REDMAGIC 6 REVIEW: A GAMING SMARTPHONE VALID FOR 599 EUROS

After the first impressions a few weeks ago , the time has come to take stock of the RedMagic 6 gaming smartphone, which has accompanied us over the last period. After a device that was not exactly the most successful, namely RedMagic 5S , which had not convinced us as much as RedMagic 5G , the brand needed to renew its proposal and try to fix the main flaws in the software.

The "litmus test" has therefore arrived with this smartphone, which will be sold for 599 euros in Europe on the official RedMagic portal starting from 15 April 2021 in the 12 / 128GB variant in Eclipse Black color. Pre-orders open today April 9, 2021.

LEDs, even on the fans

For those unfamiliar with the RedMagic brand, a due premise must be made. It is in fact a company that has always focused on somewhat "extravagant" solutions, as we have seen in the past with the Ice Dock. To be clear, this year the press was also provided with an accessory to be placed on the back that has a double fan with RGB LEDs . To use it you have to connect its USB Type-C port to a power source, so you have to think carefully about how to position yourself to play in this way. An apparently "crazy" idea, which however allows you to always keep the temperatures low and play in a particularly comfortable way: for example, you just need a power outlet near the bed.

Of course, this is not an accessory suitable for everyone, also because the smartphone's cooling system, which already has an internal fan, does its duty in different contexts and is better made than its predecessor. Despite this, we are sure that Dual-core Ice Dock, which is sold separately, will be appreciated by some users.

Given the premise, you understand that everything can be expected from RedMagic. In fact, the model that was provided to us is the Chinese one with ROM Global and there are therefore some differences with what you can buy once sales are open. Don't worry, this is nothing that can really affect the evaluation: our model simply does not have NFC, which you will find instead in the European version.

On the other hand, we received a 66W charger, while the model we sell will have a 30W one. Finally, the written Tencent Games that you can see in the photo is exclusive to the Chinese variant, so it is not present in the European variant.

In this jumble of madness mixed with genius , the back of the gaming smartphone features, in addition to the backlit RedMagic logo, also two lines with LEDs. You can select various colors and choose when to activate them, for example in the presence of a notification when the screen is off or when there is an incoming call, as well as in Competition mode. What is certain is that you will never run out of LEDs. For the rest, the materials used are glass for the backcover and metal for the frame, so constructive solidity is not lacking.

On the back there are 3 camera modules and the LED flash, accompanied by the word RedMagic. The silver seen on RedMagic 5S is therefore put aside, another of the brand's "crazy" ideas, in order to make the design more pleasant and keep the notification LEDs. The company listened to the feedback and this is important. When you pick up the smartphone, the dimensions of 169.86 x 77.19 x 9.8 mm and the weight of 220 grams stand out. Don't get us wrong: the device can be used safely in everyday life, but it is certainly not the "lightest" smartphone in circulation. In case you're wondering, the protrusion of the cameras is minimal, so you won't have too many problems placing the smartphone on a flat surface.

One aspect that made us turn up our noses is the absence of any case in the package. The latter should however be in the European version, so we have turned a blind eye to it. On the other hand, the pin for extracting the SIM compartment, various manuals, USB Type-C / USB Type-cable and a 30W charger (in the European version) are inevitable . In short, nothing is missing and lovers of the 3.5 mm audio jack can rejoice, since the latter is present in the upper part of the smartphone, next to a microphone, a vent for the fan and the two "soft back triggers" touch "to be used to aim and shoot.

We then find the power button and a second microphone on the right side, while on the left there are the physical slider to activate the Competition mode, a second vent for the fan and the volume rocker. Finally, the trolley for the SIM, a microphone, the USB Type-C 3.0 port and the speaker are placed. As for the unlock sensors, there is a quick fingerprint reader placed under the screen, as well as it is possible to activate facial recognition. Never have a problem with either.

165 Hz are reached

A gaming smartphone needs a hardware compartment to match. Precisely for this reason RedMagic 6 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor , flanked by an Adreno 660 GPU, 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB of UFS 3.1 internal memory (not expandable). You can imagine the performances, which are at the top of the market and never give particular problems neither during daily use nor with regard to gaming, as we will see in detail later.

In this regard, the benchmarks leave room for few doubts: 1123 points in single-core and 3732 points in multi-core on GeekBench, as well as 728331 points on AnTuTu Benchmark. Think that ROG Phone 5 has arrived a little more on AnTuTu, registering 735430 points. To support that brute force there is a 5050mAh battery. It is practically always possible to reach the end of the day even with increased refresh rate enabled. However, especially using the smartphone for what it is designed for, so for gaming, you will certainly not arrive at the fateful second day. Excellent support for fast charging up to 66W (30W with the charger included in the package, about an hour for a full charge).

In any case, already in the presentation phase, the aspect on which everyone had focused their eyes is the screen. RedMagic 6 implements a 6.8-inch AMOLED panel with Full HD + resolution (2400 x 1080 pixels) and above all a refresh rate of 165 Hz , flanked by a touch sampling rate of 500 Hz. In terms of fluidity, it therefore aims where no one is had gone so far. This is noticeable in everyday use: the smartphone is one of the smoothest devices we have tested. However, putting the RedMagic 6 and RedMagic 5S side by side, which already had a 144 Hz panel, the difference is far from marked. On the other hand, it was to be expected: the 165 Hz are still limited from various points of view and squeeze the

Net of this, the display is a good unit: brightness and good color balance are at home. There is also the classic Always On mode, customizable through various themes. Is everything perfect then? No, since Widevine DRMs are only L3 and therefore multimedia content on platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video can only be seen in SD. In any case, the absence of holes and notches (the front camera is located at the top right) will surely please someone. Concluding the analysis of the multimedia department, the stereo audio sector is convincing, both in terms of maximum volume and general quality.

 

What can you expect from a gaming smartphone in terms of cameras? Perfect, RedMagic 6 offers exactly that more mid-range than flagship photographic sector, which can satisfy the average user who is not very attentive to this department, but which makes the nose turn up a bit when compared to the price range. On back we find a triple camera from 64MP (f / 1.79) + 8MP (f / 2.2, ultra-wide, 120 degrees) + 2MP (f / 2.4, for bokeh). At the front there is instead an 8MP sensor (f / 2.0). The Camera app is still a bit "confusing", even though it tries to offer as many options as possible.

In any case, the photos are good during the day, but all the limitations of the sector come to the surface at night, where digital noise is around the corner in many contexts. The wide angle can only be used in Pro mode, while there is a special toggle to access the macros. At the video level, it even reaches 8K, but it is better to stop at 1080p / 30fps for a decent stabilization. In short, RedMagic 6 is certainly not a smartphone that you buy to take pictures , but at least it offers the classic "basic quality" that is expected from a device of this type. If you wants to take a look at some uncompressed shots, you can find it in our Drive folder dedicated to RedMagic 6 .

On the other hand, nothing can be said to the device regarding connectivity. In fact, there are 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, NFC and Bluetooth 5.1 . They lack waterproofness and wireless charging, but they don't represent a big "loss" for many users.

Software

The working system is Android 11 with RedMagic OS 4.12 customization. At the time of write, the security patches are those of March 2021. You could write rivers of words about what the RedMagic 6 software offers, given that the brand is very keen to customize the device. Going beyond the graphic aspect, in the settings there are a myriad of various interesting additional features, from the possibility of managing the LEDs for use to the activation of the fan, passing indications regarding the neo AI functions, or what can be done to optimize the gaming experience. Some important menu cards are finally translated properly into Italian, but we are far from a well-finished software, since there are still entries in English, some bugs here and there and in some contexts "you have to interpret" what is written on the screen.

We know that the company is working, slowly, to improve this aspect, but at the present time the software remains, once again, the biggest weakness of RedMagic's proposal. Don't get us wrong: the main bugs have been fixed , so much so that finally nothing has occurred that could compromise the experience, but there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve an adequate quality for the international market.

How does it stand out (gaming)

RedMagic 6 is at its best when gaming. In fact, by activating the appropriate slider on the left side, the smartphone "transforms" and presents an environment that simulates the interfaces of the console world, allowing the user to add and manage their favorite games, as well as external accessories. We have already learned about the main features with the previous models: essentially nothing is missing.

In fact, it ranges from the possibility of recording the highlights to the statistics relating to how much time has been played , passing through advanced options such as those relating to the use of the network. The fan and RGB LED settings are also inevitable.

 

For the rest, the panel that can be activated in-game is one of the most complete on the market. From here you can set the dorsal triggers to 400 Hz (used for example to aim and shoot) and select the performance mode (even choosing whether to focus on GPU or CPU). There is also the possibility to open WhatsApp, Discord, Telegram, Facebook, Messenger and Google Chrome in Picture in Picture. It is then possible to manage the refresh rate, add a virtual viewfinder, activate the recording of the gameplay, create macros (to automatically repeat in-game actions), there is even an advanced 4D vibration (supported by PUBG Mobile and a few other games).

To be clear, there are even a mode that inverts the colors to be able to better target the enemies and an FPS counter. In short, leaving out the very approximate translation of the options, we can only applaud RedMagic for the myriad options dedicated to gamers, all interesting in their own way. Nothing is really missing from this point of view.

Given the performance analysis done earlier, you probably already expect the results. Call of Duty Mobile runs smoothly with details on "Very High" and FPS on "Max" . Do you think that it is one of the few smartphones that allows you to set the FPS to "Ultra", but going down to "Medium" with the details. ARK: Survival Evolved works well even with "Epic" presets, while as you can imagine there are no problems whatsoever with less expensive titles like Crash On The Run and the like.

To carry out the "litmus test", we also downloaded TauCeti Vulkan Technology Benchmark, now unfortunately no longer available on the Play Store,

RedMagic 6 has never given a sign of real failure even with the latter, a sign that it can easily master essentially all the titles on the Play Store. To give you concrete examples, our gaming sessions have ranged from Shadowgun Legends to Pascal's Wager, not forgetting PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9. The company also claims that there are "hundreds of games compatible with 165 Hz", including Bad Piggies, Real Racing 3 and Trials Frontier.

As we have already said before, if you are not an eSport gamer, to whom this device winks, you will hardly notice a substantial difference with the 144 Hz. In any case, the smartphone has always performed excellently during gaming, among other things, often maintaining temperatures within the standard even only through the internal cooling system, which makes use of a fan, graphite and vapor chamber. In fact, we have rarely felt the need to use the double fan accessory.

 

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