What if I told you there was a flagship level smartphone that you could actually pick up for less than $600 and what if I told you this smartphone also had a Snapdragon 888, 12GB RAM, a 165Hz display, and Quick Charging up to 66W? I wouldn’t be surprised of your skepticism, but there is such a phone and it’s the Nubia RedMagic 6. The RedMagic 6 is one of a handful of gaming smartphones this generation that is built specifically for hardcore mobile gamers.
Today we’re just taking a look at what comes in the box and our first impressions of the RedMagic 6. This is not a review, though we will have a full review much later once we get some real hands on time with it.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX
The box for the RedMagic 6 is actually quite large. It’s black with white text and a killer-looking red foil graphic on the front. It’s very “gamer” inspired and looks pretty cool. What I find interesting is that with all these companies this year actually going smaller with their packaging, RedMagic has kept their package about the same size as last year’s RedMagic 5S.
Opening the box you’ll also find some other surprises. For instance, not only is the RedMagic 6 inside, there’s also an included clear case, a USB-C charging cable, and I believe a 30W USB-C PD Quick Charger. It’s surprising because there are several phones that cost more than the RedMagic 6, that don’t even include chargers anymore let alone a case. And it’s a quick charging charger too. However, it’s not the big mama 65W charger, but it’s still better than nothing.
Aside from that, you also get some paper work and the sim tray pin included.
Now on to the phone.
DESIGN
Built for gamers, the design of the RedMagic 6 is interesting to say the least. I’ll start off with the boring bits first. Mainly the front display looks like any other display you’d find on a smartphone. Nothing really too interesting here other than the fact that the display does have two small bezels on the top and bottom. The top bezel is there to accommodate the earpiece/speaker and the front facing camera and sensors. The bottom one is there it looks like to keep things symmetrical. The display does come with a built in screen protector. It’s up to you if you want to remove it or not.
It isn’t until you get to the metal rails and back panel that things start to get really interesting design-wise.
Starting with the side rails, it’s interesting the way RedMagic cuts into it. The top and bottom have this concave cut straight across, while the sides are cut much straighter. The four corners are more curved but overall, the edges don’t feel sharp at all and RedMagic did a good job keeping things fairly smooth. It’s very comfortable to hold and nothing digs into your palms. There are also little details cut into the rails for design purposes that doesn’t really serve anything functionally.
On the top, you’ll find an AUX jack as well as a mic. Again, another surprising element considering many smartphones these days no longer have this.
On the right side of the phone, you’ll find the power button, another mic, two shoulder trigger buttons, and the exhaust port for the cooling system. On the left side, you’ll find the volume buttons, the intake port for the cooling system, and a little red switch that enables the RedMagic GameSpace. Basically it’s for serious gaming mode.
Moving on to the bottom, you’ll find the second speaker, the USB-C port, and the sim tray slot. This is a dual sim tray. The RedMagic 6 does not have expandable memory.
On the back is where is where the gaming influence really kicks in. Unlike most mainstream phones, the back panel is overly stylized and made of glass. There’s a cool design underneath the glass panel giving it a very futuristic look to it as well as red accents to add some pop. The RedMagic 6 also features two RGB Light strips underneath the glass for gaming purposes. It’s a pretty extreme look, though not quite as busy looking as previous models. This one looks much cleaner and is a very nice evolutionary change. On the back you’ll also find three cameras and a neat looking triangular shaped LED flash.
That’s pretty much it. I should mention that the color we received is called Eclipse Black, and it seems like this is the only color you can get with the RedMagic 6. If you opt to get the RedMagic 6 Pro, you can get that in Moon Silver.
IMPRESSIONS
Just from pulling it out of the box, I’m already very excited to get more hands on time with the RedMagic 6. The phone feels incredibly solid and while it is a large phone, it’s very comfortable to hold. It doesn’t feel quite as heavy as something like a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, but it does have some heft to it.
Despite its gamer heavy design, I actually really like how the RedMagic 6 looks. While it is an evolutionary design, it is still unmistakably RedMagic. Let’s hope that the performance matches the looks so stay tuned for a full review after we get more playtime with the RedMagic 6.
