Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Review: The Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro is a great gaming smartphone from ZTE/Nubia. However, after using the gaming smartphone for a while, it quickly became my favorite gaming phone of the year.
There are at least 5 reasons why I love the Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro. In this Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Review article, I’ll be sharing with you these reasons and also share with you the only issue I found while using the phone.
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Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Review
1. Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Review: Display, Design & Durability
The very first thing a love about the Red Magic 8 Pro is its designs. The smartphone does not look too dramatic but its design is elegant and very premium. The phone has sharp edges (no curved screen) and the front screen has no notch or a punch hole giving users access to use the full screen. I also noticed how thin the bezels are around the edges and this adds to the beauty of the phone.
The back panel is glass and has a matte finish which makes it very convenient to hold and use the phone. During my time with the phone, there was very little fingerprint stain on the back panel. The rear camera module is placed vertically on the top center of the back panel and it does not protrude much. Then there are the LED lights on the rear panel that lights up and makes the phone even more beautiful.
Just like the designs, I also fell in love with the display of the smartphone. It has a big 6.8-inch AMOLED display with an 1116 x 2480 pixels resolution and has support for 1B colors and a 120Hz refresh rate. According to Nubia/ZTE, the display has a peak brightness of 1300 nits from my time using the phone, the peak brightness under direct sunlight was around 1100 nits. The display is colorful and the big screen gives users a truly awesome user experience especially when watching movies or playing games.
When it comes to durability, the Red Magic 8 Pro has its setback. One of the major setbacks in durability is the lack of an IP68 water and dust resistance rating. This is because the phone has an inbuilt fan and an air duct and whiles these features help improve the performance of the phone, it makes it impossible for the phone to be water or dustproof. However, the phone has a strong front screen, a strong back panel, and a strong frame.
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2. Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Review: Chipset and Performance
The Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro is one of the best-performing smartphones in the world right now. From my test with the phone, its performance was not only impressive but consistent. This smartphone features the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset that has impressive CPU cores and a wonderful GPU.
While playing games with the phone, it did not get HOT thanks to the impressive cooling technology inside and it maintained an average of 60FPS. I noticed that when the phone is idle, the phone drops its performance to 30FPS but when I start using the phone, it quickly goes up to 60FPS.
The RED button at the side of the phone is used to launch the gaming center of the Red Magic 8 Pro. There are lots of customization you can do in the gaming center of the smartphone. During my time with the phone and while playing games, the phone did not lag and its performance was very consistent.
Another interesting thing about the phone is that it does not get heated up very quickly. There is a large Vapor Chamber inside the phone and an inbuilt fan. On the side of the phone, there are Pressure sensitive zones that make playing games with the phone more enjoyable. The Red Magic 8 Pro s no doubt one of the best-performing Android phones of the year.
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3. Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Review: Camera & Photography
The Red Magic 8 Pro is not a photography smartphone. Although its back cameras are good, they are nowhere near awesome. The phone has a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera, a 2MP macro camera, and a 16MP under-display front camera.
The 50MP main camera is not back as it takes decent photos even under low light conditions. But the 8MP and 2MP cameras are just average while the 16MP front camera is the worse of all the camera sensors on this phone. But then, the Red Magic 8 Pro is a gaming phone and not a camera phone.
So, if you’re looking to buy the Red magic 8 Pro, it should because of its gaming features and camera sensors, and camera features. However, if you need a camera phone then you should look the way of the Vivo X90 Pro+, Google Pixel 7 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, Google Pixel 6a, and Xiaomi 12S Ultra.
4. Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Review: RAM, Storage, and Software
The RAM and storage technology in a smartphone affects the performance of the phone. And the Red Magic 8 Pro features one of the fastest RAM and storage technology in a 2023 smartphone. The base model of the smartphone has 8GB of LPDDR5x RAM paired with 128GB of UFS 4.0 storage while the highest model has 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM paired with 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage.
Red Magic 8 Pro boots Redmagic OS 6 based on Android 13 out of the box and will be getting up to three years of software updates. You can download and install apps from the Google Play Store and the software is clean without much bloatware but only important and useful Google Apps.
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5. Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Review: Battery & Other Features
The Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro is powered by a big 6,000mAh battery with support for an 80W wired fast charging. It has no wireless charging support but from our charging test, we were able to charge the phone from 0 to 100% in about 35 minutes. When fully charged, I used the phone for the whole day while still having about 25% left at the end of the day.
Other features available in the smartphone are a USB Type-C 3.2 (China), 3.1 (International), OTG, accessory connector, DisplayPort, NFC, Fingerprint (under display, optical), 3.5mm headphone jack, Aviation aluminum middle frame, Built-in cooling fan, Pressure sensitive zones (520Hz touch-sensing), etc.
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Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Review: Price
The price of the Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro varies depending on the storage option. The model I lay my hands on has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage and is sold for $769. However, the 8GB RAM + 128GB storage is sold for $699 while the 12GB RAM + 256GB storage is sold for $869. Considering the special gaming features and awesome performance, the smartphone is worth the price tag.
Buy Red Magic 8 Pro and 8 Pro+
| Red Magic 8 Pro | Price |
| Buy on Giztop | $699.00 |
| Red Magic 8 Pro+ | Price |
| Buy on Giztop | $899.00 |
Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Review: Verdict
The Red Magic 8 Pro is a smartphone that I admire a lot and for the five reasons I pointed out above, you should buy this smartphone. The design of the phone is just too beautiful and the performance is very consistent. However, the quality of the speakers is not great (I recommend you use headphones), the camera sensors are not top quality, and it’s not water and dustproof. Other than these three obvious flaws, the Red Magic 8 Pro is easily the best gaming phone of the year for me right now.
