nubia Red Magic 7S Pro review

Same old triple-camera setup with 64MP main sensor

For yet another generation, the Red Magic retains the same camera hardware on the back. And that's not really a good thing. The main sensor, in particular, is long overdue for an upgrade as it's a budget 64MP unit, which is pretty small too - 1./1.97", 0.7µm pixels. The sensor is paired with an f/1.8 aperture.

The ultrawide shooter has also been neglected - it's still the same old tiny 8M f/2.2, 1.12µm, 1/4.0" snapper. The 2MP f/2.4 macro shooter is also at hand.

The selfie camera has been bumped up since the Red Magic 7 Pro - 16MP, f/2.0, 1/2.8". That's a fairly big sensor for a selfie camera and quite the aperture, too. But since nubia doesn't highlight any changes in the selfie camera department, we see the same unsatisfactory quality due to the technological limitations. We discuss the quality further down this page.

Camera menus

Judging by the UI in general, there's little to no change in the default camera app for a couple of generations now. So it wasn't hard to find our way around it.

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.

Default camera app

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 wish more OEMs doing non-AF macro cameras to do this.

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

Since there's no change in the hardware, we weren't expecting any changes in the photo output as well. And by extension, this means that the overall quality during the day is somewhat underwhelming. The detail is somewhat okay, but the sharpness could be a lot better. The dynamic range needs a little boost, but at least we didn't notice any exposure metering issues like before. Only the occasional crushed blacks in some scenarios could be an issue.

16MP daylight samples

Noise is accounted for in pretty much all lighting conditions, but as you go indoors, sharpness drops dramatically. We would have liked a bit of punchier colors as these ones are way too conservative.

2x zoom

Since the 2x zoom mode crops from the already small sensor, the final result isn't that great. In the right lighting conditions, we would argue that they are good enough for casual social media posting, but it's far from the main camera's 1x mode, even. Samples are softer, highlights can be clipped at times, and noise is easier to see. Overall rendition is quite similar to the 1x mode, though.

2x zoom daylight samples

Ultrawide camera

Sadly, there's not a lot to say about the ultrawide cam. The samples below are extremely soft; they have a limited dynamic range and offer washed-out colors. We can't say these are good enough, not even for social media.

Ultrawide daylight samples

Low-light samples

Main camera

The nighttime environment takes its toll on the small 64MP sensor. The images below are noisy, soft, and lack detail in the shadows, and despite the apparent HDR, the dynamic range could have been better.

Low-light samples

The dedicated Night mode considerably improves overall quality by adding quite a bit of detail, clearing out the shadows, taking care of the clipped highlights and boosts color saturation. Noise is non-existent as well.

Night mode samples

2x zoom

With or without Night mode, the 2x zoom photos are just no-go after dusk. The main sensor's limitations become way too apparent, and 2x zoom samples look softer and noisier and there's even some color fringing going on in some of the scenes.

2x zoom low-light: Normal • Night mode

Ultrawide camera

There's no Night mode for the ultrawide camera so you rely only on the standard photo mode, which delivers abysmal photo quality. Images turn out extremely soft with limited dynamic range, low contrast and washed-out colors.

Ultrawide low-light 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 7S Pro fares against the competition.

nubia Red Magic 7S Pro vs. Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro and the Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro in our Photo compare tool

Portraits

Despite the rather low level of detail, the portrait samples below look pretty solid. Sharpness is good, colors are vibrant, dynamic range is wide enough, and in most cases, the subject's face is well-exposed. Even in more challenging lighting conditions, the portrait photos look good, while edge detection and the faux bokeh effect are quite convincing. Perhaps a slightly brighter exposure wouldn't have hurt.

Portrait samples

Selfies

We retain our initial expectations of the UD camera. There's no change in the software algorithm or hardware, so it's not nearly a surprise to see the soft rendition this camera has to offer. The samples are fuzzy, soft and have a narrow dynamic range. Colors need some boost, and contrast is low. And nubia still hasn't fixed the portrait mode, which fails to blur the background. Going indoors results in rapid image quality deterioration.

Selfies

Video recording

Since the main sensor and the ISP allow it, the Red Magic 7S Pro can go up to 8K video resolution recording at 30fps, while 2160p videos can go up to 60fps. There's also a toggle at the top of the viewfinder that lets you switch on and off the EIS in 4K mode. Keep in mind that when it's on, it limits the field of view. The ultrawide camera still can't record videos, although, given its capabilities, it's not that big of an issue.

Starting with the 4K and 8K footage, we see a pretty good rendition with lots of detail, accurate color reproduction, wide dynamic range, no noise and good contrast. There's little room for improvement here except that the 8K video doesn't really get you sharper and more detailed videos. So for the extra storage space it requires, 8K video recording doesn't make sense. The 30-second video we shot is about 0.5GB in filesize.

We've recorded two videos testing out the EIS. The first one is 2160p footage without EIS, while the second one is a 4K video with the "Anti-shake mode". The difference is apparent but compared to other 4K stabilized videos, it's a bit too shaky for our taste. We've seen a lot better.

Once you are done with the real-life scenarios, take a look at our video compare tool to see how the nubia Red Magic 7S Pro stacks against the other phones we've reviewed.

2160p: nubia Red Magic 7S Pro vs. Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro and the Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro in our Video compare tool