Battery-killing 144 Hz display in the Nubia RedMagic 5G: Is it all just marketing?

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Nubia has installed the world's first 144 Hz display in a gaming smartphone in the RedMagic 5G. But does the high energy consumption and the associated short battery life justify the smoothness of the Nubia mobile phone?

Marcus Herbrich (translated by Stephanie Chamberlain), 06/21/2020 🇩🇪

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The Nubia RedMagic 5G is very pleasingly smooth in everyday use thanks to a Snapdragon 865, 12 GB of RAM and a 144 Hz panel. However, the high refresh rate has its price, and the gaming phone's battery life is average at most - despite the relatively large 4,500 mAh battery. In our measurements, the lights go out for the RedMagic 5G after almost 2.5 hours under load - without the built-in fan for active cooling, mind you. And at 10 hours, our WLAN battery test results aren't exactly generous either.

The question arises: Is 144 Hz even worthwhile in a smartphone? Although scrolling in the browser or doing a quick swipe within the home screen is very smooth with the Nubia gaming phone, there is hardly any (actually none at all) noticeable difference in direct comparison to a smartphone with a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz. And even in direct comparison to the Black Shark 3 Pro, the differences are noticeable, but the 90 Hz in the Xiaomi mobile phone already look smooth.

The step from 60 Hz to a higher refresh rate is fundamentally correct, but the advantage offered in terms of smoothness by a 144 Hz smartphone display compared to a 90 Hz panel should be extremely small for most users in everyday use - even when playing Android games, as long as you don't do professional e-sports on your mobile phone.

If you are interested in Nubia's flagship smartphone and would like to get a detailed impression of the RedMagic 5G, we recommend our detailed review of the gaming smartphone.