Chinese smartphone maker Nubia has unveiled the RedMagic 8S Pro+. The base model has 16GB of system memory, but customers in China who want a step up can expand it to a whopping 24GB.
To put that in context, 16GB for x86-based desktops is more than enough in most cases nowadays, unless a user has a specific use case. Upgrading to 32 or more is only useful if someone really needs it for video editing, heavy professional workloads or the most advanced games.
Ars Technica notes that the 24GB in the 8S Pro+ is the same capacity as a 13-inch MacBook Pro. Along with 1TB of storage and a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2, these are impressive specs. The storage and SoC are thus similar to what can be found in the Samsung S23 Ultra, which we wrote a positive review about a while ago.
Tip: Review: Samsung S23 flagships flex their muscles
Meant for games, but heavy applications are rare
The RedMagic 8S Pro+ is said to focus on graphics-intensive games, which seems well suited. An obvious competitor, therefore, is the ASUS ROG Phone 7. Even the S23 Ultra, which is not explicitly designed for games, will be comparable in terms of performance, unless a game runs into RAM limitations with “only” 12GB. That is unlikely, to say the least.
After all, mobile applications are almost always designed to be suitable for as many phones as possible, so rarely can you take advantage of the available power of a product like this. In addition, operating systems for the mobile market make extensive use of resource management, so specs that are not too imposing can still yield good results.
Nubia also has a tablet available for the first time. The Red Magic tablet has the earlier Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1-SoC and is also intended for gaming.