ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.8-inch ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) that was released on November 23, 2023, against the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus, which is powered by Exynos 2200 and came out 1 year and 10 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 9 Pro
  • Shows 52% longer battery life (29:26 vs 19:24 hours)
  • Comes with 2000 mAh larger battery capacity: 6500 vs 4500 mAh
  • 65% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (2409K versus 1456K)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • Supports higher wattage charging (80W versus 45W)
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
  • The phone is 1 year and 10 months newer
  • Has a built-in infrared port
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus
  • Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • Handles wireless charging up to 15W
  • More recent OS version: Android 16 versus 14
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Delivers 9% higher peak brightness (1096 against 1008 nits)
  • The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
  • Ready for eSIM technology

Review

Evaluation of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S22 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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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
8 / 256 GB
VS
8 / 128 GB
46.6
(Average)
Value Index
60.0
(Average)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type AMOLED Dynamic AMOLED
Size 6.8 inches 6.6 inches
Resolution 1116 x 2480 pixels 1080 x 2340 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.5:9
PPI 400 ppi 393 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes Yes (10-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1600 nits 780 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 1750 nits
HDR support No Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate - 240 Hz
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 5 Gorilla Glass Victus Plus
Screen-to-body ratio 89.1% 89.7%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 99.5% 98.2%
PWM 60 Hz 240 Hz
Response time 1 ms 5 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
1096 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 164 mm (6.46 inches) 157.4 mm (6.2 inches)
Width 76.4 mm (3.01 inches) 75.8 mm (2.98 inches)
Thickness 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) 7.6 mm (0.3 inches)
Weight 229 g (8.08 oz) 195 g (6.88 oz)
Waterproof No IP68
Advanced cooling Active fan Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Silver White, Black, Gray, Blue, Green, Pink, Purple, Yellow
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Samsung Exynos 2200
Max clock 3300 MHz 2800 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 2 + 2) 8 (1 + 3 + 4)
Architecture - 2 cores at 2.27 GHz: Cortex-A520
- 2 cores at 2.96 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 3 cores at 3.15 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 1 core at 3.3 GHz: Cortex-X4
- 4 cores at 1.82 GHz: Cortex-A510
- 3 cores at 2.52 GHz: Cortex-A710
- 1 core at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-X2
L3 cache 12 MB 4 MB
Manufacturing TSMC Samsung
Lithography process 4 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Yes
GPU
Graphics Adreno 750 Xclipse 920
GPU shading units 1536 384
GPU clock 903-1000 MHz 1306 MHz
FLOPS ~2774 GFLOPS ~1003 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 14905 10293
Single-core score 2233 1592
Multi-core score 6869 3845
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
2409744
1456410
CPU 662661 514609
GPU 823958 391890
Memory 361209 210533
UX 561916 339378
Total score 2409744 1456410
Samples [5 tests] [3 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 92% 73%
Graphics test 13 FPS 6 FPS
Graphics score 1727 866
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability 99% 66%
Graphics test 33 FPS 15 FPS
Section 1 36 FPS 18 FPS
Section 2 33 FPS 15 FPS
Section 3 29 FPS 12 FPS
Graphics score 8666 3972
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 90% 64%
Graphics test 30 FPS 11 FPS
Graphics score 5156 1918
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 20450 10564
Video editing 8590 7378
Photo editing 50380 19931
Data manipulation 14699 12336
Writing score 26447 15666
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (#161st place)

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-08-19 (mitchi)AnTuTu 112432142
📘 2026-08-08 (PsIx0pAt)AnTuTu 112320412
📘 2026-06-18 (Anonymous)AnTuTu 112408843
📘 2026-05-01 (Shuller)AnTuTu 112500131
📘 2026-04-06 (Vall)AnTuTu 112409744
Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-08 (Nyamka)AnTuTu 111496095
📘 2026-05-06 (Максим)AnTuTu 111422388
📘 2026-03-01 (Unknown)AnTuTu 111456410
📘 2026-01-18 -> Gind1kAnTuTu 111549060
📘 2025-08-27 -> reiGeekbench 6 GPU9335

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5
Memory clock 4800 MHz -
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 UFS 3.1
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 14 Android 12 (Can be upgraded to Android 16)
ROM Redmagic OS 9 One UI 8.0
OS size 25 GB 28.6 GB
OS updates - 4 years
Security updates - 5 years

Battery

Capacity 6500 mAh 4500 mAh
Max charge power 80 W 45 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No Yes (15 W)
Reverse charging No Yes, (wireless)
Fast charging Yes (84% in 30 min) Yes (64% in 30 min)
Full charging time 0:42 hr 1:01 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 09:54 hr 06:28 hr
Watching video 21:54 hr 11:26 hr
Gaming 08:25 hr 04:41 hr
Standby 134 hr 106 hr
General battery life
29:26 hr
19:24 hr

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 8160 x 6120
Zoom Digital Optical, 3x
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 24FPS
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) 960 FPS (720p)
Angle of widest lens 122° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Ultrawide: 50 MP
3) Macro: 2 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 10 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/1.8
Focal length - 24 mm
Sensor Samsung GN5 Samsung GN5
Sensor size 1/1.57" (≈ 0.64 inch) 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution - 10 MP
Aperture - f/2.4
Focal length - 70 mm
Sensor - Samsung S5K3K1
Sensor size - 1/3.94" (≈ 0.25 inch)
Pixel size - 1 micron
Stabilization - Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 50 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length - 13 mm
Sensor - Sony IMX713
Sensor size 1/2.76" (≈ 0.36 inch) 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 0.64 micron 1.4 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital
Macro lens
Image resolution 2 MP -
Aperture f/2.4 -
Stabilization Digital -

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh - 75
Preview - 66
Zoom - 121
Samples - Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 16 megapixels 10 megapixels
Image resolution 4608 x 3456 3872 x 2592
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.2
Focal length - 26 mm
Sensor Omnivision OV16E1Q CMOS
Sensor size 1/2.8" (≈ 0.36 inch) 1/3.24" (≈ 0.31 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1.22 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 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
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 5.2
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, DP 1.2 Yes, DP 1.2
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port Yes No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* No Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 20
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 November 2023 February 2022
Release date November 2023 March 2022
Launch price (MSRP) $649 $999
Successor - ZTE Nubia Red Magic 11 Pro -
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

After analyzing all the data, we think that the ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro is definitely a better buy.

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