Nubia RedMagic Watch: Everything you need to know

Nubia’s RedMagic brand has always been about gaming smartphones, but for the first time, the company has launched a smartwatch: the Nubia RedMagic Watch (an imaginative name, for sure). The watch was actually launched in China a month or so ago, and now, we can confirm that availability has been expanded to the global market.

RedMagic’s first ever wearable comes with a design that looks rather generic, just like many wearables in the market today. Specs are also pretty much par-for-course in 2021, with a 1.39″ AMOLED display pushing a 454×454 pixel resolution with a 2.5D curved glass, as well as built-in GPS.

There are also 16 Sport modes—including a Football Dynamic Activity Mapping mode. I can’t speak to the efficacy of this tracking mode, but in my experience, football (or “soccer”, if you don’t know what you’re talking about) can be a difficult physical activity to track on a wearable, and sometimes, the mode simply tracks the calories you’ve burnt during a session.

Here, Nubia says that the smartwatch will actually track where you spend the most time on a pitch, with a heatmap to offer a visual representation of the data. That’s pretty interesting, and if I get my hands on a unit, this is probably the most interesting thing I want to try out.

Aside from that, you’re looking at your basic heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and even blood oxygen (SpO2) functionality. The RedMagic Watch also comes with NFC functionality—but I’m not entirely sure what this will be used for. On many smartwatches, NFC is usually used for contactless payments, or various ecosystem features. However, there isn’t any mention of something similar here.

5ATM water resistance is also available, which means that this should be good for submersion of up to 50m, while Nubia promises 15 days of battery life on a single charge (420mAh battery). The wearable weighs in at 30g, and it’ll work with the RedMagic Sports app—available on both iOS and Android.

Global pricing is set at USD 99 (~RM406), which is smack in the middle of the mid-range wearable market. Despite the fact that the Nubia RedMagic Watch is now globally available, RedMagic’s global site does not ship to Malaysia, unfortunately. Still, you might want to keep an eye out for retailers or importers, while we’ll keep our ears to the ground for any potential news of a local release.

So, what do you think?

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