When the Razer Phone was announced, we already knew that it won’t be long until “gaming smartphones” would become an official category. Several months after, Xiaomi came up with the Black Shark, which was also made to compete in the gaming league. Now, ZTE wants to join the party with the new Nubia Red Magic.
This new smartphone from ZTE packs high-end hardware to justify its for-gamers status. However, the Chinese company went beyond the appealing spec sheet and actually dressed the ZTE Nubia Red Magic with a proper flashy gamer look.
ZTE Nubia Red Magic comes with an aggressive, but sleek-looking design. It has sharp edges, straight lines, and antenna bands at the back. ZTE also added an LED strip to complete the gamer look and feel. There are also three vents and graphite layers for proper thermal management.
However, unlike the Razer Phone and the Xiaomi Black Shark, the ZTE Nubia Red Magic only runs on Snapdragon 835 instead of the newer Snapdragon 845 chipset. Despite being a little bit older, it’s still one of the best that Qualcomm has ever made so performance should be out of the question.
The ZTE Nubia Red Magic only uses a 6-inch Full HD+ display, so powering this type of screen should be really easy. Probably the most unique feature of this phone is its special physical button on the side which shifts the entire system in performance mode while playing games.
ZTE Nubia Red Magic Specs
- Android 8.1 Oreo, nubia Red Magic OS
- Dual SIM, Dual standby
- 6-inch FHD+ IPS display, 2160 x 1080 resolution, ~402ppi
- Dinorex T2X-1 scratch and shock resistant glass
- 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor
- 6GB/8GB RAM
- Adreno 540 GPU
- 64GB/128GB internal storage, non-expandable
- 8-megapixel front camera, f/2.0
- 24-megapixel rear camera, PDAF, f/1.7, LED flash
- Fingerprint scanner
- RGB light panel
- Single loudspeaker, DTS HD
- HSPA+, 4G LTE
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band
- Bluetooth 5.0
- GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
- USB Type-C 1.0
- Dimensions: 158.1 x 74.9 x 9.5mm
- Weight: 185g
- Colors: Red, Black
- 3800mAh non-removable battery
The ZTE Nubia Red Magic will be available through IndieGoGo starting April 26 for a price of USD399 (~Php20,795). People in China can get it starting April 25 with a price tag of CNY2,499 (~Php20,700) for the 6GB/64GB model, while the 8GB/128GB variant costs CNY2,999 (~Php24,900).
Will the ZTE Nubia Red Magic ever reach the Philippines? We still don’t know. However, there are online sellers out there which could possibly bring it here in the country.