REDMAGIC 7S Pro Supernova Lords Mobile Edition review - "A true powerhouse dedicated for mobile gamers"

Sleek, "armoured for victory", and with more powerful RAM than my actual gaming laptop, the REDMAGIC 7S Pro Supernova Lords Mobile Edition is a mobile gamer's dream. It's got a bunch of fancy features that are aimed solely at on-the-go players, but does it live up to the hype, or is it all bark and no bite?

Table of contents:

• REDMAGIC 7S Pro Supernova design and hardware
• Gaming experience, battery life and charging speed
• REDMAGIC 7S Pro Supernova Lords Mobile Edition
• What's the verdict?

REDMAGIC 7S PRO SUPERNOVA DESIGN AND HARDWARE

I'm not ashamed to say that I do judge a device by its cover, and with the REDMAGIC 7S Pro Supernova, the packaging and presentation are indeed a visual treat. It's weighty enough for a premium feel, with a chunky "armoured" vibe that still looks sleek. I'm particularly fond of how you can see the hardware through the transparent backplate, and slipping the phone into the free case lets you enjoy the cooling aluminium backing through the centre cutout. Completing the vibe is the classic gaming aesthetic of the RGB lights on the fan, which is honestly the perfect icing on the cake.

In addition to the regular volume and power buttons, the phone also has an air inlet plus a fan, along with 520Hz Dual Shoulder Triggers you can map controls to when playing certain games. There's a lovely 3.5mm headphone jack that I appreciated very much, because, despite the technological advancements of Bluetooth earphones and such, good old-fashioned wired headphones are still my best bet.

Perhaps one of the most notable features of the REDMAGIC 7S Pro Supernova is its true fullscreen display - something that makes gaming sessions as epic as can be without the pesky front-facing camera blocking your valuable view during a particularly exhilarating match.

GAMING EXPERIENCE, BATTERY LIFE AND CHARGING SPEED

And gaming really is exhilarating here, especially since you won't have to worry about your phone burning up like the sun whenever you're engaged in unending campaigns. I was admittedly a little sceptical at first, but the ICE 10.0 multi-dimensional cooling system was a pleasant surprise for me. You can set it to turn on automatically whenever you boot up a game (which doesn't work for all games, oddly), and you can choose whether you want it to operate on an "intelligent adjustment" system or to "fast cooling". It does make this little whirring sound whenever it's turned on, but if you can get past that extra noise, then the game fan should be your best friend when you're playing for hours on end.

The fan also automatically switches on whenever you're charging, because the whole thing is really, really fast. It only takes 10 minutes to charge about 30% of battery life, but even then, the battery consumption here is surprisingly very efficient. Around 10 minutes of gaming (Streets of Rage 4, Genshin Impact) on high power consumption mode and 120Hz (a setting you can toggle along with 60Hz and 90Hz) only set me back by 2%, which is a true marvel, in my opinion.

The REDMAGIC 7S Pro Supernova also boasts an easy screencast feature, although to be honest, having to download REDMAGIC Studio on my laptop just to screencast was a bit of a letdown. I somehow couldn't get the wireless casting to work, but plugging both devices via USB worked like a charm with the app installed on my laptop. Interestingly enough, you can also map controls to work for your keyboard and mouse, eliminating the need to control the game via your phone. You can also switch off your phone screen while casting to save up on power.

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Casting with a smart TV, on the other hand, is an absolute breeze. You won't have to install any other third-party apps here - all I had to do was turn on REDMAGIC Cast on my phone and my LG TV automatically detected it for screen mirroring. Connecting my DualShock4 wireless controller to the phone was also easy as pie via Bluetooth (it doesn't fit with my Razer Kishi v1 though because of the phone's size).

REDMAGIC 7S PRO SUPERNOVA LORDS MOBILE EDITION

Particularly for this review, I allowed myself to dive into the world of Lords Mobile to see what all the fuss is about - and I'm happy to report that IGG's insanely popular strategy-slash-tower defence game absolutely lives up to the hype. Just a few hours in (and with the phone's ultra-low consumption and the cooling fan happily breezing away in the background) and I was already hooked, obsessing over my structures and my upgrades and trying my best to keep my heroes in tip-top shape.

It certainly helps that the REDMAGIC 7S Pro Supernova Lords Mobile Edition comes with a surprise gift pack that can contain anywhere from $50 to $500 worth of in-game goodies, so those speed-ups and in-game currencies definitely came in handy as I was starting out. While the unit itself doesn't have any special markings on it that differentiate it from a non-Lords Mobile edition of the same phone, the gorgeous box does come with game-themed aesthetics that made me want to put up the empty box on display in my room.

WHAT'S THE APPEAL?

Of course, all of these powerhouse features that optimise the overall mobile gamer's experience do come at a bit of a small cost. The under-display camera (UDC) is, as expected, underwhelming, but I can understand sacrificing this camera quality in favour of the true fullscreen display.

I also encountered some grammar mistakes and typographical errors littered throughout the menus in English, as well as games where the dedicated Game Space wouldn't pop out. In particular, swiping from the top left or the right side of the screen should show customisable settings like screenshots, gaming notes, stopwatch timers (useful for cooldowns and whatnot), performance options and more.

While it works perfectly for games like League of Legends: Wild Rift and Genshin Impact, it (and the auto-on fan feature) doesn't work for games like Tower of Fantasy, Exos Heroes, Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds, and Marvel Future Revolution (I do like how you'll need to swipe twice to keep from accidentally pulling up menus while you're gaming).

In the end, this device made me go through a phone-related existential crisis after my experience with it. I've been chugging along happily with my Samsung Galaxy S21 FE for a while now and feeling like I'm on top of the world, but one go at this fearsome beast from Nubia and I immediately found myself wondering how I could've lived my gaming days without it all this time.

Packed with the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, a whopping 18 GB RAM and 512 GB storage, plus a totally cool ICE 10.0 multi-dimensional cooling system, this mobile gaming powerhouse has spoiled and ruined me now - and I can never go back.

• BUY LINK: REDMAGIC Global