Chinese phone maker nubia appears to be taking the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to gaming phones with the RedMagic 7 series, throwing in big displays with high refresh rates and higher touch sampling rates, air triggers, active cooling (a fan), beefy specs, and RGB lighting effects.
The RedMagic 7 Pro basically adds the kitchen sink with a bigger battery, up to 18GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, and an under-display camera, making it the first gaming phone with that feature.
The RedMagic and RedMagic7 Pro go on sale in China February 21 with prices starting at around $630 and $760, respectively. The phones will be available outside of China starting March 10th, although pricing for the global models hasn’t been announced yet.
Nubia says the Chinese versions will be available with a choice of “Cyber Neon,” “Night Knight” and “Deuterium Transparent” edition color schemes, with the firs two featuring lighting effects built into the case and the latter sporting RGB lighting on the built-in turbo fan that’s visible through the transparent back cover.
| RedMagic 7 | RedMagic 7 Pro | |
| Display | 6.8” 2400 x 1800 pixels AMOLED panel 165Hz refresh rate 720Hz touch sampling 600 nits peak brightness | 6.8” 2400 x 1800 pixels AMOLED 10-bit panel 120Hz refresh rate 960Hz touch sampling 700 nits peak brightness |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 | Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 |
| RAM | 8 or 12GB LPDDR5-6400 | 12 or 18GB LPDDR5-6400 |
| Storage | 128 or 256GB | 128GB, 256GB or 1TB |
| Battery & charging | 4500mAh 120W fast charging 165W charger included | 5000mAh 135W fast charging 165W charger included |
| Rear Cameras | 64MP primary 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide 2MP f/2.4 macro | 64MP primary 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide 2MP f/2.4 macro |
| Front Camera | 8MP | 16MP Under-display camera |
| Connectivity | 5G Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.2 GPS | 5G Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.2 GPS |
| Miscellaneous | 500Hz shoulder triggers RGB lighting Active cooling (turbofan) 3.5mm headphone jack In-display fingerprint sensor | 500Hz shoulder triggers RGB lighting Active cooling (turbofan) 3.5mm headphone jack In-display fingerprint sensor |
| Software | RedMagic OS 5.0 (Android 12) | RedMagic OS 5.0 (Android 12) |
| Colors | Cyber Neon Night Knight Deuterium Transparent Edition | Cyber Neon Polar Black Knight Deuterium Transparent Edition |
| Price | 8GB / 128GB for 3,999￥($630) 12GB / 256GB for 4,899￥($770) | 12GB / 128GB for 4,799￥($760) 12GB / 256GB for 5,299￥($840) 18GB / 1TB for 7,499￥ ($1,180) |
RedMagic 7 images
RedMagic 7 Pro images
I don’t see how they can call it a gaming phone when there are no first-party controller options
This is definitely a very interesting phone. After Samsung dropped the headphone jack and microSD slot, I switched to the LG V60 to keep those features. But now that LG is out of the mobile business, eventually I’ll need a suitable upgrade and I may definitely consider RedMagic down the road if they keep up specs like these. Although the lack of a microSD slot is unfortunate but maybe future models they’ll bring it back.
These likely won’t support US 5G properly so more news that doesn’t really concern those of us in North America. It’s not hard to create a world phone with T-Mobile and AT&T frequencies so I continue to wonder why Chinese companies ignore ~100+ million potential customers.
Probably because their biggest market for smartphones are in Europe and Asia. 🙂
Don’t assume to talk about North American interest and then only focus on the US. At&T and T-Mobile 5G don’t use the same bands as Canada. And Mexico isn’t even in the running (it’ll just be auctioning 5G spectrum to the carriers this year, meaning we don’t know what bands will be used.
The fact that 5G is still in its infancy (for most of the world) means that phones like this can still be of interest to many people. Also, don’t forget how long it took for 4G bands to be completely and truly finalized.