Nubia Red Magic 5G to be capable of true 144Hz gaming: Report

(Image credit: Nubia)

If you ever thought high refresh rate displays were a fad, Nubia is here to make you reconsider that with its next gaming smartphone. The Red Magic 5G is going to sport an insane 144Hz display.

Red Magic is Nubia’s gaming arm which makes flashy phones with specs filled to the brim, high refresh rate displays, and of course, RGB. For its next phone, the Red Magic 5G (skipped 4 as it is considered unlucky in Chinese) will take all of those up by a notch, as the 2020 gaming smartphone race begins.

Nubia Red Magic 5G specifications

(Image credit: Gamebench)

As mentioned, the Red Magic 5G will be the first gaming smartphone with a 144Hz display, which will cross the bar set by the Asus ROG Phone II. It will be an AMOLED panel with a rather big footprint, flanked by dual front-firing stereo speakers. Gamebench has received a pre-production unit, and described its experience as: “We've seen smartphones promising >100fps gaming before, but Nubia's new handset is the first we've benchmarked that actually delivers stable 144fps gameplay in a real-world scenario.”

That has been made possible by the powerful Snapdragon 865 chipset powering the Red Magic 5G along with 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Rumours suggest there will be a 16GB RAM variant too. The Snapdragon X55 modem will enable 5G capabilities, giving the device its name. It will have active cooling with an actual fan inside for improved ventilation and thermal performance.

The testing also confirms the existence of a big 5,000mAh battery. We expect the Red Magic 5G to have faster charging than its predecessor’s 18W Quick Charge 4+. The shared live image of the device also suggests that it will sport a triple camera setup on the rear with the 64MP Sony IMX686 taking the lead. The Game Space switch will be on the right side, with the left side presumably housing the two shoulder buttons for gaming. The paint job on the device is also unlike anything we’ve seen on a smartphone before.

The Red Magic 5G by Nubia is expected to be unveiled in China sometime in March.

Aakash Jhaveri

Aakash is the engine that keeps TechRadar India running, using his experience and ideas to help consumers get to the right products via reviews, buying guides and explainers. Apart from phones, computers and cameras, he is obsessed with electric vehicles.

Latest in ZTE Phones
The Nubia Flip 5G on display at MWC 2024
Nubia's affordable Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 rival gets an imminent global launch date
Nubia Flip 5G
Watch out, Samsung! This new Galaxy Z Flip 5 rival is the first truly affordable foldable
Photo of the Nubia Red Magic 7s Pro gaming phone
Nubia Red Magic 7s Pro review
ZTE Axon 40 Ultra
ZTE Axon 40 Ultra
Image of the Nubia Red Magic 7 smartphone
Nubia Red Magic 7 review
ZTE Blade V40 series
ZTE's new cheap V40 phones are confusing and impressive at the same time
Latest in News
Victrola Stream Carbon turntable playing David Bowie, with the tonearm being operated
Victrola just put Bluetooth, UPnP and Roon in its once Sonos-only turntables in the hi-fi equivalent of ‘I think we should see other people’
Android 16 logo on a phone
Android 16 beta users are reporting major battery drain issues – but I’m not too worried about it
Woman holding phone in field with Spotify app onscreen
The Spotify bug that shows ads to Premium subscribers has finally been fixed - for now at least
PC Gamer looking happy
AMD might go for Nvidia’s jugular in Q2 with a faster RX 9070 ‘Extreme’ GPU that could leave the RTX 5070 Ti in the dust
Woman using iMessage on iPhone
UK government guidelines remove encryption advice following Apple backdoor spat
Man adjusting settings on Garmin Fenix 6 watch
Garmin Fenix 6, Enduro, Marq and Tactix watches are getting fixes to solve some frustrating problems – here's what's new