Phones

a actually cool gaming telephone (video)

Anton D. Nagy contributed to this rating of Red Magic 6.

Game phones are here to stay, and some of the latest crops have delivered high levels of performance without breaking the bank. Here we have one from Red Magic – a smartphone with gamer styling that is pretty cool in the truest sense of the word. This is our Red Magic 6 test, in both video and text format.

Check out Red Magic 6 on Amazon

Still a smartphone

This time, I’m actually going to do something different – usually I look inside out and end up with the camera as this is one of the most important parts of a smartphone. The thing is, the Red Magic 6 has a specific focus and is not aimed at being a creative tool. So I’m going to flip the script a little and talk through the camera first.

The Red Magic 6 comes with a triple camera setup. But it’s a combination you can expect from a phone that doesn’t prioritize imaging. The main sensor is a 64-megapixel shooter with two backups – the wide-angle camera marks a significant drop to 8 megapixels, while the 2-megapixel depth sensor is intended to support portraits. Maybe it’s for those times when you want a good looking picture of the person you just beat in a mobile game. Or you want a victory selfie with the front-facing camera, which is also 8 MP and offers 1080p video recording. It’s a camera package that we saw on the previous model. Credit to Red Magic, however, is that not too many other phones have the same performance specs and extras. I was really impressed with how many modes and settings could be played in the camera app, but if you’re looking for camera quality, the Red Magic 6 falls somewhere between passable and decent.

There’s a lot more that makes up the entire smartphone experience, and that brings us to the general software – before we flip that gaming switch and set things to 11. Red Magic’s Android operating system, like the camera, is a part of the phone that doesn’t exist – neither fully polished nor the culmination of the experience. Functionally, it’s a sufficiently good everyday smartphone interface, but some shortcomings in the localization and design aspects make it clear that Red Magic is still quite young in the Android game. Certain functions are expected, e.g. B. Gesture control, multitasking with split screen and robust options for the always-on display.

Speaking of adjustments: LED-capable areas on the back can add a visual flair to the already aggressive styling. As you can see on the back here, Red Magic sent us this phone with a global ROM, but installed that software on a Tencent Games Edition unit that is only available in China. LED strips above and below the brand logos pulsate under certain conditions, including while gaming, while charging, and when notifications are received. The Red Magic logo on the underside, which only lights up in the typical red color, can light up permanently or inhale and exhale. If you’re just into that RGB all-life, that extra bit of flash and flair might just be for you – but I applaud Red Magic for providing additional usefulness.

Turn up

When we talk on the phone, we have a few surprises. The on / off switch is across from the volume rocker, but next to the on / off switch on the side are the touch-sensitive air triggers. I just applauded Red Magic for putting extra thought into the LED additions, but the triggers are only used for gaming. I can understand this most of the time because they are touch sensitive and accidental presses are likely a common occurrence in the normal software interface. The USB-C charging port in the south supports 66W charging of the 5050mAh battery – both specifications that are good for long games or media consumption. Gaming phones also tend not to neglect some of the practical effects, such as: B. an actual headphone jack so you can easily charge while having wired audio playback with no latency.

You can probably tell that I pull out the high specs that bring us to the display. This 6.8-inch AMOLED display is a real eye-catcher. I mentioned earlier that it has an always-on display. A built-in fingerprint reader is available for biometric security. However, face unlocking is also possible. The viewing experience of the screen is as good as expected as the resolution is the general standard of Full HD +. True to the trends in gaming phones and displays, this screen offers an impressive refresh rate of 165 Hz. Despite the obvious one-upmanship game, Red Magic overtakes the previous update rate of the top smartphone of 144 Hz. Similar to the world of gaming For monitors, the refresh rate is special – much of the media you might see from video streaming services doesn’t even reach 60 frames per second, and very few games actually reach that 165. App and game developers also need to specifically support the super high refresh rate, which remains a mixed bag even at more conventional levels of around 90 fps. There is everything to be considered when dealing specifically with the update rate as a dealmaker.

Flip the switch

Because there’s a lot more where that comes from, and everything jumps out at you as soon as you hit the switch in the corner. Right, the phone is completely switching from a smartphone that simply ticks all the usual boxes to a mobile gaming powerhouse that offers many unique features and experiences. Pressing the switch turns off most general day-to-day features like banner notifications, and you can activate the performance modes to really get the Snapdragon 888 going, even in overdrive mode. You also get access to features like the shoulder triggers and the turbofan. If you want to access some applications, there are shortcuts to these which are rendered as a floating window overlay above. But in every way, you’re in a carousel or selection screen that mimics the game console’s home screens. You’ve even seen a startup animation pop up when the switch is triggered.

Quick note – this is where you would also set up the various Red Magic accessories, but I don’t need to demo any during this review. One that I would have liked to try is the side controller, here called E-Sports Handle. There are also coolers, but these are only used when I want to get super extra with my performance gains. After all, the Red Magic 6 continues the company’s streak of being one of the few phones that has a built-in fan and ventilation system. You can hear it instantly when you switch to game mode and when you cover one of the two vents. This buzz is noticeable, but obviously not a problem when playing with headphones. And you can disable it in the slide-out menu for less intense games like Slay the Spire, and enable it for more demanding games like Genshin Impact.

So what’s it like to play on this phone? For the most part, it’s the same as any other Snapdragon 888 device, with up to 256GB to store all your games and up to 12GB of RAM to keep a game in the background while you do other things. Certain games simply benefit from the additional cooling, so that the performance or the frame rate are not affected, while gaming sessions can take a while thanks to the large battery. Touchscreen games like Slay the Spire and Shin Megami Tensei Dx2 work as always as there are no practical use cases for the shoulder triggers. For the most part, these extra buttons are best for shooter games like Call of Duty Mobile and PUBG Mobile, which is obvious given the Tencent partnership. It’s a benefit that might help the competitive gamer in those particular games, but it’s just a more enjoyable experience for everyone else. And that might be enough for some of you. It has certainly made me come back to COD Mobile since the last time I played, which was like a phone with the same extra inputs.

I have tried applying the triggers to Genshin Impact with mostly positive results. I was just glad that I was able to play consistently well at maximum settings, a feat that most other company’s flagship devices sometimes struggle with. And of course there’s League of Legends Wild Rift, another example of a game that doesn’t quite benefit from additional inputs. It’s a game that requires quick input, so the 500Hz sample rate is definitely welcome. But this is another game that hasn’t been specifically tuned for the higher refresh rate screen – my games were unfortunately outperformed at 90 fps.

More than most phones, it’s easy to play so many games that hours and hours go by without my realizing it – this applies in part to the battery life as I tend to have the phone plugged in while playing while the main thing is that I never noticed the phone getting as uncomfortably warm as it is with other people. Now, I’m nowhere near as good as an esports player, but those are still tangible and significant benefits to a product like this that could be considered a niche.

Continue?

After all, this is a question I’ve thought about many times: what’s the point of gaming phones? Now that we are now on iteration 6 (technically) of the Red Magic line, I think it’s clear that the category is only going forward. And I’m all for it.

While there have always been games on the Play Store that I think deserve our full attention, I have often said this about classic titles being adapted for the phone. Games like KOTOR or GTA San Andreas. Of course there are emulators for classic consoles and game streaming for current console and PC titles. However, games like Call of Duty Mobile, Genshin Impact, Wild Rift, and My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero make it clear that custom graphics settings and scalable experiences can be part of the mobile world. And as the market for these great games continues to grow, so does this category of smartphones. In this case, there are gaming phones that hog all the premium features and come with high prices. Then you get the Red Magics of the world prioritizing performance and voting the rest back just enough that mobile gaming becomes more accessible. In fact, I think Red Magic is to gaming smartphones what MSI is to gaming computers – overall, the gamer can get the kind of experience they’re looking for. Putting the games aside can result in hiccups, random design cues, and misspellings on the good general everyday path. And this red switch will be there when you get the itch to get back into the fray.

Check out Red Magic 6 on Amazon

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