RedMagic 7 Review: A Crazy-Fast, Affordable Snapdragon Gaming Phone

Over the years, Chinese phone manufacturer RedMagic has managed to build a reputation for making affordable, feature-packed gaming phones and selling them in the US. The company typically releases new models in the spring using Qualcomm’s latest flagship processor, then launches similar, but updated versions in the fall, often with Qualcomm’s revised “plus” chipsets. And since the RedMagic 3, these handsets have included a built-in cooling fan to maintain optimal, sustained performance.

With last year’s RedMagic 6, the company also introduced Pro variants with slightly improved specs to its lineup, alongside a fan-less, more mainstream handset – the RedMagic 6R. Today we’re testing the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-equipped RedMagic 7 ($629), which shares its overall design, 165Hz display, and 64MP triple camera system with its predecessor. So, is RedMagic still the gaming phone value champ? Let’s find out...

Like most gaming laptops, most gaming phones have a distinctly loud “made-for-gamers” aesthetic, and the RedMagic 7 is no exception. But instead of being mostly black with colored stripes and accents (or red like some past RedMagic handsets), our review unit’s glass back is made of a transparent and metallic gray finish the company calls Supernova. The transparent areas reveal the cooling fan, screws, and other parts.

If you look closely, though, those parts are just covers under the glass, not the actual components. These covers have fake circuit board traces on them. Still, it’s pretty cool – if you’re into over-the-top gamer designs. And of course, the fan is backlit with green, yellow, red, and blue LEDs (the Google colors, incidentally) arranged in a circle. Even the RedMagic logo lights up in red (naturally) with a programmable LED.

But fear not, all those blinkenlights can be disabled if you wish. A bunch of specs are stenciled in gold all over the rear glass, including “165Hz Gaming Screen”, “20,000 R. P. M. @ MAX Turbofan w/ RGB”, “ICE 8. 0 Cooling System”, “64MP AI HD Camera”, “720Hz Touch Sampling Rate”, and a fake Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. Yeah, it’s quite something. It makes the vertical rectangular camera pod down the middle look downright boring.

Other colors include Obsidian (black) and Pulsar (pink and blue), which both lose the semi-transparent back, but gain RGB lights. In front, the 6.8-inch display is free of punch holes or notches, but includes small top and bottom bezels for the 8MP selfie shooter and the earpiece / speaker. As a result, the RedMagic 7 is a big phone – larger even than Samsung’s massive Galaxy S22 Ultra. Still, it feels very nice in hand.

RedMagic’s done a great job blending the rear glass into the aluminum frame. The right side is home to the two capacitive shoulder buttons, fan exhaust, power / lock key, and a third mic. On the left side, you’ll find the red game mode switch, fan intake, and volume rocker. The main speaker, USB Type-C port (USB 3.0), primary mic, and SIM tray are located along the bottom, and the headphone jack and secondary mic live on top.

Obviously, with all those fan openings (there’s even a third one in the glass back), the RedMagic 7 isn’t water or dust resistant. Build quality and materials are top notch, however, and this handset simply feels solid and well-built.

Gaming requires a quality display, and the RedMagic 7 delivers. It packs a beautiful 6.8-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels, 387ppi) 10-bit AMOLED panel with a 20:9 aspect ratio and a speedy 165Hz refresh rate. This screen is also perfectly flat and unfettered by notches or punch holes. Besides the ultra-smooth 165Hz refresh rate (plus settings for 120, 90, and 60 Hz), the RedMagic 7 also boasts a 720Hz touch sampling rate.

Like other modern AMOLED panels, this display offers punchy colors, inky blacks, and wide viewing angles. At 770 nits (typical), it’s also easy to read in direct sunlight – even though it’s not nearly as bright as today’s best screens. But overall, we have no complaints here.

Imaging hasn't historically been RedMagic’s forte, and things are no different with the RedMagic 7. Not much has changed with this camera system since the RedMagic 5G we reviewed almost two years ago. You’re basically getting slightly worse hardware but marginally better software. This consists of a 64MP f/1.8 0.7-micron main shooter (without OIS), an 8MP f/2.0 1.12-micron 120-degree ultrawide, and a 2MP f/2.4 macro (without AF).

For selfies, you’ll find an 8MP f/2.0 1.12-micron camera above the display. So what’s actually changed with the hardware? It appears that RedMagic has replaced Sony’s excellent 64MP IMX 686 with another, lesser 64MP sensor, dropping the pixel size from 0.8 to 0.7 microns. While this isn’t a deal breaker, it means we can expect reduced low light and zoom performance, both of which are already hindered by the lack of OIS.

On the software front, the camera app is still somewhat disorganized, but RedMagic’s finally made the ultrawide shooter available outside of pro mode. Also, the former DNG mode (for shooting RAW images) has been rolled into pro mode. Shooting modes include portrait, night, pro, pro video, panorama, macro, time lapse (1080p 30fps), and slow motion (1080p 120/240/480/960fps) – to name the important ones.

Sadly, night mode is still not supported by the ultrawide and selfie cameras. Video recording maxes out at 8k 30fps (unstabilized), and 4k 60fps (stabilized) with the main shooter, plus 1080p 30fps (unstabilized) with the selfie camera. HDR video recording is available at up to 4k (30fps, unstabilized). But the RedMagic 7 still only captures audio in mono, just like the RedMagic 5G. That’s just unacceptable at $629.

Pictures taken with the RedMagic 7 are decent overall, especially in daylight, but image quality degrades in low light or when zooming past 3-4x. Night mode really helps here, but only on the main shooter. The macro‘s low resolution and lack of AF makes for lackluster results. Selfies are fine, but not spectacular – ditto for video recording. Ultimately, there are handsets that cost half the price with better camera systems. RedMagic clearly focuses on gaming first with this device, and imaging – while passable – is secondary.

We used the RedMagic 7 mostly on T-Mobile’s sub-6GHz 5G network in San Francisco and the Bay Area and didn’t run into any issues with reception, call quality, and data speeds. This phone also works on AT&T’s sub-6GHz 5G network and Verizon’s 4G LTE network. It’s unclear if it also supports Verizon's sub-6GHz 5G network (we’ve reached out to RedMagic for clarification). As you’d expect, the RedMagic 7 lacks mmWave 5G.

The RedMagic 7 features stereo speakers (earpiece plus bottom edge speaker) which sound loud and clear at low to mid volumes, but muddier at higher volumes. While no match for today’s best flagship speakers, these will satisfy most users. As a bonus, the RedMagic 7 includes a headphone jack driven by an excellent DAC and amp. There’s also aptX HD and LDAC support for high quality wireless audio over Bluetooth.

As we previously mentioned, the RedMagic 7 uses Qualcomm’s flagship 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, but that’s only half the story. Our $799 Supernova review unit boasts a whopping 18GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, while the $729 Pulsar and $629 Obsidian models come with 16/256GB and 12/128GB of RAM/storage, respectively. There’s no microSD support here, so choose your configuration wisely.

Day-to-day, the RedMagic 7 is lightning fast no matter what you’re doing. It ran everything we threw at it without skipping a beat – from our standard productivity apps to graphically demanding games like Genshin Impact and Real Racing 3. Ultimately though, the RedMagic 7 didn’t feel quicker or smoother than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-equipped Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and S22+ we just reviewed.

Subjective performance is one thing, but our benchmarks tell a different story. The RedMagic 7 beat Samsung’s flagships in several of our tests, showing significant gains with GPU workloads. More importantly, the RedMagic 7 didn’t exhibit any of the heavy throttling we experienced with the Galaxy S22 Ultra and S22+ – whether we enabled the 20,000 rpm fan or not, and regardless of the refresh rate.

Here the RedMagic 7 shows similar performance to previous generation flagships, falling just behind Samsung's Galaxy S22+.

3D Graphics And Gaming Benchmarks With The RedMagic 7

RedMagic 7 3DMark Wild Life Benchmark Tests

The RedMagic 7 runs RedMagic OS 5.0 on top of Android 12, and this is where things get a little messy. While responsive and lightweight, RedMagic’s software has always been fraught with awkward translations, minor bugs, and a general lack of refinement. As such, it doesn’t always deliver a pleasant user experience. But we’re seeing some progress with this latest skin, which is visually more cohesive.

We also experienced less bugs this time around, so RedMagic appears to be paying attention. The settings menu is still disorganized, but the square icons are gone from the launcher. Also, bloatware is kept to a minimum, with the only pre-installed third-party app being NextWord Browser, which was easy to remove. Unfortunately, the company’s OS upgrade and security update policy still remains a mystery.

Game Space is where the RedMagic 7 really shines. Think of it as a separate landscape-mode launcher optimized for gaming, that’s activated with the red game mode switch. It’s extremely well thought out, and highly customizable. You can tweak everything from the 500Hz capacitive shoulder buttons to the refresh rate – and much more – on a per-game basis. Check out our RedMagic 5G review for a closer look.

There’s a lot to like about the RedMagic 7, especially for $629. Not only is it the most affordable Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phone officially sold in the US, it also delivers a gorgeous 165Hz display, US 5G support, great audio features, and outstanding performance – especially when gaming. Obviously, the design isn’t for everyone, but it’s on brand. The downsides are the lackluster cameras, smallish battery, and less-refined software versus larger OEMs.

While the RedMagic 7 is purpose-built for gaming and not likely to replace a modern flagship in terms of all-around versatility, it’s absolutely the right device if you’re a hard-core mobile gamer, and it offers tremendous value in a quality package. Let’s hope that RedMagic continues to improve its software, and brings better shooters to the table next time around. You’ll be able to order the RedMagic 7 directly from the company’s website starting March 10.