Nubia RedMagic 6 – Design and Features
The RedMagic 6 announces itself loudly. From the smartphone’s domineering size to the detailed back panel with RGB lights and reflective accents. The model sent for review is the Eclipse Black, and it’s still a bold design despite being more muted color-wise than the Aurora color option. Measuring 169.8 x 77.19 x 9.7mm, the RedMagic 6 is larger in every dimension than the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, and it’s nearly as wide as the iPhone 12 Pro Max. At 220 grams, it’s also not very light. It’s not entirely unwieldy thanks to a decent balance of its weight distribution, but it’s certainly not the easiest phone to hold. [poilib element="poll" parameters="id=48cb39ef-3bd8-42fb-ba9d-c8c2e324f189"] Nubia didn’t skimp on premium materials to bring the price down. The phone feels sturdy and solid with a metal frame and Gorilla Glass on both sides. The back glass is gently sloped from edge to edge. There are two RGB strips near each side, as well as a lit RedMagic logo near the bottom. As far as typical gaming RGB lights go, they’re rather subtle. A three-sensor camera system sits right along the centerline of the phone – though it’s very small, one of the first hints at where Nubia cut costs. Nubia also packs in two other key gaming features. On the right-hand side, there are two touch-sensitive shoulder buttons that can work like triggers in games, and there are two vents, roughly an inch long, on each side of the phone for active cooling. A small red switch on the side of the phone activates a special gaming mode that takes advantage of these two features.
The design takes a turn for the worse when looking at the front. The screen sort of pops out from the frame, almost like a slightly slimmer phone was jammed into another phone’s frame. This really doesn’t lend itself to a seamless design. 
That screen itself is something of a plus though. Nubia has packed a 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a 2,400 x 1,080 resolution and a max refresh rate of 165Hz. These are high-end specs for any phone, let alone one that costs $599. The screen is also plenty bright, topping out at 630 nits, which may not be as high as its flagship competitors but is more than enough for clear visibility out on sunny days. The RedMagic 6 also does one thing its fellow large phones don’t – that 6.8-inch display isn’t cut into at all. There’s no punch hole selfie camera like the S21 Ultra or notch like the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Instead, the selfie camera is in the bezel above the display. There may be a bit of extra bezel at the top and bottom, but it can help avoid accidental palm touches. The RedMagic 6 includes stereo speakers for decent sound in games, but it also has a 3.5mm headphone jack. Though the phone actually supports a burly 66W charging rate, Nubia includes just a 30W charger in the box. 
Nubia RedMagic 6 – Software
Nubia’s software is hands down the worst part of the RedMagic 6. It is thankfully not loaded with bloatware, but that’s about the only positive thing it has going for it. The style reminded me of a much older version of Android despite this running Android 11 out of the box. Though I actually like the classic Back/Home/Recent Android navigation buttons, it strikes me as bizarre for a phone this large to use them by default when Android’s newer gesture navigation is better suited to phones this large. The launcher is somewhat straightforward but limited and unstable. I ran into issues with it crashing or stalling out, for a while it wouldn’t let me put any apps onto it besides the ones it already displayed, and there’s no option to access App Info by long pressing app icons on the home screen or app drawer. The Notification Shade and Quick Settings are also a pain, as the shade often closes while I’m scrolling through it. The text descriptions of the Quick Settings are similarly frustrating, as Nubia opted to clip the text and use a scrolling marquee despite having ample space to just display them in full on two lines. Nubia’s special gaming mode, GameSpace, basically switches the phone over to a separate launcher to display games, gaming settings, and system performance stats. While this is useful (especially since you wouldn’t want the shoulder buttons active all the time), the main launcher has been unresponsive on multiple occasions when exiting this game mode. Heck, even the phone’s default notification sound is grating. And let me not forget to mention that the phone defaults to putting a big “SHOT ON REDMAGIC 6 POWERED BY NUBIA” watermark on photos in the camera app.
Nubia RedMagic 6 – Gaming and performance
Gaming is where the RedMagic 6 gets to make up some of its lost ground. For the price, it’s wild that Nubia can include a Snapdragon 888 chipset and 12GB of memory. These are premium specs for any Android phone, and as expected games run with ease. The 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage also helps deliver quick loading times. Between the powerful chipset and the phone’s 165Hz refresh rate, the gaming experience is about as fluid as it can get. Throwing in the shoulder buttons, I had an incredibly easy time diving into Call of Duty Mobile and raking in the kills. Generally I struggle with the controls of this type of game, but being able to separate out the ADS and shoot controls so I could move, aim, ADS and shoot independently made a huge difference. The phone also offers an incredibly fast touch sample rate, with a 400Hz rate for the triggers and a 360Hz rate for multi-touch on the display. That sample rate jumps to 500Hz on the display for single-finger touch. The specs being what they are, these are at levels higher than I can distinguish.
While playing Call of Duty Mobile for a stretch with all the settings cranked, the phone never really got very warm, and that was without the fans turned on. I also tested with the gaming mode active and the fans blasting, but couldn’t notice any difference aside from one: the 20,000RPM fans are obnoxiously shrill. Performance in games is somewhat contrasted by occasional hiccups outside of games. Despite having all the specs for a smooth experience, I noticed regular hitches while scrolling. And the phone doesn’t seem to take full advantage of its horde of memory, as I briefly left Call of Duty then switched back and saw it reload. This compares to my experience switching away from Call of Duty on the OnePlus 9 Pro to go do a half-dozen other demanding things on the phone only to resume where I was in Call of Duty instantly. The display’s performance is also betrayed by some odd behavior. While scrolling through Twitter, I watched as the display would frequently shift its brightness and color temperature. It almost appeared as though there was some Auto Brightness Limiter in effect, despite the screen being set well below its peak brightness at the time. I was able to repeat this issue consistently. On the plus side, the under-display fingerprint scanner works super fast. The battery life on the RedMagic 6 is solid. With a 5050mAh battery, it handles a whole day of high-use easily. Even with a solid hour of gaming, a bunch of hotspot use, tons of Twitter, and a few episodes of King of the Hill, I didn’t bring that battery to 0% by the end of the day. With more moderate use, getting through two full days was just as easy. I also noted that the phone has a really aggressive haptic motor. This is a feature I rarely notice on phones I review, but just using the onscreen keyboard would have the motor shake hard enough I could hear it. In the case of connectivity, the RedMagic 6 supports Wi-fi 6E, making it relatively future-ready for high-speed internet. But though it does support 5G, it can only connect to a small handful of network bands (less than half of what the OnePlus 9 supports in the US). This support could prove an issue depending on where you live. In case the noisy internal fans aren’t enough for you, Nubia also sells the Dual-Core Ice Dock. This is an accessory that goes on the back of the phone and attaches two larger (though still relatively small) fans. How it aims to cool the phone is completely beyond my comprehension though, as the attachment between the cooler and phone is plastic and rubber – not the most thermally conductive materials. Maybe it can keep your hands cool, but it’ll prove a nuisance since it needs a USB connection for power. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=nubia-redmagic-6-image-samples&captions=true"]
Nubia RedMagic 6 – Camera
Remember that Chekov’s gun on the wall I mentioned in Act 1? That’s right, the cameras on this phone are a big oof. Aside from only one of the cameras managing to be decent, the software once again holds the phone back. Here are the cameras on the RedMagic 6:- 64MP Wide, 0.8-micron, f/1.8
- 8MP ultrawide (120degree), f/2.0
- 2MP Macro
- 8MP Selfie, 1.12-micron, f/2.0
Main Camera[/caption] The main camera proves more promising than these other two, capturing a reasonable amount of detail to create sharp images. The sensor isn’t powerful enough to handle much zooming in, but close-up subjects look clear and well-defined. The backgrounds for extra close subjects also blur in a really soft and dreamy way. The main sensor delivers a bit more color than the other sensors, though it is still a little on the dreary side. Unfortunately, low-light performance is about as poor on the main camera as all the others. The selfie camera is crisp and colorful, handling a bit like the main sensor, though it also struggles a bit in lower lighting conditions, even in a dimmer room during the day. It seems to opt for a slower shutter speed that leads to blurry photos. [caption id="attachment_2498613" align="aligncenter" width="720"]
Selfie Camera[/caption] The cameras are a really poor showing for the RedMagic 6. Though cameras might not be the main focus of a gaming phone, OnePlus has recently stepped up its photography chops in a big way, and its phones are also solid performers for gaming. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=best-smartphones&captions=true"]
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/3dbOVsx
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