ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro vs Red Magic 8S Pro

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 8S Pro, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and came out 5 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

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Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro
  • Shows 21% longer battery life (29:26 vs 24:19 hours)
  • 40% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (2409K versus 1720K)
  • Delivers 29% higher peak brightness (1019 against 790 nits)
  • Optical image stabilization
  • More recent OS version: Android 14 versus 13
  • Supports higher wattage charging (80W versus 65W)
  • Has a built-in infrared port

Review

Evaluation of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro and Red Magic 8S Pro 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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πŸ“± Primary usage:

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
48.0
(Average)
Value Index
7.4
(Bad)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type AMOLED AMOLED
Size 6.8 inches 6.8 inches
Resolution 1116 x 2480 pixels 1116 x 2480 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 20:9
PPI 400 ppi 400 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes No
Max rated brightness 1600 nits 500 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR - 1300 nits
HDR support No Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate - 960 Hz
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 5 Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Screen-to-body ratio 89.1% 89.2%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
Display tests
RGB color space 99.5% 99.6%
PWM 60 Hz 60 Hz
Response time 1 ms 2 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 164 mm (6.46 inches) 163.98 mm (6.46 inches)
Width 76.4 mm (3.01 inches) 76.35 mm (3.01 inches)
Thickness 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) 9.47 mm (0.37 inches)
Weight 229 g (8.08 oz) 228 g (8.04 oz)
Waterproof No No
Advanced cooling Active fan Active fan
Rear material Glass Metal
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Silver Black, Silver
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro and ZTE Nubia Red Magic 8S Pro
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Max clock 3300 MHz 3360 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 2 + 2) 8 (1 + 2 + 2 + 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 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
L3 cache 12 MB 8 MB
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Hexagon
GPU
Graphics Adreno 750 Adreno 740
GPU shading units 1536 1536
GPU clock 903-1000 MHz 680 MHz
FLOPS ~2774 GFLOPS ~2089 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro and ZTE Nubia Red Magic 8S Pro
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 14905 -
Single-core score 2233 2114
Multi-core score 6869 5693
Sources: Geekbench [3]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
CPU 662661 585552
GPU 823958 418139
Memory 361209 309733
UX 561916 406604
Total score 2409744 1720028
Samples [5 tests] Less than 3
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 92% -
Graphics test 13 FPS 9 FPS
Graphics score 1727 1148
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability 99% -
Graphics test 33 FPS 21 FPS
Section 1 36 FPS 24 FPS
Section 2 33 FPS 21 FPS
Section 3 29 FPS 18 FPS
Graphics score 8666 5588
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 90% -
Graphics test 30 FPS -
Graphics score 5156 -
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
Web score 20450 -
Video editing 8590 -
Photo editing 50380 -
Data manipulation 14699 -
Writing score 26447 -
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (#157th place)

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-19 (mitchi)AnTuTu 112432142
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-08 (PsIx0pAt)AnTuTu 112320412
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-18 (Anonymous)AnTuTu 112408843
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-01 (Shuller)AnTuTu 112500131
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-06 (Vall)AnTuTu 112409744
ZTE Nubia Red Magic 8S Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-02-13 (Kim TαΊ₯n VN)AnTuTu 111720028

Memory

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

Software

Operating system Android 14 Android 13
ROM Redmagic OS 9 Redmagic OS 8
OS size 25 GB 38.2 GB

Battery

Capacity 6500 mAh 6000 mAh
Max charge power 80 W 65 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No No
Reverse charging No No
Fast charging Yes (84% in 30 min) Yes (94% in 30 min)
Full charging time 0:42 hr 0:35 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 09:54 hr 09:03 hr
Watching video 21:54 hr 14:06 hr
Gaming 08:25 hr 06:12 hr
Standby 134 hr 125 hr
General battery life

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 8160 x 6120
Zoom Digital Digital
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Optical Digital
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° 120Β°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Ultrawide: 50 MP
3) Macro: 2 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Ultrawide: 8 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/2.2 f/1.9
Focal length - 25 mm
Sensor Samsung GN5 Samsung GN5
Sensor size 1/1.57" (β‰ˆ 0.64 inch) 1/1.57" (β‰ˆ 0.64 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Optical Digital
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 50 MP 8 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length - 13 mm
Sensor size 1/2.76" (β‰ˆ 0.36 inch) 1/4.0" (β‰ˆ 0.25 inch)
Pixel size 0.64 micron 1.12 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital
Macro lens
Image resolution 2 MP 2 MP
Aperture f/2.4 f/2.4
Stabilization Digital Digital

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‰ˆ 0.36 inch) 1/2.8" (β‰ˆ 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 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 5.3
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, Galileo, QZSS
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 No
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 20
5G support Yes -

Sound

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

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced November 2023 June 2023
Release date November 2023 July 2023
Launch price (MSRP) $649 $650
Successor - ZTE Nubia Red Magic 11 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, 65 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 9 Pro is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
82 (68.3%)
38 (31.7%)
Total votes: 120

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