RedMagic 7S, 7S Pro and 7S Pro Bumblebee Edition launch as flagship Android gaming smartphones with upgraded SoCs

Nubia's dedicated gaming brand RedMagic has just announced its latest line of distinctive, performance-oriented Android smartphones. These new devices are S-variants of the existing 7 and 7 Pro, and are thusly nearly identical to their respective counterparts - with one difference.

Indeed, the 7S or 7S Pro may be the ones some fans may have held out for, as they are powered by the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC rather than 'original flavor' 8 Gen 1 silicon. RedMagic strives to keep things interesting besides that by releasing its latest ICE 10.0 cooling system in the 7S Pro rather than wait until 2023.

The OEM also particularly touts the "Magic GPU" tech found in this new line, which is rated to work with the Adreno 730 to stabilize frame-rates, sync the rendering of images and generally boost frame-rate integrity by up to 60%. 

It is found in both the 7S Pro and vanilla 7S, the latter of which once again gets the classic, industry-leading RedMagic spec of a 165Hz AMOLED display to itself. This is because the Pro reprises the under-display camera (UDC) panel to which the 7 Pro upgraded instead in early 2022.

It makes the new flagship nearly edge-to-edge, even if its refresh rate drops to 120Hz. The 7S Pro has also brought its own Transformers Special Edition with it, which is finished in black and yellow to evince Bumblebee rather than Optimus Prime or Decepticons this time.

The 'normal' 7S Pro units are available in Deuterium Transparent Shadow, Dark Knight or the Deuterium Transparent Silver Wing colorway as teased earlier. It starts at 5,199 yuan (~US$774) for a Dark Knight SKU with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, although there is an additional 100 yuan (~$15) premium to choose a Transparent edition instead.

The Deuterium Transparent Shadow (which has RedMagic's signature RGB fan visible through its rear panel) also has the phone's only 18GB/1TB variant, costing a massive 7,499 yuan (~$1,117).

The 7S, on the other hand, is offered in Deuterium Transparent Shadow or Dark Knight, which is relatively affordable as it starts at 3,999 yuan for an 8/128GB base model. Then again, its Transparent options go up to 16/512GB for 5,499 yuan.

Finally, RedMagic has set the 16/512GB Bumblebee Edition at 6,499 yuan (~$968). For that price, it comes with an air-cooler, a case, a badge and a 165W GaN fast charger (also found in all 7S-series boxes, even despite the fact the 7S is 120W) in a "collector's edition" box. RedMagic will open pre-orders for its new top-end Android 12 phones on July 15, 2022.