Nubia Red Magic 5S: Everything you need to know

Nubia has announced the Red Magic 5S gaming smartphone—and from what we can tell, it’s an upgraded version of the company’s flagship phone, the Red Magic 5G. Nubia’s release of its latest gaming phone comes amidst increased competition from the likes of Asus with the ROG Phone 3 and the Lenovo Legion Duel Phone, although Nubia—a sub-brand of ZTE—has announced some serious specs under the hood.

In the market for a gaming phone? Here’s what you need to know about the Nubia Red Magic 5S.

Price and availability

The Red Magic 5S is available in two colour options: Sonic Silver and Pulse. Pre-orders in China are now open, with official availability to begin on the 1st of August 2020. Nubia promises a global launch, too, which will happen sometime in September 2020.

As for pricing, we only have details for the China market at the moment:

Nubia Red Magic 5S – 8GB RAM, 128GB storage – CNY3,799 (~RM2,304)
Nubia Red Magic 5S – 12GB RAM, 256GB storage – CNY4,399 (~RM2,668)
Nubia Red Magic 5S – 16GB RAM, 256GB storage – CNY4,999 (~RM3,032)
Ice Dock (cooler) – CNY179 (~RM108)

Global pricing has yet to be confirmed for now.

Specs

As mentioned, the Red Magic 5S is essentially an incremental upgrade on the Red Magic 5G. This means that you’re getting the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, with support for 5G connectivity too. Up front, there’s a 6.65″ Full HD AMOLED display with a 240Hz touch samping rate and a 144Hz refresh rate—the gold standard for gaming smartphone displays right now.

They’ve also included an improved cooling system for long hours of gaming, including an optional Ice Dock accessory and a new L-shaped liquid cooling pipe. 320Hz built-in shoulder triggers have also been included, which you can remap via Nubia’s Game Space feature.

256GB of fast UFS3.1 storage is available, with configurations also having up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. And to sustain the device, there’s a 4,500mAh battery that supports up to 55W of fast charging—however, you’ll only get an 18W charger in the box, so you’ll need to make a separate purchase to get max charging speeds here.

For photography, you get the same setup as the Red Magic 5G: a 64MP Sony IMX686 main camera, along with an 8MP ultra-wide shooter and a 2MP macro lens. You also get a standard 8MP front-facing camera for selfies (or streaming); like most gaming phones on the market, there isn’t a hole-punch cutout or pop-up selfie mechanism here. Instead, the selfie camera sits on the forehead of the phone.

Nubia also talks a lot about “Game Space”, a mode that allows for users to customise and tweak settings on the phone to ensure “optimal performance.” This has supposedly been improved by Nubia, with WhatsApp chat overlays, game recording, notification blocking, and other gamer-centric features available to users.

For audio, you’re also getting stereo speakers with the Red Magic 5S, with Nubia also touting the “immersive” high quality audio and “4D shock” on the phone. Like the Red Magic 5G, we expect Nubia’s latest gaming phone to have a front-firing speaker (on the earpiece) and a downward firing speaker on the bottom of the phone—plus, of course, a traditional 3.5mm headphone jack.

The global launch is expected to happen during September 2020, so remember to keep SoyaCincau.com bookmarked on your browsers for the latest updates.

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