Nubia Red Magic 3 – Gaming at heart and soul (Review)

Nubia, a brand that comes in and goes out of India like summer rain. They are unpredictable and highly unstable. They once had a strong presence in India and while they were doing good, they just disappeared. Now they are getting back to India and this time we are not sure how long they will stay. But they are back with a bang. An all-out gaming mobile, Nubia Red Magic 3. If you are a mobile gamer, should you buy this mobile? Read the review to find out.

In the box

• Nubia Red Magic 3
• 27W Power Delivery (PD) Charger
• USB-C PD Cable
• SIM Eject Tool
• User Manual

The box does not include a case, which is weird, considering the fact that there was ample space in the box.

Design

Red Magic 3 looks like a design from the future. It is not anything like a conventional mobile. It is made of solid metal with a special camo print on the back. The camo print is a top end variant. There are lines and patterns at the back, giving it a gamers’ charm. The bottom has a speaker grill, USB C port, and a mic. The top has a 3.5 mm port. The right side has 2 capacitive gaming button that can be programmed based on your gaming needs. Air vent for the cooling fan at the back, power and volume button. The left has a physical game zone button, dual SIM card tray, and connectors for docking to a station or other gaming accessories.

The back has a single 48 MP camera and a single LED flash. It has a grill for fan air intake, fingerprint sensor, LED light strips and a glowing logo all aligned to the middle of the mobile. The front display does not have any kind of notch. The camera is placed above the display. It has dual front-facing speakers. The fingerprint sensor and face unlock is ultra fast, accurate and reliable at all conditions. The device feels heavy and provides a good deadweight and balance while holding it to play games. But the tall form factor and the heavy mobile makes it difficult in all other practical situations. It is a well-built gaming device and it is built for only one purpose. The rear light show and glowing logo along with its patterns and metal decorations make it the coolest looking device of the year.

Display

It does not have any notch. It is a 6.69 inch AMOLED panel with a 90 Hz refresh rate and supports full HD+ resolution. I would have fallen in love with this display if I had not used the Oneplus 7 Pro before this. But the Oneplus 7 Pro QHD display beats it any day. Red Magic 3 must have gone for QHD resolution. But with what we have, the display looks a bit dull and the color lack a punch. It has a few setting to tweak, but still, I feel the colors are inaccurate and the white balance is a bit off. But the output is sharp on both graphics and text. The viewing angles are good. The contrast levels are superior as the black levels on this AMOLED panel is absolutely pleasing. The display is made to please the gamers and is sure it will please them only.

Camera

Red Magic 3 has a 48 MP single rear camera which is a rarity these days. Another rarity is the 16 MP on the front with no notch or any kind of popup mechanism. It is a straight forward gaming mobile but does not disappoint on the camera performance. Using the camera app is a funny experience because of the literal translation of menu items into English from Chinese. It has loads of features but Art Camera is my favorite. It can create some really creative shots. It does not have portrait mode, but the natural depth of focus is good. Low light performance is good. The colors are vibrant and yet does not cross the natural feeling. It retains a lot of details even after the quad Bayer filters. Focusing is fast and accurate. Nubia has retained the ability of the Sony IMX 586 sensor without any ambitious algorithm or over processing. The front camera can also click some good selfies and give you a nice camera for all those streaming needs.

There are a few marketing gimmicks on this mobile. 8K video recording on this mobile is fake and so is the 1920 fps ultra slow motion. They are software interpolated resolution and the results are not pleasing. But 4k or FHD videos are pleasing and so is the 480 fps slow motion video. On the whole, the Red Magic 3 does not disappoint you on the camera and at most times you would find yourself clicking amazing shots with it.

Hardware Performance

The gaming beast Red Magic 3 is powered by the top of the line spec sheet. It has the Snapdragon 855, 12 GB of DDR4 RAM and 256 GB UFS 2.1 internal storage. It has all the sensors and the benchmark scores top the charts. It is the first mobile to be cooled by a fan. The intake on the back and the vents on the sides work tirelessly during gaming to refrain the processor from throttling. It has copper heatsinks with thermal paste cooling the processor from the inside. With the RGB lights and cooling fans, this feels more like mini gaming laptop than a mobile. The speakers are loud and effective. The vibration motor is stong. Some games have 4D vibration to give you enhanced tactic feedback. The performance of the mobile is very fast and it can handle anything that is thrown at it. It reaches a peak temperature of 45 degrees while playing for long hours, but the processor does not throttle speed.

The good part of the software

Red Magic 3 runs on Android 9 with Red Magic OS skinned on top. This skin is more like a theme with a few native applications installed. The functionality of these applications are vital to the functioning of the mobile and none is bloatware. The multi-color LED and the glowing logo can be customized. The game zone can be activated with the physical button on the left. This is the den with all the requirements of a gamer. Fan speed, CPU performance, GPU performance, battery, notifications, LED lights. capacitive button controls and much more can be controlled in this zone. The is the most advanced gaming zone I have ever seen. The UI is functionally rich and adds a lot of utility value to the core USP of the mobile: Gaming.

The bad part of the Software

Nubia is not a big mobile brand outside China and very few non-Chinese uses the mobile. They also don’t have RnD centers outside China. This is evident in their UI. The mixing of Caps and small letters in menu items, literal translation of words, inconsistent font hierarchy, irrelevant graphic representation, makes the mobile UI difficult to use. Nubia must fix this if they are serious about selling their mobiles outside China.

Battery

Red Magic 3 has a 5000 mAh battery. 1 hour 30 minutes of gaming drains the battery by 40% in Auto performance mode. For regular usage, the mobile lasts for about 1.5 days and gives about 7 hours of SOT. Considering a high-performance gaming device with unthrottled clock speed, the battery performance on Red Magic 3 is impressive. It has a power delivery enabled 27 W charger in the box. PD is almost the same as QC4, but lack the intelligence. It can charge the mobile in about 1:55 hours, which is again, impressive.

Verdict

Red Magic 3 is a Gamers’ delight. It caters to the growing gaming audience market segment. It is a perfect companion if you are into serious mobile gaming. Black Shark 2 is available in India at a starting price of Rs 39990. But the Red Magic 3 is expected to be priced less than that in India. The top end 12 GB variant would be the device to go for if you are getting the Red Magic 3. If you are not an avid gamer, get the Oneplus 7 Pro which is a better mobile than this in all dimensions. There are other high-performance alternatives in the market like the Poco F1, Oneplus 7 or even the upcoming Asus 6z and Redmi K20 Pro. Nubia Red Magic 3 is for a niche market, and it is only for that select audience who are premier mobile gamers.

Price and availability will be updated here, when the mobile is launched in India, officially.

Thanks to RevAtlas for sourcing the mobile for this review!