ZTE Nubia Red Magic 11S Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.85-inch ZTE Nubia Red Magic 11S Pro (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5) that was released on May 18, 2026, against the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, which is powered by the same chip and came out 3 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the ZTE Nubia Red Magic 11S Pro
  • Comes with 2500 mAh larger battery capacity: 7500 vs 5000 mAh
  • Higher display refresh rate – 144 Hz
  • 19% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (4678K versus 3939K)
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • Supports higher wattage charging (80W versus 60W)
  • Faster storage type - UFS 4.1 versus UFS 4.0
  • Includes a 3.5 mm headphone audio jack port
  • Has a built-in infrared port
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
  • The rear camera has a 5x optical zoom
  • Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
  • 16% higher pixel density (500 vs 431 PPI)
  • Supports Dolby Atmos sound technology
  • The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
  • Ready for eSIM technology

Review

Evaluation of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 11S Pro and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
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Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your country’s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
12 / 256 GB
VS
12 / 256 GB
63.3
(Average)
Value Index
34.6
(Mediocre)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type AMOLED Dynamic AMOLED
Size 6.85 inches 6.9 inches
Resolution 1216 x 2688 pixels 1440 x 3120 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.5:9
PPI 431 ppi 500 ppi
Refresh rate 144 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1800 nits 1500 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 2600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10 Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate 960 Hz 240 Hz
Screen protection Tempered glass Corning Gorilla Armor 2
Screen-to-body ratio 90.4% 91.4%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
Peak brightness test (auto)
Sources: NotebookCheck [3]

Design and build

Height 163.8 mm (6.45 inches) 163.6 mm (6.44 inches)
Width 76.5 mm (3.01 inches) 78.1 mm (3.07 inches)
Thickness 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) 7.9 mm (0.31 inches)
Weight 230 g (8.11 oz) 214 g (7.55 oz)
Waterproof IPX8 IP68
Advanced cooling Active fan Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Silver White, Black, Silver, Blue, Pink, Purple
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 11S Pro and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
Max clock 4740 MHz 4740 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 6) 8 (2 + 6)
Architecture - 6 cores at 3.63 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Performance
- 2 cores at 4.74 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Prime
- 6 cores at 3.63 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Performance
- 2 cores at 4.74 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Prime
L3 cache 12 MB 12 MB
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 3 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Hexagon
GPU
Graphics Adreno 840 Adreno 840
GPU shading units 1536 1536
GPU clock 1300 MHz 1300 MHz
FLOPS ~3993.6 GFLOPS ~3993.6 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 11S Pro and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 29783 28391
Single-core score 3777 3624
Multi-core score 11522 11049
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
CPU 1580346 1168602
GPU 1573646 1520337
Memory 587926 448779
UX 936551 801526
Total score 4678468 3939244
Samples [3 tests] [32 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability - 67%
Graphics test - 20 FPS
Graphics score - 2737
3DMark Solar Bay
Graphics test - 46 FPS
Section 1 - 58 FPS
Section 2 - 42 FPS
Section 3 - 37 FPS
Graphics score - 11990
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Graphics test - 42 FPS
Graphics score - 7123
Sources: 3DMark [5]
Web score - 23390
Video editing - 8217
Photo editing - 37389
Data manipulation - 18322
Writing score - 32854
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (4th and 22nd place)

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
ZTE Nubia Red Magic 11S Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-08-24 (q_l8)AnTuTu4202139
📘 2026-08-17 (Hüseyn Alizade)AnTuTu4678468
📘 2026-08-16 (Hüseyn Alizade)AnTuTu4678468
📘 2026-08-16 (Hüseyn Alizade)CPU Throttle99%
📘 2026-07-25 (Thuong)GeekBench GPU28675
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-05 (Pavel)AnTuTu3959848
📘 2026-08-29 -> szymon-bonkowskiAnTuTu4220521
📘 2026-08-25 (Edwin3q)AnTuTu3855646
📘 2026-08-13 (Jovan Čamagić)AnTuTu3848536
📘 2026-08-08 (Nan01)GeekBench CPU3569 / 10336

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5X
Memory clock 5300 MHz 5300 MHz
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 4.1 UFS 4.0
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 16 Android 16
ROM Redmagic OS 11.5 One UI 8.5
OS size - 33.2 GB
OS updates 3 years 7 years
Security updates 5 years 7 years

Battery

Capacity 7500 mAh 5000 mAh
Max charge power 80 W 60 W
Battery type Silicon-Carbon (Si/C) Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (80 W) Yes (25 W)
Reverse charging Yes Yes, (wireless)
Bypass charging Yes Yes
Fast charging Yes Yes (84% in 30 min)
Full charging time - 0:43 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing - 10:12 hr
Watching video - 21:39 hr
Gaming - 06:42 hr
Standby - 130 hr
General battery life

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 200 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 16320 x 12240
Zoom Digital Optical, 5x
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 30FPS
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 120FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 240FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 122° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Ultrawide: 50 MP
3) Macro: 2 MP
1) Standard: 200 MP
2) Telephoto: 50 MP
3) Telephoto: 10 MP
4) Ultrawide: 50 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 200 MP
Aperture f/1.9 f/1.4
Focal length - 23 mm
Sensor OmniVision OV50A Samsung ISOCELL S5KHP2
Sensor size 1/1.55" (≈ 0.65 inch) 1/1.3" (≈ 0.77 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 0.6 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Laser autofocus
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution - 50 MP
Aperture - f/2.9
Focal length - 111 mm
Sensor - Sony IMX854
Sensor size - 1/2.52" (≈ 0.4 inch)
Pixel size - 0.7 micron
Stabilization - Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 50 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/2.0 f/1.9
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor OmniVision OV50E40 Samsung ISOCELL S5KJN3
Sensor size 1/2.88" (≈ 0.35 inch) 1/2.5" (≈ 0.4 inch)
Pixel size 0.61 micron 0.7 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital
Macro lens
Image resolution 2 MP -
Aperture f/2.4 -
Stabilization No -

DxOMark main camera tests

Generic main camera score
Bokeh - 165
Zoom - 141
Samples - Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 16 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4608 x 3456 4000 x 3000
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.2
Focal length - 23 mm
Sensor Omnivision OV16A1Q Samsung ISOCELL S5K3LU
Sensor size 1/3.06" (≈ 0.33 inch) 1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1.12 micron
Autofocus No Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.4 6.0
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes Yes
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port Yes No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* No Yes
Hybrid slot No No
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack Yes No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos No Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced May 2026 February 2026
Release date June 2026 March 2026
Launch price (MSRP) $799 $1299
SAR (head) - 1.28 W/kg
SAR (body) - 1.35 W/kg
Sensors - Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Yes, 80 W Not included
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

If the display, camera, software, design, and sound are more important to you, then choose the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. But if the battery life is more of a priority – go for the ZTE Nubia Red Magic 11S Pro.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
21 (52.5%)
19 (47.5%)
Total votes: 40

User opinions

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