ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.8-inch ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) that was released on November 23, 2023, against the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite and came out 1 year and 2 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

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Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro
  • Comes with 1600 mAh larger battery capacity: 6500 vs 4900 mAh
  • Supports higher wattage charging (80W versus 45W)
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • Includes a 3.5 mm headphone audio jack port
  • Has a built-in infrared port
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus
  • Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • 28% higher pixel density (513 vs 400 PPI)
  • Delivers 42% higher peak brightness (1437 against 1010 nits)
  • Has 50% more RAM: 12GB versus 8GB
  • Handles wireless charging up to 15W
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.4)
  • More recent OS version: Android 17 versus 14
  • 34% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (3219K versus 2409K)
  • The phone is 1 year and 2 months newer
  • The front-facing camera can record video at 4K

Review

Evaluation of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
DeviceFacts Score
Final comparison evaluation
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Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your country’s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
8 / 256 GB
VS
12 / 256 GB
46.6
(Average)
Value Index
38.1
(Mediocre)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type AMOLED Dynamic AMOLED
Size 6.8 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1116 x 2480 pixels 1440 x 3120 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.5:9
PPI 400 ppi 513 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1600 nits -
Max rated brightness in HDR - 2600 nits
HDR support No Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate - 240 Hz
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 5 Gorilla Glass Victus 2
Screen-to-body ratio 89.1% 91.7%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 99.5% 96.8%
PWM 60 Hz 240 Hz
Response time 1 ms 1 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
1437 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 164 mm (6.46 inches) 158.4 mm (6.24 inches)
Width 76.4 mm (3.01 inches) 75.8 mm (2.98 inches)
Thickness 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) 7.3 mm (0.29 inches)
Weight 229 g (8.08 oz) 190 g (6.7 oz)
Waterproof No IP68
Advanced cooling Active fan Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Silver Black, Silver, Gray, Blue, Green, Pink
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Repairability - Good (3.23/5)
Drop resistance - Excellent (A) · 270 drops
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite
Max clock 3300 MHz 4470 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 2 + 2) 8 (2 + 6)
Architecture - 2 cores at 2.27 GHz: Cortex-A520
- 2 cores at 2.96 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 3 cores at 3.15 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 1 core at 3.3 GHz: Cortex-X4
- 6 cores at 3.53 GHz: Oryon (Phoenix M)
- 2 cores at 4.32 GHz: Oryon (Phoenix L)
L3 cache 12 MB 8 MB
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Hexagon
GPU
Graphics Adreno 750 Adreno 830
GPU shading units 1536 1536
GPU clock 903-1000 MHz 1100 MHz
FLOPS ~2774 GFLOPS ~3379.2 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 14905 21631
Single-core score 2233 3028
Multi-core score 6869 9654
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
3219688
CPU 662661 1009577
GPU 823958 1202068
Memory 361209 373296
UX 561916 634747
Total score 2409744 3219688
Samples [5 tests] [36 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 92% 61%
Graphics test 13 FPS 17 FPS
Graphics score 1727 2272
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability 99% -
Graphics test 33 FPS 39 FPS
Section 1 36 FPS 50 FPS
Section 2 33 FPS 37 FPS
Section 3 29 FPS 29 FPS
Graphics score 8666 10175
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 90% 56%
Graphics test 30 FPS 33 FPS
Graphics score 5156 5597
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 20450 21677
Video editing 8590 8628
Photo editing 50380 34949
Data manipulation 14699 17435
Writing score 26447 26579
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (162nd and 78th place)

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
ZTE Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-08-19 (mitchi)AnTuTu 112432142
📘 2026-08-08 (PsIx0pAt)AnTuTu 112320412
📘 2026-06-18 (Anonymous)AnTuTu 112408843
📘 2026-05-01 (Shuller)AnTuTu 112500131
📘 2026-04-06 (Vall)AnTuTu 112409744
Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-13 (souzabrz)AnTuTu 123649256
📘 2026-09-28 (Projeto_11)AnTuTu 123618549
📘 2026-09-25 (Ramirez)AnTuTu 123484313
📘 2026-07-27 (souzabrz)AnTuTu 113395746
📘 2026-07-05 (Maxim)AnTuTu 113236095

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5X
Memory clock 4800 MHz 5300 MHz
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 UFS 4.0
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 14 Android 15 (Can be upgraded to Android 17)
ROM Redmagic OS 9 One UI 9.0
OS size 25 GB 29.1 GB
OS updates - 7 years
Security updates - 7 years

Battery

Capacity 6500 mAh 4900 mAh
Max charge power 80 W 45 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No Yes (15 W)
Reverse charging No Yes, (wireless)
Bypass charging - Yes
Fast charging Yes (84% in 30 min) Yes (75% in 30 min)
Full charging time 0:42 hr 0:59 hr
Battery cycles - 2000 cycles
Battery life tests
Web browsing 09:54 hr 10:20 hr
Watching video 21:54 hr 18:29 hr
Gaming 08:25 hr 06:19 hr
Standby 134 hr 137 hr
General battery life
29:26 hr
28:09 hr

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 8160 x 6120
Zoom Digital Optical, 3x
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 30FPS
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 122° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Ultrawide: 50 MP
3) Macro: 2 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 10 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/1.8
Focal length - 24 mm
Sensor Samsung GN5 Samsung ISOCELL S5KGN3
Sensor size 1/1.57" (≈ 0.64 inch) 1/1.56" (≈ 0.64 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution - 10 MP
Aperture - f/2.4
Focal length - 67 mm
Sensor - Samsung ISOCELL S5K3K1
Sensor size - 1/3.94" (≈ 0.25 inch)
Pixel size - 1 micron
Stabilization - Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 50 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length - 13 mm
Sensor - Sony IMX564
Sensor size 1/2.76" (≈ 0.36 inch) 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 0.64 micron 1.4 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital
Macro lens
Image resolution 2 MP -
Aperture f/2.4 -
Stabilization Digital -

Selfie camera

Megapixels 16 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4608 x 3456 4000 x 3000
Aperture f/2.0 f/2.2
Focal length - 26 mm
Sensor Omnivision OV16E1Q Samsung S5K3LU
Sensor size 1/2.8" (≈ 0.36 inch) 1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1.12 micron
Autofocus No Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.3 5.4
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes, DP 1.2 Yes, DP 1.2
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port Yes No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* No Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 -
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack Yes No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos No Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced November 2023 January 2025
Release date November 2023 February 2025
Launch price (MSRP) $649 $999
Successor - ZTE Nubia Red Magic 11 Pro -
SAR (head) - 1.26 W/kg
SAR (body) - 1.26 W/kg
Sensors - Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Yes, 80 W Not included
Further details
Notes on Galaxy S25 Plus:
    - You can connect up to 2 eSIMs. The international model has 2 physical SIM slots, while the U.S. model has only one.
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus is definitely a better buy.

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