Android gaming is seeing a resurgence following the immense success of battle royale titles like PUBG and Fortnite, and manufacturers are catering to the demand with gaming-centric phones. We've already seen the likes of the ASUS ROG Phone, Vivo NEX, Razer Phone 2, and Xiaomi's Black Shark sub-brand, and Nubia is announcing today that it will start selling its own gaming phone in global markets from later this month.
The Red Magic Mars was unveiled at the end of November, with the device offering RGB LEDs, liquid and air cooling, shoulder buttons, and a variant with 10GB of RAM. It is powered by a 2.8GHz Snapdragon 845, has a 6.0-inch FHD+ display with 2.5D curved glass, 16MP camera at the back, 8MP front camera, and a 3800mAh battery. On the software front, the device runs a custom RedmagicOS 1.6 that's based on Pie.
What makes the Red Magic Mars even more attractive is the pricing: Nubia says the base variant will retail for just $399 in North American and European markets, which is half the asking price of a brand-new Razer Phone 2. Sales will kick off from January 31, with the base model featuring 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Nubia is also likely to make the 8GB/128GB and the high-end 10GB/256GB variants available, but there's no information on how much these particular models will end up costing.
Nubia is also talking up its dual-screen device, the Nubia X. The phone debuted in China back in November, and instead of a front camera, there's a screen at the back that can be used for taking selfies. The result is that the screen up front has ultra-thin bezels, with the 6.26-inch FHD+ panel offering a 93.6% screen-to-body ratio. There's a 5.1-inch HD+ screen at the back, along with 16MP + 24MP dual cameras, and a 3800mAh battery with fast charging.
Curiously, the Nubia X has two fingerprint sensors — one on each side of the frame — presumably to allow you to unlock the device regardless of the whatever screen you're using. Unlike the Red Magic Mars, there's no information to suggest when the Nubia X will be making its way to global markets, but we'll let you know once we hear more.
