At a look
Professional’s Ranking
Execs
- Nice efficiency
- Spectacular battery life
- Respectable cameras
- Constructed-in fan
Cons
- No waterproofing
- No wi-fi charging
- Inconsistent fingerprint sensor
Our Verdict
Geared up with the newest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, superior cooling system, and a few devoted gaming options, the Redmagic 8 Professional presents a wonderful platform for players due to its excellent efficiency and really affordable worth.
Value When Reviewed
$649
Greatest Costs At this time: Redmagic 8 Professional
$769.00
Gaming telephones stay one thing of a distinct segment market, however one which’s at the moment served with some attractive units. Nubia has up to date its fashionable Redmagic line with the 8 Professional, providing what appears to be high-end gaming efficiency however with a worth that’s decidedly within the mid-range at $649/£579. I’ve hit the beginning button to see if the Redmagic 8 Professional actually is a participant.
Design & Construct
- Trendy, squared-edge design
- Constructed-in fan
- No IP certification
The truth that this can be a gaming cellphone is clear even earlier than you are taking the machine out of the field. Nubia goes with a silver livery for the packaging with techno-style labelling, albeit considerably extra refined than with among the extra garish ones I’ve encountered up to now. Eradicating the lid reveals some fairly funky art work emblazoned on the internal field, depicting a cool robotic determine standing earlier than a spaceship, whereas an anime-style lady rushes via a futuristic metropolis on her motorcycle. It’s actually a refreshing change from the stark-white packaging you normally get with fashionable telephones.
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With all this flash on show, you may be nervous that the cellphone itself can be weirdly formed, with a number of glowing sections and different decorations that make gaming mice and keyboards look a bit crap. Fortunately, that’s not the case.
The Redmagic 8 Professional is definitely a fairly neat wanting cellphone. The size are 164 x 76.4x 8.9mm, with a weight of 228g, making it a big however not uncomfortable handset. You gained’t discover any rounded edges or curved screens right here although, because the design is an angular one, with squared off edges all spherical, making it look one thing from the present Sony Xperia vary.
The entrance panel is a 6.8-inch AMOLED show with solely minor bezels across the edges and no notch, due to the selfie digicam being positioned beneath the display screen, as is the fingerprint sensor. The latter was a bit hit or miss by way of reliability, with pressings usually leading to my print not being recognised. This may very well be resulting from the truth that my each day driver just lately has been the Xiaomi 12 Lite, which locations the sensor a bit of decrease down. If I took my time, then the outcomes have been extra constant, so it might simply be muscle reminiscence inflicting the issue.
The metallic chassis options some tell-tale indicators that this can be a gaming-focussed unit, together with the fan consumption and retailers on both facet of the body, 520Hz contact delicate set off buttons alongside one edge, stereo audio system positioned on the highest and backside of the machine, plus a headphone jack for low latency audio. There’s additionally the purple Recreation House Swap that activates the devoted modes for gaming the place you possibly can tailor the system to your private preferences. Extra on that later.
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A matt end on the rear panel provides the Redmagic 8 Professional some much-wanted grip, and the design mimics that on the outer lid of the field. There are three cameras within the line down the higher part of the panel, all of that are barely raised, that means the cellphone gained’t sit flat on a desk when resting on its again, even when positioned within the included hard-plastic case.
As you’d anticipate, the charging port is USB-C, however this additionally doubles as an output for HDMI, so you may join this to a monitor if you wish to take your gaming to a bigger show.
Sadly, there’s no IP ranking listed, that means you’ll wish to preserve the cellphone away from water or mud, curbing any bath-time gaming classes, however the 6,000mAh battery means you’ll be capable of spend many of the evening taking part in your favorite titles as soon as your ablutions are executed.
Within the field you’re blessed with a 65W charger (glory be!), USB-C charging cable, the aforementioned case, and a SIM tray ejector instrument.
Display screen & Audio system
- 6.8-inch AMOLED, 120Hz show
- Gorilla Glass 5
- Stereo audio system
A 6.8-inch, 20:9, FHD+ AMOLED show takes up the vast majority of the entrance panel, aided by these under-screen elements talked about above. The skinny bezels across the show make it really feel nearly like an edge-to-edge display screen and it’s spectacular how effectively hidden the selfie digicam is on this mannequin. Severely, you simply can’t discover it in any respect until you actually go searching. This makes the show really feel enormous and uninterrupted when utilized in panorama orientation, which can be the place a gaming machine spends the vast majority of its time. Plus, it’s nice for watching video, as you don’t have the annoying dot at one finish or a honking nice notch to deal with.
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Brightness has seen a little bit of consideration since final yr’s Redmagic 7 Professional, which was a bit of on the dim facet. Now, Nubia claims, you possibly can hit a most brightness of 1,300 nits when firing on all cylinders, though this gained’t be the case more often than not, particularly if you would like any battery life in any respect.
Utilizing a light-weight meter, I measured the utmost brightness at 568 nits when in a darkish room. Which means that the Redmagic 8 Professional can cope admirably with a vibrant day outdoors and close to blind you with its luminescence when indoors.
The refresh price tops out at 120Hz, which is strong for any fashionable cellphone, though you possibly can set it at both 90Hz or 60Hz if you wish to save battery life. The cellphone will routinely regulate to the upper price when gaming, so that you don’t need to fiddle with the settings earlier than beginning a session.
Figures apart, the show is vibrant, clean and pleasing on the attention, which is sweet factor as eager players can be staring intently at it for hours at a time. The contact sensitivity can be as much as snuff, with a most contact sampling price of 950Hz, which makes recreation characters immediately conscious of instructions.
The dual audio system are positioned at both finish of the machine and challenge some glorious audio. Sounds are loud and effectively balanced, with a full and highly effective combine, although they aren’t as spectacular as these discovered on the Asus ROG Cellphone 7 Final. The location additionally turns into a hindrance when gaming, because the audio system are usually the place your fingers are gripping the cellphone. The suitable facet isn’t too unhealthy, because the speaker sits larger, however the left if normally coated, making the sound extra boxy.
In fact, you possibly can bypass this solely by utilizing the three.5mm headphone jack or Bluetooth earbuds, with Excessive Definition Audio assist accessible in case you have appropriate headsets.
Specs & Efficiency
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor
- 12GB RAM
- 256GB storage
Clearly, the place gaming is concerned you want a whole lot of energy. It’s pleasing then that Nubia has used the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor in a cellphone that sits at this mid-range worth. Teamed up with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS 4.0 storage, issues transfer fairly rattling shortly on the Redmagic 8 Professional. Do you have to require much more energy, there’s additionally a 16GB/512GB variant when you’re prepared to spend extra.
Firing up a demanding title like Genshin Influence is usually a problem for some telephones, however on the Redmagic 8 Professional it’s a breeze. In busier components of the sport, when the motion is kicking off, there’s no noticeable slow-down or frame-rate dropping. The identical is true with the likes of Asphalt 9 and the opposite common suspects that make calls for on each the processor, GPU and temperature controls.
Nubia matches the Redmagic 8 Professional with its ICE 11.0 cooling system, comprised of a graphene layer beneath the show to dissipate warmth effectively, a 20,000RPM fan with consumption and outlet valves on the edges of the chassis, plus a double-layer vapour-chamber liquid-cooling plate and different conductive layers and elements (there are 10 layers in all). I don’t faux to know the expertise that’s gone into all this, however the outcomes are that the handset stays cool when taking part in video games and the fan isn’t too loud, particularly when you’re carrying headphones.
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All this effectivity and cooling implies that there’s little in the way in which of thermal throttling required, so efficiency stays excessive everytime you’re utilizing the cellphone for extra demanding duties – ie, gaming.
Right here’s the benchmark outcomes that present how the Redmagic 8 Professional compares to its rivals:
Cameras
- 50Mp f/1.88 predominant digicam
- 8Mp f/2.2 broad digicam
- 2Mp f/2.4 macro digicam
Gaming could also be the principle focus of the Redmagic 8 Professional, however good cameras are at all times excessive on the record of issues that folks need from their units as of late. On this space the 8 Professional doesn’t fare brilliantly. The principle 50Mp f/1.88 shooter is provided with a Samsung GN 5 sensor, which you’ll additionally discover on units just like the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Vivo iQoo 11, however the Redmagic gained’t be worrying these rivals with its photographic prowess.
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The principle digicam can take some first rate images, dealing effectively with publicity and focusing in combined scenes, however the colors do come out considerably muted. This may very well be a pleasing shock when in comparison with the usually oversaturated pictures I see on many smartphone cameras as of late, but it surely simply makes images really feel a bit of flat until you do some submit processing.
Switching to the 8Mp ultra-wide digicam does allow you to embrace some further content material within the shot, however because of the placement I usually discovered that the sting of my hand may very well be within the picture until I used to be cautious. The colors are even duller on the ultra-wide and high quality takes successful.
That’s to not say they’re unusable. Under no circumstances. With some good gentle you possibly can seize good pictures, and the evening mode does an excellent job of permitting you to take footage the place the sunshine would usually be too darkish (as long as you possibly can lean the cellphone on a flat floor to carry it regular). There’s an oversharpening of the photographs in darkish mode, however that’s not unusual because the software program is working arduous to drag all the things it might probably out of the image.
Selfies, portraits and macro pictures are fantastic however not spectacular, though delving into the menus you could find some enjoyable modes to play with. My favorite was for capturing gentle trails from automobiles going by at evening. It did take a number of makes an attempt to seize one thing I used to be proud of, however I gained’t mark the digicam down for this as I used to be usually doing it handheld. One annoyance is {that a} watermark displaying the digicam’s identify is turned on by default, and you may’t take it off of the photographs. Silly thought.
Video is sweet, with footage being reliable, precisely focussed and effectively uncovered. It might probably shoot 4K@60fps, and outcomes are very usable, plus when you don’t care about burning up all of your storage then there’s the choice for 8K@30fps. An anti-shake mode makes use of EIS to clean issues out, and it does a fantastic job.
Strolling together with the Redmagic 8 Professional whereas filming didn’t present the bobbing brought on by my motion, and there weren’t any apparent indicators that the app was cleansing issues up. Shifting from gentle to darkish gave the metering one thing to consider, however once more it did effectively in dealing with one thing that may usually catch out cameras.
The selfie digicam is hidden beneath the show, however this doesn’t make for good picture high quality. All of the selfies I took have been washed out and had noise. If you happen to don’t use this characteristic a lot, then it might be acceptable, however when you’re a selfie fan then you’ll find the cellphone irritating.
Right here’s some examples of the photographs I captured with the Redmagic 8 Professional:
Battery Life & Charging
- 6,000mAh battery
- 65W quick charging (with charger in field)
- Expenses to 50% in quarter-hour
- No wi-fi charging
Nubia opts for twin 3,000mAh cells within the Redmagic 8 Professional, giving the machine successfully a 6,000mAh battery. Not solely is that this a beneficiant quantity of cost storage, the effectivity of the cooling and top-spec processor means that you would be able to get via a number of hours of gaming with nonetheless sufficient gasoline left within the tank to pay attention to a couple podcasts earlier than bedtime.
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In our commonplace battery benchmark, the Redmagic 8 Professional managed 15 hours and 35 minutes, so it ought to preserve even essentially the most ardent players going all day. That’s critically spectacular longevity.
Do you have to discover your actions do drain the battery, you then gained’t have lengthy to attend earlier than you get again within the motion, because the included 65W charger will restore 51% of cost in solely quarter-hour. Whereas a full recharge solely takes round 40 minutes. Spectacular stuff.
Software program
- Android 13
- Redmagic OS 6.0
- Devoted Recreation Mode
There are two sides to the software program on the Redmagic 8 Professional. The primary is the overall implementation of Android 13, which wears the Nubia Redmagic OS 6.0 pores and skin. That is fairly commonplace fare, with not a lot in the way in which of bloat, however there have been a number of situations after I stumbled throughout Chinese language textual content somewhat than English.
One omission, which I’ve seen on another Chinese language telephones, is that I used to be unable to arrange Google Pay. Whether or not that is regional or not, I’m uncertain, however within the UK evidently this explicit handset wasn’t prepared to play ball.
Sliding the purple swap on the facet of the machine launches the devoted gaming software program, which has loads of fascinating options. Probably the most helpful is with the ability to map the shoulder buttons so as to use them in video games you play. I need to admit, this proved tougher than anticipated, with the directions given by Nubia on the way to enter the setup mode proving fruitless.
There’s meant to be a swipe motion that reveals an additional choice for choosing the mapping characteristic, but it surely by no means appeared. I ultimately labored it out, but it surely all felt unpolished and extra complicated than mandatory.
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With the Recreation Mode engaged you possibly can tweak fairly a number of settings and be sure that the acceleration is working for the video games you’re taking part in. Hopefully, by the point you learn this, the complicated components may have been smoothed out so you possibly can simply benefit from the plentiful options on provide.
Value & availability
With the high-end specs and devoted gaming expertise onboard, you may anticipate this to be an costly handset to purchase. However, that’s not the case. If you happen to choose up the baseline mannequin with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, then it’s a really inexpensive $649/£579. Step as much as the 16GB/512GB model and also you’ll nonetheless solely need to pay $799/£709 which may be very affordable for a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 geared up machine.
This places it in the identical ballpark because the Black Shark 5, that’s round $899/£729 for a equally configured mannequin because the baseline Redmagic. The ROG Cellphone 6 which can run you $899.99/£899.99 albeit with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 beneath the hood.
Verdict
If you happen to’re searching for a devoted gaming cellphone that may additionally reduce it within the day-to-day, then the Redmagic 8 Professional is a superb alternative. Efficiency is top-notch, whereas the cameras, show and different normal appointments are all adequate at this worth level to make the entire package deal really feel like a real discount. Recreation on.
Specs
- 6.8-inch FHD+ AMOLED show, 1116×2480, 20:9, 120Hz, 960Hz contact sampling price, 1300 nits max brightness, Corning® Gorilla® Glass
- Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 8 Gen 2
- Adreno Crimson Core 2
- REDMAGIC OS 6.0 primarily based on Android 13.0
- 12GB LPDDR5X Reminiscence
- 256GB UFS 4.0 Storage
- ICE 11 Multi-Dimensional Cooling System
- 20,000 RPM high-speed turbofan
- 50MP f/1.88 predominant digicam
- 8Mp f/2.2 broad digicam
- 2MP f/2.4 macro digicam
- 16MP, 2nd technology under-display-camera (UDC) selfie digicam
- Twin Nano SIM
- 5G
- Wi-Fi 7 802.11b/g/n/ac/ax/be (Tri-band 2.4G, 5G, 6G) with HBS assist
- Bluetooth 5.3
- GPS, AGPS
- NFC
- 6000mAh Twin Cell Battery, with 65W quick charging
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- 163.98mm x 76.35mm x 9.47mm
- 228g