We tested RedMagic 8 Pro, the most powerful Android smartphone

But before we start our performance tests, let us introduce you to the Red Magic 8 Pro. The latest smartphone from the Nubia brand succeeds the Red Magic 7S Pro, which was launched just five months ago. A fast update that aims to offer the most modern features and maximum power.

To achieve this, the phone is equipped with an octa-core Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with a clock frequency of 3.19 GHz and an Adreno 740 graphics chip. All this is accompanied by 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS memory. 4.0 is a first for a smartphone. A “racing beast” aimed primarily at mobile gamers looking for the best possible gaming experience on Android.

The rest of the spec sheet is worthy of a high-end smartphone. So we find a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen that benefits from a 120Hz refresh rate, a 6000mAh battery and 65W fast charging. On the other hand, unlike the Asus ROG Phone 6, there is no waterproof certification. but it is sold at a higher price.

The camera unit has three modules: wide angle (50 Mpx), ultra wide angle (8 Mpx) and macro (2 Mpx). The 16 Mpx selfie camera is very discreet as it is hidden under the phone’s screen.

A smartphone is unlike any other

In addition to its unique design with ultra-thin bezels that give the impression of holding the screen in your hand, the Nubia RedMagic 8 Pro has some technical features that few smartphones can boast of today. The first is due to the presence of a mini-jack port on the top edge of the phone. Unfortunately, its placement is far from ideal as it will get in the way of the cable if you hold the phone horizontally to play a game or just watch a video.

An integrated fan cooling system is also one of the features of this RedMagic 8 Pro, which aims to keep the head cool even when gaming with all graphics settings maxed out. The fan is located in the air vents on both sides of the phone. It is possible to adjust it from the widget “Game Fan” or directly in the phone settings.

At maximum power, 20,000 revolutions per minute, it can be heard, but considering the service it provides, it is still reasonable. If you have headphones, it just won’t be heard.

There are sensitive triggers on one of the edges of the phone. Very responsive (520 Hz), these can be assigned to on-screen control keys to improve control in certain games. especially effective for RPGs such as Genshin effect or like shooting games PUBG Mobile.

Finally, it is dedicated to the software features the game grouped in the application “GameSpace” activated using the red button on the edge of the phone.

Power to spare

We put the smartphone and its new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip to 01Lab tests. All tests were performed with the default setting “Rapid cooling” which automatically controls the internal fan.

As always, we start with standard AnTutu. We found it interesting to compare the Redmagic with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 powered OnePlus 10T and the MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ SoC powered Asus ROG Phone 6D Ultimate. Note that the “real” competitor of Qualcomm’s latest addition is the MediaTek Dimensity 9200. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to test a smartphone equipped with this chip yet.

Not surprisingly, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has a higher overall score than its predecessor and competitor. However, in detail, the CPU score is slightly worse than the Dimensity 9000+. On the other hand, the gain is significant in the GPU part, where the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is 26% more powerful than the Dimensity 9000+ and 23% more powerful than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

The AI-related test, AITuTu, on the other hand, is disappointing. Despite our numerous tests, the score did not improve. The results are similar on Geekbench, with a larger discrepancy in the multi-core test.

On the graphics part (GPU), the GFX Bench app didn’t help us much, as the test crashed the smartphone on every attempt. On the contrary, in 3DMark, the results are clear. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 dominates the competition head and shoulders.

The stability score here is particularly impressive: 99.6%. SoC optimization and RedMagic 8 Pro’s ventilation system are a perfect match. The smartphone does not know regulationthis is great news for mobile gamers.

The criteria they have their uses, but we decided to test the RedMagic 8 Pro by running the most demanding games from the Google Play Store. we started with PUBG Mobile by setting the graphics settings to “Ultra HD” and the frame rate to “Ultra”.

The game was nice, fluid, and we didn’t feel the annoying heating of the device after 30 minutes of gaming. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and the smartphone’s cooling system do their job perfectly.

Same observation Genshin effect it ran without any problems at 60 fps with maximum graphics settings. A truly optimal gaming experience that can make you rediscover certain titles on Android.

01Lab tests confirm our good impressions with a maximum temperature of no more than 36.2°C (ambient temperature at 19°C) and a thermal amplitude of only 17.2°C, which is excellent. Under heavy load, the RedMagic 8 Pro manages to keep a cool head with a near-perfect stability score of 99.6°C in 3DMark Wild Life.

Thanks to the “RedMagic Studio” installed on the phone, you can broadcast the screen of the smartphone to an external screen, cabled or wirelessly. You just need to install the appropriate software on your PC. It works great and literally gives your mobile games another dimension.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is therefore very efficient in games. RedMagic 8 Pro’s additional cooling system drives the point home to make the smartphone a new benchmark in mobile performance.

Imbalance of power

RedMagic 8 Pro perfectly delivers on its promise by delivering a very convincing gaming experience. However, the smartphone is far from perfect. Priced at €649, Nubia definitely had to make some compromises to offer such a powerful phone.

As you can see in the 01Lab radar synthesis, the phone benefits from performance levels and battery life well above the average €600 to €1,000 smartphone we’ve tested over the past 12 months. The highly efficient 65W fast charger can fully charge the RedMagic 8 Pro in just 38 minutes.

On the other hand, the phone suffers from screen brightness that doesn’t live up to its promises and lack of real HDR support in video. The interface is also one of the black points of the phone. It runs on Android 13 with RedMagic OS 6.0. Unfortunately, the translation of the menus is flawless, if not complete. If you don’t speak Chinese, it can be quite a challenge to navigate.

Let’s finish by talking about the quality of the camera unit. The main module of 50 Mpix (wide angle) is quite capable of taking quality shots in good light conditions. Portrait mode is also effective for cropping subjects. However, it becomes more complicated for night photos, whose quality degrades rapidly. We were not convinced by the ultra-wide-angle, macro and selfie modules. They are clearly the weak links of this photo configuration.

Read also : 10 most powerful Android and iOS smartphones right now

RedMagic 8 Pro is therefore a great smartphone for mobile gaming. Its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, cooling system, sensitive triggers and software features the game be referred to in the matter. However, the smartphone makes obvious compromises in other areas, such as display or photography, in order to offer the best possible performance/price ratio.