Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsJack of all Trades, Master of Gaming
Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2023
Edit: wifi connection sucks. It would connect for a little bit, the won't receive signal. It will keep you connected to wifi, but will act as if you have no internet. I keep my wifi off for best data performance, which is great for me. For those looking to stay connected to wifi, this may be a deal breaker. I've looked on Reddit and this seems to be an issue with the 8 series. Hopefully it gets patched, but considering it's been over 6 months, it's unlikely.
I left Android for iPhone about 5 years ago, and I always missed the freedom Android gave me. The "major" updates Apple gave had been old features for Android. Recently, I fell in a rabbit hooe searching for Android gaming devices, and decided between this and the Samsung 23 Ultra.
I got the 23 Ultra, and instantly fell in love, but the Red Magic 8 Pro was my first pick, as a gaming (emulation) was my priority, so I returned the 23 and grabbed the Translucent 8 Pro. While the 23 Ultra is the better feature rich phone, the 8 Pro is a gaming beast.
First, I tested Genshin Impact, and while it performs better on iPhone 13 Pro Max (on Medium settings), this phone plays great with MAX setting when you set the in phone game mode settings to rise and the fan is blasting. To get great gameplay without compromising resolution and frame rate AND not having your phone turn into a piece of hot coal after 20 minutes is a absolut win for me. Mapping touch screen buttons to a controller definitely is a negative, as the performance is massively noticeable, compared to iOS native controller support, but that's a small price to pay for gaming freedom. I used the GameSir X2 (Bluetooth) for every phone.
As mentioned earlier, my main reason for switching is freedom, and part of that is emulation without hacking (jailbreaking) my phone. I downloaded everything from NES to GameCube, GameBoy to 3ds, and this is where the Red Magic 8 Pro 16gb version outclasses the 23 Ultra. Right of the bat, every game I tested looked and performed better.
With Mario 3D Land, the 23 Ultra played decently with 2x resolution ("chugged" here and there) while the Red had the same performance at 4x resolution on Rise mode. Dropped it to 3x and Balanced, and it played PERFECTLY. Visually, there is almost no difference in visuals between 3x and 4x on the phone, and was only able to tell them apart when I zoomed in on the screenshots I took to compare the different resolutions (from 2x to 4x).
I won't explain every test I did (which took about 3 hours), but the one that impressed me most was God of War Ghost of Sparta. I was able to play that with 10x resolution on the 8 Pro on Balance mode with as if it was running at 1x resolution, while it became almost unplayable around 6x on the 23 ultra. Those gaming features truly make a difference.
As for the other basic functions, some are serviceable, some are great. Calls on speaker are lower than when music plays. The music sounds great and loud to me (better than 13 Pro Max), but calls over the speaker sound like whisper in comparison. In a quiet room, any external noise would easily down out the call. Off of speaker, it sound loud and clear.
Music is awesome. Streaming through Amazon Music (cuz the stupid app won't let me download and listen on another app, nor transfer out), the phone is surprisingly loud and clear. I didn't notice any distortion or unbalancing issues with the bass, and I definitely enjoyed listening through this phone than I did on the iPhone and Samsung. The fact that it has a headphone jack may not matter if you have Bluetooth headphones, but now you can tell people to "pass the aux cord" XD.
The camera is surprisingly nice, considering it's primarily a gaming phone. The 13 Pro Max took some great pictures and videos, and the 23 Ultra blew that out of the water, but while the Red 8 Pro can't compete with them in a side by side comparison, they look great on their own. When you inevitably take a video or picture, you WILL be satisfied and impressed with how great they came out considering photography is not why you would consider this phone over something mainstream.
Last, and certainly not least; this charges FAST AS HELL! In about 5 minutes, you'll gain about 20%. In about 30 minutes, you'll go from 2% to 90%. It doesn't matter how fast this phone dies (this WILL last you all day with moderate use) if you can charge it to 100% in such a short time. Unfortunately, it doesn't have wireless charging, but with charging speeds (65w) like this, I wouldn't use it, anyway.
Tl;dr:
If you want the best gaming experience on your primary phone, get the 16gb Red Magic 8 Pro.
