Nubia RedMagic 7: I would not have believed it if you told me at the start of this year that the first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered smartphone with a 6.8-inch screen would not be the Galaxy S22 Ultra. But here we are. The Nubia RedMagic 7 took that honor, and it’s the kind of phone gamers should fantasize about because there’s so much to enjoy here.
That’s not to claim the Nubia RedMagic 7 is suitable for everyone. I will detail some hard constraints, but I wanted to approach this from the perspective of a player first, and everyone else second. So, with that in mind, I’ve been using the phone as my daily driver on T-network Mobile for approximately two weeks.
Nubia RedMagic 7 Design and Hardware
Any Nubia RedMagic 7 review must begin with the hardware. While some manufacturers have taken a cautious approach to hardware design, Nubia (and other gaming phones) have flipped the script and gone their own way. This phone hits you in the face with the design’s frying pan and dares you to dispute it.
To be honest, nothing about this phone is little or boring, save perhaps its shape. Sure, it’s a black rectangle, but turn it over and look at the back or sides to see if there’s a narrative there. My review unit is the Supernova model, which has a partially transparent backplate with a sort of specifications cheat sheet printed on it. On the rear of the phone, you can also see the 20,000 RPM fan and one of three vents. Unfortunately, the dust that the fan accumulates behind the glass may also be seen.
A headphone jack is located on the top of the phone, around the side. Continuing clockwise on the right side, there are two touch-sensitive shoulder triggers on top and bottom, a second fan vent, and the power button. A single down-firing speaker, SIM tray, USB-C charging, and data connection are located on the bottom. On the left, you’ll find a third vent, a volume rocker, and a red-accented switch, which we’ll go over later. This phone has a lot going on around the edges.
On the front is the aforementioned 6.8-inch AMOLED display, which I will discuss further later and is protected by Gorilla Glass 5. A single 8-megapixel selfie camera and the earpiece, which also functions as a second speaker, are located above the display.
Inside is where the force manifests itself. As previously stated, the phone is powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. My review unit has 256 GB of storage and 18GB of RAM. It also comes with a 4,500mAh dual power cell battery and a 65-watt rapid charger.
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Nubia RedMagic 7 Software
The Nubia RedMagic 7 runs RedMagic OS 5.0, which is a pretty standard operating system used in Asian markets. There is no app drawer by default, however, one can be added if desired. One problem I discovered is when searching for apps. When it comes to apps and folders, I’m a reasonably organized person, yet I occasionally couldn’t find the app I was looking for. In certain circumstances, I had to change the layout in order to have an app drawer.
Speaking of folders, the RedMagic 7 features a lovely feature that allows you to simply add apps to folders by tapping a simple plus symbol at the bottom of a folder. This is something that every operating system should include. Grabbing and dragging 180+ programs into directories isn’t the most enjoyable experience.
The notification shade is a quirk I discovered in the software. When I have multiple notifications for a single program, such as mail, I get a notice that states “X notifications concealed.” The only difficulty was that it took me two weeks to realize it only happened when I got many alerts. I spent hours looking for a way to not hide notifications. If alerts are hidden, it seems to me that there should be a means to make them visible. That’s what the UI says when you have many notifications; otherwise, it merely informs you what the notice is.
The messenger software, which the phone uses for SMS, has an odd quirk as well. When I send a text message to a group conversation, it appears twice: once as a bubble that I sent and again in line with the rest of the thread. My other receivers do not receive a duplicate message, but this is just another UI quirk that doesn’t make any sense.
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Nubia RedMagic 7 Display
If you can take your gaze away from the phone’s back and sides (and the box), you’ll find a stunning 6.8-inch AMOLED panel with a 165Hz refresh rate. If you want to call it a limitation, it’s limited to FHD+ resolution (1080 x 2400). The display also supports a multi-finger 720Hz touch sampling rate, which makes it marginally more responsive than the shoulder triggers.
The screen is extremely bright. As I noted with the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE, I usually set the screen brightness to 100 percent while gaming to ensure that I can see enough detail without having my head blown off. That wasn’t essential for me with this phone. If necessary, the screen may be made quite bright, and it is clearly readable in direct sunlight.
Color reproduction is excellent, with decent shadow depth. The display has excellent viewing angles as well. However, the hardware is only one aspect of the narrative. There’s a lot more to discover here, much of which occurs when gaming, so let’s start with the software.
Nubia RedMagic 7 Camera
The camera is one of the compromises on this phone. That’s a shame because while I can live without 5G (more on that later) and the IP certification, cameras are still very important to me. Perhaps they aren’t significant to gamers, but the camera setup in this game is quite disappointing. There are three lenses in this case. The primary camera has a 64-megapixel resolution, as well as an 8MP ultrawide and a 2MP depth sensor.
During the day, the camera is best described as “social media good.” That is, the camera can produce passable photographs for use on Facebook, Instagram, or any other service that will accept JPEGs and compress the living daylights out of them. This camera will be fantastic if they are never required to be seen in full resolution. That also assumes you’re shooting in decent lighting.
The camera is adequate in daylight or well-lit rooms. The ultrawide sensor and the main camera have vastly different sensor sizes, and it shows. The ultrawide loses a lot of detail and is significantly darker than the main camera. That’s not shocking, and it’s to be expected with this type of camera arrangement. When it comes to detail and color fidelity, the main camera sensor is usually your best bet, and the RedMagic 7 is no exception.
The camera also has 2X, 5X, and 10X zoom options, but it’s usually best if you don’t use them. While 2X isn’t bad, it’s also not particularly good. Furthermore, 5X and 10X swiftly degenerate into current art masterpieces. Speaking of camera modes, the camera offers a slew of them, my favorite of which is “Art Camera,” which turns your photo into an impressionist watercolor. Very unusual.
The only camera that will give you anything close to passable results at night is the primary camera. Only a few of the dozens of images I captured in low light circumstances are suitable. It’s very awful. The biggest issue is the focus, which suffers in low-light situations. You can capture good shots at night, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
Overall, the camera is one of the worst I’ve used on a flagship in a long time. It’s on par with a mid-range phone, which is disappointing given that this phone costs far over $700. Maybe gamers don’t care about camera performance; I’m not a gamer, so I can’t predict how they’ll react. If that’s the case, none of this will matter. But it is important to me.
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Game time!
The previously mentioned red-accented switch puts the phone in gaming mode. Your games on a carousel have a rather straightforward layout. You can switch between them and launch them as you choose. The screen refresh rate, switching the cooling fan on and off, and adjusting the shoulder trigger functions are all configurable in game mode. By the way, the shoulder triggers have a touch sampling rate of 500Hz, so they’re a little “slower” than the screen itself, but it’s not visible during gameplay.
By dragging a target over the desired control in the game, you may set the shoulder triggers to aim anywhere on the screen. Each game has seven possible setups that can be saved. I’m not a frequent enough gamer to require more than one setting per game, but they’re available if you need them.
There’s also a plugin library to help you improve your game experience. There’s a sight assist, which places a dot or sight reticle in the center of your screen to help you aim, stopwatches for timing your gameplay, and a key position assist, which lets you place virtual triggers anywhere on the screen and a corresponding touch target over the control you want to activate.
Swiping in from the bezel in either of the upper corners of the screen will bring you to the game control panel. Screen recorders, performance monitors, and a plethora of other features are also available in the control panel. Most other “game modes” on other cellphones pale in comparison. These have been created with gamers in mind.
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Network, Performance, and Battery
First and foremost, let’s talk about the network. This phone is not compatible with T-5G Mobile’s network. At first, I figured it was because this phone isn’t intended for use in the United States. Nubia is a Chinese-based brand, which is not unique. When I double-checked the reviewer’s guide and observed that this phone will be accessible not only in North America but particularly in the United States, I contacted the RedMagic team, who confirmed that the phone only functions on T-Mobile band n41, not band 70.
Given that this phone will be released in the United States unlocked and that T-Mobile is a popular alternative for consumers who use unlocked phones, this appears to be an odd mistake. One may also argue that the difference between T-Mobile 4G and T-Mobile 5G isn’t significant. True, but it’s still an oversight.
In terms of performance, all I can say is that this phone flies. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor is a beast, with 18GB of RAM and an integrated fan for cooling. I had no issues launching and running multiple apps. There was no latency or stuttering. Fortnite, Call of Duty: Mobile and Asphalt 9 operate flawlessly. Simply said, this phone is a powerhouse, and I look forward to reviewing further phones and tablets powered by this chipset.
A 4,500mAh split battery drives that powerhouse. I can’t say I blame manufacturers for the popularity of dual-battery designs. You get all the power you need in two smaller containers that charge extremely quickly. When utilizing the 65W charger that comes with the RedMagic, that’s 31 minutes from empty to full. Have you heard of Samsung and Apple?
Not only does this allow you to charge your phone quickly, but I’ve also used it to charge laptops, tablets, and battery packs. It’s quite handy. But I’m not going to use this review to preach, other than to suggest that as charging technology advances, it’s not appropriate for manufacturers to force users to use older, less-advanced chargers. It’s also not fair to push them to acquire newer, more modern ones.
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