If gaming is your precedence for a smartphone, the Nubia Redmagic 10 Professional is aimed squarely at you. This monumental 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 reasonably priced beginning worth of $649 (£579) for the 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage mannequin if you happen to purchase direct from Nubia.
There’s at all times a catch with aggressively priced telephones. Assuming you don’t thoughts the large, angular design, which isn’t very pocket-friendly, it’s possible you’ll balk on the barely janky software program, the inconsistent digital camera efficiency, or the shortage of wi-fi charging. However do not forget 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 steel framing glass that affords you a view of some internals and RGB lighting that involves life while you play video games. There are vents on both facet of the body with a visual fan designed to maintain the processor cool. This may be helpful for longer gaming periods, but it surely does make some noise, and you’ll generally really feel the nice and cozy air venting.
Nubia has included customizable capacitive-touch shoulder triggers on the highest edges while 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 The oblong profile and spherical energy button remind me of Sony’s outdated Xperia design, however it is a a lot greater cellphone and might show difficult to fish out of a jean pocket. I’m speaking 6.5 inches tall and three inches broad.
The Redmagic 10 Professional is easy and tremendous slippery, and has slid off tables, chairs, and my leg a number of occasions over the previous couple of weeks. Surprisingly, the Gorilla Glass end stays unscathed up to now, however I worry for its long-term survival. In all probability finest to make use of the clear case that comes within the field. With fan vents, restricted water resistance is to be anticipated, and it gained’t survive a dunk.
It’s price noting that the entry-level Nubia Redmagic 10 Professional is barely obtainable in opaque black or white (Shadow or Lightspeed), and you need 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. If you happen to crave the sci-fi gamer aesthetic, stretch for the clear mannequin.
Supersize Me
It’s an enormous brute, however the measurement of the Redmagic 10 Professional affords avid gamers two vital benefits. First, there’s an unbroken, virtually bezel-free 6.85-inch AMOLED display that’s merely pretty. It has a barely odd decision of two,688 x 1,216 pixels, as much as a 144-Hz refresh fee, and brightness peaks of as much as 2,000 nits. It’s perfect for gaming, watching motion pictures, or net looking. There’s a fairly responsive fingerprint sensor on the backside and a front-facing digital camera underneath the display up high.
The opposite benefit of going giant is the battery. The Redmagic 10 Professional has a whopping 7,050-mAh battery, and it may possibly go for days between fees, 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 most recent 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 while you work that processor. Benchmark outcomes had been glorious throughout the board, and you’ll wrestle to get this stage of efficiency elsewhere with out spending extra.
Compromises and Cons
Maybe the primary compromise right here is the digital camera. You will get first rate pictures with the primary 50-megapixel shooter in good lighting situations with loads of element, although it tends towards oversaturated, unnatural colours and might wrestle with very vivid areas. The first rate sensor measurement and aperture permit for strong low-light pictures, and it does have optical picture stabilization, although I discovered transferring topics usually seem blurry. Sadly, the 50-megapixel ultrawide will not be well-matched (there are important coloration variations), and it produces a lot softer, noisier pictures.
The two-megapixel macro lens is ineffective. The under-screen 16-megapixel selfie digital camera is OK for the odd selfie, however you want first rate mild, or you possibly can anticipate numerous noise. There’s a Professional mode if you happen to wish to tinker, and numerous results and filters within the digital camera app, although I’m not a fan of Nubia’s processing, and the portrait mode generally messes up across the edges of topics when making an attempt to use that bokeh blur.
Nubia’s Purple Magic OS is way improved in comparison with earlier variations, however I’d desire inventory Android 15. Nubia’s Android pores and skin is loud and albeit disagreeable. Every thing is simply too large, and it’s peppered with perplexing choices you need to click on on to know. There’s manner an excessive amount of ineffective bloatware, so I’d advise cleansing up and switching to Google’s suite the place you possibly can. Fortunately, that is largely doable, and additionally, you will discover Google Gemini onboard.
One helpful software program characteristic that stands out is Nubia’s Recreation Area, the place you possibly can tweak and customise all kinds of settings to get the feel and appear you need for the {hardware}, create configurations for various video games, and delve into a formidable library of plug-ins. Whereas the additional buttons are useful, 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 avid gamers should buy proper now.
