Arriving on the market in March 2021, the Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro comes with a triple camera setup and a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, among other features. In this review, we will present a summary of its performance results in our Display protocol testing.
Key display specifications:
- AMOLED screen
- Size: 6.8 inches (~85% screen-to-body ratio)
- Dimensions: 169.9 x 77.2 x 9.7 mm (6.69 x 3.04 x 0.38 inches)
- Resolution: 1080 x 2400 pixels
- Aspect ratio: 20:9, 387 ppi
- Refresh rate: 165 Hz (tested at its 90 Hz default setting)
About DXOMARK Display tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone and other display reviews, DXOMARK engineers perform a variety of objective and perceptual tests under controlled lab and real-life conditions. This article highlights the most important results of our testing. Note that we evaluate display attributes using only the device’s built-in display hardware and its still image (gallery) and video apps at their default settings. (For in-depth information about how we evaluate smartphone and other displays, check out our articles, “How DXOMARK tests display quality” and “A closer look at DXOMARK Display testing.”)
Test summary
Pros
- The device feels smooth in most tested conditions, including web browsing and playing video games.
- The device controls aliasing well.
- Flicker is hardly visible.
- There is no notch on the display.
Cons
- Content, particularly darker content, is barely readable in both indoor and outdoor conditions.
- Video needs to be brighter to provide a more accurate rendering.
- Bluish casts are noticeable in low light, and pinkish casts are visible indoors and outdoors.
- In the gallery app, zoom capability is limited and cannot be maintained.
The Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro racked up an overall Display score of 77, which places it in the lower half of our Display protocol database of devices tested thus far. It was hamstrung by low scores for readability, video, and color, as well as by a mixed performance for touch (good smoothness, poor accuracy) and for motion (some frame drops in video playback, but none in gaming). Its biggest strength is its excellent control of artifacts, with a score that puts it into joint first place with several other devices.
In this review, we compare the Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro with the Asus ROG Phone 3, the OnePlus 8T, and the Apple iPhone 12 Pro.
Readability
Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro
59
76
DXOMARK uses the device’s gallery app to show static (still image) content when measuring the device’s display for brightness, contrast, gamma, and blue light impact, etc.
Readability is arguably the most important aspect of a display, and the Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro’s performance here was rather disappointing, as darker content in particular is barely readable, whether indoors or outdoors. The chart below includes the measurements for the Nubia that attest to its low brightness outdoors…
… and here are comparison shots that illustrate its low readability outdoors in shade:
The RedMagic 6 Pro shows acceptable speed when adapting to falling light levels. It is fast to react to rising light levels, but is slow to adapt and not smooth when doing so.
Brightness is impacted when viewing the RedMagic 6 Pro at an angle, further impairing the readability of screen content:
The Nubia device is readable in low light; and while brightness is slightly low when the blue light filter (BLF) is activated, readability remains acceptable.
Color
Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro
80
92
DXOMARK uses the device’s gallery app to show static (still image) content when measuring the device’s display for white point, gamut, uniformity, color fidelity, and blue light filter impact, etc.
The RedMagic 6 Pro performed slightly above average for color; that said, a pinkish cast is often noticeable in indoor lighting conditions, with the cast turning bluish in a lowlight environment.
The same pink cast is also visible in outdoor conditions, both in shade and under sunlight:
Further, a noticeable green cast appears when viewed at an angle, along with a slight loss of saturation:
In terms of the RedMagic’s color uniformity, reddish areas are visible on darker areas, and brighter areas look greenish, as shown below:
When the BLF is turned on, the Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro shifts to a visible but not especially unpleasant orange cast:
BLF on, from left to right: Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro, Asus ROG Phone 3, OnePlus 8T, Apple iPhone 12 Pro
Video
Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro
60
91
DXOMARK uses the device’s video (or browser) app to show dynamic content when measuring the device’s display for brightness, contrast, gamma, and color.
The Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro’s score of 60 — some 30 points behind the current category leader — is largely due to the lack of brightness when watching HDR10 content.
Video contrast, from left to right: Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro, Asus ROG Phone 3, OnePlus 8T, Apple iPhone 12 Pro
In HDR10 videos, a bluish cold cast is visible, which also affects skin tone rendering.
Video skin tone rendering, from left to right: Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro, Asus ROG Phone 3, OnePlus 8T, Apple iPhone 12 Pro
Motion
Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro
77
87
As you can see in the screen grabs below, the RedMagic 6 Pro showed many frame drops at 30 and 60 fps in our laboratory tests. This said, our engineers found no perceptible frame drops during their video game use case testing.
The device manages motion blur fairly well when playing videos. When going backwards or forwards in a video, a delay is noticeable before the device resumes playing, and some slight jerkiness is sometimes visible.
Touch
Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro
59
85
The Nubia device is quite smooth when browsing in the gallery app and when playing video games, which generally would have resulted in a higher score in this category. Unfortunately, the RedMagic 6 Pro’s zoom is limited and cannot be maintained — that is, when the user manually reaches the limits of the zoom range, the phone automatically zooms back out, eliminating the possibility of remaining at the desired zoom level.
Artifacts
Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro
84
86
The Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro’s mean reflectance is 4.8%; the graph below shows its reflectance curve over the visible spectrum:
The lack of a notch on the Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro is a plus; as for flicker, the device performs well with a flicker frequency of 724 Hz. That said, the device is sometimes subject to ghost touches, especially in landscape orientation. Judder is noticeable at 24 fps and 60 fps, but not at 30 fps. However, the RedMagic 6 Pro manages aliasing well on most tested content, as shown below:
Conclusion
The Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro handles artifacts well; however, its general lack of brightness significantly impacted the readability of both still content and videos. Further, even though it is smooth to the touch when both browsing and gaming, problems with touch zooming also adversely affected its score.
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