REDMAGIC 7 Review - Fast gaming phone with 165Hz AMOLED and LED fan

Case and features - heavy gaming smartphone with cool looks

The Nubia REDMAGIC 7 leaves a very high-quality and robust impression, which is not least due to its high weight. Although the manufacturer puts it at 215 grams (~7.6 oz), it actually weighs 226 grams (~8.0 oz).

The gaming smartphone's build quality is good. It resists twisting attempts almost too silently. Only the gaps on the back between the glass and the aluminum frame are not always completely flush. The REDMAGIC is available in the tonal colors Pulsar (magenta-blue), Obsidian (gray) and Supernova. The latter is our review unit, which is primarily gray-black, but has a partially transparent back panel that reveals a view of the LED fan.

The REDMAGIC 7's equipment is completely focused on gaming. Thus, two shoulder sensors are again available as additional keys for gaming, which work with a sampling rate of 500 Hz and have a delay of 8 milliseconds. A so-called 4D vibration is also supported in selected titles, but the list for this is very short and identical to that of the predecessor REDMAGIC 6S Pro.

The USB-C port works according to the 2.0 specifications, but at least supports OTG. An audio jack is also installed and the gaming interface can be started or stopped with the distinctive red toggle switch.

Display - Bright 165 Hz AMOLED

The AMOLED panel of the Nubia REDMAGIC 7 measures 6.8 inches and uses a Full HD Plus resolution. The high refresh rate of up to 165 Hz is certainly a highlight. The brightness remains just below the 700 cd/m² offered when the ambient light sensor is enabled, but it climbs up to 1,005 cd/m² in a measurement with evenly distributed bright and dark areas (APL50). Those who prefer to adjust the brightness manually have up to 491 cd/m² at their disposal.

The Nubia smartphone is also not spared from the flickering typical for OLEDs, which fluctuates with an uneven period between 243.5 and 729 Hz. When the brightness is set to 46% or higher, we measure a constant 90 Hz. The optional DC dimming mode also works with a refresh rate of a fixed 90 Hz.

The color reproduction is decent, but characterized by a cool display with strong colors. If you prefer a more natural picture, you can only counteract this minimally in the settings.

Performance, emissions and battery life

With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and a full 18 GB of LPDDR5 working memory, the REDMAGIC 7 offers strong performance. The active cooling of the gaming smartphone primarily improves the long-term performance, as the 3DMark stress test shows, but it cannot completely prevent losses.

The fan also has a positive impact on the surface temperatures. While the Stability Test does not disturb the REDMAGIC even under permanent load, the 3DMark stress test Wild Life Extreme is more demanding and drives the values up to 44 °C (111.2 °F). When the fan is deactivated, these even rise to 55 °C (131 °F). The small fan works with up to 20,000 RPM and is quite loud (max. 45 dB(A)).

The two speakers deliver quite a good sound, provided they are not set too loud, in which case the trebles tend to overdrive. The audio jack (SNR: 86.10 dBFS) is also convincing and those who prefer to use Bluetooth have a wide audio codec support (SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX TWS+, LDAC) at their disposal.

The 4,500 mAh battery provides good runtimes, although they could certainly be improved.