Nubia will launch the Red Magic 5G with a 144Hz display and 80W charging at MWC 2020

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Nubia’s Red Magic series of gaming smartphones offers high-end hardware at a low price, though excluding the value, I would argue the hardware hasn’t stood out that much. That could change this year with the company’s first flagship gaming phone of 2020: the Red Magic 5G. Nubia has confirmed the phone will launch at MWC 2020, and they also recently confirmed the phone will have several unique features including a 144Hz display and 80W fast charging.

Nubia’s President and co-founder, Mr. Ni Fei, shared the above posters on his personal Weibo account today. The posters claim that Nubia’s upcoming phone will be the “world’s first 144Hz 5G gaming phone.” We don’t know of any other upcoming phone with a 144Hz refresh rate, so it would seem that this claim is true. Support for 144Hz display refresh rates at QHD+ resolution is a feature of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC, which Nubia previously confirmed will power the Red Magic 5G. The fact that the phone will support 5G connectivity is also unsurprising, seeing as the only modem that can be paired with the Snapdragon 865 is the Snapdragon X55. It’s likely the phone will only support sub-6GHz 5G networks, though.

Mr. Ni Fei also recently confirmed his company’s phone will come with Samsung’s LPDDR5 RAM, which is supported by the Snapdragon 865’s memory controller. Next, Mr. Ni Fei recently stated the new Red Magic phone will support 80W wired fast charging. The USB-IF confirmed to Android Police that the specific charging rate shown by Nubia (9.6A/8.4V) is incompatible with the official USB Power Delivery specification, so it’s likely that Nubia has developed a custom charging solution. Because the increased heat generated by this incredibly-fast charging technology can reduce the battery’s capacity over time, Mr. Ni Fei says that the company devised a solution using the built-in fan of the Red Magic 5G in order to cool the battery while it’s charging. This not only maintains the battery’s longevity but also ensures the battery can be fast-charged for longer, reducing the charging time.

We will (hopefully) be attending MWC 2020 to check out Nubia’s new Red Magic phone, though there’s still a chance that plans could change due to the ongoing 2019-nCoV situation.