nubia Red Magic 7 Pro review

Competition

More than a month after the standard Red Magic 7's global release, there's still no direct competition to the 7 series. The Pro model has the same advantage as its cheaper sibling by being the first gaming-centric smartphone on the market for 2022. Although considerably pricier, the €799 Red Magic 7 Pro is still a good bargain given its hardware and the 16GB/256GB memory combo it has as a standard. And even at that price, the device is a pretty good Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered option, especially when you add the unobstructed 120Hz OLED panel and the big 5,000 mAh battery. Those come with some caveats, though, but more on that later.

So, due to the limited number of rivals, we chose last year's best options, which happen to be the same ones we used in the Red Magic 7 review.

Of course, the most obvious alternative to the Red Magic 7 Pro is the Asus ROG Phone 5s series and, to be more precise, the vanilla 5s. At least price-wise, that's the closest it gets to the 7 Pro's competitive price tag. The latter has a clear advantage with a €799 starting price while the ROG Phone 5s still maintains a hefty €1,000. But for those extra €200, you will be getting а sensibly better experience - a wider HRR support in games, more mature and polished software, better camera performance (if that's important to you), it has longer battery life, and the display gets considerably brighter as well. The chipset may not be as powerful as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, but it's still good enough to handle everything there is to handle on Google Play.

Asus ROG Phone 5s • Xiaomi Black Shark 4 • ZTE nubia Red Magic 7

The Black Shark 4S Pro is a good alternative as well, given the €600 price tag with almost the same feature set. In fact, the pop-up shoulder triggers are a much better solution for gaming, if we can judge by our experience with the Black Shark 4 from a while back. Sadly, we haven't reviewed the 4S Pro yet, and we may never will, but even by the specs sheet, it's evident that it's worth considering. The problem is, Xiaomi's Black Shark 4S Pro is a bit hard to get these days. We struggled to find any units in stock on the major markets outside of China.

Lastly, we have the vanilla Red Magic 7 as an alternative. And if you are not dead set on impressing friends with the UD selfie camera, it's pretty clear that the vanilla option is the more sensible solution of the two. Battery life hasn't improved at all despite the extra 500 mAh, and the cooling implementation on the vanilla seems to be a tad better. At least when it comes to outer body temperatures. The missing extra vent on the Red Magic 7 Pro could be the culprit. Also, the extra nits that the standard 7 provides are much-needed given the lack of brightness boost in auto mode.

Verdict

The Red Magic 7 Pro is definitely not for everyone. However, except for the excellent sustained performance, the handset fails to do what it's intended for - high refresh rate gaming. There are only a handful of games that can go beyond 60fps beating the purpose of having an HRR display.

There's also the subpar camera performance, bad battery life, poorly translated software and dim screen that don't really make a case for an affordable, all-around flagship. The UD selfie camera novelty and the extra gaming features, which are pretty helpful and neat, to be honest, are just not enough to persuade us.

Pros

• Large and fast 120Hz OLED panel, the UD selfie camera is inconspicuous.
• The Supernova design we reviewed is awesome.
• Nubia finally delivers a fast charging solution on the global market.
• Plenty of gaming-oriented features, including pressure-sensitive shoulder triggers.
• Impressive thermal management during high, sustained loads, the fan helps a lot.

Cons

• No Auto brightness boost.
• Subpar camera performance across the board.
• Poor battery life.
• Not many games can go above 60 fps.
• No ingress protection, no microSD card.
• The software is still plagued by awkward translation.
• Noticeably imbalanced loudspeaker setup.