Nubia RedMagic 5S: Gaming smartphone with only a small amount of competitors

Except for the Nintendo Switch, the smartphone is the best platform for gaming on the go. That is why big titles such as PUBG Mobile or Fortnite are so widely used on these small devices. So of course sooner or later manufacturers were going to wake up to the opportunity of expanding their gaming-related product ranges of gaming mice, keyboards, headphones, monitors, chairs, socks, etc. to include suitable smartphones.

Asus is at the forefront of this development with its Republic of Gamers brand and Xiaomi isn't far behind with its Black Shark models. Nubia had already started testing the waters before releasing its new RedMagic 5S. This 5G smartphone is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC, 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal storage, which is a decent hardware selection. The device looks very modern with its slim case which you would never suspect to be harboring an active cooling system. 

The two shoulder buttons aren't immediately noticeable either but can be freely assigned in gaming mode (which is activated via a mechanical switch) and reliably simulate input on a certain area of the screen. This works very well in practice and the screen - an AMOLED panel with a refresh rate of 144 Hz - compliments this feature nicely.  

The high refresh rate, however, is the crux of the smartphone. Of course images look smoother at 90 Hz than at 60 Hz. But the difference to 144 Hz is less noticeable, particularly in the smartphone segment. Of course, this also depends on the individual user's sensitivity. On top of this debatable issue, most games can still only be displayed 60 Hz, so users won't be able to benefit from what the panel has to offer. System performance is another aspect. The game "Armajet" supports 90 fps. However, the RedMagic 5S only manages to display around 60 fps. We would still consider it a good gaming smartphone.

Find out more in our review of the Nubia RedMagic 5S.