ZTE nubia Red Magic 9 Pro

ZTE nubia Red Magic 9 Pro Review

Design

The Red Magic 9 Pro sports a gaming-centric aesthetic with dimensions of 164 x 76.4 x 8.9 mm and a weight of 229 grams. It features a distinct design available in Sleet (Black), Snowfall (Silver), and Cyclone (Transparent Black) colors. The device houses physical gaming buttons and a robust cooling system, indicative of its target audience. It incorporates a 3D curved glass screen with scratch resistance and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection.

Display

The device boasts a 6.8-inch AMOLED BOE Q9+ display with a resolution of 1116 x 2480 pixels, resulting in a pixel density of 400 ppi and a 20:9 aspect ratio. The screen offers a 120Hz refresh rate, 1600 nits peak brightness, and 1 billion colors (China only), with 93% NTSC color gamut and DCI-P3 coverage. It supports DC dimming and a high 2160 Hz PWM for reduced eye strain. Touch sampling rate is rated at 960Hz, and the display is frameless with no notch. Notably, it lacks HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision support.

Performance

The Red Magic 9 Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4 nm) chipset. Its octa-core CPU consists of one 3.3 GHz Cortex-X4 core, three 3.2 GHz Cortex-A720 cores, two 3.0 GHz Cortex-A720 cores, and two 2.3 GHz Cortex-A520 cores. The graphics are handled by the Adreno 750 GPU. The device is paired with LPDDR5X RAM, with configurations up to 16GB. The Antutu v10 benchmark score hits 2,020,000. It employs UFS 4.0 storage, reaching up to 512GB. There is no SD card slot for expanded storage. The phone is equipped with a cooling system and gaming buttons.

Camera

The rear camera setup includes a 50MP primary camera with a Samsung GN5 ISOCELL sensor (1/1.57", 1.00 µm pixels, f/1.88 aperture, 1-4 binning), a 50MP ultrawide lens with a Samsung S5KJN1 ISOCELL sensor (1/2.76", 0.64 µm pixels, f/2.0 aperture, 1-4 binning), and a 2MP macro lens with an f/2.4 aperture. The selfie camera is a 16MP Omnivision OV16A1Q PureCel sensor (1/3.06", 1.12 µm pixels, f/2.0 aperture). Video recording capabilities extend to 8K at 30fps and 4K at 30/60fps, alongside various 1080p recording options up to 240fps for slow motion. The camera features digital image stabilization, continuous autofocus, manual focus, and a laser autofocus system. The device also uses a triple camera setup.

Battery Life

The Red Magic 9 Pro is equipped with a 6500 mAh Li-Polymer battery. It supports 80W fast charging and bypass charging. Wireless charging is not supported, and the battery is non-removable.

Software

The phone ships with Android 14. Specific details about OS maximum version support are not available.

Pricing

The global price for the 16GB/512GB variant is around $844.35, placing it in the medium price range. It’s important to note that prices may vary based on region.

Connectivity

The device supports Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) along with other standards and features such as dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot, display, and MIMO. Bluetooth 5.3 with LE, A2DP, LDAC, SBC and AAC are supported for wireless audio. GPS features are abundant with A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, QZSS, GPS (L1+L5), and Galileo (E1+E5a). The phone accepts dual Nano SIMs and is 5G compatible, supporting numerous bands. It includes a USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 port with OTG, DisplayPort, and accessory connector capabilities.

Overall Verdict

The ZTE nubia Red Magic 9 Pro stands out as a high-performance gaming smartphone. Its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, paired with up to 16GB of RAM, ensures smooth and demanding performance. The 120Hz AMOLED display provides a visually pleasing experience, while the 6500mAh battery with 80W fast charging caters to extended usage. The enhanced camera setup can record up to 8k resolution. However, note the lack of HDR display technology and the absence of a microSD slot for storage expansion.