Achim Maier
ZTE’s gaming brand nubia today launched the Red Magic 8 Pro and Pro+ in China. The Red Magic 8 Pro comes with a 6,000 mAh battery that charges at 80 watts. The Red Magic 8 Pro+ uses a smaller 5,000 mAh battery that charges with an extreme 165 watts. The Plus version offers more RAM and storage options, but other than that, the two smartphones share most of the features and design.
Red Magic 8 Pro with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Both nubia Red Magic 8 Pro are powered by Qualcomm’s currently fastest chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. They’re also coupled with a Red Magic R2 chip, which is said to further improve the sound, colors, touch sensitivity and haptic vibration feedback. The 6.8-inch AMOLED display resolves Full HD+ with a refresh rate of 120 Hz and a touch sampling rate of up to 960 Hz. A graphite foil is used for protection, a novelty in the world of mobile gaming. Just like the predecessor Red Magic 7 Pro, the 16 megapixel selfie camera is located under the display.
nubia Red Magic 8 Pro+
Another three main cameras are on the back. The 50 megapixel wide angle works with a Samsung ISOCELL GN5 sensor, which is 1/1.57 inch and has 1.0 μm pixels. There is also an 8 megapixel ultra wide and a 2 megapixel macro sensor. Typical for a gaming phone, there is a powerful cooling system. nubia calls the whole thing ICE 11.0 – there are several layers of graphite plates and a 3D vapor chamber with a volume of 2,068 mm³. The fan on the side now runs at 20,000 rpm.
There are nine separate antennas distributed around the case. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top and a USB-C port for charging at the bottom. On the right are the two shoulder buttons with a 520 Hz touch sampling rate. As usual, there is also a fixed pressure point for gaming mode.
165 watts fast charging
The nubia Red Magic 8 Pro and its 6,000 mAh battery have an 8C design (eight different cells for thermal management). The Pro comes with an 80 watt charger that will fully charge the battery in 35 minutes. It is the largest battery ever installed in a Red Magic smartphone. The Red Magic 8 Pro+, on the other hand, charges with 165 watts, but nubia had to reduce the capacity to 5,000 mAh for this. The 165 watt USB-C charger is based on GaN technology and is likely to remain exclusive to the Chinese market.
nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
The nubia Red Magic 8 Pro is available for pre-order now for 3,999 CNY ($574). It’s only available in black, but with three storage combinations – 8/128GB, 8/256GB, and 12/256GB. The latter will later come onto the market with a transparent back. The nubia Red Magic 8 Pro+ also has three storage variants – 12/256 GB, 16/512 GB and 16/1 TB. Prices start at 5,199 CNY ($747) for the black version, but there will also be a transparent variant later.
The first sale is scheduled for December 28th at 10am local time via the nubia online store and JD.com.
