Gaming phones are often released with new variations every month or two, which can lead to lowered expectations and less excitement. More importantly, these quarterly “upgrades” are often insignificant and unnoticeable. ..

Nubia has released a new RedMagic 7S Pro smartphone that features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor and a new ICE 10.0 multi-dimensional cooling system. This new model gives mobile gaming a significant boost overall, and so it merits your attention in addition to mine. ..

Design

The Nubia Red Magic 7S Pro is a flagship phone that makes use of a combination of components like glass and aluminium that are often found in flagship phones. The biggest and most noticeable difference between this phone and standard handsets is a thick metal plate that runs down the middle of the back of the phone. Nubia claims that this will enhance heat dissipation, yet it dramatically increases the weight of the 7S Pro. ..

The Huawei Mate 10 Pro is a heavy phone at 235g. It has a rectangular back camera module with three lenses and a flash, and it has a 10mm thickness. With its heavy weight, the Mate 10 Pro may be uncomfortable to use for prolonged periods of time. ..

The Obsidian (black) model we tested is more subdued than previous Red Magic phones, despite the fact that it is clear from the rear design that this is a gaming phone. Although there is a silver variant as well, the transparent model is absent from the global version. The 7S Pro isn’t the phone for you if you’re searching for an eccentric design or bold colours. Nubia has done a wonderful job at keeping the built-in fan hidden on both models. You wouldn’t even notice it was there if it weren’t for a few grilles and the sound whirring it makes when it’s operating.

RedMagic 7S Pro review: Display

The RedMagic gave the 7S Pro a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen with FHD resolution, and an under-display camera prevented any notch or punch-hole from obstructing the view. Although the RedMagic’s display patch covering the camera is a little more noticeable than it is on the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra, you hardly notice the difference in pixels when using the gaming phone. No matter which side of the gates the main cast was on, we could clearly see the action and details in Stranger Things 4 Volume 2 teaser when we watched it on YouTube. ..

The RedMagic’s default color profile is colder than what you get on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The RedMagic has a darker display than its competitors, as evidenced by the results of our display tests. However, a remarkable Delta-E score for color accuracy, where a lower score indicates more accurate color reproduction, makes it an attractive option for users who want to improve their color reproduction.

Software

Nubia’s Red Magic OS 5.5 gaming UI has been improved, with more accurate translations, as compared to the Red Magic 7, which we evaluated in June. However, if you look beneath the surface, there are still problems. The keyboard and the background, in this case the applications tray, are shown in the image above. You can read our article on RedMagic OS 5.5 review here.

If you can get past a few UI quirks, the phone feels relatively stock, though more Android 10 stock than Android 12 stock because Material Design and other Android 12 highlights are absent. App support is also excellent. On the 7s Pro, Nubia has pre-loaded a number of widgets to make it easier for you to access functions geared toward gaming. ..

The Red Magic 7s Pro is a phone with a lot of features that are pre-deployed on it. These features include a heart rate monitor, a gameplay clock, and fan speed control. The gaming enhancer gives you more precise control over your system once you’ve launched a game than non-gaming phones might. You can adjust elements like fan control and switch between performance and power-saving settings.

RedMagic 7S Pro review: Hardware and performance

The Red Magic 7S Pro is powered by the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip. This offers minor improvements over the standard 8 Gen 1 chip, but maintains the Red Magic brand’s reputation for superior performance. The model we tested comes with 12GB of RAM, but if you need more power, there is also an option for 18GB. Given the outstanding performance of the 7S Pro already, we doubt that any additional RAM would make a significant difference. ..

The OnePlus 6T is a great phone for gaming. It has a 120Hz frame rate and 960Hz touch sampling, which gives you a significant advantage over other players using a conventional smartphone. The fan is also rather noisy, but it’s worth it for the smooth gameplay.

The phone feels very warm to the touch, but unless you turn on some music, it can be distracting. We attempted to entirely switch off the fan, but the phone quickly became quite hot; we wouldn’t advise doing this. Excellent gaming performance translates into practical application as usual. Even when using split-screen multitasking, popular programmes like Chrome, Gmail, Maps, and YouTube all function flawlessly. Actually, it provides much more performance than you’ll ever require for any simple activities.

RedMagic 7S Pro review: Camera

The camera on the Red Magic 7S Pro is mostly unaltered from that on the Red Magic 7 Pro and even the Red Magic gaming phones from the previous year. It has the same 1/4.0″ 8MP ultrawide sensor and 1/1.97″ 64MP wide sensor both with an f/1.8 aperture.

The camera is mid-ranged and struggles in low light. The Night mode produces poor results.

The main cameras on the OnePlus Nord 2T, Realme 9 Pro Plus, and Pixel 6a all failed to capture any detail or color in our tests. This makes the Red Magic 7S Pro a much less useful camera than its competitors.

Nubia’s insistence on watermarking images by default just makes matters worse. It seems oddly braggadocious to yell about the camera given the obvious lack of photographic skill here. Selfie photos are atrocious. Not so much the usage of the modest 8MP sensor, but rather the placement of the sensor behind the display, which prevents it from receiving as much natural light as a “typical” selfie camera, is to blame.

Battery life

The Asus ZenFone 2 Deluxe has a 5,000mAh battery, which is similar to the Red Magic 7 Pro. This should result in an amazing battery life. In our tests, we discovered that the phone had a battery life of up to 12 hours and 48 minutes when locked at a basic 60Hz refresh rate and 10 hours and 48 minutes when set to its maximum 120Hz refresh rate. That puts it among our top phone battery life contenders, although it falls short of the incredible 15-hour+ performance shown by the ROG Phone 6 Pro. ..

The RedMagic 7S Pro charges quickly, placing it near the top of our list. ..

Price and availability

The RedMagic 7 Pro costs $799/£679, while the ROG Phone 6 Pro starts at $999/£1,099.

Conclusion

The Nubia RedMagic 7S Pro is a good gaming smartphone, but it can be a bit confusing to use. If you want to use the 960 Hz touchscreen sampling rate, you have to activate it first. You also have to set the higher refresh rate first. It’s also a pity that the navigation system is limited to 90 Hz. ..

The RedMagic smartphone is the best choice if you want pure performance and don’t want to lug around a clunky plug-on fan. It has a 520 Hz sensor key that works well. ..