What should we expect from “GAMER” hardware?
In PC Land, we expect laptops and desktops that offer a higher tier of graphics performance, with enhanced cooling hardware for better system stability.
For phones though, we often don’t see significant differences in CPU and GPU performance, as all manufacturers are drawing from the same pool of chips. Mainstream phones now offer high refresh rate displays, and software built to enhance the gaming experience.
Gaming phones differentiate themselves more on design, accent lighting, and battery capacity.
But when a manufacturer adds an internal fan for better active cooling, that’s an interesting bit of hardware to test.
The ZTE Nubia RedMagic 5S has an internal cooling fan, so let’s see if we can drive this phone harder!
How are each of these tests performed? Here’s my process for benchmarking phones!
Synthetic Bench – GeekBench 5
Starting off with a baseline synthetic bench, the Nubia is mixing it up at the high end of the market this year. Running GeekBench several times, comparing my top scores with the Fan on and the Fan off, and enabling the Super Performance mode, we see a small uptick in scores. For single-core it’s in “margin of error” territory. Multi-core shows a touch more of a gain from the phone activating its “gamer” mode.
GPU scores also show small gains when turning on the fan and driving the phone harder. OCL gains were smaller, but I saw a surprising jump in Vulkan scores running the GB test a handful of times.
Looking at these synthetic scores, we’re comfortably between OnePlus and Note 20 Ultra territory. This phone should be near the top of our other tests.
Video Render – PowerDirector
Our first real-world test, rendering a one minute UHD video, with a watermark, transitions, and a soundtrack, the Nubia launches up to a strong second place finish, falling behind the V60.
Enabling Super Performance Mode, the Nubia almost catches the fastest phone in this test. We see a clear margin of separation between ZTE and the rest of the premium chipset phones this year.
Video Transcode – PowerDirector
Taking a longer video file and transcoding it, Nubia scores fall more in line with the general top pack of devices.
Super Performance pulls the phone up to tie for first again, but we don’t see as significant a separation from the rest of the pack.
Podcast MixDown – Audio Evolution
Mixing down two tracks of interview audio, and adding bumpers and adds, the initial score for the Nubia was disappointing. In “normal” mode, the ZTE was bested by the Surface Duo.
Again, turning on Super Performance, it catches up to the rest of the premium phone pack, tying the Note 20 Ultra, and falling just behind the Xperia 1ii and OnePlus 8 Pro.
Synthetic Photo Test – PhotoMate R3
A new test for these benchmarks, PhotoMate has a built in synthetic bench, which runs really fast. The synthetic test shows baseline performance at the top of the list, and then the phone shaves an additional half second in Super Performance.
Photo Batch Process – PhotoMate R3
The real-world photo test I run is the most brutal test on this list now. Taking 200 RAW files from a Sony A7iii, and letting the phone chew through a batch of edits. This test not only shows how quickly the phone can manipulate a LARGE chunk of data, but also how much it starts to throttle from higher thermals.
In normal mode, the phone falls behind other premium players, and we see an almost 15 second difference from the first hundred photos to the second hundred photos processed. This is the largest drop of all the phones I’ve tested so far running similar hardware.
Enabling the Nubia’s fan, the phone improves significantly. The total time moves up to the top of the list, and the difference in batches is significantly reduced. The thermal throttling is reduced, and the difference in batches is just under 11 seconds, helping the ZTE outpace the V60.
This more than any other test in my collection, shows the fan provides some benefit to extended use situations.
Stabilization – Google Photos
Google Photos is still my voodoo test. My current hypothesis for 2020, phones that have some form of high refresh rate display TEND to perform better. I’m not sure that’s the final word on what impacts performance here, but Nubia supports that trend, delivering one of the fastest scores I’ve seen this year.
Synthetic Compression Test – RAR Lab
The synthetic scores for RAR Lab are about where I would have expected. Normal mode puts the phone in range of phones like the OnePlus 8T, and Super Performance mode bumps up the score where the Nubia is closer to Xperias and the V60.
Real World Compression – RAR Lab
Running a real file compression test, the Nubia is an average “premium” performer. Even in Super Performance, it’s in “margin of error” territory against the OnePlus 8T, and doesn’t match up against the Note 20 Ultra or the V60.
Gaming – Brightridge
In Normal mode, the Nubia is a solid upper pack performer in Brightridge. Exploring areas with a more scenic view, and longer draw distance, the phone is easily able to keep frame rates hovering in the low 40’s.
Enabling Super Performance, and turning on the internal fan, we see a significant jump in the same areas in the game. From mid-low 40’s to the low 50’s. This puts the ZTE ever so slightly ahead of phones like the Note 20 Ultra which had the slightly more powerful Snapdragon 865+ SOC.
Active Cooling Helps.
The RedMagic 5S was certainly going to perform well in these tests. Most gaming phones tend to deliver solid performance, though they rarely completely outpace other phones using premium components.
The interesting change up here, ZTE including active cooling hardware does seem to deliver better performance consistency over longer interactions and workloads.
It brings some obvious compromises. The Nubia is certainly not going to be as water or dust resistant. It’s a moving part, so we might be concerned about durability, and the tiny little fan is fairly loud in operation.
However, the core claim surrounding this hardware seems to be verified.
It brings little to the table in daily driver use or in shorter interactions. For the individual looking to drive longer play sessions, who expects laptop replacement grade computing in a pocket, The RedMagic 5S has the horsepower and the stamina to deliver.