ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro vs Red Magic 12 Pro
74
out of 100
VS
90
out of 100
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 ZTE Nubia Red Magic 12 Pro, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and came out 2 years and 11 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
Key differences
Reasons to consider the ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro
- Includes a 3.5 mm headphone audio jack port
Reasons to consider the ZTE Nubia Red Magic 12 Pro
- Waterproof body (IP69 classification)
- 2x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (4701K versus 2409K)
- Shows 51% longer battery life (44:22 vs 29:26 hours)
- Comes with 1900 mAh larger battery capacity: 8400 vs 6500 mAh
- Higher display refresh rate β 185 Hz
- Delivers 49% higher peak brightness (1528 against 1025 nits)
- Has 50% more RAM: 12GB versus 8GB
- Handles wireless charging up to 80W
- Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
- The phone is 2 years and 11 months newer
- More recent OS version: Android 17 versus 14
Review
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.
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| 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 | Yes | Yes |
| Max rated brightness | 1600 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 | 89.1% | 91.5% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display - DC Dimming |
- DCI-P3 - Always-On Display - DC Dimming |
| RGB color space | 99.5% | - |
| PWM | 60 Hz | - |
| Response time | 1 ms | - |
| Contrast | β Infinity | - |
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 164 mm (6.46 inches) | 163 mm (6.42 inches) |
| Width | 76.4 mm (3.01 inches) | 76 mm (2.99 inches) |
| Thickness | 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) | 8.6 mm (0.34 inches) |
| Weight | 229 g (8.08 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, Silver | Black, Silver, Blue |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | Yes, in-display |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 |
| Max clock | 3300 MHz | 5010 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (1 + 3 + 2 + 2) | 8 (2 + 3 + 3) |
| 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 |
- 3 cores at 3.74 GHz: - 3 cores at 4.03 GHz: - 2 cores at 5.01 GHz: |
| L3 cache | 12 MB | - |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 4 nanometers | 2 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Hexagon |
| Graphics | Adreno 750 | Adreno 850 |
| GPU shading units | 1536 | 1536 |
| GPU clock | 903-1000 MHz | 1450 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~2774 GFLOPS | ~4454.4 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 14905 | 33298 |
| Single-core score | 2233 | 4113 |
| Multi-core score | 6869 | 13604 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 662661 | 1624264 |
| GPU | 823958 | 1498729 |
| Memory | 361209 | 611754 |
| UX | 561916 | 966667 |
| Total score | 2409744 | 4701314 |
| Samples | [5 tests] | Less than 3 |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | 92% | - |
| Graphics test | 13 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 1727 | - |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Stability | 99% | - |
| Graphics test | 33 FPS | - |
| Section 1 | 36 FPS | - |
| Section 2 | 33 FPS | - |
| Section 3 | 29 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 8666 | - |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Stability | 90% | - |
| Graphics test | 30 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 5156 | - |
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 20450 | - |
| Video editing | 8590 | - |
| Photo editing | 50380 | - |
| Data manipulation | 14699 | - |
| Writing score | 26447 | - |
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (171st and 13th place)
Recent User Tests
ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-08-19 (mitchi) | AnTuTu 11 | 2432142 |
| π 2026-08-08 (PsIx0pAt) | AnTuTu 11 | 2320412 |
| π 2026-06-18 (Anonymous) | AnTuTu 11 | 2408843 |
| π 2026-05-01 (Shuller) | AnTuTu 11 | 2500131 |
| π 2026-04-06 (Vall) | AnTuTu 11 | 2409744 |
ZTE Nubia Red Magic 12 Pro
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-10-24 -> Portugal123 | AnTuTu 12 | 5948164 |
| π 2026-10-20 -> Portugal123 | Battery life | Battery report |
Memory
| RAM size | 8 GB | 12 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5X |
| Memory clock | 4800 MHz | - |
| Channels | 4 | 4 |
| Storage size | 256 GB | 256 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 4.0 | UFS 4.1 |
| Memory card | No | No |
Software
| Operating system | Android 14 | Android 17 |
| ROM | Redmagic OS 9 | Redmagic OS 12 |
| OS size | 25 GB | - |
Battery
| Capacity | 6500 mAh | 8400 mAh |
| Max charge power | 80 W | 80 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 (84% in 30 min) | Yes (58% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 0:42 hr | 1:15 hr |
| Web browsing | 09:54 hr | 13:16 hr |
| Watching video | 21:54 hr | 29:57 hr |
| Gaming | 08:25 hr | 10:05 hr |
| Standby | 134 hr | 237 hr |
General battery life
Smartphones With Long Battery Life (59th and 3rd place)
Main camera
| Matrix | 50 megapixels | 50 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 8160 x 6120 | 8160 x 6120 |
| Zoom | Digital | Digital |
| Flash | LED | LED |
| Stabilization | Optical | 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 | 122Β° | 122Β° |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 50 MP 2) Ultrawide: 50 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 |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | 50 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/1.9 |
| Sensor | Samsung GN5 | OmniVision OV50E40 |
| Sensor size | 1/1.57" (β 0.64 inch) | 1/1.55" (β 0.65 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1 micron | 1 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus | Phase autofocus |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | 50 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.0 |
| Focal length | - | 13 mm |
| Sensor | - | OmniVision OV50E40 |
| Sensor size | 1/2.76" (β 0.36 inch) | 1/2.88" (β 0.35 inch) |
| Pixel size | 0.64 micron | 0.61 micron |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Image resolution | 2 MP | 2 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.4 | f/2.4 |
| 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" (β 0.36 inch) | 1/2.8" (β 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 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 | 5.3 | 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, DP 1.2 | Yes |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Infrared port | Yes | Yes |
| 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 |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Flagship | Flagship |
| Announced | November 2023 | October 2026 |
| Release date | November 2023 | November 2026 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $649 | - |
| Successor | - ZTE Nubia Red Magic 12 Pro | - |
| Sensors | - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
| Bundled charger | Yes, 80 W | Yes, 80 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 is definitely a better buy.
Cast your vote
Total votes: < 1