If gaming is your precedence for a smartphone, the Nubia Redmagic 10 Professional is aimed squarely at you. This huge cell gaming beast combines spectacular efficiency with an expansive high-quality show and sufficient stamina to maintain you gaming for days. It even has a built-in fan to maintain cool, programmable buttons, and extremely customizable gaming software program. All of this comes at a comparatively inexpensive beginning value of $649 (£579) for the 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage mannequin in the event you purchase direct from Nubia.
There’s at all times a catch with aggressively priced telephones. Assuming you don’t thoughts the big, angular design, which isn’t very pocket-friendly, chances are you’ll balk on the barely janky software program, the inconsistent digicam efficiency, or the shortage of wi-fi charging. However keep in mind that {hardware} just like the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset right here is mostly solely obtainable in far dearer telephones.
Gamer Stylish
I examined the clear RedMagic 10 Professional, which Nubia calls Moonlight, and it’s an attention-grabbing industrial design with thick metallic framing glass that affords you a view of some internals and RGB lighting that involves life if you play video games. There are vents on both aspect of the body with a visual fan designed to maintain the processor cool. This may be helpful for longer gaming classes, however it does make some noise, and you’ll typically really feel the nice and cozy air venting.
Nubia has included customizable capacitive-touch shoulder triggers on the highest edges if you maintain the Redmagic 10 Professional in panorama orientation, and a shiny textured purple change that launches the gaming hub software program by default. The oblong profile and spherical energy button remind me of Sony’s previous Xperia design, however it is a a lot greater cellphone and might show tough to fish out of a jean pocket. I’m speaking 6.5 inches tall and three inches extensive.
The Redmagic 10 Professional is easy and tremendous slippery, and has slid off tables, chairs, and my leg a number of instances over the previous couple of weeks. Surprisingly, the Gorilla Glass end stays unscathed up to now, however I concern for its long-term survival. In all probability greatest to make use of the clear case that comes within the field. With fan vents, restricted water resistance is to be anticipated, and it received’t survive a dunk.
It’s value noting that the entry-level Nubia Redmagic 10 Professional is just obtainable in opaque black or white (Shadow or Lightspeed), and it’s important to shell out extra for the clear fashions ($799), although you do get a spec bump to 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. In case you crave the sci-fi gamer aesthetic, stretch for the clear mannequin.
Supersize Me
It’s a giant brute, however the dimension of the Redmagic 10 Professional affords players two necessary benefits. First, there’s an unbroken, virtually bezel-free 6.85-inch AMOLED display screen that’s merely pretty. It has a barely odd decision of two,688 x 1,216 pixels, as much as a 144-Hz refresh charge, and brightness peaks of as much as 2,000 nits. It’s splendid for gaming, watching motion pictures, or internet looking. There’s a fairly responsive fingerprint sensor on the backside and a front-facing digicam below the display screen up prime.
The opposite benefit of going massive is the battery. The Redmagic 10 Professional has a whopping 7,050-mAh battery, and it will possibly go for days between costs, even stretching to a few days of heavy use. Now, you don’t get any wi-fi charging, however there’s a purple USB-C cable and an 80-watt charger within the field, and you’ll fill the battery from empty in round 40 minutes.
Nubia has gone large on the efficiency entrance too. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite can deal with any of the newest cell video games and is backed by speedy RAM (LPDDR5X) and storage (UFS 4.1). I performed a mixture of Diablo Immortal, 80 Days Across the World, and Asphalt 8 for a number of hours on the Redmagic 10 Professional, and it by no means broke a sweat, although the fan noise can get distracting if you work that processor. Benchmark outcomes have been glorious throughout the board, and you’ll battle to get this stage of efficiency elsewhere with out spending extra.
Compromises and Cons
Maybe the primary compromise right here is the digicam. You may get respectable photographs with the primary 50-megapixel shooter in good lighting situations with loads of element, although it tends towards oversaturated, unnatural colours and might battle with very shiny areas. The respectable sensor dimension and aperture permit for stable low-light photographs, and it does have optical picture stabilization, although I discovered transferring topics usually seem blurry. Sadly, the 50-megapixel ultrawide just isn’t well-matched (there are important colour variations), and it produces a lot softer, noisier photographs.
The two-megapixel macro lens is ineffective. The under-screen 16-megapixel selfie digicam is OK for the odd selfie, however you want respectable gentle, or you may anticipate a lot of noise. There’s a Professional mode in the event you prefer to tinker, and varied results and filters within the digicam app, although I’m not a fan of Nubia’s processing, and the portrait mode typically messes up across the edges of topics when attempting to use that bokeh blur.
Nubia’s Purple Magic OS is far improved in comparison with earlier variations, however I’d want inventory Android 15. Nubia’s Android pores and skin is loud and admittedly disagreeable. All the pieces is just too large, and it’s peppered with perplexing choices it’s essential to click on on to grasp. There’s manner an excessive amount of ineffective bloatware, so I’d advise cleansing up and switching to Google’s suite the place you may. Fortunately, that is largely potential, and additionally, you will discover Google Gemini onboard.
One helpful software program function that stands out is Nubia’s Sport Area, the place you may tweak and customise all types of settings to get the feel and appear you need for the {hardware}, create configurations for various video games, and delve into a powerful library of plug-ins. Whereas the additional buttons are helpful, I most well-liked pairing the Redmagic 10 Professional with a cell sport controller.
One of many greatest cons of the Redmagic 10 Professional is Nubia’s disappointing replace dedication: You’ll solely get one Android model improve, two Redmagic OS updates, and three years of safety updates, which is woefully wanting the norm.
If gaming isn’t paramount, you’ll discover a number of extra well-rounded choices in our Finest Android Telephones information. The obvious rival for the Nubia Redmagic 10 Professional is the Asus ROG Cellphone 9, and it boasts superior software program, a greater show, wi-fi charging, and an IP68 score, however begins from $1,000. Finally, for the worth, the Nubia Redmagic 10 Professional is probably going the best-value show and efficiency combo that players can purchase proper now.