nubia Red Magic 5G review

Triple camera setup without the telephoto

Although the camera configuration on the new Red Magic 5G isn't the latest and greatest, it's a significant upgrade over last year's Red Magic 3 and 3s. This time, we have more than one focal length on the back but still missing the telephoto lens. The main camera uses the popular 64MP sensor coupled with f/1.8 aperture. The sensor itself is 1/1.72" and 0.8µm pixels.

Unfortunately, there's no enough info on the ultra-wide and the macro cameras aside from the sensor resolutions - 8MP and 2MP, respectively. The EXIF data show f/2.3 for the ultra-wide and f/2.5 for the macro lens.

As far as the selfie camera goes, it's 8MP with f/2.0 aperture.

Camera menus

In the Camera app, the Camera-Family brings out numerous camera modes and effects, including the Macro mode. We would have appreciated if the Macro mode was listed along with the other main modes.

Camera menus

Also, we didn't find a toggle for the ultra-wide camera in the default Photo mode. There are toggles for 3x, 5x and 10x zoom, even though there's no proper telephoto lens, but the ultra-wide is missing. It's a major oversight, which we hope nubia will fix in a following update.

Camera menus

Tapping on the Pro mode, however, gave us the option of shooting ultra-wide stills and also provides everything you'd expect from a proper Pro mode - shutter speed, white balance, ISO, manual focus and exposure.

Daylight samples

Surely, when looking for a gaming phone, the camera quality isn't the a top priority but it's nice to know that you have a camera you can depend on. Unfortunately, the Red Magic 5G doesn't break the mold and it offers just a small improvement in this department compared to its predecessor.

Main camera daylight samples

The daylight photos have visible noise in the uniform areas, there's sharpening halos are easily visible and don't really contribute to the overall sharpness. The pictures still look a bit soft. We've seen better sharpness from other 64MP-equipped units. You can expect, however, punchy colors, good amount of detail and wide dynamic range in some situations.

Main camera daylight samples

We've noticed that the juicy colors effect kicks in when the AI detects certain scenes. The "blue sky" scene is one of them. Check out the difference in processing in these shots. Either way, despite the issues we had with the camera, the shots look pretty nice when looking at them on the phone's screen.

Main camera: AI • no AI

The camera app offers quick toggle for 3x, 5x and 10x zoom by cropping out the center of the 64MP sensor. Sadly, even the 3x zoom looks soft and lacks detail and naturally inherits the processing of images without the zoom. It's just not the real thing. You might get better results with 2x magnification.

3x zoom daylight samples

And since the zoom is a pure crop from the main sensor, the same processing can be observed. Notice the color difference in these two shots as well.

3x zoom daylight samples: AI • no AI

The ultra-wide unit isn't looking any better. With just 8MP resolution you can expect soft images and that's what you will be getting. The oversharpening halos are here as well but this time, the additional sharpening done by the software makes the stills looking a bit better than most 8MP ultra-wide cams on the market. And the lens correction is doing a really fine job. It's still hard to get past the underexposed images and the noise. The overall processing reminds us of the main camera.

Ultra-wide camera daylight samples

Low-light samples

Some of the flaws the main camera has become more apparent when the light drops. And it's expected. The images look generally soft, the noise can be noticed from afar and there's not enough detail. On the upside, colors are natural, lights and neon signs look well-preserved and the dynamic range is quite impressive even without resorting to Night mode.

Main camera low-light samples

Which, by the way, isn't the best one around either. The Night mode's noise reduction algorithm works overtime, which leads to even softer images. You do benefit from the more balanced highlights, the detail from the shadows and the stills look generally brighter.

Night mode samples

The ultra-wide camera doesn't have Night mode and we can't imagine it would help anyway. The pictures come out soft, noisy, with blown highlights and virtually no detail. The shadows surprisingly okay, though.

You can also take a look at our photo compare tool and see how it stands against some of its rivals.

nubia Red Magic 5G vs Asus ROG Phone II and the nubia Red Magic 3s in our Photo compare tool

Macro samples

The main problem with the macro camera is the lack of autofocus. Even the slightest movement of the subject like a leaf or an insect, will result in a blurry image. To help you with that, nubia has come up with a neat magnifier and red outline on the subject to help you focus on what you'd want. You can move the magnifier around the viewfinder.

Macro focus assistant

So if you are patient enough, you'd be rewarded with nice, detailed shots - although, a bit on the soft side and noisy but that's a 2MP camera after all - with juicy colors.

Macro samples

Portraits

Portraits are looking good with plenty of detail, sharpness, natural-looking skin tone and noise that's not exactly in your face. Dynamic range is okay too. However, the edge detection needs more work. The subject may look a bit rough around the edges (notice the second image) and the software gives too much tolerance between the background and the subject. Look at the first photo. This is mostly an issue with more complex backgrounds, though.

Portrait mode samples

The portrait mode works well with non-human subjects too.

Non-human portraits

Selfie

The front-facing 8MP camera offers surprisingly sharp and detailed selfies. Sure, they are definitely not one of the best we've seen but it does the job pretty good for an 8MP unit. The skin of the subject is true to life, maybe just slightly more pale but noise is once again an issue here. You can also notice the clipped background in some of the stills signaling for rather narrow dynamic range.

Selfie samples

Video

Like most modern Snapdragon 865-equipped flagships these days, the nubia Red Magic 5G is also capable of recording 8K videos. And while competitors are doing 8K footage at 24fps, the Red Magic 5G is doing it at 30 frames per second. We suspect there's some interpolation going on here or nubia has found a way to truly utilize the full potential of the SoC. It seems that Snapdragon 865 with its ISP can indeed record 8K videos at 30fps. But first, let's take a look at the most commonly used resolution, 2160p.

4K video quality isn't anything special, unfortunately. Colors are accurate, and the dynamic range is looking good although, the overcast weather may be "clouding" our judgment here. Still, the video is looking rather soft for 4K.

The 1080p sample video isn't looking any better - the processing looks identical but with less detail.

Whereas the 8K footage, it's looking way sharper than 4K one, and it's surprisingly smooth. The level of detail is nice, but you can clearly see the oversharpening halos making an appearance again in the trees and subjects with finer detail.

The handset also offers EIS for 2160p videos, and it's looking stable alright. Even with more fast-paced walking, the software managed to produce a pretty smooth and shake-free video.

You can also take a look at our video compare tool and see how it stands against some of its rivals.

4K: nubia Red Magic 5G vs Asus ROG Phone II and the nubia Red Magic 3s in our Video compare tool