Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro review

Introduction and specifications

Nubia’s Red Magic 9 Pro arrived earlier this year, likely because Qualcomm made its top-tier chipset available earlier than usual. In any case, this year’s top-tier gaming smartphone from Red Magic is out and it comes with a number of significant updates. A worthy generational leap.

In addition to the more powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC on board, the phone boasts a brighter display, double the standard storage, a new 50MP ultrawide camera, a larger battery, and the global variant finally gets USB 3.2 Gen2.

ZTE nubia Red Magic 9 Pro specifications in brief:

• Body: 164.0×76.4×8.9mm, 229g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 5), aluminum frame, glass back; Pressure sensitive zones (520Hz touch sensing), built-in cooling fan, aircraft-grade aluminum center frame.
• Screen: 6.80″ AMOLED, 1B colors, 120 Hz, 1600 nits (peak), 1116×2480 px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 400ppi.
• Chipsets: Qualcomm SM8650-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4 nm): Octa-core (1×3.3 GHz Cortex-X4 and 5×3.2 GHz Cortex-A720 and 2×2.3 GHz Cortex-A520); Adreno750.
• Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM, UFS 4.0.
• Operating system/software: Android 14, Redmagic 9 operating system.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50MP, 1/1.57″, 1.0μm, PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 50 MP, f/2.2, 1/2.76″, 0.64μm; Macros: 2MP, f/2.4.
• Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.0, (wide), 1.12μm, below display.
• Video Capture: Rear camera: 8K@30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps; Front camera: 1080p@30/60fps.
• Drums: 6500mAh; Wired 80W, PD3.0.
• Connectivity: 5G; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 7; BT 5.3; NFC; Infrared port; 3.5mm jack; IR Blaster, USB 3. Gen2.
• Various: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); stereo speakers.

To handle the powerful chip, nubia has once again updated the cooling solution, now called ICE 13. It incorporates a 10-layer heat dissipation sheet with a larger surface area and the cooling fan now reaches up to 22,000 rpm reducing noise emissions.

The laptop also boasts upgrades to the stereo speaker setup, more gaming features, better LED lighting, including shoulder triggers, and a slimmer design. This last part is impressive, given the 500mAh battery increase over the last generation.

So, without further ado, let’s see how the new Red Magic 9 Pro handles games and how it performs in our usual tests.

Unboxing of the nubia Red Magic 9 Pro

The phone comes in a standard box containing the usual user manuals along with a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging and data transfer and a 65W wall charger.

Nubia also provides a protective case. It’s transparent, so it doesn’t take away from the beautiful design.