Smart Android And Trik-Commenting on Andorid indeed never endless, because smart devices this one is often updated every certain amount of time. So that the market can always be garapnya menerinya with pleasure. And it is not denied if this device has become the lifestyle of each society. To not wonder if the 6th business information and many are turning to mobail smartphone. With Android which thoroughly dominated the mobile industry, choosing the best Android smartphone is almost identical to choose the best smartphone, period. But while Android phones have few real opponents on other platforms, internal competition is intense.
Introduction and specs
Just like last year, the new Red Magic 7 series from nubia comes in two flavors - standard and Pro. We already reviewed the vanilla model, so we know what to expect from the higher tier. After all, the two phones are fairly similar, with only a couple of marginal differences. Or maybe not so marginal?
Perhaps one of the most notable advantages of the 7 Pro over its non-Pro sibling is the battery. The 7 Pro adds an extra 500 mAh over the 4,500 mAh but still uses a 65W PD 3.0 charger. That applies to the Global market. The Chinese counterpart gets a speedier 135W-capable brick.
Then we have the UD selfie camera, which has helped a bigger screen-to-body ratio, and it's a novelty only a few smartphones on the market have. ZTE has a history with this type of approach, releasing the world's first commercially available UD camera. However, the screen diagonal has remained 6.8," and the refresh rate has gone down from 165Hz to 120Hz. Arguably, this wouldn't be an issue as there are hardly any games that can take advantage of such a fast refresh rate.
ZTE nubia Red Magic 7 Pro specs at a glance:
- Body: 166.3x77.1x10.0mm, 235g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 5), glass back, aluminum frame; Pressure sensitive zones (500Hz touch-sensing), Built-in cooling fan, Aviation aluminum middle frame.
- Display: 6.80" AMOLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, 600 nits, 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 387ppi.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM8450 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4 nm): Octa-core (1x3.00 GHz Cortex-X2 & 3x2.50 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4x1.80 GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 730.
- Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 128GB 12GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM, 256GB 16GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM, 512GB 18GB RAM, 1TB 16GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
- OS/Software: Android 12, Redmagic 5.0.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm, 1/1.97", 0.7µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 120˚, 13mm, 1/4.0", 1.12µm; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4.
- Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.0, 26mm (wide), 1/2.8", 1.22µm, under display.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps; Front camera: 1080p@30/60fps.
- Battery: 5000mAh; Fast charging 65W - Global, Fast charging 135W, 100% in 15 min (advertised) - China, Power Delivery 3.0.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); NFC; 3.5mm jack.
Of course, the chassis is slightly different, but the design language is familiar, and so is the rest of the hardware. All of the iconic Red Magic features that make the series stand out are here as well. That includes the built-in cooling fan, which, although it may sound gimmicky at first, it's pretty helpful for sustained performance. An important aspect of every gaming phone.
If you are wondering whether the vanilla option is more sensible at about €630 starting price compared to the €799 Red Magic 7 Pro, continue reading as we try to answer that question in the following pages. Either way, the Pro option is still pretty competitive for the feature set.
Unboxing the ZTE nubia Red Magic 7 Pro
The box is identical to the one holding the standard version and contains the same things - user manuals, the 65W Power Delivery 3.0 charger and a corresponding USB-C to USB-C cable.
The transparent silicone case is also at hand, which is nice because it won't fully conceal the design.
Design and ergonomics
The Red Magic 7 Pro has much of the same design with just a few key differences. For instance, the display is officially confirmed to be protected by Gorilla Glass 5, and the camera island on the back has a different shape. Oh, and the front has a slimmer top bezel because of the UD camera, but more on that later.
The camera bump on the back takes a square-ish shape with the cameras, and the LED flash in a square formation for the sake of symmetry. The camera module sits on a brushed metal plate surrounded by a glass cover. We once again received the Supernova paint job, which is practically a semi-transparent back. You can see where the chipset, the memory chips are and, of course, the iconic fan-cooled system.
The cooling fan has an RGB LED lighting showing through the glass and drawing air from the back grille that cuts in the metal plate. The exhaust vent is placed right next to the fan itself. Interestingly enough, the vanilla Red Magic 7 had an extra grille on the left side of the frame. Now there's only the gaming mode mechanical switch.
Speaking of, we have a flat anodized aluminum frame with the touch-sensitive shoulder trigger on the right side along with the power button and the volume rocker. The bottom accommodates the SIM card tray (no microSD slot), one of the speaker grilles and the USB-C connector. The top side of the frame has the 3.5mm audio jack and the second opening for the other loudspeaker.
ZTE nubia Red Magic 7 Pro
Unlike the standard 7, the Pro has a dedicated grille for the other loudspeaker, supposedly because of the top bezel. Since there's no need for a thick bezel to house a selfie camera, the top frame of the display has only the earpiece opening to hold. This leaves the bottom bezel a bit thicker-looking but goes well with the side ones.
This change might not be such a good idea because you want a bit thicker top and bottom bezels on a gaming smartphone to avoid any mistouches when holding the device in landscape orientation. Also, the side metal frame is now completely flat, and it's hard to feel the shoulder triggers. The vanilla had deeper grooves helping with that.
The slightly curvy back is rather comfortable to hold, but still slippery. And the added weight and thickness over the proper 7, makes the Pro even more unwieldy. It's a 6.8-inch smartphone tipping the scale at 235g while the profile measures exactly 10mm. It's been a while since we've held a 10mm handset.
Design and ergonomics
The Red Magic 7 Pro uses a slower 120Hz 6.8-inch AMOLED display but boasts the same features as the non-Pro version. It has the HDR10 and HLG certification and offers a 720Hz touch sampling rate with several fingers.
Yet again, nubia fails to introduce a boost in display brightness when the display operates in Auto mode. In manual mode, the panel can do 447 nits, which is not nearly enough for comfortable outdoor use, and it's far from the advertised 600 nits. Today's flagships comfortably push through the 1,000 nits ceiling, and even the standard Red Magic 7 can output almost 100 nits more.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 527 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 447 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 444 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 439 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 588 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 529 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 492 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 806 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 511 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 840 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 498 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 694 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 498 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 780 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 468 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 782 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 1214 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 438 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 1000 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 482 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 778 | ∞ | |
Color accuracy, on the other hand, is the best we've measured on a Red Magic phone. At least if you use it in sRGB mode. You can hardly notice the blue-ish tinge on the bright white, while grays are pretty accurate. The average dE2000 is just 1.5, while the maximum is 3.9. Those are some impressive metrics, but this mode limits the brightness even further at just 410 nits. So if you are okay with the blue-ish whites and grays, use it with the default color preset.
HRR control
The only smart adjustment the system applies to the refresh rate is when you are watching full-screen videos. Only then the system limits the refresh rate to 60Hz instead of going all the way up to 120Hz. The maximum refresh rate is ensured across all system menus and most of the apps. We've played around with one of the most commonly used and found that Chrome and Instagram, for example, are locked at 60Hz, even when 120Hz is enabled. The default Gallery app is also locked at 90Hz, even when watching full-screen videos.
Battery life
One would expect that the Red Magic 7 Pro, which holds a 5,000 mAh battery, has a little longer battery life than the 4,500 mAh-powered vanilla version. That's not what our tests show, however. There seems to be an issue with the standby and web browsing runtimes. They are both considerably lower than the ones we got with the Red Magic 7.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.
Video test carried out in 60Hz refresh rate mode. Web browsing test done at the display's highest refresh rate whenever possible. Refer to the respective reviews for specifics. To adjust the endurance rating formula to match your own usage patterns check out our all-time battery test results chart where you can also find all phones we've tested.
There's no apparent reason for these results as both handsets share the same hardware and software. Sure, there's a difference in the display panels (one is 165Hz, and the other one is 120Hz), but the inconsistencies are across all tests, including the 3G talk time. The two devices scored the same 25h talk time too.
This leads us to believe that there's a software issue that, once fixed, should have the standby battery drain sorted out and potentially improve the screen-on tests as well. At least the video playback test returned a solid 15h score.
Charging speed
The Red Magic 7 Pro charges faster than its more affordable sibling, even though it carries a bigger battery. The 5,000 mAh unit was able to charge from 0 to 100% in just 28 minutes using the same 65W Power Delivery 3.0 charger the other phone uses. The vanilla version of the device has a 4,500 mAh battery and charges 10 minutes slower.
30min charging test (from 0%)
Higher is better
- ZTE nubia Red Magic 7 Pro
100% - iQOO 9 Pro
100% - ZTE nubia Red Magic 7
99% - OnePlus 10 Pro
98% - nubia Red Magic 6S Pro (66W)
75% - Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
71% - Asus ROG Phone 5
70% - nubia Red Magic 6
63% - nubia Red Magic 6R
62% - nubia Red Magic 6S Pro (30W)
49%
Time to full charge (from 0%)
Lower is better
- iQOO 9 Pro
0:21h - ZTE nubia Red Magic 7 Pro
0:28h - OnePlus 10 Pro
0:32h - ZTE nubia Red Magic 7
0:38h - nubia Red Magic 6S Pro (66W)
0:53h - nubia Red Magic 6R
0:58h - nubia Red Magic 6
1:01h - Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
1:03h - Asus ROG Phone 5
1:05h - nubia Red Magic 6S Pro (30W)
1:50h
As before, running the cooling fan during charging didn't change the final result; it only barely reduced the surface temperatures.
Speakers
The non-Pro model features a standard stereo loudspeaker setup with the earpiece doubling as a secondary loudspeaker, whereas the Pro version has two dedicated speakers placed on the bottom and top of the side frame. The main advantage of such a setup is balance, but we can't say that this implementation is well-balanced. In fact, the left (top) speaker sounds borderline muffled while the right one (bottom) contributes to the overall loudness the most. Speaking of which, the -22.6 LUFS score is enough for an "Excellent" score in loudness, and it's also good enough to put it among the loudest devices on the market.
Sadly, in addition to imbalanced sound, the highs and mids start to "ring" at higher volumes. Distortion is apparent, so for optimal sound quality, we suggest keeping the volume a few clicks away from the maximum. Bass and overall fullness are great, though, throughout all volume levels.
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.
Redmagic 5.0 on top of Android 12
The Red Magic 7 series shares the same Redmagic 5.0 software, which is quite similar to the older 4.0 version. It's far from what you can call vanilla Android, so you will have to get used to the different icons, settings menus, quick toggles in the notification shade, etc.
Unfortunately, the awkward translations haven't been fixed, or some of the new features haven't been translated properly, making the software experience feel "beta".
Lock screen, home screen, notification shade, settings menu
That was bad, so let's get to the good, starting with the Android 12-intrinsic features. The so-called Privacy Dashboard has been included in nubia's most recent software, but it didn't show up in the Settings search, to our surprise. Anyway, the Privacy Dashboard works like Digital Wellbeing, but it's about permissions and information about how often apps are accessing your user data. One of the standout features is the ability to give an approximate location to some apps instead of your exact location.
Privacy settings and dashboard
For a more in-depth look at Android 12, we suggest reading our full Android 12 review.
We are happy to report that nubia has added a quick shortcut to App info in the context menu when holding down an app on the Home screen. This option wasn't available before and was pretty annoying.
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 Free 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 easy multitasking, 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.
Free 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
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 with the phone's gaming aesthetics.
Themes and wallpapers
Entertainment toolbox, which is essentially the same as Samsung's Edge Panel, is here to stay after being implemented with version 4.0 of the OS. 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, heart rate measurement
The fingerprint reader works as well as ever. It's fast, reliable and accurate. The new addition this time around is the built-in heart rate functionality. You can measure your heart rate by pressing down on the fingerprint scanner. To our surprise, it's somewhat accurate. We put it against the Samsung Galaxy Watch4 Classic, and the deviation was no more than 3 bpm. However, consecutive testing suggests that the heart rate measurements are largely inconsistent, especially if you are not in a resting position.
Game space and other gaming features
The new Game space has been vastly improved along with the in-game overlay. The latter can now display CPU and GPU frequency, and you can now monitor your real-time FPS as well. The better integration with some messaging apps, including Discord, is much appreciated. There's quick access to the ones supported (WhatsApp, Facebook and Telegram are on the list) and opens up a small window, which you can move around, open in full-screen or resize.
The sidebar now seems more refined, and you can scroll the quick toggles. They were pretty limited last time we used Game Space.
In-game overlay and sidebar
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, control network settings, customize barrage messages (a pretty neat feature to read your texts while in-game).
Game space
A new set of features that appear to be supported in almost all games can be found in the Power Base menu at the bottom of the Game Space's home screen. A wide selection of plugins. One of them adds a customized crosshair in shooters and even zooms in on the crosshair. A handy countdown for your enemy's cooldowns on certain spells and skills is also available. We can definitely see some of those features giving you some competitive advantage.
In-game plugins
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. The software lets you map certain controls to the triggers and adjust the pressure sensitivity to avoid mistouches.
Synthetic benchmarks
As always, the nubia uses the best available hardware in the industry from Qualcomm. Sure, there's also the Exynos from Samsung and Apple's silicon, but that's an entirely different topic. Today's flagships, or at least most of them, are running the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Even the standard Red Magic 7 has it.
The chipset's CPU is based on ARM's new Cortex-X2, Cortex-A710 and Cortex-A510 cores. Respectively, these core clusters are 1x Kryo Prime @3.0 GHz, 3x Kryo Gold @2.5 GHz and 4x Kryo Silver @1.8 GHz. The Adreno 730 GPU, clocked at 818 MHz, takes care of graphically-intensive tasks. The whole chip is based on Samsung's 4nm 4LPE manufacturing process promising further power savings from last year's Snapdragon 888 series.
And while there's a wide variety of memory options, the Pro version for the global market only comes with 16GB/256GB or 16GB/512GB.
Of course, we ran the usual benchmarks to see how the device holds against the competition and to check if there are any inconsistencies due to poor hardware implementations.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
4706 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 7
3855 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 7 Pro
3845 - Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate
3728 - Asus ROG Phone 5
3710 - iQOO 9 Pro
3708 - Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
3657 - Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
3521 - Realme GT2 Pro
3501 - OnePlus 10 Pro
3447
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
1741 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 7 Pro
1251 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 7
1246 - Realme GT2 Pro
1238 - iQOO 9 Pro
1231 - Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
1180 - Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate
1128 - Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
1117 - Asus ROG Phone 5
1110 - OnePlus 10 Pro
975
AnTuTu 9
Higher is better
- ZTE nubia Red Magic 7 Pro
1056511 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 7
1056488 - iQOO 9 Pro
997948 - Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
968359 - Realme GT2 Pro
966251 - Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1080p)
940400 - OnePlus 10 Pro
886248 - Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
801691 - Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
735588
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
121 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 7
97 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 7
97
97
95
95
76
76
71
70
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- ZTE nubia Red Magic 7
77 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 7 Pro
77 - Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1080p)
69 - Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
60 - Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
59 - Asus ROG Phone 5
59 - Realme GT2 Pro
48 - OnePlus 10 Pro
48 - iQOO 9 Pro
46 - Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
37
GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- ZTE nubia Red Magic 7
58 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 7 Pro
58 - Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1080p)
51 - Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
40 - Asus ROG Phone 5
40 - OnePlus 10 Pro
37 - iQOO 9 Pro
36 - Realme GT2 Pro
36 - Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
30
GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- ZTE nubia Red Magic 7
43 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 7 Pro
43 - OnePlus 10 Pro
43 - Realme GT2 Pro
42 - iQOO 9 Pro
40 - Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1080p)
32 - Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
31 - Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
28 - Asus ROG Phone 5
28
3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- ZTE nubia Red Magic 7
10118 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 7 Pro
10112 - Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
9751 - iQOO 9 Pro
9673 - OnePlus 10 Pro
9610 - Realme GT2 Pro
9487 - Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
7437 - Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate
5745 - Asus ROG Phone 5
5744 - Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
5556
In the CPU-heavy tests, such as Geekbench, the new SoC from Qualcomm seems to be doing a better job than the competition from Samsung in both single and multi-threaded scenarios. In combined workloads like AnTuTu 9, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 takes a more significant lead over the Exynos 2200 and its predecessor.
Then it's no surprise that in the GPU-bound, the Adreno 730 dominates, and Samsung needs to work a bit more on its new Xclipse GPU co-developed with AMD.
Sustained performance
This is arguably the most important aspect of a gaming smartphone. Frames and horsepower don't matter if you aren't able to keep up the high performance for longer periods of time. Flagship chipsets from the last couple of years are notorious for overheating, and nubia addresses this with a conventional active cooling design. Although the word conventional might apply to a gaming PC, it's definitely unique in the smartphone realm.
As we already mentioned, the Pro option skips one of the vents on the side and relies only on the back intake grille, and the side exhaust vent placed right next to the fan. The latter caps at 20,000 RPM and features a metal cover that reduces sound emissions.
In addition to the unorthodox air cooling solution, nubia has applied "space-grade materials" for additional heat dissipation. This includes a graphene composite layer, aircraft-grade aluminum for the middle frame, a copper coil and a big vapor chamber attached to it. All of this is attached to the chip using a high thermal conductivity gel.
As usual, we ran an hour-long CPU stress test that consisted of 100% load on all eight cores. CPU is usually the main contributor to the heat, so we test it using a CPU throttling app. We started off with 60-minutes long stress test without the cooling fan. The graph is a little bumpy but performance remains stable throughout the whole test, and the phone was able to keep 82% of the SoC's maximum performance. That's an excellent result, although a tad lower than the one we got on the Red Magic 7, which retained 87% of the theoretical maximum performance. The most important thing is that there are no sudden or big drops in performance, ensuring smooth gameplay.
CPU stress test w/o fan: 30 min • 60 min
Then we turned on the cooling fan, and after an hour, the test returned 86% retention (as opposed to the 92% we got on the vanilla 7). The curve seems flatter with the fan on, though, and the CPU hovered closer to the 90% mark throughout the whole test.
CPU stress test w/ fan: 30 min • 60 min
In both tests, we felt the frame was hotter than on the Red Magic 7. It was a challenge to touch it for more than a few seconds. Still, we wouldn't complain about that, as it's only natural after an hour-long CPU stress test. We feel that sustained performance is more important in this case. You can always slap a case on the phone that would insulate your fingers from the frame.
High refresh rate gaming
Unfortunately, it's still the Wild West when it comes to HRR gaming. Most phones, the Red Magic series included, don't push games beyond 60fps. Only a handful of games went above that threshold, and that's Call of Duty Mobile, which ran at 90fps, while Air Force 1945, Sky Force: Reloaded, and Real Racing 3 got up to 120fps. The rest of the games we tried were locked at 60fps despite the built-in refresh rate counter showing 120Hz. PUBG Mobile, Garena Free Fire, Genshin Impact, Mobile Legends, Arena of Valor, and Asphalt 9 reached only 60fps at a 120Hz refresh rate.
A familiar triple-camera combo
There's absolutely no change in the camera hardware for a couple of generations now, and the Pro isn't getting a better-equipped setup either. The same 64MP, f/1.8, 1,1/97" main camera is joined by the popular budget 8MP f/2.2, 1.12µ pixel camera for ultrawide shots. There's also a 2MP dedicated shooter for macro photography.
And while we understand that the Red Magic 7 Pro is not an all-around flagship, we would have greatly appreciated a higher resolution ultrawide unit and a bigger main sensor. There are plenty of upper mid-range examples carrying a better hardware.
The selfie camera gets an upgrade, in theory, as it's now 16MP, instead of 8MP, and the sensor is much bigger too - 1/2.8". The aperture of f/2.0 remains the same. And we say "in theory" because UD cameras are notorious for their blurry rendition due to technological limitations. More on that later.
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.
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.
Default camera app
We only wish that the macro camera gets a toggle of its own. Interestingly, the Pro mode works not only with the main camera but also with the ultrawide and macro.
Daylight samples
Main camera
It's no surprise that the Red Magic 7 Pro produces identical photos to the vanilla 7. The two devices share the same camera hardware, software and ISPs. This, in turn, means that photo quality is rather underwhelming. The significantly cheaper Red Magic 7 barely got away with it, but the €799 Pro option has less of an excuse. Sharpness isn't great, although detail is rather okay. The tendency for a darker exposure is an issue in sub-optimal conditions. Then again, crushed blacks are a thing even in well-lit environments.
16MP daylight samples
The higher contrast boosts the colors a little, but it's nothing too crazy, the noise is well-controlled, and the dynamic range is wide enough. You could spot a few clipped highlights in some of the samples, though it's not a major issue. Either way, quality deteriorates fast as you go indoors, where lighting conditions are more challenging.
2x zoom
Naturally, the 2x zoom samples are a simple crop from the main camera and are nothing too special. The obvious increase in noise and drop in sharpness are par for the course, while the overall rendition is identical to the standard 1x photo mode.
2x zoom daylight samples
Ultrawide camera
As before, the ultrawide shooter provides unsatisfactory images with low saturation, little to no detail, poor sharpness and narrow dynamic range. The darker exposure is crushing the blacks even further.
Daylight ultrawide samples
Macro camera
The macro camera has no autofocus or OIS, so taking a proper shot could be a problem. Luckily, the provided focus peaking feature helps out with nailing the right focusing distance. Despite all this, images are still a bit lacking in many ways. Contrast is poor, colors look washed out, and although sharp, the level of detail isn't enough due to the low 2MP resolution of the sensor.
Macro samples
Low-light samples
Main camera
Unfortunately, the exposure metering issues can also be observed at night. There are also visibly clipped highlights, and images are generally soft. There's no fine detail either. Colors are juicier at least, and noise isn't as prominent.
Low-light main camera samples
The provided Night mode makes a significant improvement in all of the areas we see lacking. The dynamic range is improved, and light sources are nicer as a result. Samples are sharper and more detailed too. There's a visible tendency for a warmer white balance too.
Night mode main camera samples
2x zoom
Daylight 2x zoom samples weren't impressive, so nighttime performance was expectedly unsatisfactory as well. Without the Night mode, pictures look pale and with limited dynamic range, but even if you flick the switch, softness and noise are still visible.
Low-light 2x zoom samples: Normal • Night mode
Ultrawide camera
We don't recommend using the ultrawide camera after dusk as it struggles to deliver usable images. Contrast is low, colors are washed out, sharpness is bad, and there's virtually no detail. Shadows are crushed, and highlights are clipped.
Low-light ultrawide samples
Once you are done with the real-life examples, take a look at our Photo compare tool for some pixel-peeping and see how the nubia Red Magic 7 Pro fares against the competition.
ZTE nubia Red Magic 7 Pro vs. Red Magic 6 and the Asus ROG Phone 5 in our Photo compare tool
Selfies
We are just not there yet. The UD selfie camera delivers unsatisfactory image quality as unacceptable. Samples look fuzzy, soft and have a narrow dynamic range. Some of them may look okay, despite the lack of detail, only if the right lighting conditions are met. Going into a darker environment results in sharp image quality deterioration.
Selfie samples
Video recording
The handset supports video recording of up to 4320p at 24fps. 4K HDR recording is also available, and those are electronically stabilized by sacrificing a bit of field of view. Keep in mind that the HDR videos can only be appreciated on an HDR-compliant screen. Strangely, you can't record on the 8MP ultrawide camera, but that's not a big omission as the video quality on those is not satisfactory. And due to the limited 8MP resolution, it can only do 1080p anyway.
Let's start with the 8K footage. It looks a tad different from the one we recorded on the Red Magic 7, but that's mostly due to the weather conditions. The overcast has resulted in darker exposure and crushing some of the shadows. The whole video looks contrasty with plenty of color, and it's decently sharp, although we expected a tad more from a 4320p sample.
The 2160p video isn't much softer than the 4320p one and offers an identical rendition. Our biggest complaint is the lower exposure crushing the detail in the shadows and dark objects. Notice the trees and the black cars passing by.
Once you are done with the real-life scenarios, take a look at our video compare tool to see how the nubia Red Magic 7 Pro stacks against the other phones we've reviewed.
2160p: ZTE nubia Red Magic 7 Pro vs. Red Magic 6 and the Asus ROG Phone 5 in our Video compare tool
Competition
More than a month after the standard Red Magic 7's global release, there's still no direct competition to the 7 series. The Pro model has the same advantage as its cheaper sibling by being the first gaming-centric smartphone on the market for 2022. Although considerably pricier, the €799 Red Magic 7 Pro is still a good bargain given its hardware and the 16GB/256GB memory combo it has as a standard. And even at that price, the device is a pretty good Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered option, especially when you add the unobstructed 120Hz OLED panel and the big 5,000 mAh battery. Those come with some caveats, though, but more on that later.
So, due to the limited number of rivals, we chose last year's best options, which happen to be the same ones we used in the Red Magic 7 review.
Of course, the most obvious alternative to the Red Magic 7 Pro is the Asus ROG Phone 5s series and, to be more precise, the vanilla 5s. At least price-wise, that's the closest it gets to the 7 Pro's competitive price tag. The latter has a clear advantage with a €799 starting price while the ROG Phone 5s still maintains a hefty €1,000. But for those extra €200, you will be getting а sensibly better experience - a wider HRR support in games, more mature and polished software, better camera performance (if that's important to you), it has longer battery life, and the display gets considerably brighter as well. The chipset may not be as powerful as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, but it's still good enough to handle everything there is to handle on Google Play.
Asus ROG Phone 5s • Xiaomi Black Shark 4 • ZTE nubia Red Magic 7
The Black Shark 4S Pro is a good alternative as well, given the €600 price tag with almost the same feature set. In fact, the pop-up shoulder triggers are a much better solution for gaming, if we can judge by our experience with the Black Shark 4 from a while back. Sadly, we haven't reviewed the 4S Pro yet, and we may never will, but even by the specs sheet, it's evident that it's worth considering. The problem is, Xiaomi's Black Shark 4S Pro is a bit hard to get these days. We struggled to find any units in stock on the major markets outside of China.
Lastly, we have the vanilla Red Magic 7 as an alternative. And if you are not dead set on impressing friends with the UD selfie camera, it's pretty clear that the vanilla option is the more sensible solution of the two. Battery life hasn't improved at all despite the extra 500 mAh, and the cooling implementation on the vanilla seems to be a tad better. At least when it comes to outer body temperatures. The missing extra vent on the Red Magic 7 Pro could be the culprit. Also, the extra nits that the standard 7 provides are much-needed given the lack of brightness boost in auto mode.
Verdict
The Red Magic 7 Pro is definitely not for everyone. However, except for the excellent sustained performance, the handset fails to do what it's intended for - high refresh rate gaming. There are only a handful of games that can go beyond 60fps beating the purpose of having an HRR display.
There's also the subpar camera performance, bad battery life, poorly translated software and dim screen that don't really make a case for an affordable, all-around flagship. The UD selfie camera novelty and the extra gaming features, which are pretty helpful and neat, to be honest, are just not enough to persuade us.
Pros
- Large and fast 120Hz OLED panel, the UD selfie camera is inconspicuous.
- The Supernova design we reviewed is awesome.
- Nubia finally delivers a fast charging solution on the global market.
- Plenty of gaming-oriented features, including pressure-sensitive shoulder triggers.
- Impressive thermal management during high, sustained loads, the fan helps a lot.
Cons
- No Auto brightness boost.
- Subpar camera performance across the board.
- Poor battery life.
- Not many games can go above 60 fps.
- No ingress protection, no microSD card.
- The software is still plagued by awkward translation.
- Noticeably imbalanced loudspeaker setup.
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