Redmagic 6 Review: Stellar gaming performance at budget pricing!

. Redmagic 6 is finally bachelor for purchase in Due north America starting today. And based on the spec sheet and price alone this seems like a improve purchase than the ROG Telephone five.

For 2021, Redmagic is sticking to its formula of improving the parts that are most of import for gamers in its latest smartphone. So the display refresh charge per unit is now 165Hz up from 144Hz. The processor gets a bump to the latest Snapdragon 888 and base RAM gets a crash-land up to 12GB from 8GB. Then in that location is a larger 5050 mAh battery with back up for 66W fast charging both of which are better than last yr's model.

From the looks and spec sheet solitary this device ticks of every detail on a checklist for a gaming smartphone. Size wise it is slightly bigger than the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. It has meridian-end hardware to lucifer the gaming looks with a signature slider for gaming mode. But if yous are looking for decent photographic camera performance expect elsewhere because they are the same every bit last twelvemonth's model. Which is to say they aren't that corking.

Overall though, I like what Nubia has done with the new Redmagic six. It runs keen as a daily device and delivers gaming performance in spades. I think if the photographic camera experience were to be improved this would be a runaway striking in terms of the price to performance ratio. Then let's spring into the review to run into if the Redmagic 6 has what it takes to exist the peak mobile gaming smartphone for 2021.

Hardware design though refined withal has the signature Cyberpunk look

Unlike the other gaming smartphone from Asus, Redmagic is unabashedly loud and proud about its Cyberpunk theme design elements. I for one liked it but information technology may not exist everyone's loving cup of tea. My review unit was the Eclipse black version. The combination of the color theme and glass dorsum posed a existent challenge in terms of hardware blueprint chemical element pictures. This was the hardest smartphone I have had to photo this year.

Allow's first with the back of the device. The centre rear landing strip has the Redmagic logo at the bottom which can be lit via a LED. At the other finish is the triple camera module with an inverted triangle LED. On the ii sides of the 'Redmagic' name are gaming LEDs that tin can brandish different colors. Since I take a pre-production version at that place'south a Tencent Games logo on the right-hand side which volition non be at that place on the global retail version. Nigh the left-paw side gaming LED, you see a 'Powered by Nubia' logo in pocket-sized font also. The back is Gorilla Glass merely on the Pro version you lot get aircraft-grade aluminum which I promise is less slippery.

The metal runway sides take vent cut-outs nearly the top half, one on each side. In that location is a dedicated Game mode slider button in ruby on the left-hand track, below information technology is the cooling fan vent and underneath that is the book rocker.

On the right-hand side rail, you lot meet the two congenital-in shoulder trigger buttons which have a slight matte texture to them. In the centre is the power button with a microphone below it. Above the power button is the other cooling fan vent cut-out. The meridian rail houses a headphone jack – in 2021 nosotros demand to celebrate this little detail – along with a 2nd microphone. And finally, at the bottom, at that place is the SIM tray slot, tertiary microphone, USB-C charging port, and the bottom speaker grille.

This is how you practice a minimal uniform bezel display with no pigsty punch!

The forepart display has equal top and bottom bezels and thinner but uniform side bezels. I think since this is primarily a gaming smartphone the slight bezels on the top and bottom actually assist hold this device better. And Redmagic squeezed the selfie photographic camera into the bezel which means you get a clean console with no distracting dial pigsty for maximum gaming fun. In addition, since these bezels are thin you still get a fairly large half-dozen.8 inch AMOLED display.

Aside from the backplate the device looks and feels like a regular smartphone which is a practiced thing. Even the cooling fan vents are subtly integrated into the side track. However, all the lighting elements in the back with the patterned colors are dead giveaways that this is a hardcore gaming smartphone.

Redmagic 6 vs Redmagic half dozen Pro – central differences

Generally, the differences between the base Redmagic half dozen and the Pro version are minimal. The Pro version comes in Moonlight silver thanks to the aviation-grade aluminum backplate.

The other major departure is that the base RAM on the Pro model is 16GB instead of 12GB in the regular Redmagic 6. Lastly, the non-expandable storage capacity is 256GB instead of 128GB but both are UFS3.1 class then even so plenty fast. If y'all want more storage and a different color so for $100 more it makes sense to become the Redmagic 6 Pro.

Functioning is smashing with 12GB RAM and the latest Snapdragon 888

Redmagic 6 gets the latest Snapdragon 888 5G processor with the Adreno 660 GPU. Couple the best Android ecosystem processor with 12GB RAM and you lot accept a smartphone capable of playing the about graphics-intensive games out there.

If you are playing non-intensive graphics games or watching videos via YouTube or Netflix the cooling fan stays off. Merely if you get-go playing PUBG, Genshin Impact or something from the Asphalt series for extended periods of time expect the phone's fan to plough on and stay on while gaming. You will dearest the 60 frames per second, the detail, the colors in the animations but the telephone will become hot despite all the cooling wizardry. I would say the phone gets quite a bit warm past the one-half-hour marker. Still, y'all should exist able to play on for a long time though.

Cranking the game settings to maximum and the refresh rate to the highest settings sees no slowdown in this smartphone. There is an available Water ice Dock with dual cooling fans but wasn't available during the review period.

I would say that performance-wise this is a slightly better buy than the ROG 5 base model since you get 4GB actress RAM for a lot less money. Nubia absolutely hit information technology out of the park in terms of the cost to operation ratio with the Redmagic 6.

Brandish on the Redmagic six is 1 of the all-time in 2021

Redmagic 6 sports a six.8″ AMOLED screen with an eye-popping 165Hz refresh charge per unit! The xx:9 aspect ratio FHD+ display has 1080*2400 pixels yielding a ~387 ppi with 630 nits height brightness. While the brightness number is below g nits I had admittedly zip issues in terms of visibility outdoors.

Another corking thing about the brandish is an incredible 500Hz touch sampling rate. This feature forth with the fastest refresh rate on the display panel means a top-of-the-form performance in terms of smoothness, especially during mobile gaming. In addition to the high specs, both refresh charge per unit and touch sampling rate tin be toggled to be adaptive to improve battery life while marginally diminishing performance.

The colors on the display are vivid thanks to DCI-P3 colour gamut along with support for 10-bit (or a possible billion colors). This ten-bit display is something ZTE/Nubia has had for some fourth dimension now and we starting time saw it on the Axon 20 5G hither at AndroidHeadlines. Specs aside, I would say this is probably ane of the sharpest looking displays in 2021 despite having a manufacturing plant screen protector on information technology.

As far as the brandish panel goes the Redmagic half dozen gets a 5/5 in my book.

Sound on the Redmagic 6 is loud and well-baked

The dual speakers on the Redmagic six accept DTS Ultra X environment sound. The top speaker is front-facing while the second speaker is bottom-firing blazon. And so audio is excellent but not as good every bit some other devices that have true forepart-facing speakers on the brandish glass.

Sound output via the wired headset is also very good with great clarity especially for vocals while listening to sound tracks on Amazon Music or Spotify. This same observation applies to audio output via Bluetooth TWS earbuds. There's expert back up for Bluetooth standards as well such every bit A2DP, aptX, and LE.

One thing to note is that while audio quality is definitely good in that location aren't whatever specific audio settings or modes bachelor via software. I idea that this was a missed opportunity by because the hardware is at that place merely software options could accept provided fifty-fifty more than options from a gaming/entertainment consumption perspective.

Bombardment life is good just 165Hz refresh rate volition bear upon it profoundly

How practiced is the 5050 mAh battery life on the Redmagic half dozen? The answer in curt is, it is complicated. Regular usage with 90Hz for light graphics games or Neflix video watching yields good screen-on-time stats. In my feel, regular usage SoT is definitely comparable to other smartphones with like specs. But crank that loftier refresh rate to 165Hz while racing around in Cobblestone 9 on 5G and the SoT starts to nose swoop precipitously. During my review, while I was out and about, I left the refresh rate at 90Hz so that I didn't accept to resort to charging in the automobile.

And if you need to charge the phone, in 30W quick charger in the box will accuse the battery fully in a little over an hour. If you have a 65W charger lying around there is support for upwardly to 66W charging and it will charge the phone fully in 38 minutes.

Software is Android xi with a custom launcher

My review unit came with Redmagic Bone v4.0 congenital on Android xi and running the March 2021 security patch. So at launch, the base of operations software is comparable to flagship devices from other Android manufacturers.

For the most part, the software behaves pretty close to stock Android. A swipe left from the home screen brings the Google Discover Feed. The Messages app is also what Google offers. Yet, at that place are a few apps that are unlike from stock Android ones such as Phone, File Manager, Clock, Calculator, Contacts, etc.

While these are different, I practise like the animations and layout on this skin of Android. Another positive aspect of the software is there is absolutely zero bloatware. There are two preloaded apps, these are a User Manual app and an External Devices app for Redmagic compatible accessories. That's it.

Overall this is a clean interface devoid of any intrusive ads or storage hogging bloatware which is great. My only business organisation is long-term software back up for the phone since this is not something where Redmagic has a good track record. I am really hoping that they practise information technology this time because this is a smashing device that should easily last you two to 3 years without any issues.

Connectivity is skillful from a 5G perspective

Redmagic 6 gets a 5G betoken on T-Mobile in the USA out of the box. Information speeds are comparable to other smartphones that go 5G on T-Mobile's network hither in Southern California. There is built-in VoLTE support if yous toggle off 5G and switch to 4G LTE. Unfortunately, there is no support for WiFi calling.

All the regular stuff is fine – calls, video downloads, music streaming – when using network connectivity. Bluetooth five.one means hassle-gratis pairing for in-motorcar audio or using TWS earbuds.

There is Screen Cast for casting content to your TV and a custom Flash Transfer for file sharing. My review unit was a China hardware running Global version software so there was no NFC support bachelor. However, in the final global version, there should be NFC support per Redmagic press kit materials. I would say that from a connectivity standpoint the Redmagic has all the nuts covered. However, if you lot are used to a device from say, Xiaomi, yous might observe this one to exist a chip lacking.

Main Camera produces expert images in daylight

Since this is primarily a gaming smartphone, I saved the camera department for the terminal. Why? Because this is the ane area where the Redmagic half dozen falls short quite a bit. First, there is no change in camera hardware from Redmagic 5 to this version. Second, I was not able to use the ultra-broad photographic camera for taking pictures. The setting to take pictures using that sensor was simply not accessible. I am hoping this is a pre-production software consequence that gets ironed out at launch.

I will permit yous take a gander at the plethora of options available inside the photographic camera app below. So there is a lot of potential from a software perspective. Unfortunately, you cannot tap information technology due to older camera hardware and/or buggy software.

Selfie camera stills are reasonable but require a lot of effort to get the white balance correct. Under near lighting conditions the selfie camera tends to blow the exposure levels likewise high. Portrait mode does not piece of work for selfies. Beauty mode is on by default and yous need to become to settings to turn it off.

Full dominicus outdoor pictures do come up out peachy though even when pointing the camera towards the sun. Color science is accurate on the device screen equally well as on a display monitor. At that place is a skilful amount of detail and clarity. Speaking of detail, the macro mode works quite well. I have a suspicion that the ultrawide photographic camera is the macro sensor on the Redmagic 6.

Low-light pictures taken around dusk are quite decent. Just once information technology is dark outside then the pictures get grainy with lots of detail loss in a bustle. Night Manner pictures are definitely not upwardly to par in comparing with other smartphones in this price range. Take a look at some pictures in our Flickr gallery and decide for yourself..

Redmagic half dozen Camera Samples - Flickr Gallery

Video from the main photographic camera is feasible at Ultra 8K simply I did not endeavour it out. Regular 1080p at 60fps results are passable for short social media clips. Again there is no video possible using the ultra-wide camera.

In short, if you are not into selfies and are okay with taking pictures using the main camera in daylight then become ahead and go this phone. But if photography is important along with good gaming hardware, then sadly you need to look elsewhere.

Redmagic vi is a superb smartphone despite its few shortcomings

In 2021 there is a 'Flagship Killer' device and it does non acquit the OnePlus logo. Redmagic six offers an incredibly fast display, superb hardware specs, ultra-fast charging, swell stereo speakers, and 5G connectivity for only $599! The only glaring weak point is camera performance from a selfie, ultrawide, and telephoto perspective. The principal rear camera performance is quite really reasonably proficient. A couple of other quirks might be due to pre-production software which should exist a relatively piece of cake set up.

From a price to performance ratio this is a superb smartphone for daily employ. And when you want to kill some spare time an incredible mobile gaming powerhouse. I recollect gamers and non-gamers alike should definitely consider the Redmagic 6 when cross-shopping in the $600 price range.