nubia Red Magic 9 Pro review

Introduction and specs

The Red Magic 9 Pro by nubia has arrived early this year, probably due to Qualcomm making its top-tier chipset available earlier than usual. Either way, this year's top-tier gaming smartphone from Red Magic is out, and it comes along with a slew of meaningful upgrades. A worthy generational improvement.

In addition to the more powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC on board, the handset boasts a brighter display, twice the standard storage, a new 50MP ultrawide camera, a bigger battery, and the global variant finally gets USB 3.2 Gen2.

ZTE nubia Red Magic 9 Pro specs at a glance:

• Body: 164.0x76.4x8.9mm, 229g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 5), aluminum frame, glass back; Pressure sensitive zones (520Hz touch-sensing), Built-in cooling fan, Aviation aluminum middle frame.
• Display: 6.80" AMOLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, 1600 nits (peak), 1116x2480px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 400ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8650-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4 nm): Octa-core (1x3.3 GHz Cortex-X4 & 5x3.2 GHz Cortex-A720 & 2x2.3 GHz Cortex-A520); Adreno 750.
• Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM, UFS 4.0.
• OS/Software: Android 14, Redmagic OS 9.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, 1/1.57", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 50 MP, f/2.2, 1/2.76", 0.64µm; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4.
• Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.0, (wide), 1.12µm, under display.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps; Front camera: 1080p@30/60fps.
• Battery: 6500mAh; 80W wired, PD3.0.
• Connectivity: 5G; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 7; BT 5.3; NFC; Infrared port; 3.5mm jack; IR blaster, USB 3. Gen2.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); stereo speakers.

To handle the powerful chip, nubia has once again upgraded the cooling solution, now called ICE 13. It incorporates a 10-layer heat dissipation sheet with a bigger surface, and the cooling fan now goes up to 22,000 RPM while reducing noise emissions.

The handset also boasts upgrades to the stereo speaker setup, more gaming features, better LED lighting around, including the shoulder triggers, and a slimmer design. That last bit is impressive, given the 500 mAh battery increase over the last generation.

So, without further ado, let's see how the new Red Magic 9 Pro runs games and how well it fares in our usual set of tests.

Unboxing the nubia Red Magic 9 Pro

The handset comes in a standard box containing the usual user manuals along with a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging and data transfer and a 65W wall charger.

Nubia provides a protective case too. It's transparent, so it doesn't take away from the nice design.