Nubia RedMagic 9 Pro review

Full throttle! Nubia’s RedMagic series is synonymous with no-compromise performance, attractive design and useful gaming features. The RedMagic 9 Pro likewise stays true to this philosophy and once again features a built-in fan on board. Read our review to find out whether it is worth an upgrade.

Daniel Schmidt, 👁 Daniel Schmidt (translated by Zhiwei Zhuang), Published 02/06/2024 🇩🇪

Note: The manufacturer may use components from different suppliers including display panels, drives or memory sticks with similar specifications.

The Nubia RedMagic 9 Pro is very angular and calls to mind the design of its predecessor. The device is well balanced and sits well in the hand despite being fairly heavy. It is available in the colourways Sleet (black), Cyclone (translucent back) and Snowfall (silver-white).

We like the 9 Pro’s built quality: all the gaps on the phone are small and even. It once again has a seamless display with the front camera hidden beneath the panel. The under-display camera is meanwhile virtually invisible and can only be located when you view it from certain angles with lots of light shining on the display. The rear cameras are flush with the phone’s body – something you don’t see often nowadays. They are likewise covered by an unspecified glass.

The gaming phone doesn’t have any IP certification, but the sealed SIM slot suggests that there is at least some basic protection against splashing water.

The phone is similar to its predecessor when it comes to features. On the right side of the phone, you’ll once again find two touch-sensitive dedicated triggers. They provide good haptic feedback and feel very responsive during gaming.

The integrated USB port not only delivers high data transfer speeds (copy test: 635.9 MB/s) but also supports video output via a cable. This means you can easily mirror the screen or load up a desktop version of RedMagic Game Space (up to Full HD and 144Hz).

      Nubia RedMagic 8S Pro       Nubia RedMagic 9 Pro       Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro       Xiaomi Poco F5 Pro       DIN A6 {element.classList.add(‘hideEl’)});document.getElementById(‘showDeviceSizelabel_339685’).checked = false;document.querySelectorAll(‘#showDeviceSize_343088’).forEach(element => {element.classList.add(‘hideEl’)});document.getElementById(‘showDeviceSizelabel_343088’).checked = false;document.querySelectorAll(‘#showDeviceSize_343653’).forEach(element => {element.classList.add(‘hideEl’)});document.getElementById(‘showDeviceSizelabel_343653’).checked = false;document.querySelectorAll(‘#showDeviceSize_338006’).forEach(element => {element.classList.add(‘hideEl’)});document.getElementById(‘showDeviceSizelabel_338006’).checked = false;return false;” title=”hide all”>❌

The Nubia RedMagic 9 Pro supports all conventional mobile communications standards with a wide frequency coverage. Wireless LAN connectivity is really snappy and stable with Wi-Fi 7 as well as in both the 5.0 GHz and 6.0 GHz range. 

The phone offers decent voice quality as long as you hold it to your ear. That said, noise suppression is average at best, and the RedMagic sounds slightly echoey in speaker mode.

For operating system, the phone comes with Android 14 with Nubia’s RedMagic OS 9.0 custom UI. At the time of review, the security patches were dated 1 November 2023 and thus no longer completely up to date. Based on experience, updates are only rolled out sporadically. Nubia has merely promised to provide one major update and two years of security patches.

Biometric security is handled by an in-display optical fingerprint scanner that does its job adequately and can measure heart rate to boot. Alternatively or additionally, you can use facial recognition via the front camera, but this method is less secure.

Apart from the two extra capacitive shoulder triggers, there is a striking, red button built into the frame that lets you switch to a special gaming interface on the phone: the RedMagic Game Space. It lets users customise settings for individual games and manage any paired accessories.

Image Comparison

Choose a scene and navigate within the first image. One click changes the position on touchscreens. One click on the zoomed-in image opens the original in a new window. The first image shows the scaled photograph of the test device.

Main cameraMain cameraUltra-wide angle5x zoomLow-light

* … smaller is better

Display Response Times

↔    Response Time Black to White
1.08 ms … rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined	↗ 0.539 ms rise
	↘ 0.5365 ms fall
The screen shows very fast response rates in our tests and should be very well suited for fast-paced gaming. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 1 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (21.7 ms).
↔    Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey
0.8 ms … rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined	↗ 0.4015 ms rise
	↘ 0.401 ms fall
The screen shows very fast response rates in our tests and should be very well suited for fast-paced gaming. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.2 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 1 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (34.2 ms).

Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)

Screen flickering / PWM detected	60 Hz
The display backlight flickers at 60 Hz (worst case, e.g., utilizing PWM) . The frequency of 60 Hz is very low, so the flickering may cause eyestrain and headaches after extended use. In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 18379 (minimum: 5 – maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured.

The Nubia RedMagic 9 Pro is one of the first smartphones available globally to feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Thanks to the built-in fan, which runs even quieter (max. 39 dB(A)) than the one in the 8S Pro, the phone is able to keep the processor running stably at peak performance most of the time.

In our browser benchmarks, we noticed that the RedMagic phone and Chrome don’t play particularly well together. Results were surprisingly poor when Google’s browser was used. Things were different when we used Microsoft Edge, for example.

We ran the Burnout benchmark (CPU + GPU) to simulate a heavy load. The RedMagic 9 Pro crashed after about ten minutes and required a restart. The device overheated despite having a fan. Subsequent measurements were thus carried out with only CPU load enabled. Even so, the gaming phone became very hot.

The two speakers on the RedMagic 9 Pro can get really loud, but they already sound tinny and empty at moderate volume levels.

The Nubia phone truly shines when it comes to battery life. The battery has a whopping 6,500 mAh capacity and lasted an outstanding 17 hours in our Wi-Fi test.

(-) The average temperature for the upper side under maximal load is 53.8 °C / 129 F, compared to the average of 32.7 °C / 91 F for the devices in the class Smartphone.
(-) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 55.1 °C / 131 F, compared to the average of 35 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 56 °C for the class Smartphone.
(-) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 51.6 °C / 125 F, compared to the average of 33.8 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 24.5 °C / 76 F, compared to the device average of 32.7 °C / 91 F.

Battery Runtime

The Nubia RedMagic 9 Pro is available in three configurations: 

Nubia RedMagic 9 Pro
–
02/05/2024 v7

Daniel Schmidt

Smartphone – Weighted Average

Transparency

The present review sample was made available to the author as a loan by the manufacturer or a shop for the purposes of review. The lender had no influence on this review, nor did the manufacturer receive a copy of this review before publication. There was no obligation to publish this review.

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Editor of the original article: Daniel Schmidt – Managing Editor Mobile – 554 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2013

As a child I was fascinated by my Commodore 16, and this sparked my enthusiasm for computers. Using my first modem, I surfed the BTX videotext system and later the World Wide Web. I have always been captivated by the latest technologies, and this is especially true for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. I’ve been part of the Notebookcheck team since 2013 and have also on occasion written for Notebookinfo.de, and I’m looking forward to testing new innovations for our readers. I like to spend my spare time indulging in photography and barbecues and being with my family.

Translator: Zhiwei Zhuang – Translator – 123 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2022

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering, I moved from Singapore to
Cologne in 2014 and began pursuing a career as a freelance translator. Much of my translation work
focuses on science, engineering and technology. My fascination with computers and mobile
electronics began when I was young. And I have fond memories reading countless tech and gaming
magazines. Working with Notebookcheck gives me the opportunity to incorporate my personal
interests into my professional work.