Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by the Skimlinks, Amazon, Rakuten Advertising, and eBay, affiliate programs. All prices are subject to change, and this article only reflects the prices available at time of publication.
Nubia’s RedMagic 8S Pro is a smartphone aimed at gamers, with premium features including a speedy processor, a big battery, plenty of memory and storage, a screen with a high-refresh rate, an enhanced cooling system (which includes a 20,000 RPM fan), and ultrasonic shoulder triggers.
After launching in China earlier this month, the RedMagic 8S Pro is getting a worldwide launch… although it’ll be missing one of the flagship options that really makes the Chinese version unusual.
The phone features an overclocked Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, a 6.8 inch, 2480 x 1116 pixel AMOLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate and 960 Hz touch sampling rate and up to 1300 nits max brightness, and LPDDR5X memory and UFS 4.0 storage.
But while customers in China will be able to buy a phone with up to 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, folks in most parts of the world will have three color & spec options:
- Midnight black with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage for $649 / €649 / £579
- Platinum with 16GB/512GB for $799 / €799 / £689
- Aurora with 16GB/512GB for $799 / €799 / £709
Nubia says early bird availability runs from July 27 through August 3, after which the phone will be generally available from RedMagic.gg. It’s expected to show up at Amazon later in August.
All models of the phone have a 6,000 mAh battery (which is actually two 3,000 mAh batteries) and comes with a 65W fast charger. The phone should be able to get a full charge in as little as 40 minutes.
The phone’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor has been tweaked to have a maximum CPU frequency of 3.36 GHz, which is 5% faster than the top speed for normal versions of this chip, while the GPU has been boosted 5.7% for a top frequency of 719 MHz.
Other features include RGB lighting effects that illuminate the fan, shoulder trigger buttons with 7.4ms response times, a dedicated Red Core 2 co-processor for “gaming functions like audio processing, haptic feedback, and RGB lighting,” and dual X-axis linear motors for vibration.
The RedMagic 8S Pro supports WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and dual-SIM 5G wireless networking and features a 3.5mm audio jack, USB 3.1 Type-C port, a fingerprint sensor, 16MP under-glass front-facing camera, and three rear cameras:
- 50MP Samsung GN5 primary
- 8MP ultra-wide (120 degrees)
- 2MP macro
The phone ships with RedMagic OS 8.0, which is a heavily customized version of Android 13 with an emphasis on gaming.
This does not appear to have LTE Band 71, which is important for unlocked phones in the US (until AT&T goes back to accepting unlocked phones).
Needs to have 1tb of space if i can not use micro sd card
Are you sure it has shoulder triggers keys (rather than ultrasonic sensors) or is that just the language used in the press release?
You’re right, sensors is probably more accurate.
I also found another inaccuracy in the language.
This is not a phone for “gamers” this is a phone for “posers”.
For the price of USD $650, you could instead get a Retroid Pocket 3+ ($150), a Samsung 1TB microSD ($80), and an 256GB iPhone 12 Pro ($450). That’s a much more formidable gaming experience than what this ZTE Nubia RedMagic 8S Pro can offer.
Anyone who does serious gaming will not be using this. No other way to put it. They would rather have a PS5, a Steam Deck, or even a Battlestation/Gaming PC. Those are devices purpose built for the task. True “gamers” (aka people) knows it is not about the marketing, the performance or the presentation… but the experience you get out of it. There’s no point of getting an Apple Mac Pro with the stupidly powerful M2 Ultra processor, with hardly any game support. Contrast, the Nintendo Switch is about x100 slower, yet it is purpose built for the task (eg Zelda, Mario, Pokemon). All of that RGB lighting and super-fast UFS means diddly squat (posing), when you don’t even have a proper tactile input, nor a way to insert cartridge or expand storage, or even a way to hot-swap batteries for the road warrior.
A “gaming phone” would actually come with controllers in the box, a charging cradle, spare battery, microSD slot, and Headphone Jack. Those “mobile games” aren’t enough… but for the dedicated device there’s still emulation (Dolphin), local streaming (PS Remote Play) and cloud streaming (MS xCloud).
Now give it an 8.8in display and sell it as the only size model so I can laugh harder.