cd/m2	White,cd/m2	Contrast ratio
nubia Red Magic 5G (Max Auto)	0	685	∞
nubia Red Magic 5S	0	459	∞
nubia Red Magic 5S (Max Auto)	0	459	∞
nubia Red Magic 6	0	444	∞
Asus ROG Phone 5	0	492	∞
Asus ROG Phone 5 (Max Auto)	0	806	∞
OnePlus 9	0	450	∞
OnePlus 9 (Max Auto)	0	821	∞
Xiaomi Mi 11	0	498	∞
Xiaomi Mi 11 (Max Auto)	0	926	∞

Refresh rate management is a mixed bag. It's been improved in this version of the software, yet it needs more work. Unlike before, the Redmagic UI offers some form of smart, adaptive refresh rate. Using 165Hz all the time will surely drain more power, so we found that in most cases, the device will default to 90Hz. There's also the option to go for 120Hz, but it would yield the same results.

Navigating through menus and even sitting on the home screen, the refresh rate stands at a solid 165Hz. In most apps, the refresh rate goes down to 90Hz, even in the phone's gallery, system apps and when playing videos through the default video player. Speaking of video players, the refresh rate in the YouTube app is 90Hz and goes down to 60Hz while playing videos. The Netflix app, on the other hand, seems to behave differently. We got 90Hz in the menus and 120Hz when watching on full-screen. The strangest of them all was Chrome as it didn't go above 60Hz no matter what setting we tried.

It's nice that nubia has tried to introduce a smarter way to control its HRR display, but the implementation is rather sub-par. We hope that full-screen videos will go down to 60Hz while the rest of the apps, such as Google Chrome, would benefit from the smooth, 165Hz display. An Auto mode that takes full control over the refresh rate might clear up some confusion, and anyone wanting to use that buttery-smooth 165Hz can do so without restraints.

Battery life

The overall endurance score hasn't changed much over the last generation, mainly due to its poor standby performance. However, at 165Hz mode, the device managed to squeeze out considerably more runtime in our screen-on tests - web browsing and video playback. Perhaps the extra 500 mAh (now 5,000 mAh) has something to do about it. However, it's important to note that the software implementation of the HRR screen is a big contributing factor.

While the Red Magic 5G and 5S both didn't have smart refresh rate adjustment and everything was running at 144Hz, the Red Magic 6 has some sort of automatic adjustment. In our tests, the display automatically went down to 90Hz on both tests - the web browsing and video playback. In case you are not into HRR outside of gaming, expect some pretty good battery endurance at 60Hz.

Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the nubia Red Magic 6 for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.

Charging speed

We got the 30W charger inside the box, which works over the Power Delivery standard and in case you plan to get the 66W version, that's still based on the Power Delivery standard too. Unfortunately, we couldn't test the 66W charger, yet the 30W seems to be sufficiently fast. It's not the fastest one around, but it gets the job done and doesn't fall too much behind the competition. It's a big step up from the bundled 18W charger from last year, that's for sure.

Then again, it's hard to compare the Red Magic 6 to the ROG Phone 5, for example, as the latter has a bigger 6,000 mAh battery and a speedier 65W charging.

30min charging test (from 0%)

• OnePlus 9
  100%
• nubia Red Magic 5S (55W)
  87%
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  70%
• nubia Red Magic 6
  63%
• nubia Red Magic 5S (18W bundled)
  33%

Time to full charge (from 0%)

• OnePlus 9
  0:29h
• nubia Red Magic 5S (55W)
  0:39h
• nubia Red Magic 6
  1:01h
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  1:05h

Speakers

The handset is equipped with a set of stereo speakers - one that's placed on the bottom and one that doubles as an earpiece. The sound strength coming out of both speakers seems well-balanced. And when we talk about strength, oh boy, you can blast those speakers. They are one of the most powerful sets of speakers we've seen on a phone.

Unfortunately, that doesn't go well with quality. Turning up the volume too much results in distorted highs. Just two or three taps on the volume down key would ensure better-sounding music considerably while still preserving the bass. The latter is good enough to contribute to the overall fullness of the sound.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.

Android 11 and Redmagic 4.0 UI

The new Red Magic 6 and 6 Pro come with updated software, bumping the Android version to 11 and the Redmagic UI to 4.0. At first, we don't see any major changes to the UI design and operation, except that it feels super snappy and even smoother than before. Sure, the 165Hz refresh rate does help with that notion but there's some general snappiness to it too. Apps and setting menus open in a blink of an eye.

Perhaps the rather burden-less aesthetics of the UI are partially to blame. As we've stated in the previous two versions of the Redmagic UI, nubia has tried not to stray away too far from the original Android feel. Sure, there are some icon and context menu changes, but it mostly feels vanilla. The notification shade remains the same, so does the recent apps menu. The arrangement of the sub-menus in the general settings menu is untouched too.

Home screen, notification shade, recent apps, general settings menu

Unfortunately, we found two things to be especially annoying. One of them is the inability to reach the individual app settings from the home screen by holding down on an app icon. It just gives you the option to remove it. If you want to clear cache, manage notification settings, etc., you'd have to open up the Apps sub-menu and look for the specific app. The other issue we have is the lack of proper or even downright awkward translation. It doesn't really get in the way of navigating through the phone's settings and menus but it can be a tad confusing at times.

Leaving the gaming-related features for a bit later, let's focus on the Android 11-intrinsic features. The one-time permission for apps is now available along with the so-called notification bubbles. The latter isn't supported by all messaging apps but those that do, get the Messenger-like chat heads.

nubia's implementation of chat bubbles

Similar to the bubbles, Redmagic UI allows you to shrink apps into small, interactive windows. Of course, not all apps support the feature and you have to open the notification shade and tap on the Small Window toggle while an app is in the foreground. You can't resize the app's window - you can only move it around the screen. It makes for an easy multi-tasking, yet you always have to open the notification shade to enter that mode every time. And you can't put more than one app into a small window.

Small window

ZTE's phones have always had special attention to their Always-on display functionality. The Red Magic 6 doesn't fall behind in this regard as well as it has tons of customizable clock styles and presets for you to choose from. You can even set looping, cool-looking GIFs and videos. Naturally, this would consume more power.

Always-on display options

Speaking of customization, there are a couple of beautiful (or flashy, depending on your preference) themes that change the wallpaper, lock screen and icons. All of the preset themes have one in common - they are in line the phone's gaming aesthetics.

Themes

Scrolling down the main Settings menu, we get to the Sound and vibration. Nothing notable here except that you can tweak some system sounds, such as the unlock sound, and that the vibration motor seems to have been improved even further. It's strong enough and more importantly, it's quite precise and crisp. It's a pretty little bonus during gaming.

A separate menu for the LED illumination on the back gives you every bit of control over it. The Red Magic logo can be adjusted separately from the strips positioned near the center. They can light up during gaming or when media is being played. The LED strips can also serve as notification LEDs as well as indicators of when the phone has stopped charging.

LED strip settings

A new addition to the Redmagic UI is the so-called Entertainment toolbox, which is essentially the same as Samsung's Edge Panel. Sliding your finger from the right edge of the display opens up the toolbox (sadly, it can't be moved and its place is fixed). You can assign quick tasks or open up certain apps but three of those tasks are non-removable - a screenshot tool, screen recorder and GIF creator.

Entertainment toolbox

Lastly, the fingerprint reader has been further improved. Under-display fingerprint readers often struggle with unlocks under bright sunshine, but this one seems to be doing just fine. In fact, it's one of the fastest fingerprints of its kind. It doesn't take long to unlock the phone and the overwhelming majority of attempts were successful.

Game Space and other gaming features

The newest version of Game Space looks and feels more polished than ever. We see some toggles swapped for more useful ones but the core aesthetic and functionality remain.

With a flick of a switch (the red button near the top-left corner of the phone) opens up the Game Space where you can browse your games. Swiping from the right side (while holding the phone horizontally because that's the only orientation in which Game Space works), you will open up a menu with some quick toggles. This menu is accessible in games as well.

Game Space

The top two toggles are for performance boost during gaming and to set up the shoulder triggers as long as the game allows it to. But most horizontally-oriented games do.

The second row is a new addition - it launches certain apps in small, interactive windows on top of the game. Some apps such as Discord, WhatsApp, Telegram and even Chrome support it. The brightness slider, along with other quick toggles (including the refresh rate selector) are there at your disposal.

Some additional Game Space features and settings can be found in the Game Space Center by tapping on the icon in the upper-right corner. A quick summary of how much and which games you've played recently is available. The game recording feature has been expanded and now supports even bigger titles like Fortnite and PUBG Mobile.

Additional Game Space settings

Strangely, there's no dedicated fan control menu and you can only tap on the Turbofan button to switch on the built-in cooling fan.

Outside of the Game Space menu, you can always tweak the fan to your liking. You can set it up for Intelligent control (read automatic control) or boost it all the way up for maximum cooling performance. You can even set it to start once you launch Game Space or enter a game.

Refresh rate and fan control

An under-the-hood gaming-related feature is the so-called Smart game that intelligently controls the phone's temperature by ramping up the cooling fan when needed and also analyzes the game's capabilities to match an adequate refresh rate. It doesn't say that it's doing a proper variable refresh rate. It just chooses between the standard 60, 90, 120 and 165Hz steps that the display offers. This feature is still called Touch Choreographer, going by nubia's press release, and it says it has been improved even further. The display's refresh rate is adjusted dynamically and in real-time, but we are still not convinced that it can make incremental steps by 1 or 10Hz. It probably just chooses the most appropriate refresh rate from the existing HRR steps. All in all, nubia claims that the new Touch Choreographer should improve frame stability by up to 50%.

But by far, the best gaming feature would be the shoulder triggers. Even more responsive than before (the difference is rather negligible, though), they provide a really nice experience for racing and first-person shooter games. It's so much better to have some physical keys for certain controls during gaming.

Synthetic benchmarks

As the rest of the 2021 flagships, the Red Magic 6 is equipped with the latest and greatest from Qualcomm - the Snapdragon 888 chipset. The SoC is based on the 5nm manufacturing process and employs an octa-core CPU with an unusual configuration. It has one big Kryo 680 Prime core clocked at 2.84 GHz, a separate cluster of three Kryo 680 Gold cores ticking at 2.42 GHz and a third Kryo 680 Silver cluster of four cores running at 1.80 GHz. The Prime core is based on ARM's Cortex-X1 architecture, the Gold cores are Cortex-A78 derivatives and the Silver ones are Cortex-A55-based.

The GPU on board is the Adreno 660 and the Red Magic 6 has a total of three memory configurations - 8GB/128GB, 12GB/128GB and 12GB/256GB. We got the base configuration and is important to note that there's no microSD card slot expansion and the system uses a speedy UFS 3.1 storage standard.

And here are the results from our usual set of benchmarks.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 5
  3710
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  3709
• OnePlus 9
  3629
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
  3586
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  3489
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  3476
• nubia Red Magic 5S
  3386
• OnePlus 9R
  3117

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 9
  1129
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
  1124
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  1121
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  1110
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  1091
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  1085
• OnePlus 9R
  969
• nubia Red Magic 5S
  927

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• OnePlus 9
  715196
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
  708853
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  708531
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  708216
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  668722
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  622276
• OnePlus 9R
  617766
• nubia Red Magic 5S
  557210

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  72
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  71
• OnePlus 9
  70
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  67
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  66
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
  63
• OnePlus 9R
  57
• nubia Red Magic 5S
  54

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 5
  59
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  59
• OnePlus 9
  58
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  54
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
  50
• OnePlus 9R
  49
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  33

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 5
  43
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  43
• OnePlus 9
  43
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
  40
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  37
• OnePlus 9R
  34
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  24

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  43
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  40
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  40
• OnePlus 9
  40
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
  37
• OnePlus 9R
  31
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  22

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 5
  32
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  32
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
  30
• OnePlus 9
  30
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  28
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  26
• OnePlus 9R
  23

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
  28
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  28
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  28
• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  28
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  25
• OnePlus 9
  22
• OnePlus 9R
  22

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
  5757
• Asus ROG Phone 5
  5744
• Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
  5740
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
  5714
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  5673
• OnePlus 9
  5667
• OnePlus 9R
  4154

It was expected to see the Snapdragon 888 coming out on top along with other smartphones running the same chipset. The difference between other Snapdragon 888-powered phones is negligible and we also tried running the same benchmarks with the cooling fan turned on. The results were inconclusive and essentially without change. This is because the cooling fan would help boost sustained performance rather than improve peak performance as you'd see in the next section of the review.

Sustained performance

This is supposedly the Red Magic 6's specialty carrying that iconic, built-in cooling fan. This time around, however, the company is giving us a bit more information on how they built the cooling system.

The internals rely on a big vapor chamber, cooling graphite thermal pad, aviation-grade aluminum heat sink and copper foil for additional thermal conductivity. It's all put together by a thermal gel too. The total cooling surface area is supposed to be 21.6 sq.mm.

All of this is aided by the cooling fan that has 59 aircraft-grade, 0.1mm aluminum blades that can go up to 20,000 RPM. Nubia has rated the fan's lifetime of at least 30,000 hours so you can rest assured that it won't fail that easily.

So we ran an hour-long stress test with maximum CPU load with and without the cooling fan to see the difference.

Cooling fan ON vs OFF

As you can see from the results in the stress test, the cooling fan provides enough airflow to keep the device running at a higher speed for longer. Without the fan, the Snapdragon 888's CPU had to default to about 85% of its performance whereas the fan allowed the CPU to keep about 94% of its maximum performance.

But to make sure we are on the same page, a couple of things to consider here. First and foremost, we ran the test with the maximum fan speed, which is pretty noisy as we already pointed out. Secondly, this is a highly unlikely scenario as games don't really pin the CPU at maximum frequency for so long. Still, the phone passed the test with flying colors.

Also, notice how the performance drops steadily without any sudden drops in performance. This means that over time, your framerate may drop but gradually. If there are any sudden spikes, the CPU would throttle aggressively and then ramp up once the temperature returns to normal. Then the cycle repeats. This would ultimately lead to choppy gameplay. Luckily, the Red Magic 6 handles those kinds of situations well enough.

And in case you ask why we are running a CPU load test, the answer is simple - the CPU is the main heat generator. The GPU doesn't contribute to the overall heat as much so the CPU-only stress test is good enough to assess the device's performance over long periods of time.

Gaming performance and HRR handling

Gaming performance was excellent. We didn't notice any sudden frame drops or lagging issues even with more demanding games. You can be assured that the Red Magic 6 can handle pretty much everything you throw at it. Now when it comes to refresh rate support, we were surprised to find one game that supports 165Hz while most of them capped at 120Hz. It's still not the full 165Hz but even 144Hz phones struggle with compatibility, let alone 165Hz devices such as the Red Magic 6. We were also delighted to see that some of the games we tested last year on the Red Magic 5S can now run at 120fps.

Let's start with one of the popular PUBG Mobile title, which is unfortunately capped at 60fps. Even messing around with the graphics settings didn't yield any results.

Next on the list are the just as popular Call of Duty Mobile and Dead Trigger, both of which are capped at 120fps. The same goes for the arcade type Sky Force: Reloaded and Ace Force. The only game that utilized the full 165Hz is Real Racing 3. This game seems to play well with HRR phones for quite some time because last year it was the only title to go up to 144Hz, on the Red Magic 5S, that is.

Refresh rate in games

This time around, we have more than a few games going even beyond 90Hz, which is a sign that the Android gaming segment starts to mature.

Surely, you might be able to find more games willing to push the boundaries of the HRR display but we went with one of the most popular examples. The compatibility issue is still at hand, though, as the majority of games settle for 60fps, so keep this in mind when buying.

Three cameras on the back, one on the front

No changes have been made to the camera system ever since the Red Magic 5G from early 2020 so we can only hope for a better ISP on the Snapdragon 888 and the software optimization to improve upon the previous generations.

Anyway, we'll walk you through the camera configuration. The back houses a 64MP, 1/1.72", 0.8µm sensor paired with f/1.8 aperture. For the ultrawide snaps, we have a common 8MP sensor with 1.12µm pixels and is 1/4.0" in size. The aperture is f/2.0. And the macro camera is 2MP with fixed focus.

The front uses the same sensor as the ultrawide camera but has a standard wide lens with f/2.0 aperture.

Camera menus

The camera menu is business as usual. Camera modes switch with a simple swipe left and right in a carousel formation. The additional settings menu is placed in the upper-right corner of the viewfinder and the dedicated Pro mode offers quite a bit of settings to tinker with.

Camera menus

Two things we found interesting. When shooting macro, you get a small magnifier, which you can move around the viewfinder but more importantly - it has focus peaking. It allows you to hit the right focusing distance instead of guessing. We found this feature to be particularly useful since there's no autofocus support. We wished more OEMs doing non-AF macro cameras to do this.

And once again, nubia has refused to put a dedicated toggle for the ultrawide camera in its standard Photo mode. You have to switch to Pro mode to use the ultrawide. We wish at least one of the zoom toggles to be replaced with the ultrawide as we doubt anyone would go beyond 3x zoom without a proper telephoto lens anyway.

Daylight samples

Main camera

So the first thing we noticed about the new Red Magic is that it has totally different processing than the previous generation and is somewhat underwhelming. It keeps things more conservative with the colors going for a more natural look. However, the sky seems a bit darker than it actually is suggesting that the software likes to go for darker exposure. You can notice the shadows some of the buildings cast - they seem a bit darker than usual and we shot those samples on a bright sunny day. There were hardly any clouds too.

16MP daylight samples

The HDR seems to be doing a good job as shadows (although darker than expected) have quite a bit of detail in them, whereas the highlights are well-balanced. Sharpness and detail aren't missing but the former seems to be exaggerated with some extra processing. Sharpening halos can be seen at the edge of the buildings, windows and pretty much everywhere you look. Those halos we talk about, however, can only be seen if you zoom in and look close enough so in most cases, it wouldn't bother you.

16MP daylight samples

One re-occurring theme we see with the shadows - things get considerably softer and noise is aplenty even on a sunny day. This means that indoor shots will suffer from the same.

Since the main camera employs a 64MP sensor, there's also the un-binned 64MP mode available. You do get some extra detail out of the 64MP shots but the HDR won't work in this mode and the additional detail comes at the expense of noise. Yet, the overall processing is almost identical to the standard 16MP mode.

64MP daylight samples

Even though there's no proper telephoto camera, the software offers three zoom toggles - 3x, 5x and 10x zoom. It's needless to say that the results are far from ideal but we did try the 3x zoom just out of curiosity. The images are soft, lack detail and the issues we had with the main camera become more apparent.

3x zoom daylight samples

Ultrawide camera

Stills taken with the ultrawide camera are expectedly worse than the main camera but pretty much on par with what the market has to offer. This is usually the case with these snappers in pretty much all price segments. The difference is that some do it well enough that ultrawide photos are not miles behind the main camera's stills. In this particular case, nubia tried to keep the same image processing as you can see on the main camera and it did a decent job at that.

Ultrawide daylight samples

Sadly, there's no way we to overcome the general lack of detail, sharpness, dynamic range and there's plenty of noise on a homogeneous background. The issue with underexposing can be seen here too. The color rendition seems to be in line with the main camera's. Although, if you get close enough to a subject, the results might surprise you as in these situations, the subject appears to be generally sharp-looking.

Low-light samples

Main camera

The Red Magic 6 sure isn't a photography-centered smartphone but we expected a little better from the low-light photos in standard mode. The dynamic range is narrow judging by the clipped highlights, there's some general softness throughout the whole scene and it almost feels as if some of the photos are not in focus. But they indeed are. Noise can be spotted everywhere you look and light sources often look "overblown". We do have to give credit to the phone's ability to expose the shadows and uncover the detail there. Even without Night mode, the stills look generally bright with accurate white balance.

Low-light main camera samples

Switching over to Night mode is always beneficial, no matter the scene. As long as it's dark, that is. If you wait a couple of seconds for the software to take all the needed shots and stack them, you will get considerably sharper scenes with more fine detail (despite the sharpness being a bit artificial-looking), balanced highlights while preserving the detail inside the shadows and improved contrast. In short, waiting for the Night mode is well worth it. Our only complaint would be the strange halo in the sky. Only a small portion of it is black, which is how it's supposed to be, while the rest is dark blue. It could be a problem with the image stacking or the exposure being a bit too much for the sky.

Night mode samples

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide camera's performance after dusk isn't surprising at all. Shots are muddy, lack wide dynamic range, underexposed at times and are super noisy. There's no Night mode to improve things either so we suggest that you avoid using the ultrawide at night.

Low-light ultrawide camera samples

If you are done with the real-world examples, take a closer look at how the nubia Red Magic 6 fares against the competition.

ZTE nubia Red Magic 6 vs Asus ROG Phone 5 and the nubia Red Magic 5S in our Photo compare tool

Macro samples

The macro camera lacks autofocus, which makes things a bit more challenging when shooting objects from up close but nubia has come up with a neat way to tackle this with its camera software. There's a magnifying lens that zooms in on the subject and focus peaking that helps you choose the right focusing distance.

Macro samples

Now when it comes to the actual photos - they seem on par with the course. Don't expect much detail from a 2MP snapper but sharpness is good and colors might come out a bit bland but they are also pretty close to real-life. We would have appreciated even slightly exaggerated colors for macros even. Lighting conditions have to be optimal too due to the small sensor size and rather narrow f/2.4 aperture.

Portraits

Even with some hairy edge detection, the portrait shots are mostly good-looking. The portrait mode seems to be fine-tuned when it comes to color reproduction too. The subject's skin looks natural and even captures that reddish glow in certain scenes. The background and the objects around him along with the clothes have that color pop. Sharpness and detail are on point too, even in more challenging conditions but we did notice that with brighter background, the software struggles to keep the subject's face properly exposed. The faux bokeh effect also seems to be a bit rough around the edges. In other words - not very convincing in certain complex backgrounds.

Portrait samples

Selfies

Once again, we weren't able to make the portrait selfies work so the standard selfies would have to do. But unfortunately, they do not. The limited 8MP resolution doesn't return detailed photos and in most cases, the selfies were rather blurry. Add the narrow dynamic range, the inability to expose the subject and render its skin properly and you get the samples below.

Selfie samples

Video recording

Naturally, the Red Magic 6 supports up to 8K recording at 30fps but the standard 4K@30 and 60fps are also available. EIS is available in 4K@30fps mode but more on that later. Now let's take a look at the 8K footage.

To be honest, last year's Red Magic 5S did a better job at recording 8K videos. Sharpness and the amount of fine detail have been matched and maybe some noise has been reduced but the newer version of the phone tends to overexpose resulting in clipped highlights and a bit bland colors. The Red Magic 5S showed a better, more colorful rendition from last year although it chose to go with slight underexposure. But we liked it better.

The same goes for the 4K@30fps recording. Naturally, the detail is lower but only if you look close enough. Our issue is once again with the exposure. Just take a look at the bright-colored and white cars along with the white buildings in the distance - they are all clipped. Color reproduction is also pretty conservative. No noise and good contrast up our score, though.

The handset can do HDR videos as well, as long as you have an HDR-capable TV or monitor to watch the footage. It's hard to say whether or not the phone has done a good job with the HDR video on a non-HDR monitor, but the highlights seem a bit better this way. Sadly, that's because the HDR video goes for a lower exposure so the shadows are a bit darker too. This suggests that a rather narrow dynamic range is at hand.

Here are two videos with EIS on and off to see the difference. Trading in a bit of field of view will result in pretty good stabilization even in 2160p@30fps mode.

Get ready for some pixel-peeping and see how the Red Magic 6 compares to some of its rivals in our video compare tool.

2160p: ZTE nubia Red Magic 6 vs Asus ROG Phone 5 and the nubia Red Magic 5S in our Video compare tool

Competition

The mobile gaming market, although developing, is still a long way from being mature. Having said this, it's probably no surprise for most of you that the Red Magic series doesn't have many competitors to tackle. With Razer out of the picture, only Asus, Xiaomi's BlackShark and Lenovo have some contenders to show off. And if we limit our search to 2021 only devices, the list shrinks down to only two handsets - Xiaomi's Black Shark 4 Pro and Asus ROG Phone 5.

Let's start with the more direct competitor - the Black Shark 4 Pro since it's supposed to be in the same ballpark as the Red Magic 6 when it comes to pricing - up to €600. Even though we haven't tested the Black Shark 4 Pro just yet, the specs sheet gives us a good idea of the device's capability. Arguably, nubia's offering takes the lead with its higher refresh rate (165Hz vs. 144Hz); its larger diagonal and 10-bit color depth are a nice bonus, too. On the other hand, as we've already stated in the previous section of the review, there are hardly any games (if any at all) that support 165fps and the Black Shark 4 Pro's panel is HDR10+ certified.

Asus ROG Phone 5 • Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro

Both phones boast the Snapdragon 888, but the Black Shark 4 Pro edges out with more memory options and twice the storage for its base model (256GB vs. 128GB). It compensates with a smaller 4,500 mAh battery supporting 120W charging, while the Red Magic 6 comes with a bigger 5,000 mAh unit and slower 66W charging (66W charger bought separately). Seeing how both camera setups are identical, we don't expect that big of a difference in picture quality too. Perhaps the Black Shark 4 Pro would deliver better-looking selfies with its 20MP camera.

Last, but not least, Xiaomi's gaming offering boasts pop-up shoulder triggers for gaming, which would most probably feel better. Physical buttons will always be better than touch keys in terms of tactile feedback during gaming. We are not saying the Red Magic 6's triggers are bad, but the physical buttons are hard to argue with.

Red Magic 6 and Asus ROG Phone 5

And as for the ROG Phone 5, this offering is nowhere near the price point of the Red Magic 6. However, it would be a big mistake not to include Asus' latest phone in this review. As the price tag suggests, the Asus ROG Phone 5 has it all - from hardware that has gamers in mind to a big ecosystem of gaming accessories and supported games. It's the cream of the crop, and it asks a price premium for it too. The customization level is higher, the display is better, although not as fast as the Red Magic 6's, it's supports a similar charging standard but with a bigger battery, it has a better overall camera performance and an impeccable high-quality build. Asus has gone a long way to secure proper HRR support for a lot of games found on Google Play Store too, which is a big advantage over its competitors.

In case you are not eyeing the Pro or the Ultimate Edition of the ROG Phone 5, the base 8GB/128GB version isn't far from the Red Magic 6's price as it asks €799 - which is €200 more. We are not saying it's not much, but the added value Asus' contender offers is worth considering.

Verdict

All in all, the Red Magic 6 has two main advantages over its competitors - the built-in cooling fan and its price. And the games' support for 165Hz displays is rather limited, at least for now.

And it's about time nubia addresses the translation issues with its software. The menus are sometimes named awkwardly and a tad confusing, and that's been a re-occurring theme for the last couple of Redmagic UI generations. Still, we can definitely say that the UI feels more polished, skips some of the useless features and adds some extra ones that are actually good.

The Red Magic 6 is still a great bang for the buck deal. It has the best chipset, an excellent screen, big enough battery (although not excellent, the battery life has been improved over the last two generations) and excellent speakers, which are not only loud but good-sounding too.

So, in case you are looking for a gaming phone on a budget, the nubia's Red Magic series viable option. We would still suggest that you hold off a little to see if the Black Shark 4 Pro pops up near you, as it seems to be the only proper alternative for the time being.

Pros

• Fastest display around with 10-bit color depth and fast response time.
• Design that's sleek and not too flashy.
• Dependable battery life, improved over the last generation.
• Nifty gaming-related features like responsive touch triggers and built-in cooling fan.
• Competitive fast charging with the 30W and 60W PD charger.
• Loud and punchy stereo speakers.
• Improved haptic feedback.
• Built-in cooling fan that keeps the CPU running at higher frequency for longer.

Cons

• The camera department needs more work.
• Limited 165Hz display support from the currently available games.
• No water or dust resistance.
• No microSD.
• The software is still plagued by awkward translation.
• Only the Chinese version comes with a bundled 66W charger.

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