[Nubia Red Magic 5G Lite Real Life Review] oransam:
Good Specs, Bad Software (China Rom)

I'm not sure if I am right to post this here as I'm using Nubia Play 5G. I've read that it's almost identical to the Nubia Red Magic 5G lite and seeing that no one else have posted anything yet, I thought I could share my opinion. -Mods, do inform me if my review isn't right to be posted here-

Firstly, the design and comfort of use.

I have fairly short thumbs and I didn't realized how that I would be making a jump coming from the Pocophone F1. The phone is definitely heavier than the F1 due to the larger 5100mah battery compared to the 4000mah of the F1. Holding the phone (with a cover), its comfortable in my hands. The weight distribution is just right for me. Not heavy at the top. This is a big plus for me as I have rather small hands & thumbs. To access the top of the screen, there's an in built option for the 3 button navigation where I hold the home buttons, and the notification panel would come down.

For gaming, I do apologize for not being a phone gamer despite the phone being marketed towards gamers. I've tried playing PUBG. I'm by no means a pro. Definitely a noob as I literally just started playing it. The shoulder capacitive buttons is pretty comfortable to use. I used to play PS3 and this is somewhat familiar to me. I would recommend gamers making use of the shoulder buttons.

Secondly, 144hz display

Silky smooth AMOLED display. No noticeable ghosting. Scrolling is darn smooth. Switching to 90hz for the balance of smoothness and battery life is pretty great as well. It's still smooth.

Brightness, solid sunlight visibility. I constantly work in the sun and the display is brightly lit that I could see it clearly even without having to focusing much. The big 6.65" could be a factor to seeing this clearer. Definitely solid display for me. Also, speakers darn loud and pretty clear. Only distortion when you put it on max volume but I doubt you'll do that on everyday use

Thirdly, 5100mah battery

5100mah is solid. I'm getting 7hrs of SOT with almost max brightness + GPS for 3-4 hours and bluetooth earpiece.

On days of normal usage. Get easily past 24 hours with 20+% or even more if you're a light user.

- Display set to 90hz

Forth, RESTRICTIVE Software.

I'm not kidding when I say its darn restrictive. I roughly understand what I'm getting into when I was purchasing a china rom version of this phone. However, I was still horrified. Unable to change launcher, no support for OK GOOGLE, unable to change default sms messenger, and a few more restrictions that I couldnt remember but these few are my main concern.

- As a driver for my job, I often use OK GOOGLE to help me change music/navigate me around town while I'm driving. This phone (China ROM issue probably) has no support for OK GOOGLE. The option of OK GOOGLE is greyed out. I've tried numerous "fix" or "workarounds" but to no avail. I'm honestly disappointed with this.

- Launcher wise, the default launcher is pretty much like the old iOS where there's no appdrawer (no settings I could see that can change this) however there is folders and widget. Coming from Nova Launcher this is darn restrictive to me.

- Notifications is a hassle at first. I was wondering why my pocophone was still receiving notifications from social media whereas the Nubia was silent. I soon realized that I had to manual set the notifications for all downloaded apps to be turned on. Reminds me of the days when Android Marshmallow was released and there were few buggy Samsung ROMs with this issue. After setting up for every app it works now.

DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE IF YOU'RE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH ANY OF THE ISSUES THAT I'VE MENTIONED. THERE'S NO WORKAROUNDS AS FAR AS I KNOW

Fifth, mediocre camera

48MP? more like 12 or 16MP then upscaled to 48MP.

I like to capture lots of photos and I wasnt expecting much from this phone as it is catered for gaming.

- 48MP is very, very mediocre. My F1 can take better photos with better dynamic range and better details (On GCAM). Even trying with GCAM the details is bad (I could be using the wrong config for the GCAM)

- Low light is horrible. On the default camera app. It looks upscaled from a 2MP camera with mediocre brightness. With the GCAM, its brighter. No change to the amount of detail

- Wide angle, as I know, can only be used in the default camera app. It pretty decent imo. I have no experience with other phones with wide angle. I do apologise for this as I dont often shoot with wide angle.

Sixth, in screen fingerprint.

My experience with fingerprints is usually a dedicated fingerprint sensor. On the F1, it was blazzing fast. On the Nubia, its pretty good too. Mostly accurate even at weird angles.

Seventh, overall speed.

Coming from F1 which was a Qualcomm 845, the Nubia feels pretty much the same on everyday use. I use the latest Youtube Vanced and its a bit buggy. Random crashes while watching videos fullscreen. I just downgraded to the older version, still testing it out. Multitasking is pretty good. Few apps in the background that doesnt get killed while using other apps.

That's my personal review of this phone. Do reply if you have any questions on the other aspects of the phone that I didn't cover in this post.

Thank you for taking your time to read this long post. Cheers!