ZTE Nubia RedMagic 8 Pro is a powerful gaming smartphone that features a flagship snapdragon chip for playing demanding games with ease and true full AMOLED screen to enjoy a truly immersive gaming experience that isn’t toasty during extended game session, thanks to its ICE 11.0 cooling system and 6000mAh battery juiced by a 65W Fast Charging support.
ZTE Nubia RedMagic 8 Pro Key Specifications
6.8 inches AMOLED Display, 1116 x 2480 pixels, ~89.1% screen-to-body ratio
Android 13, Redmagic OS 6
Qualcomm SM8550-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Octa-Core CPU
8GB, 12GB, 16GB RAM
50MP (wide) + 8MP (ultrawide) + 2MP (macro) Triple Rear Snappers
16MP Front Camera
Under Display Fingerprint Sensor
128GB, 256GB, 512GB UFS 4.0 Built-in Storage
5G Support
65W / 80W Fast Charging Capacity
6000 mAh Dual-Cell Li-Po Battery
Design
ZTE Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro parades a simple and futuristic design.
It has a unique boxy form factor with sharp squared-corners ditching the sweeping curves of its predecessor and matte finish.
The device is forged from an all glass blended together by a metal rail running round the edges and adding sturdiness with a touch of elegance.
With a dimension measuring 164 x 76.4 x 8.9 mm, the device is a slightly smaller and also lighter at 228 gram of weight than its predecessor, Redmagic 7 Pro.
The back panel wears a subtle texture that offers comfortable grip. The RedMagic logo is seen at the centre of the back panel and it is illuminated by RGB strip.
However, at the top centre are vertically aligned three camera rings and an LED while the left-hand side bears “REDMAGIC” inscriptions with small stripes that light up like a notification LED at the top and bottom.
With a change in the position of the vent, the placements and buttons have been slightly altered.
On the right is the lock button, game-mode switch alongside the capacitive shoulder triggers, while the volume key is placed parallel to the lock button on the right.
The gaming phone comes in Matte, Void and Titanium colour variant.
Display
Covering the front is a 6.8-inch True Full AMOLED screen devoid of notches and cut-outs, all thanks to its under-display camera.
The narrow bezels around the edges add up to its design aesthetic with wider display for cinematic viewing or gaming experience.
The AMOLED screen delivers a brighter and bolder display with improved peak brightness of 1300 nits which makes it easy to use in bright outdoor conditions.
Moreover, the display support 1billion colours with 1116 x 2480 pixels resolution and has 960Hz touch sampling rate.
This means quick response to taps and swipes, which are essential for shooting and fighting games.
Also, the display is compatible with HDR 10 content with 120Hz refresh rate that ensures smoother, sharper, and more responsive display.
On the contrary, it lacks for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision certification.
Finally, a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 is overlaid on the display for added protection, unfortunately it doesn’t bag any IP rating for water, splashes of water or drops.
Camera
The Red Magic 8 Pro is a game-centric smartphone and not a photography-centric smartphone so you shouldn’t expect bells and whistles here.
You are provided with a decent main shooter consolidated with some weaker auxiliary cameras.
The worst of it all, is the under display camera with pretty atrocious image quality.
The triple rear camera array on the back, consisting of a 50MP Samsung GN5 branded main camera.
The auxiliary cameras include an 8MP wide-angle sensor with 120° field of view and 2MP macro lens with 78° field of view designed for landscape and close-up shots respectively.
For the main camera, the image quality looks decent even under low light conditions, but the other two shooter are just average at best.
Like the RedMagic 7S Pro, the front parades a 16MP under-display camera which looks impressive on paper but in reality it leaves a lot to be desired.
For videos, the RedMagic 8 Pro can record up to 8K video resolution at 30 frames per second (FPS)
Hardware and Software
Powering this gaming phone is Qualcomm’s fastest chip ever, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset featured on OnePlus 11 and the latest Oppo Find X6 Pro.
This 4nm processor has impressive clock speed of up to 3.2 GHz and a wonderful Adreno 740 GPU.
Along with 12GB / 16GB LPDDR5X RAM option matched with 256GB / 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage options, the chip is capable of handling high-demanding tasks you throw at it while the graphics processor improve frame rate stability while gaming.
It is pertinent to note that the storage is not expandable as there is no microSD slot.
For software, the device runs on ZTE’s Redmagic OS 6.0 based on Android 13.0.
Special Functions
The gaming phone is equipped with 520Hz shoulder trigger touchpads buttons for rapid reaction experience.
There’s also a Game Switch that turn special game mode on or off and Cooling system that that comprises of a physical cooling fan, cooling air duct and a large Vapour Chamber that keeps the phone cool during extended gaming sessions.
Lastly there are Pressure sensitive zones, loud speakers and lively haptics that make playing games more enjoyable.
Connectivity
The gaming phone supports dual nano-SIM with breezy fast 5G network and WiFi 7.
There’s also GPS for positioning, NFC support for contactless payment, Bluetooth 5.3 for wireless transfer and 3.5mm Audio Jack for wireless audio blasting.
Finally, it has a fingerprint scanner for security, HDMI interface though a converter is needed and USB Type-C 3.1 for fast charging and data transfer.
Battery
The RedMagic 8 Pro is bumped with a non-removable 6000mAh dual cell battery that supports 65W fast charging.
ZTE Nubia RedMagic 8 Pro Price and Availability
The price for ZTE Nubia RedMagic 8 Pro price starts at $649. In Nigeria, the RedMagic 8 Pro is sold at about ₦259,000.
The gaming smartphone was announced on the 26th day of December 2022 and was made available for purchase two days later.
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