nubia Red Magic 6R review

Four rear cameras, plus an upgraded selfie

The Red Magic 6R has a quad-camera setup on the back and one at the front. The primary and ultrawide snappers remain the same as seen on the Red Magic 6 - 64MP+8MP - but the macro shooter is now 5MP, and there is an additional 2MP depth sensor. The selfie camera sensor is now 16MP, up from 8MP on the RM6.

So, the Red Magic 6R has a 64MP primary camera with Sony IMX 682 Quad-Bayer sensor with 26mm f/1.8 lens, 0.8µm pixels, and PDAF. This camera shoots by default in 16MP. Night Mode is available only on this camera.

Second is the ultrawide snapper with an 8MP Hynix HK846 sensor behind f/2.2 lens and 1.12µm pixels. There is no autofocus or Night Mode for this camera.

The macro camera uses a 5MP GalaxyCore GC5035 sensor with f/2.4 aperture and focus fixed at about 4cm.

The depth camera uses a 2MP GalaxyCore GC02M1 sensor with f/2.4 aperture and focus fixed at infinity.

The selfie camera packs a 16MP 1/3.06" OmniVision OV16A1 sensor with 1.0µm pixels and a Quad-Bayer filter. The sensor is behind an f/2.4 aperture lens that has a fixed focus. The EXIF reports f/2.4 aperture, though the official specs list f/2.0, and unfortunately, we can't say which one is true.

The camera app is mostly traditional. 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.

There is a dedicated Pro mode, which offers quite a bit of settings to tinker with.

Camera app

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 wished more OEMs offer this feature with their macro cams.

And once again, nubia has refused to put a dedicated toggle for the ultrawide camera in its standard Photo mode. You have to switch to Pro mode to use the ultrawide - there, you lose any sort of multi-stacking and HDR capabilities. We wish at least one of the zoom toggles to be replaced with the ultrawide as we doubt anyone would go beyond 3x zoom without a proper telephoto lens anyway.

Photo quality

The primary camera shoots 16MP images by default, and they are simply outstanding! The resolved detail is abundant, the images are crisp and clean, the foliage presentation is impressive, and the noise levels are nicely low.

The dynamic range is excellent but not extreme. Even if we kept the HDR option set to Auto, it did not trigger even once.

Finally, the white balance was spot on at all times, and the colors were accurate, no matter the occasion.

Long story short - the Red magic 6R daylight photos are flagship-worthy, and among the best we've seen.

Main camera, 16MP

There are 3x, 5x and even 10x toggles, but they do a simple digital zoom, and the photos are not good.

Main camera 3x zoom, 16MP

You can choose 64MP resolution from settings, and the high-res photos are good but not that impressive. Their file size is huge - between 15MB and 30MB!

The high-res photos aren't that sharp and noticeably noisier. We tried downsizing a bunch of these to 16MP, but we did not notice more resolved detail, just less sharpening, especially in areas of high complexity (meaning they are better looking). And that's why we think there is no point in shooting in 64MP.

Main camera, 64MP

Nubia can put three toggles for digital zoom but can't offer an ultrawide switch. C'mon!

So, if you want to shoot ultrawide photos, you need to switch to Pro mode and from there use the three-tree toggle. But shooting in Pro mode doesn't offer multi-stacking or Auto HDR, and the processing is at the minimum.

That's why the 8M ultrawide photos we shot in Pro mode (every setting was left on Auto), are uninspiring. While the white balance and the colors are accurate, and the corners proficiently straightened, the exposure isn't ideal, and the detail is average.

The ultrawide camera can do for the occasional panoramic shot for the social networks, but that's it.

Ultrawide camera, 8MP

The Red Magic 6R has a 5MP macro camera, and it can save some nice photos, that is, if you get the distance right as the focus is fixed at about 4cm-5cm. And it takes a while to get used to this, even with the magnifying glass.

Once you get the gist of the macro shooting, then you'll be able to snap some detailed and lively close-up photos with good colors and contrast. If light conditions aren't ideal, though, the noise levels spike and the image quality worsens quickly.

Macro camera, 5MP

The Red Magic 6R packs a 2MP depth sensor - something the RM6 didn't have. Now the main camera can do portraits even better. And if there is enough light, the portraits will be excellent. We observed proficient separation and pleasant simulated bokeh, while the photos offer good detail and subject sharpness.

If the light isn't enough, the camera shoots at high ISO settings, and the photos often turn up noisy and blurry.

Portraits, 16MP

The Red Magic 6R has a 16MP selfie camera, while the RM6 had an 8MP. And this new front camera saves good-looking and balanced selfies. If there is enough light, the subjects are detailed, the contrast and colors are great, while the dynamic range was above average. You can always use HDR if lighting is challenging.

The photos aren't the sharpest around, probably because of the Quad-Bayer sensor, but few people zoom in on selfies anyway.

If the light isn't ideal, the photos will come out rather soft.

Selfies, 16MP

The Red Magic 6R may not feature a front depth sensor, but it still shoots excellent portrait selfies. The blur is quite pleasing, the subject is detailed and well separated, colors and contrast are superb.

Portrait selfies, 16MP

It's time to look through some nighttime photos. The ones taken by the main camera are quite nice - they are colorful, with good exposure and reasonable noise levels considering there is no stabilization, and the ISO is often north of 4,000. The detail is okay, some of it was smeared by the noise reduction, but all things considered - these are some good images.

Main camera, 16MP

Night Mode is available only on the main camera and, as usual, it takes about 2-3 seconds to complete. It's doing a great job at brightening the pictures, and it reveals more detail in certain shadows and the sky. Most of the blown highlights are restored, too.

The noise is removed rather well, and the images are cleaner than the regular ones.

Main camera Night Mode, 16MP

The ultrawide camera takes surprisingly good photos at night - there is enough detail, and the exposure is not bad. The noise reduction didn't smear a whole lot of detail, and the colors were mostly preserved. Sure, those are not as good as the photos from the main camera, but for ultrawide samples - these are rather good.

There is no Night Mode for the ultrawide camera.

Ultrawide camera, 8MP

And here are photos of our usual posters taken with the nubia Red Magic 6R. Here's how it stacks up against the competition. Feel free to browse around and pit it against other phones from our extensive database.

Red Magic 6R against the Red Magic 6 and the ROG Phone 5 in our Photo compare tool

Video quality

The Red Magic 6R offers can do videos only with its primary camera, but all resolutions and frame rates are supported - 8K videos at 30fps, as well as 4K at 30fps, and 60fps. The ultrawide camera is no accessible as there is no toggle on the viewfinder.

Electronic image stabilization is available across all resolutions and frame rates but 8K.

The first clip we shot was in 8K at 30fps. The footage is detailed and sharp, with true-to-life colors, excellent colors and commendable dynamic range. It's not ideal, though.

There are a lot of what look like compression artifacts. They could be a result of the Quad-Bayer filter and processing, or indeed compression traces. But even with these - we find the 8K footage usable. That is, of course, if you have enough storage to spare, an 8K TV to enjoy it, and you shoot in good daylight conditions. Capturing at night is not recommended, as the picture is rather poor, and you'll only waste a ton of space.

The 4K clips we shot at both 30fps and 60fps are flagship-grade. They offer abundant detail and good sharpness, low noise levels and high contrast. The dynamic range is great, too. The high video bitrate (50+Mbps for 4K30, 100Mbps for 4K60) surely helped, too.

Audio is captured stereo at 96Kbps and sounds good despite the low bitrate.

And here is the Red magic 6R in our video comparison database.

2160p: nubia Red Magic 6R against the Red Magic 6 and the ROG Phone 5 in our Video compare tool