Tested: REDMAGIC 7 Pro | Pocket console

Everything in the REDMAGIC 7 Pro phone, from lettering and icons to special buttons and the fan, is designed for gaming. But while it offers amazing power for its price, it’s still a niche phone that won’t appeal to everyone.

Karim Benessaieh
The Press

WE love

You won’t confuse Nubia’s REDMAGIC 7 Pro with other Android stars. From the home screen, we are entitled to characters imitating the display of a liquid crystal screen, a record of hours and minutes of video play and a large widget to turn on its small fan.

Yes, it has a fan that spins at 20,000 rpm, which is not too noisy, to ensure that it does not get too hot during gaming sessions. We did, however, notice a noticeable temperature rise after half a -hour, but nothing that caused the processor to falter. Another flower for gamers, who are generally wary of Bluetooth connections: we have kept the 3.5 mm socket, very rare in 2022.

We placed on the left side a big red button that turns the phone into a small video game console. When pressed, the button opens a menu where all the games offered are displayed, where you can, among other things, pair the phone to multiple remote controls and record video of a game. On the back, two adjustable light strips flicker when a game is open.

Its 6.8-inch AMOLED screen, with hidden front camera, has no notch at the top. The REDMAGIC 7 Pro was given a refresh rate of 120Hz and very good sensitivity with a touch sampling rate of 960Hz. The Galaxy S22, for comparison, has a rate of 240Hz.

We therefore have in our hands a phone with a very responsive screen offering well-defined images.

Under the hood, we have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 with 16 GB of RAM. The graphics card is an Adreno 730. Let the Geekbench 5 benchmarking software give us an objective verdict on the power of this paraphernalia.

When it comes to power, the REDMAGIC 7 Pro stands out as the best Android phone we’ve tested. Its graphics capability is only beaten by that of the Pixel 6 Pro.

The battery is generous, at 5000mAh, and can be recharged in less than an hour with the included 65W fast charger.

We love less

For the photo, the REDMAGIC 7 Pro has been equipped with three lenses on the back: a 64 MP wide-angle, an 8 MP ultra wide-angle and a 2 MP macro. The selfies are taken with a 16 MP lens. This set gets away with it honestly, nothing more. Photos lack vibrancy but offer a satisfying level of detail and contrast. In short, it does its job without standing out and is no match for the best Androids in this regard.

Same observation for the integrated speakers, which are singularly lacking in depth. We guess that the target customers here prefer their own headphones.

It’s heavier than average, at 238g, and a bit thicker, at 10mm. The culprit is a curious futuristic-shaped rear bump, presumably placed to make room for the cooling system.

The overlay that Nubia has developed for Android 12 is sloppy in French, with three quarters of the menus still displayed in English.

We do not have any IP certification for its resistance to water and dust. Finally, the possibility of magnetic charging is not available.

One buys ?

Devices intended for video games, computers and telephones, are first of all powerful machines, with above-average technical specifications and generally more expensive. It’s true on the power side for the REDMAGIC 7 Pro, it’s not for the price, rather advantageous considering its performance.

And the sub-menu reserved for video games that can be activated with the red button will delight all those who mainly use their phone for video games. Those will be seduced by the Nubia device, which does not miss its first clientele.

Its design and small flaws out of its niche, however, do not make it a very recommendable choice for non-gamers.