Hi,

I’m writing this post in a small fit of rage. At some point I bought myself a RedMagic 9 Pro (16+512 EU) and replaced my HiSense A9 with it. On paper it’s a massive upgrade, I mean like you get a full color screen, 120hz the latest and greatest(probably not at the time of writing) Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in a package that looks really nice. Awesome transparent back cover, big uninterrupted screen (since it has an underscreen camera) and really amazing performance. It gets a bit hot sometimes but that doesn’t bother me especially since it lets me play Factorio and Euro Truck Simulator 2 ON THE GO!!!!! As for other games, Fortnite runs inconsistently which I guess is the game’s fault since sometimes it runs full speed and sometimes sucks ass. I can go on about this phone forever, like it’s really amazing however…

The biggest issues I’m facing are:

Touchscreen drops
Really bad speakers
Bluetooth connectivity issues

These by itself don’t seem that bad but let me complain:

Touchscreen:

Sometimes the games or applications will just refuse to accept input. You can literally be doing anything and suddenly the screen will stop responding for up to 5 seconds. That’s insane… I guess it originates from gesture protection, but that feature can be turned off and it still does it. The only real way I found to prevent your screen from not responding is to completely disable gestures and use on screen buttons. It’s not such a hassle if you are used to buttons, but it’s jarring if you come from using gestures. Even the act of getting back to the menu to disable them becomes a chore. Also I found out this is an issue on older devices too, so if you’re using a RM 7-9 try it for yourself.

Speakers:

Not much I can say about them except they don’t have a proper middle ground. It’s either way too loud or way too quiet. On the first step on the volume slider you can’t hear it, while on the second it will blast your room’s windows. Now that’s a joke, but its a huge difference nonetheless. It also likes to distort at 50% or higher, and vocals don’t sound too good if you are listening to music. Also I am no audiophile, but the built in headphone jack feels like it sounds worse on the RM9 than it does on the Hisense A9.

Bluetooth issues:

This one is pretty standard on android, or windows, or anything really… However if you’re connecting bluetooth headphones, good effing luck. It takes up to a full minute (stress on the MINUTE) to switch audio output, and then on top of that it has the audacity to be super super delayed. Watching videos of any kind becomes a chore, since sounds might be a word or two behind the video and games sound effects are mega delayed. I’ve tried factorio, euro truck, fortnite, minecraft, bang dream, and let me tell you you’re better off just playing games on mute if your only option is to use headphones. Legit horrible experience. I use the same 2 headphones (PSB M4U MK II and Sony WF-C500) on all of my devices. I’ve known about wireless delay from other devices but RM9 takes the cake. For comparison Lenovo Y700 barely has any delay somehow and Muse Dash is even playable. Almost wired level of accuracy, even though it sometimes crackles.

Conclusion:

My relationship with this phone is one of love and hate. I don’t want to get rid of it as it truly is really good, but when it wants to be toxic it is borderline abusive. I will keep it for at least a year since I’d feel bad throwing away something I paid 800 euros for, but my next phone might as well be an Iphone. I don’t like doing hackery stuff on my main phone anyway so I’d rather cope in a closed off enviroment, than force myself to constantly have to deal with different manufacturer inconsistencies.

If you want to still buy a RM9 or other Redmagic products and you don’t mind any of the issues listed above, well I can’t not recommend it. It really is a marvel of a phone and it’s performance and aesthetics will not be matched.