My first gaming smartphone: testing the Nubia Red Magic 7S Pro
31.10.2022
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook
I’m not a big smartphone gamer. When playing on the go, it’s on my Nintendo Switch. Nevertheless, I gave Nubia’s gaming smartphone a chance, also testing whether the device holds up in other disciplines too.
In truth, I, a casual mobile gamer, am not a target customer for the Nubia Red Magic 7S Pro. In everyday life, my smartphone mainly serves for mobile work, entertainment and photography. Nevertheless, I’m interested in how such a gaming phone feels to use. Consequently, I didn’t just game with the Red Magic, but also used it as my daily companion for a week – and was positively surprised for the most part.
A durable workhorse
Nubia’s gaming flagship is a big boy, coming in at a proud fighting weight of 240 grams. If you have small hands, you’ll have problems operating the device. The phone feels high-quality and well made, but it looks a bit too much like a gaming device for my taste, especially from the back.
Nevertheless, the Red Magic 7S Pro is excellent to have for everyday work – not least because of the long-lasting 5000 mAh battery. Even on workdays with intensive Teams, Google Docs and hotspot usage, I easily still have 30% to 40% battery left at the end of my shift. However, there’s a slight bitter aftertaste: the device doesn’t support wireless charging.
The 6.8-inch display with its 1080 ×2400 resolution doesn’t come close to the pixel density of comparable flagship models. Nevertheless, the screen offers enough surface and sharpness to read and write for a longer time without problems. For example, I wrote parts of this article on the Red Magic 7S Pro while on the train. I’m somewhat disappointed by the imprecise haptic feedback, which bothered me particularly when typing on the virtual keyboard. A small but important detail for me.
The sound quality during calls was also convincing. In tests, my friend at the other end of the line could hear me without any problems, even when I was far from the microphone. And vice versa, I could hear the caller just as clearly thanks to the loud speakers. At this point, I should apologise to the other commuters on my train who had to endure our test calls.
A loud party machine
The stereo speakers aren’t only great for making calls, but also make quite a splash when listening to music or watching videos. Compared to my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, everything sounds a bit muffled here, but I still get two fully fledged stereo speakers making quite the racket at maximum volume. Speaking of noise: I recommend changing the horrible default notification sound for incoming messages as soon as possible.
The high-contrast AMOLED screen with HDR support is well suited for extensive YouTube and Netflix sessions on the go. Compared to other smartphones in the same price segment, the display is slightly darker overall. However, I have no problems recognising the contents on my screen, even in direct sunlight. The colours look a bit colder compared to my Galaxy and change noticeably depending on the viewing angle. Such details don’t bother me when watching the latest «Scott the Woz» episode on YouTube, though.
Unconvincing cameras
My dog Lino has an Instagram account, having become a real petfluencer with his 1,400 followers. I take the photos for his profile exclusively with smartphone cameras. During an extensive walk with Lino, I test the camera setup of the Red Magic 7S Pro and compare it with my current smartphone.
In good lighting conditions, the gaming phone delivers acceptable results with its main camera. In the example above, I tested portrait mode. The Red Magic photo looks a bit lifeless and pale compared to the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The HDR effect brightens shadows too much and creates unsightly luminous contours at high contrasts – as can be seen between the sky and forest in this example. Details in particularly bright areas of the image – such as Lino’s white chest fur – are also lost. But with some post-processing, it’s enough for an Instagram post.
Another small anecdote from when I tested the phone: as my language was set to German, I had to look for portrait mode in the camera settings for ten minutes while on my walk until I noticed that it was actually called «Hochformat». An inaccurate term, at best. Someone must’ve typed the word «Portrait» into a second-rate translator and integrated the result into the camera app without a second thought. Such questionable translations are present in quite a few corners of the operating system. Very amusing.
In difficult lighting conditions, the Red Magic camera needs quite a while to process images in night mode, but still delivers a very dark and blurry result. Many details in Lino’s coat and fur are lost. Despite the slightly too warm white balance, I definitely prefer my Galaxy S22 in such situations.
Besides its main camera, the Red Magic 7S Pro also has a wide-angle and macro camera installed. The former, similar to the main camera, produces acceptable pictures in good lighting conditions, but isn’t usable in the dark. The macro camera is completely unnecessary, in my opinion. I’d rather have a zoom camera, which I use much more often in my doggy day to day. The digital zoom on this gaming phone isn’t a good substitute for a dedicated lens, as the picture below shows. I didn’t manage to get a usable magnified photo of my Lino bathing. At least the phone survived a walk in the pouring rain, although it isn’t certified as waterproof.
The selfie camera is hidden under the display of the Red Magic 7S Pro. The somewhat darker and lower-resolution area in the screen behind which the camera is located usually goes unnoticed during normal use. However, this doesn’t make the resulting selfies any nicer.
The Red Magic selfie looks washed out and pale. Numerous details are missing, clearly visible in the Galaxy S22 photo. If you take a lot of selfies or make a lot of video calls, you won’t be happy with the under-display camera.
A powerhouse for mobile gamers
The massive smartphone demonstrates its true strength during intensive gaming sessions. The installed Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor with 12 GB of RAM should provide enough power for even the most demanding games. In my tests, I was even able to play graphically complex titles such as «Grid Autosport», «Call of Duty Mobile» and «Apex Legends» without frame rate drops on the highest graphics settings.
Unlike other non-gaming smartphones with similar chipsets, the Red Magic 7S Pro has an active fan installed. It can be turned on and off for games as well as other intensive computational tasks. Thus, the smartphone doesn’t get uncomfortably hot, even during longer gaming sessions, and I didn’t notice any performance loss.
The aforementioned bright AMOLED screen also cuts a good figure when gaming. You can optionally set the display’s refresh rate to 60, 90 or 120 hertz. And the loud stereo speakers are a real blast, especially when playing games in landscape mode.
I tested most of them with an Xbox controller, because I don’t like touch controls in general. If you prefer to play without a controller, you’ll find two capacitive shoulder buttons on the right side of the smartphone, which you can use to aim and shoot, for example.
The smartphone’s software is also fully designed for intensive gaming sessions. A dedicated switch on the left side of the device activates a gaming hub where you have access to all installed games. There you can also save and automate settings for different games. For example, when playing the card game Marvel Snap, I don’t need the fan or the full power of the GPU and CPU. But when I want to race a few laps in «Grid Autosport», I also go full throttle with the fan and chipset. The battery runtime decreases noticeably at maximum settings.
If you’re unhappy with the settings while playing, you can swipe from the right or left edge of the screen to conjure up handy widgets and optimise your gaming experience on the fly.
Optionally, other apps can also be launched in a picture-in-picture mode using the quick settings. This way you can quickly write back to someone or search the Internet for solutions to a puzzle without interrupting your game.
As befits real gaming hardware, the hub also contains various settings for the LED lights on the back of the device. These can flash while playing or visually indicate notifications and alarms.
Apart from native Android games, I tested various games from the Xbox cloud on the device. Both on the road using the 5G network and at home on my 10 Gbit line, I stream and play without any major problems. This smartphone supports the WiFi 6 standard, promising a more stable connection and lower latency, which can be a big advantage in cloud gaming.
Verdict: an interesting device for gamers and power users
The Nubia Red Magic 7S Pro is a potent gaming smartphone that also does quite well in other areas. I was particularly impressed by the large AMOLED screen, the incredibly loud speakers, the excellent battery performance, and the device’s software, tailored to hardcore mobile gamers.
The cameras weren’t as wonderful – I didn’t expect much and was still disappointed. If you like to take pictures often, you should look for another smartphone. If you don’t care about photography anyway and just need a device to stream, work and game all day, I can highly recommend this titanic telephone.
Domagoj Belancic
Senior Editor
Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.chMy love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.
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