Red Magic 7 gaming phone review: 165Hz gaming screen & extreme heat dissipation, creating a top new Snapdragon 8 gaming flagship

Nowadays, mobile phones have become a necessity in people's lives, and with the continuous development of mobile Internet, the various potentials of mobile phones are being continuously explored, the most typical of which is entertainment represented by games.

Compared with PCs and consoles, mobile phones are more portable, their prices are more easily accepted by the majority of users, and the threshold for getting started with games is also lower. Therefore, the market size is expanding rapidly. According to the "2021 China Game Industry Report" released by the China Game Industry Association, the number of domestic mobile game players has exceeded 656 million.

The booming mobile game market has also promoted the development of the "gaming phone" sub-category. In the past two years, gaming phones have taken a different path from traditional flagship models by relying on their extreme performance, excellent heat dissipation, and various optimizations specifically made for games.

Red Magic, one of the most well-known gaming phone brands in China, released its latest product, the Red Magic 7 gaming phone series, on February 17. With the new Snapdragon 8 processor, 165Hz refresh rate and extreme heat dissipation performance, the phone's performance and gaming experience have been pushed to new heights.

Handsome appearance shows gaming genes

The front of the Red Magic 7 is a 6.8-inch AMOLED ultra-clear full screen with a display ratio of 20:9, support for DCI-P3 wide color gamut, a resolution of 2400*1080, and a mainstream crystal diamond arrangement. The screen is excellent whether playing games, watching videos or daily use. This screen also supports DC dimming and has passed the SGS low blue light eye protection certification, which can ensure comfort during use.

It is worth mentioning that the Red Magic 7 does not use hole or water drop designs like most full-screen mobile phones, but integrates the front camera module into the upper frame to ensure a complete look and feel.

The back cover of the body is made of a whole piece of glass, which feels warm and is not easy to leave fingerprints. The middle frame is made of metal, and the transition with the back cover is natural. Therefore, the Red Magic 7 is a large-sized mobile phone as a whole, and it is also very comfortable to hold.

The Red Magic 7 in my hand is in the "Dark Knight" color scheme. At first glance, it looks like ordinary black, but a closer look reveals that it has rich light and dark textures. This is because the phone uses a high-precision etching process. Combined with the RGB breathing light on the back, the phone looks handsome and cool while showing wildness and vitality, which is extremely lethal to male users.

Unlike many current mobile phones, the Red Magic 7's camera has almost no protrusion. This design is probably designed to take into account the scenario of placing the phone on a table to play games, to prevent the phone from shaking when in use, especially suitable for audio game players. In today's world where mobile phone camera modules are becoming more and more exaggerated, the back cover design of the Red Magic 7 can be regarded as a breath of fresh air.

The design of the heat dissipation holes also reflects the gaming genes of the Red Magic 7. The heat generation of the new Snapdragon 8 is well known. In order to keep the phone's performance output stable at all times, the Red Magic 7 has placed a total of 4 heat dissipation holes on the back cover, left side, right side and bottom of the body, so that the performance can be fully released while also ensuring the comfort and safety of users when using it.

There are two shoulder buttons on the right side of the body, which allow players to find the feeling of playing games with a handle on the phone. In addition, the bottom of the phone is also equipped with an "extremely advanced" 3.5mm headphone jack. Although wireless headphones are now popular, the advantages of wired headphones in sound quality and latency are still unsurpassed. Especially for music games and other types of games, the headphone jack is absolutely indispensable. It can be seen that the Red Magic 7 has a firm grasp of the pain points of players when it was designed.

The appearance of the Red Magic 7 is just like its packaging box, showing the aesthetics of mecha everywhere. So, under the tough appearance, does the Red Magic 7 also have the surging power of a mecha?

Built for competition from the inside out

As a gaming phone, the Red Magic 7 is equipped with the latest Snapdragon 8 processor, which forms a powerful "magic three-ring engine" with the full-blooded LPDDR5 and UFS 3.1. In order to fully unleash the performance of this configuration, the Red Magic 7 is equipped with 9 layers of heat dissipation technology, including high-speed centrifugal fans, aerospace-grade heat dissipation materials, ultra-soft high thermal conductivity rare earths, canyon heat dissipation ducts, superconducting copper foil, VC heat sinks, high thermal conductivity gel, composite graphene, and aerodynamic thermodynamic aviation aluminum middle frame.

Judging from the test data, the Red Magic 7 achieved a score of over 1.03 million in the AnTuTu performance test, and the storage test score also exceeded 58,000 points, which shows its powerful performance.

In addition to the processor and memory, the gaming performance of a mobile phone is also closely related to the screen. Nowadays, 120Hz refresh rate has become popular in mobile phones. For daily use, this is completely sufficient, but for core competitive players, the higher the refresh rate, the better.

The Red Magic 7 is equipped with an industry-leading 165Hz screen refresh rate, which is comparable to PC. At the same time, the touch sampling rate is as high as 720Hz, which can easily handle MOBA, FPS and music games. In daily use, users can adjust to 90Hz or 120Hz mode to balance the needs of fluency and power saving.

There is a red competitive key on the left side of the Red Magic 7. Push it upwards to enter the game space, where you can check the games you are playing and set up related hardware such as fans and RGB breathing lights.

In addition, there is a rich resource library in the game space, where players can download configuration files such as shoulder button mapping and one-button combo to give full play to the advantages of shoulder buttons and bring a better competitive experience.

When launching the game, users can swipe left and right to bring up the game assistant and adjust the phone's operating mode, fan speed, refresh rate, shoulder buttons and other functions.

I personally think the most practical one is the virtual shoulder button function. Due to the size of the mobile phone, many functions are concentrated on one side. Take shooting games as an example. The three operations of rotating the view, aiming and shooting all need to be completed with the right thumb. Therefore, when encountering an enemy, you may be in a panic.

The Red Magic 7 can map buttons to two shoulder buttons. I personally use the left shoulder button to aim and the right shoulder button to shoot in "Peace Elite" to share the pressure on my right thumb. In addition, if you are a player who is used to the handle, you can also map the attack to the shoulder button in action games such as "Genshin Impact" to bring a more familiar operating feel.

Players can also quickly adjust the game color tone in the game assistant to get a clearer view in the game. In games like "Peace Elite", you can turn on high contrast mode or even inverted "hunting mode" to make enemies lying in the grass nowhere to hide.

It is not difficult to see that the Red Magic 7 is built for gaming, both in terms of hardware and software. So, what is its actual gaming experience like? We selected two MOBA, two FPS and two action games for testing, and we will share with you our experience of playing them.

Smooth experience makes you the god of canyon

The first game we tested was "Honor of Kings". Under high picture quality and high resolution, two games took about 30 minutes and could run smoothly at 120 frames throughout the whole process. The frame rate was not affected whether it was team battles or skill activation.

"Honor of Kings" also supports the "Red Devil Moment" function, which automatically saves the video after death, and saves multiple wonderful moments after a game ends, which users can share directly and quickly.

The 165Hz refresh rate screen of the Red Magic 7 also shines in "Honor of Kings", whether it is positioning or adjusting the field of view, it is extremely smooth. For this kind of competitive game, the improvement brought by smooth frame rate and smooth control is very obvious. As a MOBA player, I even think that the Red Magic 7 has improved my combat effectiveness by 20%.

Another MOBA game we tested was the mobile version of League of Legends. Since this game has not yet been adapted to a mode above 60 frames, we could only run it at 60 frames with high picture quality. Therefore, it was not a severe test for the Red Magic 7.

When running these two games, in addition to ensuring smooth frame rates, the Red Magic 7 also did not show any noticeable heat, which means it is more than capable of running MOBA games and summoners can buy it with confidence.

The correct way to play FPS mobile games

Next we tested "Peace Elite", this game supports high-definition 60 frames and smooth quality 90 frames mode. We tested them separately and there was no frame drop or heat generation throughout the whole process.

Although it only supports 90 frames per second, the high refresh rate of 165Hz still has a huge effect on pulling the gun and aiming. In games like "Peace Elite", enemies may suddenly appear from any direction at any time, so it is very important to quickly rotate the view to locate the enemy, which can greatly increase the player's chance of survival.

Another FPS we tested was Call of Duty Mobile. Similar to League of Legends, this game did not enable the 90-frame mode, so the test was run in high-definition 60-frame mode. There was no frame drop or stuttering throughout the entire process, and the temperature was also very well controlled, with no feeling of heat at the grip.

To be honest, I have never thought that mobile phones are suitable devices for playing FPS games. The reason is as mentioned before. The crowded layout and overly concentrated functions make me feel overwhelmed, and many times I really want to throw the phone.

However, the Red Magic 7 is constantly breaking my previous stereotypes. The high refresh rate and shoulder button function of the Red Magic 7 let me find a more familiar and comfortable shooting feel on the phone. With its help, I won two "chicken dinners" in "Peace Elite" and became the MVP in "Call of Duty". This kind of completely different operating experience in FPS is also what I personally think is the strongest advantage and difference of "gaming phones" compared to general "flagship phones".

Challenge the real "big devil"

It can be seen that as a gaming phone with competitive ability as its selling point, the performance of the Red Magic 7 in competitive games is perfect, but MOBA and FPS tend to "show mercy" on the picture quality in order to prioritize smoothness. However, it is action games that truly test the extreme performance of games.

We first tested it with "Honkai Impact 3". As a fast-paced action game, "Honkai Impact 3" has very high requirements on the button feedback speed and the tracking degree of the joystick, and the performance of the Red Magic 7 in these two aspects is very satisfactory.

In terms of image quality, if high image quality is turned on, "Honkai Impact 3" can still maintain a stable 60 frames most of the time, but there will be obvious frame drops and freezes occasionally, and there is no obvious correlation with the number of special effects in the game screen. It seems to be just a "metaphysical" frame drop, which should be more related to the optimization of the game. The heating of the phone is perceptible, but there is no obvious impact.

Next, it will challenge the "big devil" recognized by the mobile game industry - "Genshin Impact".

What surprised me was that after turning on the 60-frame mode of "Genshin Impact", the performance of the Red Magic 7 was more stable than that of "Honkai Impact 3". The frame drops only occurred in the big move scenes with more gorgeous special effects, and there was no obvious frequency reduction in more than half an hour of operation.

The results show that the Red Magic 7 can run "Genshin Impact" at 60 frames per second with high quality, but it must be admitted that this is a forced requirement of the players, so the game will generate more heat, but the overall temperature can be controlled within 50 degrees Celsius, which does not affect the players' long-term holding and operation. In general, when running such a high-quality, poorly optimized game, the performance of the Red Magic 7 is relatively solid.

Judging from the performance of the two action games, the Red Magic 7's extreme performance is enough to run such games with relatively sophisticated graphics. Its performance is actually the ceiling of current mobile phones. However, as mentioned above, given the optimization problems of the game itself, especially the full-platform game "Genshin Impact", there are still some unstable situations. Therefore, at this stage, it is recommended that players use 30 or 40 frames to run, so as to get a smoother gaming experience. But we also hope that the Red Magic can bring us a smoother and more enjoyable performance through subsequent updates.

A gaming flagship with some advantages but no shortcomings

The Red Magic 7 also left a deep impression on me in other aspects. The first is charging. As a mobile phone that supports up to 120W fast charging, it is equipped with a 165W charging head, which can meet the power supply needs of Switch, tablets and even laptops. As a person who pursues simplicity when going out, this "one-to-many" charging head hits my pain point.

In terms of charging speed, the Red Magic 7 is also very fast. It can be charged from 20%, 17% in 2 minutes, 50% in 5 minutes, and fully charged in 13 minutes. I believe this speed is more than enough for most users.

The Red Magic 7 is equipped with a 4500 mAh battery. After half an hour of playing Genshin Impact at 60Hz, half an hour of playing Honor of Kings at 120Hz, half an hour of playing Sina Weibo at 120Hz, half an hour of playing Bilibili videos, and 20 minutes of playing Tencent News at 120Hz, the battery capacity was still 58%. This battery life result is also quite excellent.

The Red Magic 7 also adds some special ingenuity in terms of battery. For example, it supports the "screen off and hang up" function of the game, which is very practical for some games that need to download a large number of resource packages. I myself have encountered a dilemma when downloading resource packages: if the screen is always on and the power is too hot, turning off the display may kill the background and cause the download to fail. The "screen off and hang up" function of the Red Magic 7 perfectly solves this problem, allowing me to download games with confidence.

Many players may need to play while charging, but this may lead to more serious heating problems. In this regard, the Red Magic 7 supports the "charging separation" function. When this function is turned on, the power supply will bypass the battery and directly power the phone when the charging cable is connected, thereby avoiding damage to the battery and effectively controlling the heat generation of the phone.

In addition to game-related functions, the Red Magic 7 also performs well in other areas. Take imaging as an example. In fact, many of the target audiences of gaming phones are not interested in taking photos, but the Red Magic 7 is equipped with a 64-megapixel AI triple camera. The sample photos taken are very detailed, and the white balance and contrast are well controlled. Even those who don't like taking photos will want to record the moments of life on a whim. I believe that by then, everyone should hope that the phone in their hands can have better imaging quality.

At the system level, the Red Magic 7 has a built-in AI Red Magic Girl Mora. In addition to providing players with information broadcasting and other services during the game, it can also interact with players in daily use, adding a bit of fun.

In general, the Red Magic 7 is very generous in terms of stacking materials: the ultra-high refresh rate of 165Hz brings an extremely smooth user experience, the "Magic Triple Ring Engine" led by the new Snapdragon 8 and the well-made cooling system enable it to exert the strongest gaming performance, and the various functions and optimizations designed for games at the software and hardware levels make its gaming experience have a clear advantage over flagship phones with similar configurations. These factors combined make the Red Magic 7 worthy of the name of "gaming phone".

In terms of photography and system experience, the Red Magic 7 also delivered an above-average performance, making it a unique gaming phone. In the past, when people talked about gaming phones, they tended to think that it was a phone with unsatisfactory functions except for playing games. However, the Red Magic 7 not only perfectly met the needs of gamers, but also did not "let go" in other aspects, achieving sufficient strengths without obvious weaknesses.

In an environment where players' demands for gaming phones are increasing day by day, the Red Magic 7 is undoubtedly on the right track.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.