This Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 gaming phone is cheaper than the Pixel 8

Robert Triggs / Android Authority

TL;DR

Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in October, and it’s set to power most of 2024’s top Android phones. You don’t have to wait until next year, though, as nubia has just announced the REDMAGIC 9 Pro gaming phone.

The REDMAGIC 9 Pro is indeed powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. And nubia spared no expense on tech to keep this phone and processor cool. The company’s ICE 13 cooling suite includes a 22,000 rpm cooling fan, a large vapor chamber cooling plate, an improved air duct, and several other cooling measures. So you should expect stable performance during long gaming sessions.

Being a gaming phone, you can expect a few other notable extras here. This includes a pair of capacitive shoulder triggers, customizable RGB lighting, and a touch sampling rate of up to 2,000Hz for the screen (960Hz average touch sampling).

Robert Triggs / Android Authority

The rest of the basic specs are suitably flagship-tier, for the most part. Expect a 6.8-inch 120Hz OLED screen (2,480 x 1,116) with a 16MP under-display selfie camera, a huge 6,500mAh battery, and 80W wired charging.

The REDMAGIC 9 Pro isn’t likely going to win any awards for photography, but the 50MP main camera (GN5, OIS) and 50MP ultrawide shooter (JN1) should still deliver good results.

Other notable specs include a 3.5mm port, dual speakers, Gorilla Glass 5 on the front, the REDMAGIC OS 9.0 skin, and USB 3.2 support.

Robert Triggs / Android Authority

The REDMAGIC 9 Pro is available to pre-order globally from December 27, 2023. However, open sales are slated to begin on January 3, 2024.

You’ll need to pay $649 / £579 / €649 for the 12GB/256GB Sleet model. Want more storage and RAM? Then the 16GB/512GB Snowfall and Cyclone models will set you back $799 / £709 / €799.

REDMAGIC 9 Pro: Hot or not?

57 votes

The base price means the phone is actually cheaper than the Google Pixel 8. You do sacrifice water resistance, wireless charging, great cameras, and a long update pledge (or an update pledge in general). But you’re getting a far more powerful processor, more storage, and a much bigger battery with faster charging in exchange.

Is that the right trade-off? Well, the Pixel 8 is the better all-rounder on paper, but mobile gamers should certainly keep nubia’s latest phone in mind.

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