In March this year, the Red Magic 5G went official with the Snapdragon 865 SOC & a 144Hz OLED panel. In fact, it was the first gaming phone featuring Snapdragon 865 SOC. Now, Nubia has upgraded that phone with the all-new Red Magic 5S, which features the Snapdragon 865+ SOC.
So with this launch, we now have three gaming phones with Snapdragon 865+ that are already official – Legion Duel by Lenovo, ROG Phone 3 by Asus, and Red Magic 3S by Nubia. In case you missed it, the Black Shark 3S is also launching on July 31st with Snapdragon 865+, so that makes it four gaming phones in a month with Snapdragon 865+ SOC.
RED MAGIC 5S – DESIGN & SPECIFICATIONS
When it comes to the design, the phone looks the same as the Red Magic 5G. The only difference is the new silver color option introduced with the 3S, which looks stunning for sure. There is the same vertical strip on the back that has the triple camera setup & the Red Magic logo. Just like the Red Magic 5G, the logo lights up.
The biggest USP of the phone apart from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ is definitely the improved cooling system. This is the reason all the official images show the phone surrounded by ICE. The phone packs a Silver Plated sheet, which the company calls “ICE Ag.” Along with this, the company also mentions, “New thermal conductive copper foil” on its website.
The internal cooling fan present in the Red Magic 5G is there as well, which spins at up to 15000 rpm.
So yes, that’s the only new thing in terms of the design. In terms of the specs, there is not much change as well. The Red Magic 5S has the same 6.65-inch AMOLED Full-HD+ panel on the front with a 144Hz refresh rate, which is present on the Red Magic 5G as well. The touch-sampling rate is 270Hz. There are Air Triggers on the side with a 320Hz touch-response rate.
The triple camera array on the rear is the same as well, i.e., a 64 Megapixel primary shooter with IMX686 sensor, an 8 Megapixel ultrawide camera, and a 2 Megapixel macro lens.
The SOC is the newer Snapdragon 865+, which offers 10% better CPU & GPU performance compared to the Snapdragon 865. There is up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM & 256GB UFS 3.1 storage. The Red Magic 5G comes with UFS 3.0 storage, so that’s also an upgrade.
Finally, the phone packs the same 4,500mAh battery & supports 55W Fast Charging. Android 10 based RedMagic OS runs out of the box.
RED MAGIC 5S – PRICING & AVAILABILITY
Apart from the dual-tone color option which is there for the Red Magic 5G as well, the phone also comes in a new Silver color. Here is the pricing for the Chinese market –
- 8GB RAM + 128GB ROM – 3,799 Yuan ($541 | Rs 40,000)
- 12GB RAM + 256GB ROM – 4,399 Yuan ($626 | Rs 46,000)
- 16GB RAM + 256GB ROM – 4,999 Yuan ($712 | Rs 52,000)
So, the pricing remains the same as the Red Magic 5G, which is interesting. In China, Red Magic 5S will be available starting August 1st.