nubia Red Magic 6 review

Introduction and specs

The mobile gaming segment is rapidly expanding, and nubia is at the forefront. The company has a history of doing things differently and has employed the same strategy for its gaming phones. Pretty much all of the previous Red Magic releases had something new and exciting to bring to the table, and the latest Red Magic 6 is no exception.

This time around, however, there's not just a fancy built-in fan. Both the Red Magic 6 and the Red Magic 6 Pro are the first phones to launch with a 165Hz display and 500Hz single-finger touch sampling rate. We are yet to see how that affects battery life and if gaming above 144Hz is possible, given how limited the support for Android games is above 60fps, to begin with. Additionally, the panel has grown in size from 6.65" to 6.8". In the gaming world, more is always better.

ZTE nubia Red Magic 6 specs at a glance:

• Body: 169.9x77.2x9.7mm, 220g; Gorilla Glass front, glass back, aluminum frame; Pressure sensitive zones (400Hz touch-sensing), Built-in cooling fan.
• Display: 6.80" AMOLED, 1B colors, 165Hz, 630 nits (typ), 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 387ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G (5 nm): Octa-core (1x2.84 GHz Kryo 680 & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 680 & 4x1.80 GHz Kryo 680); Adreno 660.
• Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 128GB 12GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
• OS/Software: Android 11, Redmagic 4.0.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm, 1/1.72", 0.8µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.0, 120˚, 13mm, 1/4.0", 1.12µm; Macro: 2 MP.
• Front camera: 8 MP, f/2.0, (wide), 1/4.0", 1.12µm.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
• Battery: 5050mAh; Fast charging 66W, Power Delivery 3.0, Quick Charge 4.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); NFC (global version); 3.5mm jack.

Other gaming-related features include a blazing-fast 400Hz, pressure-sensitive shoulder triggers that make certain games a delight to play. This current implementation improves upon the previous two generations that had 300Hz triggers.

And in case that's not enough, nubia will gladly sell you a couple of additional accessories like a gaming adapter for port expansion (DisplayPort 1.4 included). The Ice Dock from last year makes a return as a Dual-core Ice Dock that provides some extra cooling capabilities while gaming and in our previous review of the Red Magic 5S, we found it to be pretty useful.

The rest of the hardware, although quite powerful, matches the industry's standard with a Snapdragon 888 chipset, 8GB/128GB memory configuration as base and up to 5,050 mAh battery capacity depending on which version of the phone you choose. The Pro model comes with a smaller 4,500 mAh unit as it trades the 550 mAh capacity for the speedy 120W charging, which is exclusive to China. Outside of China, both devices ship with 66W fast charging support .

The differences between the vanilla Red Magic 6 and the Pro model don't end there. There's also an extra heat-dissipation plate on the Pro model that nubia says can decrease the surface temperature up to 3-5C degrees. This leaves us with no solid reason to go for the Pro model, but we can't say for sure, given that we've only seen the vanilla Red Magic 6.

Unboxing the nubia Red Magic 6

The phone's box contains the usual user manuals and a USB-C to USB-C cable. The bundled stock charger with this non-Pro version is rated at 30W, while the Chinese version gets the 66W charger. The latter can be purchased separately if you are getting the global version.

This year, it appears that the Red Magic 6 skips the bonus protective case, which we had before.