Welcome to the first smartphone durability test of 2023. In front of us today we have what's probably
the best looking gaming phone we've ever seen. With RGBs, an internal hidden front facing camera,
a bezeless wall to wall 6.8 inch 120 hertz AMOLED display, I'm really excited for this one. It's
called the Red Magic 8 Pro. And Red Magic actually sent me two of these. You know what that means.
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of these phones. Now it's time to get this Red Magic 8 Pro out of the box because the only way
we'll know if it stands up to the test of time is with the durability test. Let's get started.
[Intro]
Well check it out, right here on the box twice,
in big letters and small letters, it says “win more games.”
And what's that? Over here on the side as well. At this point it's either a very positive mantra or a
threat. Gaming phones are some of my favorite phones. Not only do they have the most maxed
out ridiculous specs, but they also get super flashy. And this Red Magic 8 Pro is no exception.
In the box we have a flexible transparent clear case, which is great because our phone is also
transparent and clear. We'll check on the flexible part later. We have an included 60 watt Nubia
charger. Nubia is the same company that made the dual screen phone a while back where there
was a screen on both the front and the back of the device. So they are definitely not a newcomer when
it comes to creativity. There are some substantial improvements on this year's Red Magic 8. We still
have the standard RGB internal fan that we'll get in a second, but this time around we also have an
aesthetically pleasing transparent design – akin to what we saw on the Nothing Phone. With clear
glass and layered internals, it's not showing the exact circuits of course, but it's still cool to
see the entire air duct from the outside. This transparent variant is called Void. There is one
other color variation, and since I'm giving this phone away, I'll be nicer to the box.
This one's called Matte, and the name very aptly describes the design.
With the bulk of the back panel absorbing all light, happiness, and hopefully the souls of
your digitally vanquished enemies. We'll talk more about the giveaway in a second.
The other massive improvement with the Red Magic Gaming Phone this year is now finally,
the bezel-less wall to wall notchless future that we were promised years ago has finally
arrived. And not only does this 120 Hertz AMOLED display fill up the entire phone,
it also has an exceptionally well hidden front camera under the pixels. I'm very impressed.
Flipping the phone over. Everyone knows that RGBs improve gaming experience, and happiness,
and even though it's a tiny little guy with everything going on, we just gotta
ride whatever squirt of dopamine we can get. Which this fan does indeed provide. The little
20,000 RPM turbo fan is part of the futuristic 10 layer heat dissipation system, pulling cool
air in from the right and spitting warm air out the left after passing over the processor.
We are on full blast right now, but as you can see when we manually slow the fan down,
it has centrifugal fan blades sucking air through the duct down into the fan and spitting it
perpendicularly out the side, all of which can be controlled through the settings. I'm a fan.
Before we get too infatuated though, we do have a durability test to complete.
It'll be hard to scratch this one up. There's no teardrop, no hole punch,
and no dynamic island. Just pure pixely bliss from edge to edge, that scratches at a level 2.
I can't believe I got bamboozled on the first phone of the year. With the pre-installed screen
protector removed we can get down to actual business. We know that glass scratches at a
5 or 6. And sapphire is an 8 or 9. And since this Red Magic 8 Pro is using Gorilla Glass 5,
we do expect and receive scratches at a level 6, with deeper grooves at a level 7. So far so good.
Let's take a closer look at this Second Generation underscreen camera...if we even
can. There is an invisible 16 megapixel camera underneath the display, right here below the
equally invisible earpiece and incredibly thin bezels. While the camera is great at hiding,
let's see if it's any good at taking pictures since that's kind of the whole point of a camera.
We'll be comparing the Red Magic 8 Pro to the Axon 40 which has the underscreen camera from
last year. And of course, my 3 ½ year old Note 10 Plus. And the results are pretty crazy. While the
Axon 40 has me looking like a middle aged mom of 5 on Tinder, the Red Magic 8 Pro has major
sharpness improvements even though it's a tad more washed out than my Note 10 Plus. If these pictures
randomly showed up on Instagram I'd have no idea they came from underneath and AMOLED display,
taken through pixels instead of a clear glass lens. I think it's pretty safe to
say that under display cameras are here...not perfect, of course, but they are here to stay.
Making our way around to the edge of the phone we find our corner triggers which are scratchable.
These capacitive buttons are 520 Hertz, meaning it knows you've touched the button before you
know you've touched the button. Ridiculously fast. The textured gaming button is metal.
Along with the power button...it's not removable. We do have the fan exhaust over here.
Up at the top of the phone we have a headphone jack, something we haven't seen in quite a while,
along with the top stereo loudspeaker. The phone does not appear to have any waterproofing mesh
over that speaker opening, but I do imagine this would be a very difficult device to waterproof.
The metal volume rocker is removable. Kind of interesting.
And down at the bottom we have our second stereo speaker, 60 watt USB-C port, and SIM card tray
with no expandable memory. There is a red rubber ring though. It'll be interesting to look for more
waterproofing during the teardown, so hit that subscribe button so you don't miss it – it's free.
Finally, the back of the phone – our transparent void. I'm not going to lie,
I really like this design. It is a tad more minimal than I would like. Personally,
I think there should be some more circuitry going on, but it's good to see Red Magic thinking
outside of the box. We do have a triple camera setup. A 50 megapixel main sensor,
an 8 megapixel ultrawide, and a 2 megapixel macro camera, which I think should have been swapped for
a telephoto, but with all the extra room the fan and air duct takes up, I can understand
the compromise. This is definitely the best looking smartphone so far of 2023. I mean,
it's also the only smartphone so far of 2023, but it's still definitely the best looking.
Making our way over to the edge to edge full screen display, it's not just a 6.8 inch 120
hertz refresh rate. Red Magic is also claiming a 960 Hertz touch sampling rate. Once again,
the screen knows you're touching it before you know you're touching it. Definitely some
kind of record. There's no more blaming losing on lag with this one. Win more games. I also
left the lighter in place for a full 30 seconds before noticing some white pixels. But after the
flame was removed, everything appears to have recovered...minus the evaporated oleophobic
coating which coats the glass to minimize fingerprints. Speaking of which, we do have an
underscreen fingerprint scanner. Adding some level 7 deeper grooves to the surface does not appear to
hamper the speed or ability of the sensor in any way. Not too shabby. Thumbs up for that.
Finally, the bend test. Kind of crazy to see the RGBs even shining out through the exhaust
vent. Visually this phone is near the pinnacle of aesthetic perfection. Internally though, with our
first bend we do see some back glass separation when that pressure is applied to the screen. But
no cracking or damage yet. Flipping over, with pressure applied to the back, there is no flex.
And trying from the front again, you can see how the glass is pulling away from the body. But since
it has no IP rating to start with, the separation is not compromising any water protection. The Red
Magic 8 Pro survives and passes my durability test. If it were time for me to upgrade,
this Red Magic 8 Pro would currently be my front runner at the top of my list. But since my 3 ½
year old Note 10 Plus is still doing great, I'm going to hold onto it for a while longer.
One phone I don't need to hold onto, however, is this untouched Matte version.
All you need to do for the giveaway is be subscribed and leave a comment down below.
Maybe tell us a goal you have for the new year. And I'll try not to carve my name in
the box before I ship it out. As always, thanks a ton for watching, and I'll see you around.