Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Cameras
Nubia Red Magic 3s features a 48MP primary camera with an f/1.7 aperture on the back and a 16Mp selfie camera on the front. Looking at all the gaming phones available, it’s clear that just going by the specs, that’s where the Magic 3s trails behind, and, unsurprisingly, this is reflected in the camera’s performance.
The shooting modes haven’t fared well in translation from Chinese to English, for starters. There are Photo, Video, Pro, and ‘Pretty’ modes. Additionally, there’s a ‘Camera Family’ menu, which showcases additional shooting modes, which include MultiExposure, LightDraw, Electronic Aperture, Clone, and Time Lapse.
Most of these modes are a bit gimmicky. In terms of photo quality, there’s a noticeable boost in contrast and sharpness, even in a well-lit environment. The lack of optical image stabilization means handshake comes through thick and fast irrespective of how brightly lit the conditions you’re shooting in are.
Interestingly, video and selfies outperform the primary camera’s imaging capabilities delivering detailed pictures from the front-facing camera. The phone can even shoot at up to 8K; however, the screen isn’t HDR10 compliant. So, it can just shoot HDR content and can’t play it.
While the stabilization doesn’t hold up particularly well, in 4K resolution at up to 60fps, the picture quality itself is enjoyable, which begs the question: what went wrong with the still camera?
The Red Magic 3s features the same sensor found on the Asus ROG Phone 2 and OnePlus 7T, and it can’t hold a candle to either. We’d recommend if imaging is a priority for you and you want a phone that can double up as a gaming device, grab the ROG Phone 2.
Performance
The Red Magic 3s is powered by an overclocked Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset running at 2.96GHz paired with Adreno 640 GPU clocked at 700MHz. This is supported by up to 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. Our review unit is the base variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage.
The SD 855 Plus processor is 15% faster than the previous generation with a significant boost in graphics and CPU performance with the Snapdragon Elite Gaming suite of optimizations. It makes the phone ready to skim through all the apps and games we threw at it. The phone’s got flagship power under the hood, and this is reflected in gaming performance.
The phone benchmarks like a champ, with an AnTuTu score of 478,175 which is close to the ROG Phone 2 score (496,226) and OnePlus 7T (482175), but not enough, if you’re looking at sheer performance.
The phone also offers two-fold biometric security in the form of face unlock and a rear fingerprint scanner. We never had to fire up face unlock in our week with the Red Magic 3 as the rear scanner works reliably well, is fast, and is easy to find with a fumbling index finger.
There’s no waterproofing or wireless charging, which are forgivable, but the lack of a microSD card slot and NFC are less understandable.
Running on Android 9, the Nubia Red Magic 3 has access to the apps available in the Google Play Store. The phone’s interface is also relatively close to stock Android albeit with a few issues here and there, including no Google Assistant screen.
Game Space is one of the highlights of the Red Magic 3s. A slide of the red toggle on its left side, and you’re sent through to a screen with all your games neatly laid out. It is also where you can manage connected gaming accessories, set the fan speeds, change LED effects, and lock the screen refresh rate to 90Hz. The only way to switch between the 60Hz refresh rate and 90Hz is through the Game Space mode, as there is no option in the settings menu for the same.
The UI was reliably stable in our time with the phone, though it’s just a bare-bones setup and doesn’t look well-optimized as the ROG Phone 2, which has a well-thought-out UI.
The front-firing stereo speakers are excellent, and clarity isn’t bad either. Moreover, the left and right touch-sensitive trigger buttons work like a charm and are programmable, while the fundamental gaming performance is top-tier too.
The overall usability experience on the Red Magic 3s is a little too bland for a gaming smartphone, and the interface needs better optimizations for a smoother experience.
Battery Life
The Red Magic 3s has a 5,000mAh battery that keeps the phone going for a day and then some. Playing a lot of games with intensive use throughout the day left us with a close to 30% battery after a day.
It also supports 18W fast charging, which takes just under two hours to charge the phone fully. There’s a battery saver mode as well, for when the battery falls below 20%.
Verdict
Nubia Red Magic 3s offers fantastic value for money options starting at Rs 35,999. While there are other phones with the Snapdragon 855 Plus chip, none of them is a dedicated gaming phone, so to say. The in-built fan keeps the phone’s thermals in check while the touch-sensitive triggers work brilliantly. Then there’s the RGB lighting strip, a huge screen, and loudspeakers.
However, the Red Magic 3s isn't built for much else. Inadequate translation throughout the UI, average camera experience, and a mediocre display hold it back from being an everyday phone.
Thanks to shortcomings in critical areas, the Red Magic 3s isn’t able to outperform phones like the ROG Phone 2 and OnePlus 7T, both of which cost around Rs 2,000-5,000 more, but offer a superior experience, gaming and otherwise.
- Read more: Asus ROG Phone 2 review
- OnePlus 7T review
