Gaming smartphones, the real ones, have always been a particular product and which arouse a certain interest in the people of enthusiasts like us. To be honest, every time I receive one of these products I am always curious to find out if it can beat the records set by the previous model in the various benchmarks and, to my amazement, every time I notice the steps forward that companies are able to make. .
Red Magic 7 is the protagonist of today's review: he is the last born in the house Red Magic, a company already widespread and repeatedly appeared on our channels, among the most important manufacturers of gaming smartphones. I don't want to spoil you much, if not one thing: Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, enough?
Index
RED MAGIC 7 review
Design and Materials
The adjective tamarro goes hand in hand with gaming did you know that already, right? Obviously Red Magic 7 confirms this theory in full, but we had no doubts: my trial version is the Press, which mixes shades of blue and pink in a rather futuristic way and, as if that were not enough, has two LEDs in the back cover that can be activated or deactivated on request via a quick toggle.
In order not to stray from the back cover, I can tell you that the Chinese manufacturer has chosen to insert three slots dedicated to heat dissipation; the smartphone, in fact, has high-speed fans to improve temperature management, and trust that no matter how noisy they may be, in gaming or in benchmarks they make their mark.
Red Magic 7 it has quite generous dimensions, I speak of 170.5 x 78.3 x 9.5mm and 215 grams of weight, not among the most comfortable smartphones to handle, especially for the glossy finish of the back cover which is really a lot slippery and to improve the grip of the smartphone it is almost mandatory, in my opinion, to use the plastic cover included in the package. Having said that, if I really have to be honest, I don't mind the design in principle: of course the colors do not go unnoticed, but if you wear the cover the smartphone is a little more anonymous and will catch the eye less.
As for the arrangement of the keys and various elements, on the right frame starting from the top there is one of the two shoulder triggers, followed by one ventilation slot, the power button and the other shoulder trigger; on the left, however, there is room for a switch that starts the il Game Space of Red Magic, the other heat dissipation slot and the volume rocker. Again, at the bottom, there is the trolley for the dual SIM card, the Type-C connector for charging and the stereo speaker. With great pleasure, finally, 3.5mm jack for headphones and second microphone for noise suppression at the top.
Seen this way it may seem like a traditional gaming smartphone but the most concrete differences are under the body: this is where the company has concentrated most of its efforts, using composite graphene dissipation plates, copper coils and a high conductivity gel. thermal. All this, added to the new fan used, guarantees a much better cooling than in the past, especially if you consider the presence of Snapdragon 8 Gen1, not among the coolest SoCs around. ,
Display
However, before talking to you about the real beating heart of this smartphone, it is necessary to dwell on another aspect of great interest, the display: Red Magic 7, in fact, has a panel from 6.8 "AMOLED with FullHD + resolution 1080 x 2400 pixels and, among other things, supports a refresh rate of up to 165Hz. However, there are several technical details to add, to be honest, including color coverage 3% DCI-P100, a maximum brightness of about 700 nits, but above all a touch sampling rate of up to 720Hz, not a turning point but in practice it contributes to making the user experience even more fluid.
Leaving aside the technical rants, with the usual field tests I noticed well-calibrated and highly customizable colors in the settings menu, but not excellent viewing angles due to a display that reflects light a lot and reduces visibility. Plus, to be honest, the maximum brightness is a bit below my expectations; I have tried a few smartphones recently with a really bright display and maybe this has diverted me a bit but for sure this Red Magic 7 it doesn't have one of the brightest panels around.
Hardware, Performance and Gaming
The flagship of this smartphone is, without any doubt, the technical data sheet; do you think that the company has launched three versions of this Red Magic, all distinguishable even by color, and the poorest, so to speak, has 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while the most powerful comes with up to 18GB of RAM. My unit, in Pulsar version, is the most aesthetically convincing one and the one that, technically, fits in the middle with its 16GB of memory RAM LPDDR5; the rest of the hardware is identical in all versions, therefore Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Adreno 730 GPU and UFS 3.1 memories.
That said, the benchmark numbers speak for themselves: we are faced with values far superior to any other smartphone in circulation and, even if compared with other smartphones with the same CPU (like the Xiaomi 12, for example), Red Magic manages to get numbers higher by about 10%. The CPU on this smartphone does not seem to suffer too much from temperatures, probably thanks to the presence of a well-studied and implemented dissipation system: even in the stress tests with Antutu, after about 15 minutes, the temperatures they did not go beyond 40 degrees which, as seen in the Xiaomi 12, is not so obvious.
The funniest part, of course, is the one related to Gaming, sector for which this smartphone was born. The company, as already seen on other previous models, has integrated various software opportunities capable of radically changing the user experience: this is the case of the Game Center, for example, which guarantees an optimization of performance, of the quality of graphic details. , dissipation and so on.
Unfortunately, not all games are able to squeeze the performance of this Red Magic 7 to the maximum, especially the 165Hz screen: Call of Duty, for example, does not support the high refresh rate and only stops at 60Hz, as indeed. also PUBG, Asphalt and Fortnite. Among the perfectly optimized titles, however, and that take full advantage of the hardware there is Real Racing 3, for example, but also Dead Trigger 2 and a few others.
Obviously, guys, talk about graphic details and quality is ridiculous: it is one smartphone which was born for this, and for this reason it has some goodies that make the experience even more comfortable, such as the two triggers with a response speed of 8ms that can be configured entirely to your liking and individually for each game.
Camera
The equipment of cameras of the Red Magic 7 does not disappoint; the company has included three lenses on board, the main 64MP f / 1.8, the ultra wide 8MP f / 2.0 and the macro camera, finally, from 2MP. The selfie camera, on the other hand, is a surprise by itself 8MP with focal aperture f / 1.8. Among the potentialities that stand out, from the technical sheet, we find the possibility to register the videos in 8K at 30fps as already seen on some other smartphones of the company, but here too it is more an exercise in style than something really concrete.
However, the quality of the photos taken with Red Magic 7 is decent: the main lens manages to take good photos during the day even if the colors have not thrilled me so much, I have always found them a little dull and never vivid at the right point. In addition, as often happens on other smartphones, the focus is not uniform: in the center it is perfect, while on both sides the lens tends to distort a little.
At night, then, thanks to the night mode, it is possible to have clearly better photos than the traditional shot without optimizations; the only sore point is, in my opinion, the calibration of the colors that turn excessively to yellow / red when using modes such as HDR and night.
The wide-angle lens, as well as the macro one, guarantee photos without infamy and without praise; I've seen better, especially in this high price range.
We close with the selfie camera, which takes pictures with good definition only outdoors with good general lighting; indoors and with lights on, the definition drops in favor of a scattered noise here and there, while at night the quality deteriorates significantly. Too bad, because this camera is definitely not up to the smartphone.
Software
Red Magic OS 5.0 and Android 12 are the nameplate data of this Red Magic 7; on the software front, this smartphone did not impress me very much, but the company specified that it is a software still under development and that it will be updated further in the coming weeks, in conjunction with the official launch on the market of the first sales units .
The smartphone enjoys, on the whole, good performance and good stability; on the other hand, the translations of the system which are superficial and often totally absent, sin. On the other hand, the various integrations aimed at making better use of the hardware during the use of games are excellent.
Autonomy
The battery available to the Red Magic 7 is a unit of 4500 mAh: and while it's true that it supports 65W fast charging and is really fast to recharge (less than 40 minutes), it's also true that it's just as fast to discharge when used in high performance mode.
Ok that using it for testing and benchmarking is not the best, but in an hour of benchmarking I consumed about 70% of the battery; even if used in the game for many hours the battery suffers, but perhaps I would have expected something more. However, using it in a more concrete and less playful way, it is possible to complete the working day, albeit with some renunciations such as the screen set "only at 90Hz" and a few other nonsense.
2 Minute Review
Red Magic 7 is a smartphone suitable for a specific audience: those who play with the smartphone, nothing else. It has an exceptional technical data sheet and a high quality display, but probably in order to be suitable for everyone it would need a different software optimization and a battery that matches the hardware present.
Price and Considerations
Red Magic 7 is a smartphone designed for a target of gamers, and I will never tire of repeating it: ok, the first-class technical data sheet is tempting, but then there are some aspects that, for those who are looking for a smartphone for every day , they cannot go absolutely unnoticed.
Ultimately Red Magic 7, whose price for Europe starts from € 629 for the Obsidian version (12 / 128GB), € 729 for the Pulsar in my possession (16 / 256GB) e € 799 for the Supernova (18 / 256GB), is a product that can guarantee excellent performance and gaming experience at the highest (and I repeat, maximum) levels, while knowing however that you will give up an excellent battery, a camera in step with its price range and a software never flawless. If, on the other hand, we were to evaluate it only for gaming, then I could define it as an absolute best buy, very fun and enjoyable in performance.
It will be available for purchase from March 10 2022, but in the meantime, through the link below you can get a 10 € discount coupon pending the official launch.
