nubia Red Magic 10 Pro review

144Hz OLED panel with UD camera

The Red Magic 10 Pro boasts an upgraded 6.85-inch OLED display with 144Hz refresh rate and 10-bit color depth. It also features a slightly higher resolution of 1,216 x 2,688px than its predecessor. Notably, the 9S Pro and the generations before were capped at 120Hz, so the upgrade is more than welcome.

The only thing missing here is proper HDR certification. YouTube does let you stream in HDR but not much else.

On the positive side, Red Magic has also managed to shave off the bezels around the screen. Now, the device has a slightly smaller footprint while housing a bigger 6.85-inch display than its predecessor. According to nubia, the bezels measure 1.25mm in thickness and are symmetrical all around.

Red Magic 10 Pro

The under-display camera remains unchanged and it's completely unnoticeable. It makes up for a great full-screen experience.

There seems to be an improvement in the max display brightness too. Now, the Red Magic 10 Pro can go up to 1,596 nits in auto mode and up to 711 nits in manual mode. This is perhaps the first Red Magic to achieve properly high maximum brightness, suitable for the phone's class.

Refresh rate

The refresh rate options are as follows - 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz and Intelligent adjustment (Auto). The latter is the default option, switching between 60Hz and 120Hz, depending on the scenario. For instance, in YouTube and Netflix, it will dial down to 60Hz or when the screen is not in use.

The 144Hz option acts as the auto mode but boosts the refresh rate up to 144Hz instead of 120Hz. So, if you are looking for the smoothest possible experience, you should use the 144Hz mode, as it seems efficient enough.

Battery life

The Red Magic 10 Pro runs on the power-efficient Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, and it is paired with a 6.85-inch OLED panel. The hardware draws power from a huge 7,050 mAh battery. This is one of the biggest batteries on a modern smartphone, so it's no surprise that the battery endurance is excellent.

An Active Use Score of 17:13h is mighty impressive, especially the gaming runtime of almost 14 hours. The Red Magic 10 Pro topped our all-time gaming battery life chart.

Charging speed

The new Red Magic 10 Pro offers a nice charging upgrade over its predecessor. The device comes with an 80-watt charging brick, although the device supports up to 100W. So, you will probably have to buy the faster 100-watt charger separately from the Red Magic store. This is still a step up from the previous generation, which capped at 80W.

Having said that, we are surprised to see the 10 Pro charging considerably faster than its predecessor despite having the same charger but a larger 7,050 mAh S/C battery. In the first 30 minutes of charging, you get almost full battery - 91%, while a full battery takes only 35 minutes. That's quite competitive in its class and easily outpaces some of its peers.

In case you worry about battery wear over time, you can turn off the fast battery charging and set the cooling fan to turn on during charging in order to keep the battery cool.

You can also turn on the Charge Separation feature, which turns off battery charging while the phone is in active use and redirects power directly to the hardware. This bypass charging can reduce the heat build-up in long gaming sessions.

It's worth noting a big commission on nubia's behalf - wireless charging and reverse charging. Two fairly common features in this class.

Speakers

Unlike most phones, the Red Magic 10 Pro features symmetrical stereo speakers with the sound coming out of the bottom and top side of the frame. There are dedicated grilles. As a result, the loudness is well-balanced.

Speaking of loudness, the handset scored a "Very Good" -24.5 LUFS, making it considerably louder than its predecessor.

Quality-wise, there's not much change. The bass is quite prominent, and the tracks sound full, but there's a noticeable distortion of the highs and vocals at high volume levels, so we suggest you turn it down a notch for the best possible audio experience.

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.