The Nubia Purple Magic 7 boasts wonderful efficiency benchmarks and has a extremely responsive display screen. However as you would possibly count on from an all-out gaming cellphone, the digital camera is fairly underwhelming, and moreover the battery can drain fairly shortly.

Introduction

The Purple Magic 7 is a smartphone made for one sole function: gaming. To that finish, its processing efficiency and display screen high quality are the 2 highest priorities, as a result of these dictate simply how effectively video games will run, whereas the digital camera and another options will naturally take a again seat.

In case you’re not a eager cellular gamer then you definitely’d be higher suggested to peruse our alternative of best phones fairly than shopping for this system, however should you merely can’t get sufficient of gaming on the go, learn on to seek out out what I made from the Purple Magic 7.

Design and Display

• Robust gaming aesthetic
• Giant and extremely responsive display screen

The Purple Magic 7’s dedication to being a gaming cellphone doesn’t start with the highly effective processor or the very good display screen specs; it’s instantly seen from high to toe as quickly as you’re taking it out of the field.

Our handset (the “Supernova” model) had a semi-transparent design that’s suffering from specs, to the extent it nearly resembles a cutaway drawing from a youngsters’s encyclopedia. The flashy touches don’t finish there, as when the video games are in play the fan begins whirring it lights up with blue, orange, inexperienced, and purple lights.

In case you’re the shy, retiring sort who doesn’t need your pals to know the way a lot of a video games nerd you’re, then you definitely would possibly wish to select one thing a tad extra refined; however should you’re captivated with your pastime and wish the world to understand it, then I can see loads of hardcore players loving this design.

The handset is actually cumbersome, however that doesn’t essentially rely towards it. In spite of everything, a gaming system like this must be ergonomic to carry whenever you’re within the thick of the motion in a first-person shooter, and in these instances a little bit of bulk typically helps it really feel safer in your palms. There are two shoulder set off buttons on the aspect of the cellphone, and these boast a speedy 500Hz response price.

Whereas there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack so that you can plug in your earphones or headset, there’s no expandable storage out there, and no IP certification both so there’s no official safety if it’s uncovered to mud or water.

The display screen goes to be one of many key factors of focus for a tool resembling this, since you’re going to be spending your time gazing it intently as you battle your enemies.

There are elements of this AMOLED show which can be excellent; the 165Hz refresh price is the very best I’ve ever skilled in a cellphone (simply outperforming the iPhone 13 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra which supply a still-impressive 120Hz), and likewise with the extremely responsive 720Hz contact sampling price, which ought to offer you an actual edge over your opponents when each millisecond counts.

It’s additionally as massive as you’d like, measuring 6.8 inches diagonally throughout, however is simple to carry with two palms, permitting you to be immersed within the sport.

The FullHD+ decision is okay and clear sufficient, and the show does help 1 billion colors, however it notably lacks HDR help and customarily doesn’t provide an impressive viewing expertise.

Whereas watching video content material I discovered the expertise to be a bit of underwhelming in comparison with the perfect telephones round available on the market proper now, with movies seeming a bit of “flatter” than traditional. When working automated brightness settings (apparently giving a typical rating of 700 nits) I discovered the display screen to be a bit of on the dim aspect, so I typically modified the settings to handbook and shifted the brightness up a few gears.

Digicam

• Mediocre digital camera efficiency
• Evening mode improves lowlight pictures
• Triple sensor system provides versatility

The digital camera is not at all a key precedence for a gaming cellphone resembling this one, however as with all smartphone we’d nonetheless hope for it to acquit itself effectively once we wanted it.

You possibly can see outcomes of daylight capturing with the primary digital camera above, and whereas it has evidently struggled a bit with the lighting (below circumstances that aren’t preferrred however not extraordinarily difficult), the picture is appropriate — however removed from the perfect. Despite the fact that this sensor has a excessive decision 64-megapixel essential sensor, element merely isn’t as sharp as I had been hoping for both.

There’s additionally an 8-megapixel ultrawide lens within the system, which provides some versatility and provides you one other choice to play with, however efficiency is noticeably weaker right here, with pictures seeming a bit washed out and people solar rays inflicting much more issues for the sensor.

A tiny 2-megapixel macro sensor completes the digital camera trinity on the cellphone, and it might sometimes turn out to be useful if you wish to shoot an excessive close-up of an object. I confess that this chance not often arises for me, however I attempted it out on a daffodil flower with the end result seen above, which considerably lacks distinction or element.

I additionally tried out the Purple Magic 7 digital camera in lowlight circumstances, which frequently pose challenges even for the perfect smartphone cameras round. The above shot was disappointing, with the highlights having been blown out and there being a extreme lack of element all through the picture, so for my subsequent shot I attempted it with Evening Mode utilized and standing in the identical place.

As you may see, Evening Mode made a drastic distinction to the standard of the shot, vastly enhancing it in each side and giving me a much more interesting image by balancing the lighting and restoring distinction to the picture. It’s nonetheless not good however I’d undoubtedly advocate utilizing this setting should you’re in darkish circumstances, even when there’s the usual delay of a few seconds whereas the picture processing will get to work.

After placing the rear cameras to the check, I flipped it over and tried the 8-megapixel selfie digital camera. This has a Magnificence Mode auto-enabled which smooths out facial options, and though I attempted the Portrait Mode settings, this appeared to make no considerable distinction to the shot – the “bokeh” impact of a blurred background to emphasise the topic merely did not materialise.

Total the digital camera system ship middling image high quality, and should you typically take footage along with your cellphone you’ll both wish to decide a special handset or else pair this one with a greater system and dedicate the Purple Magic 7 solely to gaming.

Efficiency

• Phenomenal benchmark outcomes
• Glorious gaming expertise
• Stability considerations

The Purple Magic 7 runs on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which is the perfect Qualcomm cellular chipset that’s at the moment available on the market. What’s extra, Nubia has squeezed a superb degree of efficiency from it even in comparison with its friends. Simply take a look at the under efficiency stats when put next the the recently-released flagship Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus:

It’s arduous to overstate simply how spectacular these 3D Mark GPU scores are specifically; that is the place the Purple Magic 7 is totally in its aspect and may go away the remainder of the competitors within the mud.

The primary evaluation pattern of this cellphone that we used merely crashed with out rationalization, and wouldn’t activate. We reached out to the producer for remark, however haven’t but heard again. That apart, in my expertise apps principally ran with none issues on the second pattern (albeit one time the digital camera app crashed), and gaming efficiency ran extraordinarily effectively; I by no means encountered any lag points when enjoying demanding on-line video games on the very best settings.

There’s fairly a sophisticated-sounding system in place with a purpose to quiet down the cellphone when it’s working on all its cylinders. Named ICE 8.0, this multi-dimensional cooling system consists of “9 layers of various cooling supplies”, together with the next: “section change materials (PCM), a turbofan powered cooling air duct, high-conductivity copper foil, thermally conductive uncommon earth supplies, a Vapor Chamber Cooling (VC), and graphite sheet.”

I discovered that this stored it from heating up an excessive amount of throughout video games, however when working these benchmarks checks it not solely turned uncomfortably heat on its metallic sides, however the fan additionally emitted a fairly robust whirring sound. This wasn’t the noise of a jet taking off that may charaterise some gaming laptops, however nonetheless there was a relentless background hum.

You’ll discover that this system runs Android 12 software program, overlaid with the RedMagic 5.0 person interface. Whereas this pores and skin makes its presence identified with just a few novelty widgets — together with one to change on the multi-coloured cooling fan and one to measure your coronary heart price by way of the fingerprint scanner — there really isn’t an excessive amount of bloatware.

You’ll be extra conscious of it it whenever you’re making use of the in-game menu, which supplies fairly just a few customisation and sharing choices as seen above.

Battery Life

• Giant 5000mAh cell
• Battery drains very quick
• 135W fast-charging is promising however unverified

In case you run your eye down the spec sheets, you would possibly count on the 5000mAh battery capability to make sure a dependable degree of endurance. Actually, this cellphone drains its battery alarming shortly.

Watching an hour-long YouTube video noticed 11% of cost knocked off, and the identical quantity was misplaced after half an hour of enjoying PUBG. Even once I used it simply to stream music from Spotify on my Bluetooth headphones, I had misplaced 5% of battery after an hour of listening to tunes.

In its defence, this handset boasts lightning-quick 120W fast-charging that ought to see the whole topped as much as full from zero in simply 17 minutes in response to the producer. That’s a mind-blowing specification, however the model I acquired was packaged with a non-UK charger, so I can not confirm it.

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