Red Magic 6S Pro Review: An unmatched gaming experience

The birth of the gaming smartphone genre has given us so many incredible products. Big-name brands like Lenovo and ASUS have embraced the mobile gaming sector wholeheartedly. The result is a brilliant variety of great phones in this otherwise niche segment. Red Magic is a key player in the industry and is familiar to all who dabble in the world of gaming phones. The Nubia-owned brand caters to the mobile gaming niche and excels at creating gaming and performance-focused beasts.

Red Magic gets its fair share of credits for innovation, being the first company to put features like a fan, a liquid cooling system, shoulder triggers, and crazy high refresh rates in a phone. Ironically, most of Red Magic’s phones have fallen short of being all-rounders due to their terrible software and their subpar cameras.

In the first half of 2021 alone, Red Magic launched three gaming phones as part of the Red Magic 6 Series. The Red Magic 6 and 6 Pro both tout a 165Hz display — once again being the first devices in the world to do so. Then there’s the Red Magic 6R, a lean mean gaming machine with a non-gamer aesthetic. Now, the brand has come up with yet another feature-rich smartphone called the Red Magic 6S Pro. I spent two weeks using the Red Magic 6S Pro and here’s my review of it.

Nubia RedMagic 6S Pro: Specifications. Click to expand.

Nubia RedMagic 6S Pro: Specifications

Specification	Nubia RedMagic 6S Pro
Build	Metal frame Glass back
Dimensions & Weight	169.86 x 77.19 x 9.5mm 215g
Display	6.8-inch FHD+ AMOLED 20:9 aspect ratio 165Hz refresh rate 720Hz multi-finger touch sampling rate 8-bit panel with 100% DCI-P3 coverage 700nits peak brightness DC dimming
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ Adreno 660
RAM & Storage	12GB LPDDR5 + 128GB UFS 3.1 16GB LPDDR5 + 256GB UFS 3.1
Battery & Charging	5,050mAh 66W wired fast charging support 30W charger included
Security	In-display fingerprint scanner
Rear Camera(s)	Primary: 64MP Ultra-wide: 8MP Depth sensor: 2MP
Front Camera(s)	8MP
Port(s)	USB Type-C 3.5mm headphone jack
Connectivity	5G Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.1 NFC
Software	RedMagic OS 4.0 based on Android 11
Other Features	Heart rate monitor Mappable touchpad (M-key) on the back Shoulder triggers with 450Hz touch sampling rate Aerospace-grade phase change material cooling system

About this review: We received the Red Magic 6S Pro from Red Magic for review on September 3rd, 2021. Red Magic had no input in the contents of this review.

Red Magic 6S Pro Review: Design

The Red Magic 6S Pro bears all the physical character traits that you would expect from any Red Magic phone. It has a loud and bold design that feels almost over the top next to more tame phones like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. Red Magic sent me the ‘Black’ color option but really, it’s an ashy silver shade that gleams in the light. The glass back feels fantastic even if it is littered with a mess of company logos and names.

In the dead-center of the back, you will also find a touch area called the M Key that functions as an additional button for compatible games. Moving along the edges of the phone, the top of the device houses the 3.5mm headphone jack while the bottom accommodates the dual-SIM tray, a USB Type-C port, and a speaker grill for one of the two stereo speakers. Meanwhile, the situation on the right side of the phone involves an air vent, a power button, and two shoulder triggers on either edge.

Finally, on the left-hand side of the Red Magic 6S Pro, you will find the physical gaming mode toggle, another air vent, and the volume rocker. You can customize the sensitivity and map the controls of both shoulder triggers and the M Key. The triggers have a touch sampling rate of 420Hz and work like a charm. The third key, on the other hand, does not work well. It gives haptic feedback which helps but more often than not, you’re left scrambling at the back of the phone waiting for it to work.

An RGB light in the shape of the brand’s logo is embedded in the back of the Red Magic 6S Pro. You can’t change the red hue of the light but you can change the frequency at which it lights up. Although it may be a little jazzy to look at, the Red Magic 6S Pro is nowhere near as boisterous as the ASUS ROG Phone 5. Personally, I like the phone’s design but I wouldn’t be too happy to brandish it in a formal setting like a meeting or an interview.

Red Magic 6S Pro Review: Display

This is a category that Red Magic has outdone itself with when it comes to the 6S Pro. It has a 6.8” FHD+ AMOLED display with a 165Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 700 nits. Calling this display buttery smooth would be an understatement. If you can imagine running a hot Japanese chef’s knife through a block of lard, that would be a more apt description. The vivid screen is such a delight to look at, you won’t tire of it for a while (or ever). The bezels are small, although the forehead and chin are relatively larger. The wider forehead compensates for this by hiding the front camera within it, leaving the bulk of the glass notch-less.

On the more technical side of things, you get a whopping 720Hz touch sampling rate. That’s 220Hz more than the Red Magic 6 and 6 Pro’s 500Hz touch sampling rate. In layman’s terms, the phone registers your touch at a lightning-fast speed. If you’re an e-sports player or just highly competitive, this feature will take your gaming experience up a notch and give you a competitive edge. I witnessed this first-hand during my aggressive gaming sessions (to the woe of my opponents).

Imagine running a hot Japanese chef’s knife through a block of lard -- that is what using a 165Hz refresh rate display with 720Hz touch sampling rate feels like

165Hz may be incredibly snappy but it does drain quite a lot of battery. Conveniently, users have the option to change the refresh rate right from the Quick Settings menu. The Quick Settings shortcut allows you to choose between 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, and 165Hz. You can do this and adjust the touch sensitivity in-game by accessing the Game Space window.

There is a heart rate scanner in the fingerprint sensor, and it works well

Red Magic also bumped up the in-display fingerprint reader to the 7^th generation. This enables the phone to scan fingerprints in the blink of an eye and also adds a heart rate monitor to it. It’s a handy health feature to have especially if you don’t own a smartwatch or fitness tracker with an ECG sensor. The heart rate scanner works perfectly well and I found no discrepancies with the readings.

Red Magic 6S Pro Review: Performance

Before getting into the thick of it, let’s get the on-paper facts and figures out of the way. The Red Magic 6S Pro packs some serious muscle under the hood. It is one of the few phones in the world with a Snapdragon 888+ SoC inside and Red Magic put the chip to good use. The Snapdragon 888+ is a tweaked version of the regular Snapdragon 888 SoC. It has a Kyro 680 CPU that clocks at 3GHz and an Adreno 660 GPU. There are two RAM options, 12GB and 16GB, but the unit I was sent had 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM paired with 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage.

AnTuTu

I ran a couple of benchmarks as a testament to the Red Magic 6S Pro’s kingly performance, starting with AnTuTu that tests everything. The first time around, the phone was at a cool temperature and I hadn’t used it for much. It achieved a mighty result on AnTuTu, scoring 752156. To put things in perspective, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra scored 755462 in the same benchmark. According to the AnTuTu ranking, this makes the Red Magic 6S Pro the top-performing phone in the world.

Getting this result in optimal conditions is a good indicator but I wanted to see whether the phone could produce the same results after it had been used and abused. I then went about business as usual and had a nice long gaming session with the refresh rate and brightness settings at max. Even after the phone’s temperature went up and the battery drained, the second round of testing using the AnTuTu benchmark gave fantastic results. The Red Magic 6S Pro got a 749112, maintaining its position at the top.

Geekbench 5

Next, I moved on to Geekbench 5 that tests only the CPU. In prime conditions, the phone got an overall single-core score of 1111 and a multi-core score of 3676. After many hours of usage and heat generation, the second Geekbench results came out to be 1094 for the single-core category and 3690 for the multi-core section. Whether you look at the better CPU score or the poorer one, the Red Magic 6S Pro still beats the Galaxy S21 Ultra any day. Geekbench reports the Samsung flagship’s single-core score as 927 and the multi-core score as 3094.

The results speak for themselves. Not only can this phone handle any game or app you throw its way, but it can do so in the best possible way consistently. Even if you’ve been playing Call of Duty or Genshin Impact for three hours straight, the performance dip is incredibly minute. There are no lags, no glitches, and no oopsies of any sort.

What those numbers translate into is powerful gaming performance that will knock your socks off

What those numbers translate into is powerful, undiluted gaming performance that will knock your socks off. Factoring in the unbelievably high refresh rate and touch sampling rate, all the clogs work together to deliver an ultra-smooth user experience. This phone can be set up from scratch in a matter of seconds, and it can reboot in the blink of an eye. Installing and using performance-heavy apps is quick as lightning.

Now of course you must be if all that gear heats up when put to use. Red Magic thought of that and included a multi-layered cooling system to combat this problem. This consists of an actual, rotating exhaust fan that pumps out hot air from both sides of the phone, a vapor chamber cooling, a layer of graphite, thermal gel, a copper foil, cooling aluminum, and a unique phase change material (PCM). The PCM is an aerospace-grade substance with heat-retaining properties. It prevents the phone from getting too hot to hold and regulates the temperature of the device.

Software

As for the software, the Red Magic 6S Pro runs Red Magic OS 4.5 based on Android 11. I was told that the software is still under progress and it isn’t the final version that customers will get out of the box. Keeping this in mind, please take my thoughts on the operating system with a grain of salt. Red Magic is notorious for bugs and software issues. In the two weeks I spent using the phone, I did face some problems with the OS. There were times where the phone would just switch back to the previous app after I had already closed it.

Red Magic OS still needs work

I was also irked by the WiFi which disconnected from my home network after one week for no reason. I reached out to Red Magic and they claimed it was a problem with my router but that wasn’t it. After a lot of fiddling around with the phone and changing many settings, it finally worked. Another problem came up when I turned on the dark mode and realized I could not read anything in the file manager because the font remained dark. These are small issues that spell trouble in the long run and I hope the final version of the software addresses these issues. The bottom line is, Red Magic OS may have come a long way, but it still needs work.

Red Magic 6S Pro Review: Battery & Charging

The Red Magic 6S Pro sports a 5,050mAh battery and supports up to 66W Quick Charge. Unfortunately, users only get a 30W charger out of the box. With the 30W first-party charger, I juiced up the phone from a dead 0% battery level to a full 100% in 45 minutes. Based on this it is safe to assume that a 66W charger will attain the maximum battery level in 30 minutes or less.

For regular phones from brands like OnePlus, Samsung, and Motorola, 5,050mAh would give users at least all-day or two-day battery life. Of course, this depends on the usage and the phone’s settings. A gaming phone is a completely different story because chances are, the user will run a lot of heavy apps and games. Then you also have to consider extreme specifications like 700 nits of brightness and a 165Hz refresh rate on a huge 6.8” AMOLED display.

The Red Magic 6S also has other components such as the RGB light on the back, the air triggers, the M Key, a dynamic Always-On Display, and a medley of cooling mechanisms including a moving fan. All these things consume the phone’s battery much faster than your average smartphone. During my testing, I tried to use the phone as much as possible. This involved loads of gaming at max brightness and peak refresh rates. I even used the phone as a substitute speaker when listening to music. This was partly because I needed to test the phone and partly because the stereo speakers sounded so great.

There wasn’t a single day when the Red Magic 6S Pro lasted a full heavy day of use, and that’s not entirely unsurprising or bad. If you’re going to be using playing games on it all day, there’s no way this phone will ever last you all day. That’s not to say that you won’t get enough gameplay hours though, as I squeezed the life out of this phone quite a bit. The battery life is satisfactory but it can’t compete with some other phones like the ROG Gaming Phone 5.

Conclusion

I have analyzed almost all the key features of the Red Magic 6S Pro, but I left the camera aspect of the phone completely out of the equation. This was intentional as I feel that photography is insignificant when it comes to a powerful gaming phone such as this. I will say that the triple camera setup with the main 64MP lens takes perfectly okay photos. It isn’t anything to write paragraphs about, but you won’t be beside yourself with anger either — a flaw that most gaming phones had in the past. Nothing really changes on this end. If you prioritize an impeccable camera, you need to exclude gaming phones from your consideration.

At the end of the day, when reviewing a product, I always factor in the price that consumers have to pay. What you spend dictates your expectations and I believe that is completely justified. After all, people work hard to earn their bread. The base 12GB/128GB model of the Red Magic 6S Pro will cost $599. For that amount, you get an unmatched gaming experience in a cool structure made of glass and metal. Above all, you get world-class performance consistently so you can rely on the phone.

Red Magic has proven that you don’t need to break the bank to get a top-notch gaming phone

Red Magic has proven that you don’t need to break the bank to get a top-notch gaming phone. Sure, the software isn’t perfect but it has come leaps and bounds from how awful it used to be in the past. The only real issue I have with the phone is the finicky M Key. It seems to have a mind of its own and only works when it wants to. At the moment, it’s more of a gimmick and is just leveraged to add weight to the phone’s tech specs. However, it doesn’t take away from the experience nor does it hinder usage in any way or form.

Despite these minor faults, my final thoughts regarding the Red Magic 6S Pro are overwhelmingly positive. That magical 165Hz display, the impeccable performance, and the outstanding cooling system, everything works in glorious harmony. If you’re on the prowl for a standout gaming phone, this is it.

Red Magic 6S Pro

The Red Magic 6S Pro knocks the ball out of the park with its phenomenal specifications, unmatched gaming performance, and highly competitive price.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

View at RedMagic

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Massive Google Pixel 6 leak confirms everything we’ve been saying for a while

The Google Pixel 6 and Google Pixel 6 Pro are the next set of flagships from Google. The Pixel line as a whole has prioritized the experience over just hardware, so everyone is indeed excited about Google finally bumping up the hardware in all the right ways. While Google will be officially launching the devices on October 19th, a massive new leak has corroborated practically everything we have revealed, along with giving us more information on the upcoming flagship duo.

In the past, we at XDA have brought you several exclusive pieces of information about the Pixel 6 series. We wrote an exclusive report about the likely specifications of the new Tensor chip on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. This includes the core configurations as per benchmarks as well as some other tidbits like codecs. We also covered an exclusive Google Pixel 6 leak with information directly from the phone itself.  Now, UK-based retailer Carphone Warehouse has accidentally published full marketing pages of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, as spotted by @evleaks.

There’s a lot to unpack here. The pages are expansive, so we recommend checking those out if they are still up. If not, we’ll cover some of the major points that hadn’t been confirmed so far.

Kicking things off, the marketing pages confirm that both of the phones come with the long-hyped Magic Eraser function, as we had revealed in our Pixel 6 Camera Features leak. Magic Eraser can be used to remove photobombers and unwanted objects from your photos. The face deblurring feature is also mentioned, now with its marketing name “Face Unblur”. The new Pixels will also be able to take better portraits that capture true skin tones across the spectrum. One of the images also mentions “Learn what’s new with the Pixel Camera, Google Apps, and more” — the choice of words is interesting, as it specifically mentions “Pixel Camera” instead of “Google Camera”.

The phones will also come with an unspecified 50MP primary rear camera, which we had mentioned was the Samsung GN1. The MP count of the other sensors has also been mentioned, and if you want to go beyond and know the exact sensors that are being used, you know where to go.

Next up is charging speed. Google is finally upgrading charging speeds, now maxing out at 30W wired for both the devices, according to the fine print on these pages. Wireless charging speeds are capped at 21W and 23W for the Pixel 6 and Pro respectively, but on the Qi-certified Google Pixel Stand 2nd generation. To get either of these fast charging speeds, you will be needing to make a purchase, as Google will not be shipping a charger in the box. Furthermore, both the new 30W USB-C adapter and the Google pixel Stand 2nd gen will be sold separately. There is also an official translucent case that you can spend money on.

Some other tidbits mentioned on both of the pages is the inclusion of Gorilla Glass Victus and IP68 on both devices. Interestingly, only the Pixel 6 Pro is mentioned to have an LTPO display with a 10Hz – 120Hz variable refresh rate, in line with previous leaks.

Another Pixel 6 Pro exclusive is going to be Face Unlock, which is a feature that is missing on the security-related graphics of the Pixel 6’s Pixel Security app. Note that the front cameras are different on both of the devices, as we had previously mentioned.

Thankfully, the other software features mentioned appear to be common across both devices. There are mentions of Live Translate, Live Space widgets with a flight card and running activity, and more. Google is also promising “at least 5 years of updates“, though it does not specify whether this relates to just platform update or platform plus security updates. This longer update cycle is made possible thanks to the control that Google wields over its own Google Tensor processor.

If you look beyond the page, as Nils Ahrensmeier did, you’d also spot mentions of a Bose 700 offer. This lines up with a previous leak which had the Bose 700 included as a pre-order bonus. This in turn adds weight to the leaked starting prices of €649 for the Pixel 6.

There’s no doubt we’ll be hearing even more about the Google Pixel 6 in the coming days. Until then, you can check out some leaked Pixel 6-exclusive “Motif” wallpapers.

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OnePlus Nord N200 vs Samsung Galaxy A32: Which budget 5G phone is better?

The mid-range value smartphone markets have never really been good in the U.S. As much as some of us would love to import a cheap phone from Europe, that isn’t really an option. Thankfully, it seems like we’re starting to get some of the value that most of the rest of the world has been seeing. For $200-$300, U.S. customers can now choose between several budget phones that arguably offer better value than anything else in that price range — the OnePlus Nord N200 5G and the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G being two such examples. If you’re a T-Mobile customer, you even had the opportunity to get both of these for free by trading in any working smartphone.

Unfortunately, the OnePlus Nord N200 5G and Galaxy A32 5G are no longer free on T-Mobile, and if you use another carrier or buy unlocked, you’re going to need to pay. But which one is better? On the surface, these are two phones with very similar specs for very similar prices. Well, I’m insane and have three of each. That means I can give a comparison, and I’m going to go over everything from specs to software.

Display

Let’s start with the display, probably one of the most important parts of a smartphone. Specs-wise, this is probably where you’ll see the biggest difference between the two phones. The OnePlus Nord N200 5G comes with a 1080p IPS display at 6.49″, while the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G has a 720p IPS display at 6.5″. Both support a refresh rate of up to 90Hz.

Having a 720p resolution on such a large display is definitely noticeable. Samsung’s software mostly does a good job at hiding it, but there are times where text or icons will look pixelated. The Nord’s 1080p display is much nicer to use, and not only for its higher resolution.

On top of having a better pixel density, the Nord N200 5G also has better color reproduction, a higher quality (more even) backlight, and looks brighter. Overall, the Nord N200 really just has the better display. The Galaxy A32 5G loses this battle outright.

Left: Nord N200 5G. Right: Galaxy A32 5G. The background is supposed to look more like how the Nord displays it.

Cameras

Before I get into this, I want to make it clear that neither the Nord N200 5G nor the Galaxy A32 5G has a good camera system. Both produce passable photos and video in bright areas. Neither does well when zooming or working in lower light.

With that said, the Galaxy A32 5G produces at least slightly better photos and videos. There’s slightly more detail, and color and exposure look better. The Galaxy A32 5G also has a more useful camera system, with a wide-angle sensor along with the main camera. The Nord N200 5G only has a single useful rear-facing camera, with the others being macro and depth sensors.

The Samsung Galaxy A32 5G wins the camera shoot-out, but neither is good enough for it to matter too much.

Storage & RAM

If you get either the OnePlus Nord N200 5G or the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G in the U.S., you’re limited to one option here, and it’s the same for both — 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. The difference comes with the expandable storage options. Both devices support extra storage through using a microSD card, but the Nord N200 5G only (officially) supports up to 256GB cards, while Samsung advertises support for 1TB.

Does having 1TB in a sub-$300 phone really matter? Probably not, but Samsung technically wins here, unless the Nord N200 5G’s specs are wrong. Unfortunately, I don’t have even a 256GB microSD to test this with, so I can’t confirm if OnePlus’ specs are correct.

Audio

Common to the mid-range and cheaper segments, both the OnePlus Nord N200 5G and the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G have 3.5mm headphone jacks. Neither has a particularly amazing built-in DAC, but it’s there and definitely nice to have.

When it comes to Bluetooth, though, it’s a different story. The Nord N200 supports more Bluetooth audio codecs than the Galaxy A32, such as Qualcomm aptX HD. If Bluetooth audio is important to you, the OnePlus is a better option.

Battery & Charging

Here’s yet another category where the OnePlus Nord N200 5G and the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G are very similar. Both phones have a 5,000mAh battery. The Nord N200 supports 18W (9V/2A) charging, while the Galaxy A32 is limited to 15W (9V/1.67A). If that 20% increase is important, the Nord N200 is better.

In terms of battery life, you might think it would be similar, but it’s actually a little weird, and maybe the reverse of what you’d expect. Both last quite long, but the Nord N200 has slightly worse standby consumption than the Galaxy A32. However, it more than makes up for that with significantly better screen-on-time (both indoors and outdoors), even with the higher resolution and brighter display.

As far as I can tell, the difference in battery life is because of the CameraLightSensor service always running on the Galaxy A32 5G. In a nutshell, this service takes a picture with the selfie camera every few seconds and infers the environmental brightness from that image.

So I decompiled the CameraLightSensor app on the Samsung Galaxy A32 (it's also on the A60, M40, and probably any other IPS device with no room for one in the bezel).

It literally just takes a picture with the FFC every 3-5 seconds and infers brightness from that.

— Zachary Wander (@Wander1236) July 19, 2021

In general, I’d say the OnePlus Nord N200 5G has a better battery situation than the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G.

Even leaving the A32 mostly untouched on standby for over a day results in CameraLightSensor taking up the most battery of all other apps.

Cellular & Modem

Another important part of a smartphone is the “phone” part of that name. Making calls, browsing the Internet over cellular, etc.

In specs, the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G should actually beat the OnePlus Nord N200 5G. The Galaxy A32’s MediaTek Dimensity 720 supports LTE Cat16, while the Nord N200’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 “only” supports Cat15. Those are specs, though.

In practice, you’re probably never going to see anywhere near the theoretically-supported speeds. And in practice, the OnePlus Nord N200 provides a much better wireless experience than the Galaxy A32.

For starters, the OnePlus Nord N200 has better antennas. I’ve seen it where there’s a 4dBm signal strength difference on LTE band 41 in its favor between it and the Galaxy A32 5G. With WiFi and Bluetooth, the story is similar.

In the time I’ve used the Galaxy A32 5G, I’ve experienced near-constant modem crashes. Cellular will randomly disconnect and reconnect, WiFi is weaker than it should be and will randomly stop working while connected, and my Galaxy Watch Active2 would disconnect from Bluetooth up to 30 times in a single hour sometimes.

I’ve reported these issues to T-Mobile and am receiving replacements for all three units (they all have the issues). If the new units are better, I’ll update this article.

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The OnePlus Nord N200, on the other hand, has rock-solid cellular performance, much stronger and more reliable WiFi connections, and more stable Bluetooth. The only issue I’ve had is it’s hesitant to connect to LTE bands 25 and 71, even when they’d be better than the alternatives in the same spot.

In the end, while the Galaxy A32 5G may have better hardware, the OnePlus Nord N200 offers a much better experience with all things wireless.

Miscellaneous Hardware

Here are some more comparison points that don’t really warrant entire sections.

• The OnePlus Nord N200 5G has much better haptics. They’re not flagship-level, but they’re certainly better than the OnePlus 6T’s.
• The OnePlus Nord N200 5G is lighter, thinner, and slightly smaller.
• Subjectively, the OnePlus Nord N200 5G has a nicer backplate — a more interesting color and feels nicer.
• At least with the T-Mobile variants, the OnePlus Nord N200 5G has more supported LTE and 5G bands.
• The OnePlus Nord N200 5G hides its bezels better (and they might be slightly smaller).
• The Samsung Galaxy A32 5G has a much less intrusive selfie camera, with a smaller display cutout and shorter status bar.

Software

Now that we’ve got the hardware out of the way, let’s talk software. For many, this is the make-or-break part of a phone. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of OnePlus’ OxygenOS, and I generally enjoy using Samsung’s One UI, so (spoilers) the conclusion of this comparison surprised even me.

Software Skins

Unsurprisingly, both the OnePlus Nord N200 5G and the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G come with their respective manufacturers’ Android skin. The Nord N200 ships with OxygenOS 11.0.3.1 out of the box, while the Galaxy A32 5G has One UI 3.1.

I won’t bore you with too many details about each skin — there are plenty of reviews out there talking in-depth about each — but here’s a quick rundown.

OxygenOS 11 is a big departure from the look of AOSP, but it keeps some parts of stock Android, like the general notification appearance and system icons. Other parts, like the Settings app, have OnePlus-specific customizations. And of course, there are the OnePlus system apps, like Calculator and Clock. I use the Google versions of these, so for me they’re just bloat.

One UI 3.1 changes even more about Android than OxygenOS 11. The style is completely different, with blur added everywhere possible, a completely redesigned notification center and style, and, of course, Samsung system apps.

In terms of “weight”, neither skin is exactly light. But if you’re someone who’s overwhelmed by lots of options and settings, OxygenOS may be the better choice for you.

Performance

Even though both the OnePlus Nord N200 5G and the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G have very similar processors, the Nord N200 performs significantly better. In some cases, you might not even realize it’s a lower-mid-range device.

Unfortunately, Samsung did not optimize its software well for the Galaxy A32 5G. At times, it’ll work fine, with smooth animations and fast load times. But seemingly randomly, it’ll drop to somewhere in the range of 15 frames-per-second, with slow load times and constant freezes. I don’t know what could be causing this aside from general lack of testing and optimization.

The OnePlus Nord N200, on the other hand, is a completely different story. It very rarely lags or hitches, with what feels like a near-constant 90Hz. Apps load quickly, animations are smooth, and it almost never seems to struggle under normal use.

The only real sore spot for the Nord N200 is also an issue with the Galaxy A32 — the limited RAM. I don’t care what anyone says, current versions of Android aren’t designed to run on less than 6GB. Neither phone can handle more than two apps running at once before one or more has to reload. Sometimes one will even reload with only two open, which makes things like using Authy for two-factor-authentication annoying.

Overall, OnePlus definitely wins in software performance.

Notifications

What’s historically been a problem for OnePlus no longer is. The Nord N200 5G reliably delivers notifications from Twitter, Discord, Slack, you name it. Even with battery optimization active for them.

Almost ironically, it’s the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G that struggles with notifications. One UI in general seems to have an issue specifically with Slack notifications, but I regularly miss other things like emails and even Telegram messages on the Galaxy A32 5G.

Surprisingly, the OnePlus Nord N200 5G delivers a superior notification experience.

Night Mode

Night Mode, Eye Comfort Shield, Yellow Shift, f.lux, whatever you want to call it, has become pretty popular on smart devices recently. Making the screen yellower at night or when it’s dark makes the display less harsh to look at, and allegedly helps with sleep cycles. Almost every Android brand has their own implementation.

Samsung’s Eye Comfort Shield for its devices with OLED displays is pretty good. It shifts the color temperature without really interfering with the image. Unfortunately, the Galaxy A32 5G has an IPS display. Eye Comfort Shield for devices with IPS displays isn’t good. Instead of a color temperature shift, it’s just an ugly yellow screen overlay. It looks terrible, possibly makes the display look harsher in the dark, and just isn’t particularly good in general. I don’t know why Samsung does this.

OnePlus, on the other hand, has a Night Mode that looks a lot like Samsung’s OLED Eye Comfort Shield. On the Nord N200 5G, the color temperature is properly shifted, and you barely notice it’s yellower than usual after a few minutes.

The OnePlus Nord N200 5G has, by far, the better Night Mode.

The A32 5G’s night mode is much more intrusive and distracting.

Auto Brightness

Auto brightness is something a lot of us take for granted on smart devices. On the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G, you can’t do that.

Samsung decided to forego the dedicated proximity and light sensors in the Galaxy A32 5G in favor of software-based solutions using the selfie camera. Normally, this might not be so bad, but Samsung really messed up the implementation. The Galaxy A32 loves to randomly drop to minimum brightness even in full light. When it’s working “properly”, it’s delayed, and absolutely eats up battery. This is likely why the Nord’s screen-on battery life is so much better.

The OnePlus Nord N200 5G, on the other hand, has dedicated proximity and light sensors, and it’s definitely the way to go. Auto brightness is much more reliable, much more responsive, and just better overall.

Ambient Display

The way I use the term “Ambient Display” is to describe the momentary black-background display that some devices have. It’ll come on for a few seconds in response to a gesture, event, or notification, and then turn off again.

This is what the OnePlus Nord N200 5G has, even with its IPS display. If you raise the phone or a notification comes in, the date, time, battery percentage, and notifications will appear for a few seconds. The Samsung Galaxy A32 5G has no such feature.

Updates

Historically, neither OnePlus nor Samsung has been very good at providing updates. Recently though, Samsung has improved its process significantly, while OnePlus seems to still be having trouble.

This is where the software story turns in Samsung’s favor. While we don’t really have any specific guarantees, both the Galaxy A30 and Galaxy A31 got two major version upgrades. Because of that, I’d say it’s safe to assume the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G will receive at least Android 13 and another year of security updates.

OnePlus, however, has explicitly stated there are only plans to provide one major version update to the Nord N200 5G, along with three years of security updates. That means that the Nord N200 5G will probably only officially receive Android 12. Both have the same period of security updates.

If you’re into unofficial updates though, either through a GSI or custom-made ROM, it looks like at least the T-Mobile Nord N200 5G can be bootloader unlocked, subject to T-Mobile’s terms. Fully pay it off and have it activated for 40 days, and you could give it Android 13, 14, even 15, yourself.

Which is the Better Phone?

When I went into this comparison, I fully expected to be recommending the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G here.

But it turns out the OnePlus Nord N200 5G beats it in almost every category I can think of. It has better performance, better battery life, a better display, better cellular, and so on. There are only a few places where the A32 5G beats it.

OnePlus Nord N200 5G

The Nord N200 is the cheapest 5G phone that OnePlus sells and is a solid option if you're willing to overlook a few things

Pros:

Cons:

Buy from Best Buy

So, here’s my verdict. If camera performance and official update support are important to you, get the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G. If software performance, connectivity — and really anything else — are more important to you, get the OnePlus Nord N200 5G.

Samsung Galaxy A32 5G

The Galaxy A32 5G may not have the best hardware but it has a decent camera and Samsung's update commitment

Pros:

Cons:

Buy from Best Buy

The post OnePlus Nord N200 vs Samsung Galaxy A32: Which budget 5G phone is better? appeared first on xda-developers.

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This Week in Tech: Android 12 and Windows 11 released, Facebook outage, and more

As Adam rightly pointed out in last week’s edition of TWiT, the past week was nothing short of an exhilarating roller coaster ride at XDA and the world of tech in general. Two of the biggest OS launches of the year took place this week, and Facebook, along with all of its services, faced a massive outage. On top of that, one of the most distinguished members of our team also bid farewell (more on that later). If you’ve been caught up with something else and missed any of our coverage, here’s a brief recap of all the significant developments in the tech world this week.

Google officially announced Android 12

After months in beta, Google finally announced Android 12 earlier this week. While the company didn’t roll it out to its Pixel lineup, it started uploading the Android 12 source code to AOSP and confirmed its dessert name. A few OEMs also started rolling out beta releases of their latest Android skins based on Android 12, giving us our first look at the changes included in the latest builds. In addition, Google rolled out Material You redesigns for more apps; the company shared info about all the security vulnerabilities it patched in the newest release, and the first games to support Android 12’s Game Mode were released. Developers on our forums also rolled out the first Android 12 custom ROMs for various devices.

Microsoft started rolling out Windows 11

Windows 11 also started rolling out to users this week. However, unlike Android 12, Microsoft’s latest software update is now generally available to users. Be that as it may, we don’t recommend installing it on your system just yet, as it’s marred with bugs, and it seems to be facing performance issues on AMD CPUs. If you’re in the market for a new laptop, you’ll also be glad to know that OEMs like Razer and Acer have already started offering laptops running Windows 11 in several markets.

Facebook faced a massive outage

Earlier this week, Facebook faced one of the most extensive outages of recent times. The outage affected all of the company’s services, including Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, and it even had a huge impact on other businesses that rely on Facebook services. While we’re pretty sure you didn’t miss this development, if you’re wondering what caused the outage, you should definitely check out Adam Conway’s detailed explainer.

More Pixel 6 news

After weeks of speculation, Google finally confirmed that it would launch the Pixel 6 on October 19. Ahead of the launch, we saw even more leaks about the upcoming Pixel devices. We saw photo and video samples from the Pixel 6 Pro, and a German retailer accidentally revealed the pricing and launch offers for the devices. Leaks also confirmed that the Pixel 6 series would feature Face Unlock capabilities, and Google would offer a new Pixel Stand with the devices. In addition, we got our first look at Gboard’s Assistant-powered voice typing feature that will debut with the Pixel 6 series, and we shared more official wallpapers from the devices.

Other stories you shouldn’t miss

Along with these noteworthy announcements, we shared the following stories that you might have missed:

• Realme GT Neo2 could launch in Europe with Android 12 preinstalled
• As Windows 11 rolls out, take a look at the past Windows version history
• Samsung’s next-gen Exynos chip with an AMD GPU will support ray tracing
• YouTube Music finally gains free background playback, starting in Canada
• Amazon is making a fridge that knows when you’re about to run out of food
• Reduce your carbon footprint with these new Google Maps and Flights features
• Massive Twitch leak reveals the site’s source code, Amazon’s Steam competitor, and so much more
• Google Assistant rolling out “Quick Phrases” that let you skip “Hey Google” for dismissing alarms and calls
• The Samsung Internet Browser is now available on the Galaxy Watch 4
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti said to launch with 450W TDP and a new power connector
• Realme shares details about its 4K Google TV stick ahead of launch
• Rewind no more: YouTube shutters down Rewind recaps after a decade of nostalgia
• OnePlus confirms that it will unveil the OnePlus 9RT and Buds Z2 later this month
• Plex not working anymore on your smart TV? This might be why
• There may not be a FIFA 23 game next year
• Apple is potentially releasing the M1X-powered MacBook Pro this month
• NVIDIA is reportedly testing an Android TV 11 update for the SHIELD TV

XDA’s thoughts on the latest hardware and software

Additionally, we published our reviews and comparisons for several new devices and software this week. You can check those out by following the links below:

• iPhone 13 Mini Review: The best small phone ever made
• iPhone 13 Review: Good value, but not as great as the Pros
• iPhone 13 Pro Review: Top-notch flagship from Apple, but with one camera flaw
• iPad Mini 6 Review: The perfect powerhouse for portable productivity
• Apple iPhone 13 Pro vs. Vivo X70 Pro Plus: Battle of the Pro-sumer Cameras
• Surface Pro 8 Review: It’s finally a modern PC
• Dell XPS 15 9510 Review: OLED, RTX, and all of your favorite acronyms
• Windows 11 Review: Fixing the wrongs of the past decade

End of an era at XDA

This week also marked the end of an era at XDA. Mishaal Rahman announced that he is stepping down from his role as XDA’s Editor-in-Chief.

Hello, I have some personal news to share. Today is my last day at @xdadevelopers. This will be surprising to many, and honestly, I’m still trying to process this myself. XDA has been such a big part of my life for the past 6 years that it’s hard to imagine I’d be posting this.

— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) October 8, 2021

If you’ve been an XDA member for any length of time, you’ll know how significant of a role Mishaal played here at XDA and in the Android community at large. And while we’re deeply saddened by this news, we wish him the best for all his future endeavors.

Going forward, you can direct all your questions, leaks, and tips to Aamir Siddiqui, Rich Woods, Pranob Mehrotra, and Nirave Gondhia. You can also reach out to other members of our team.

The post This Week in Tech: Android 12 and Windows 11 released, Facebook outage, and more appeared first on xda-developers.

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Download the leaked Pixel 6 exclusive “Motif” wallpapers right here!

It seems that Google is releasing a ton of exclusive wallpapers for the Pixel 6 series. Over the last few months, we’ve shared quite a few wallpapers from both of the upcoming devices. Now, even more wallpapers have just shown up in the Google Wallpapers app. The wallpapers are part of a new collection called “Motif” and are split into two sections; “Floating” by Antti Kalevi, and “Pieces of G” from Letman.

The “Floating” wallpaper set is described as “Hints of form and color create playful places,” whereas “Pieces of G” is described as “Cutouts create a collage of color.” The Floating wallpaper collection is filled with natural shapes and flora, and the Pieces of G wallpaper collection uses parts of the iconic Google logo to create abstract imagery. These wallpapers match the expected Pixel 6 color options that will be available at launch.

The wallpapers above are in a compressed format. If you want to download them and use them on your device, you can follow the link below for the full resolution images. These wallpapers were surfaced in the Google Wallpapers app by spoofing the build properties of a Google Pixel 6 series device.

Download the latest Pixel 6 wallpapers

These wallpapers are all very different from previous Pixel wallpapers, which goes hand in hand with the rest of what we know about the Pixel 6 series. The Pixel 6 series has a pretty unique design, with a large rectangular camera bump across the back. It will feature the company’s “Google Tensor” chipset and an under-display fingerprint scanner.

Along with all these new wallpapers, Google will also release a couple of accessories for its upcoming flagship lineup. We recently got our first look at the upcoming Pixel Stand — a wireless charger for the upcoming phones that will likely offer 23W fast charging support. The company will also launch a few first-party cases for the devices, including a bunch of fabric cases in different colorways.

For more information about the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, check out our extensive rumor roundup.

Thanks Mishaal Rahman for the tip!

The post Download the leaked Pixel 6 exclusive “Motif” wallpapers right here! appeared first on xda-developers.

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Cursive Review: Hands on with Google’s new writing app for Chromebooks

There are a lot of options if you want a quality app for taking handwritten notes. Of course, not all of those are made by our beloved Google. As Chrome OS fans, it’s always nice when Google releases a new app to play around with (even if they decide to kill it later on). Such is the case with the new Cursive Progressive Web App (PWA). Google has decided to take a shot with a new type of notes app. Considering the success of Google Keep (or is it Keep Notes?), that makes a lot of sense to me.

In this Google Cursive review, we’ll take a look at everything on offer in Google’s new PWA and whether you should consider using it on Chromebooks.

About this review: I’ve used the Google Cursive PWA on my ASUS Chromebook CX9 and Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 for the last three weeks. These are two of the best touchscreen Chromebooks available right now. During that time I’ve written nearly all of my lecture and research notes for my university job using the Cursive app. I haven’t yet had a chance to test Cursive on the HP Chromebook x2 11, but when I receive my review unit, I’ll update this article with the experience on a true Chrome OS tablet.

Navigate this article:

• Google Cursive: UI
• Features 
• Handwriting experience 
• Bugs and input lag 
• Conclusion: Should you use it? 

Google Cursive: UI

The Google Cursive UI is fairly simple. If you’re looking for a note-taking app with an overwhelming amount of UI theming and customization, this isn’t the one for you. My personal favorite app for handwritten notes is Notability, which is, unfortunately, an iOS exclusive. Notability offers custom themes (for a price) and other options you can add to your basic experience with the app. Considering Cursive just launched, I didn’t quite expect that level of customization just yet from Google.

Still, this looks like a Google app and behaves in the way you’d expect. There are options for organizing notebooks, a pen, highlighter, and eraser tool as expected, and they work fine. The pen and marker both have a handful of colors to pick from and three stroke widths. There are no other settings here for inputs and if you want to focus only on taking notes, that could be viewed as a benefit.

The only other items in the toolbar are a spacer, selector, and image tool. Again, these do precisely what you’d expect from them, giving you the ability to add space where needed, highlight/select certain scribbles in order to move/resize them on the page, and add images into your document when necessary. You also get a few different paper options — lined paper, graph paper, and dot-matrix style.

Cursive: Features

Aside from the aforementioned tools and different types of virtual paper, there aren’t a whole lot of flagship features in this app yet. That isn’t a bad thing, as it’s meant to be a fairly simple handwriting app. The most useful features in the Cursive app are currently confined to the pen gestures that allow you to use the available tools without engaging the toolbar. Google has clearly thought this aspect through and it’s enjoyable to use the pen gestures to edit notes.

Let’s take a look at the available gestures. For selection, draw a big circle around what you want to grab/drag/move and you’ll see your circle get a blue glow. This means you can now tap that circle with your pen and it will call up the selection tool. In a similar way, a long horizontal line drawn anywhere on the page will glow and allow you to click to utilize the Spacer tool. Scribble over a section of text and clicking the glowing scribble makes that stuff simply disappear. All of these gestures work intuitively and I didn’t have any issues using them to edit my notes in a more efficient way.

Handwriting Experience

While the basic UI design and tools on offer are nice, the really important thing is how the app performs when you’re actually taking notes. Unfortunately, that experience is actually pretty awful. The biggest problem by far right now is poor palm rejection. As I mentioned before, I typically use my iPad Pro for notes, and the experience with Cursive on a Chromebook was a frustrating one in comparison.

If you rest your hand on the screen before you start writing (who doesn’t, really?) you’ll notice all sorts of weird behavior and ghost touches. The most common issue is activating the dock on your Chromebook or accidentally exiting the Cursive app altogether. This may not seem like a huge deal, but if you compare the palm rejection to the iPad/Apple Pencil experience, it’s very annoying.

Of course, this can be improved over time, but right now it is unusable for any reasonably long note-taking session. If you’re scribbling down a phone number or some small thought, that would be fine, but I wouldn’t use it for anything more.

Bugs and Input lag

Aside from the palm rejection, the input lag with the pen is also fairly noticeable. I used my Penoval USI pen, as well as more standard styli to test the experience. None of the instruments I tried were much of an improvement. I hate to keep referring back to the iPad, but the Apple Pencil has virtually zero lag and it’s really like writing on paper, in terms of smoothness.

Keep in mind that I tested Cursive with both, the ASUS Chromebook CX9 and Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2. These are both premium, high-end Chromebooks. If you use a budget Chromebook, the experience is likely to be even worse for input lag. Of course, the iPad has a bit of an unfair advantage with Apple controlling the software and hardware, but the amount of lag using Cursive at the moment is unacceptable.

Conclusion: Should you use Cursive?

In its current state, I definitely don’t recommend using Cursive as your go-to app for taking handwritten notes on a Chromebook. The clean and understated UI does pair nicely with the pen shortcuts Google has included, but the core writing experience is just too flawed to look past right now. Hopefully, Google will continue to work on Cursive as more Chromebook users discover the app and complain about the egregious palm rejection and pen lag problems I’ve outlined above.

Of course, when it comes to new Google products, there are no guarantees that they’ll last at all. Google could get bored of Cursive and decide to kick it to the curb like so many projects before it. Still, I think they have a solid start and it could be a great app that adds appeal to owning a Chromebook, once they clean up these key problems.

The post Cursive Review: Hands on with Google’s new writing app for Chromebooks appeared first on xda-developers.

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