As promised, the Red Magic 3 gaming smartphone is available for purchase globally from redmagic.gg starting today.
It’s reasonably affordable for a high-performance smartphone, with a starting price of $479 (or €479 or £419, depending on where you live).
But it’s also a stand-out device in a few other ways: it has some of the premium specs you’d expect from a “gaming” phone, but it also packs a few unusual features including capacitive shoulder trigger buttons on the side of the phone and an active cooling system.
That’s right, in addition to featuring liquid cooling, the Red Magic 3 is the first smartphone with a fan inside the case.
The Red Magic 3 features a 6.65 inch, 2340 x 1080 pixel AMOLED display with a 90 Hz screen refresh rate and HDR support, and 240 Hz touch response rate, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, and stereo front-facing speakers with DTS:X audio.
It packs a 5,000 mAh battery and a USB 3.0 Type-C port, and the phone supports 18W fast charging.
There’s a 16MP front-facing camera, a 48MP rear camera, and an RGB light strip on the back of the Red Magic 3, because why not? Also on the back of the phone is a vent so that the fan can push hot air out.
Other features include a fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone, a headphone jack on top, and a gaming port along one side for attaching optional docking accessories.
There’s also a physical switch you can flip to toggle “Game Space 2.0,” a mode that’s said to enhance performance, set the fan speed, and offer a quick-launch gaming user interface as well as support for taking in-game screenshots or capturing videos of your gaming sessions.
Two configurations will be available at launch:
- 8GB RAM/128GB storage for $479/€479/£419
- 12GB of RAM/256GB of storage for $599/€599/£529
Both models feature UFS 2.1 storage.
The phone has a metal chassis and comes in black, red, or camouflage designs.
Another weary thing would be software. The Essential Phone and also Sony Xperias are plagued with random OS crashes.
I hate how all the promo stuff for this phone pretends like the presence of a fan is a good thing. In 4 months, owners of this phone will have to deal with the constant whine of dying fans in their phones.
Is this the first phone with 8k video capture?
It’s like a cheaper OnePlus 7 Pro, with better battery life. Or an ASUS ZenFone 6 with uglier design and software.
There’s also the sleek Meizu 16s, or the BlackShark2 with its JoyCons. Not to mention the likes of Sony Xperia 1, LG G8, Samsung S10-variants, and the Xiaomi series of competitors.