nubia Red Magic 9S Pro review

A familiar triple-camera setup

The camera setup on the Red Magic 9S Pro seems to be borrowed straight from the Red Magic 9 Pro. The handset uses a 1/1.57" 50 MP Samsung GN5 ISOCELL sensor with 1.0µm pixels and paired with an f/1.9 lens. It has OIS.

The ultrawide camera is based on the 1/2.76" 50 MP Samsung JN1 ISOCELL imager, with 0.64µm pixels and f/2.2 aperture lens in front of it. There is no autofocus or anything else fancy here.

There is an additional 2MP depth sensor on the back, but it hardly contributes anything to the iamges coming from the Red Magic 9S Pro.

The under-display selfie camera hasn't changed either - 16MP OV16E1Q sensor, 1/2.8" in size and paired with f/2.0 lens.

• Wide (main): 50 MP Samsung GN5 f/1.9, 1/1.57", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS; 8K@30fps, 2160p@60fps
• Ultra wide angle: 50 MP Samsung JN1, f/2.2, 1/2.76", 0.64µm; 2160p@60fps
• Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4.
• Front camera: 16 MP OmniVision OV16E1Q, f/2.0, 1/2.8"; 1080p@30fps

However, nubia highlights a new 7-layer implementation of transparent materials in its 5th-generation UDC hardware. The company calls the industry's first wave-type electrode trace program that reduces the diffraction of light coming into the selfie camera and improves image clarity. We'll have to see about that.

Camera UI

There's been 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. 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 few settings with which to tinker.

The Pro mode works not only with the main camera but also with the ultrawide, but not the selfie.

Daylight photo quality

Main camera

The quality of stills taken with the main camera is good overall. The images contain plenty of detail, mature processing and punchy colors.

Red magic 9S Pro: 12.5 MP main camera samples

That being said, there is above average noise and dynamic range isn't great. In high-contrast scenes, the highlights can be clipped while shadows are darker than they should be. There is noticeable moire fringing on finer patterns as well.

The main camera does a pretty great job of capturing people. Skin tones are nice and natural, and there is some skin texture.

The Red Magic 9S Pro does a bang-up job of portraits. Subject detection and separation are good, and so is the quality of the background blur.

Red Magic 9S Pro: 12.5 MP main camera portrait samples

You can force the main camera to shoot in its full 50 MP resolution. There is hardly any difference in resolved detail, though, so there is little point in doing that. Images come out looking a bit softer and noisier with limited dynamic range.

Red magic 9S Pro: 50MP main camera samples

Ultrawide camera

We wouldn't call the 50 MP ultrawide camera's output spectacular, but they still have nice colors and low noise. Edge distortion is also minimal. However, dynamic range is pretty limited.

Red magic 9S Pro: 12.5 MP ultrawide camera samples

You can also force the ultrawide to capture in its full 50 MP resolution. However, much like the main camera there is absolutely no benefit to doing so.

Red Magic 9S Pro: 50 MP ultrawide camera samples

Selfie camera

nubia is pretty proud of its fifth-generation underdisplay camera tech. The display is constructed from a seven-layer transparent material system coupled with specialized AMOLED to enhance the translucency of the camera area. Also, an industry-first wave-type electrode trace program has been implemented to reduce light diffraction.

While still not up there with regular cameras, the selfies are a considerable step in the right direction. They come cleaner with less glow in well-lit environments, and with far more resolved detail.

Red Magic 9S Pro: 16MP selfie camera samples

However, these selfies still suffer from light bloom and refractions around light sources, so problem isn't fully solved. We guess that's inevitable since there are OLED pixels on top of the camera. The color temperature is the other thing that needs work.

Low-light camera quality

The main camera does well at night. The shots have plenty of detail, natural colors, and low noise. Dynamic range is excellent, and light sources are masterfully handled.

Red Magic 9S Pro: 12.5 MP main camera low-light samples

The Red Magic 9S Pro has an automatic night mode that kicks in very consistently. There is a manual night mode beyond that, but it doesn't seem to make any difference compared to the automatic one.

Red Magic 9S Pro: 12.5 MP main camera night mode samples

The ultrawide camera holds up decently well in low light, too. Detail is good, and so is dynamic range. Darker areas are surprisingly well-developed, and light sources aren't blown out.

Red Magic 9S Pro: 12.5 MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

There is, however, plenty of noise here and not too much detail. Also, the exposure tends to be a bit too low for our taste.

Once again, automatic night mode does its job very well, so you don't really need to manually trigger it.

Red Magic 9S Pro: 12.5MP ultrawide camera night mode samples

Low-light selfies are just abysmal. The under-display camera distorts light sources so badly that it almost looks like a bad filter was applied. There is no night mode for selfies to help out, either.

Red Magic 9S Pro: 16MP selfie camera low-light samples

Video capture quality

The Red Magic 9S Pro can capture videos at up to 8K@30fps on the main camera, 2160p@60fps on the ultrawide and 1080p@30fps on the selfie. Videos get saved in a standard AVC/h.264 video stream by default (around 100Mbps for 8K, 62Mbps for 4K, around 19Mbps for 1080p) with 48 kHz stereo AAC audio inside an MP4 container. You can also choose to do HEVC/h.265 capture to save on some space or opt for HDR10 video capture.

Starting with the 8K footage, we have nothing to complain about. The video footage looks great - wide dynamic range, plenty of fine detail, smooth, no noise, adequate contrast and accurate color reproduction. The footage looks rather raw, though, as if nubia hasn't applied any processing. That's not necessarily bad, though.

The 4K footage is no different. The 4K footage from the ultrawide camera is less impressive but is still pretty solid. It has decently wide dynamic range, no noise, decent detail, and accurate colors. Edge softness is a bit of an issue, though.

Selfie videos are nothing to phone home about. Detail isn't great, and everything looks quite soft. There is a lot of bloom and light distortion as well.

The Red Magic 9S Pro offers optional EIS on the main and ultrawide cameras. Interestingly enough, not the selfie one. OIS works decently well on these two cameras, though it doesn't quite deal away with every shake and bump. It also introduces a very small amount of focus hunting on the main camera. Nothing severe, but it's still worth noting.

Low-light videos from the main camera are pretty solid. Detail is good, and so are colors. There is practically no noise. Dynamic range could be a bit better. Darker areas tend to get crushed, and some light sources are blown out. There isn't much difference in detail between 8K and 4K resolution. The ultrawide camera is pretty unusable for video in low light. Its videos are just way too dark to make anything out.

Video sample playlist

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.