ZTE Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Plus vs Red Magic 12 Pro Plus

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.8-inch ZTE Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Plus (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) that was released on December 26, 2022, against the ZTE Nubia Red Magic 12 Pro Plus, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and came out 3 years and 10 months after. 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 8 Pro Plus
  • Supports higher wattage charging (165W versus 120W)
  • Includes a 3.5 mm headphone audio jack port
Reasons to consider the ZTE Nubia Red Magic 12 Pro Plus
  • Waterproof body (IP69 classification)
  • 2.7x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (4541K versus 1681K)
  • Comes with 3400 mAh larger battery capacity: 8400 vs 5000 mAh
  • Higher display refresh rate – 185 Hz
  • Handles wireless charging up to 80W
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
  • Optical image stabilization
  • The phone is 3 years and 10 months newer
  • More recent OS version: Android 17 versus 13
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks

Review

Evaluation of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Plus and Red Magic 12 Pro Plus 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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📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 98% Yes
Yes, this is a clear and meaningful upgrade.
Updating from ZTE Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Plus to ZTE Nubia Red Magic 12 Pro Plus is a clear step forward, and the improvements should be easy to notice.
Main improvements: gaming, battery life, and performance.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type AMOLED AMOLED
Size 6.8 inches 6.85 inches
Resolution 1116 x 2480 pixels 1216 x 2688 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 20:9
PPI 400 ppi 431 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 185 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No Yes
Max rated brightness 1300 nits 1900 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 5000 nits
HDR support No Yes, HDR10
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 5 Corning Gorilla Glass 7i
Screen-to-body ratio 89.2% 91.5%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming

Design and build

Height 163.88 mm (6.45 inches) 163 mm (6.42 inches)
Width 76.35 mm (3.01 inches) 76 mm (2.99 inches)
Thickness 9.47 mm (0.37 inches) 8.6 mm (0.34 inches)
Weight 230 g (8.11 oz) 223 g (7.87 oz)
Waterproof No IP69
Advanced cooling Active fan Active fan
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black Black, Silver, Blue
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Plus and ZTE Nubia Red Magic 12 Pro Plus
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6
Max clock 3200 MHz 5010 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 2 + 2 + 3) 8 (2 + 3 + 3)
Architecture - 3 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A510
- 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A710
- 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A715
- 1 core at 3.2 GHz: Cortex-X3
- 3 cores at 3.74 GHz:
- 3 cores at 4.03 GHz:
- 2 cores at 5.01 GHz:
L3 cache 8 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 2 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Hexagon
GPU
Graphics Adreno 740 Adreno 850
GPU shading units 1536 1536
GPU clock 680 MHz 1450 MHz
FLOPS ~2089 GFLOPS ~4454.4 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Plus and ZTE Nubia Red Magic 12 Pro Plus
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU) - 33108
Single-core score 2060 4102
Multi-core score 5464 13894
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
CPU 607411 1586980
GPU 399875 1458511
Memory 303402 579862
UX 370696 916272
Total score 1681314 4541625
Samples Less than 3 Less than 3

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
ZTE Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro Plus
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-03-12 (IronGold)AnTuTu 111681314
ZTE Nubia Red Magic 12 Pro Plus
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-20 -> Portugal123AnTuTu 115948164

Memory

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

Software

Operating system Android 13 Android 17
ROM Redmagic OS 6 Redmagic OS 12

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 8400 mAh
Max charge power 165 W 120 W
Battery type Li-Po Silicon-Carbon (Si/C)
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No Yes (80 W)
Reverse charging No Yes
Bypass charging - Yes
Fast charging Yes (50% in 6 min) Yes
Full charging time 0:14 hr -

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 8160 x 6120
Zoom Digital Digital
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Digital Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 30FPS
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 122°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Ultrawide: 8 MP
3) Macro: 2 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Ultrawide: 50 MP
3) Macro: 2 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/1.9 f/1.9
Focal length 25 mm -
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL S5KGN5 OmniVision OV50E40
Sensor size 1/1.57" (≈ 0.64 inch) 1/1.55" (≈ 0.65 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 8 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.0
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor - OmniVision OV50E40
Sensor size 1/4.0" (≈ 0.25 inch) 1/2.88" (≈ 0.35 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 0.61 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital
Macro lens
Image resolution 2 MP 2 MP
Aperture f/2.4 f/2.4
Sensor GalaxyCore GC02M1 -
Stabilization Digital No

Selfie camera

Megapixels 16 megapixels 16 megapixels
Image resolution 4608 x 3456 4608 x 3456
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.0
Sensor Omnivision OV16E1Q -
Sensor size 1/2.8" (≈ 0.36 inch) 1/2.8" (≈ 0.36 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1.12 micron
Autofocus No No
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) 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 5.3 6.0
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.1 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 No Yes
Network
Number of SIM* 2 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* No No
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 -
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack Yes No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos No Yes

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced December 2022 October 2026
Release date December 2022 October 2026
Launch price (MSRP) $800 $970
Successor - ZTE Nubia Red Magic 12 Pro Plus -
Sensors - Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Yes, 165 W Yes, 120 W
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the ZTE Nubia Red Magic 12 Pro Plus is definitely a better buy.

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