China’s Nubia beats Asus to launch ‘world’s first smartphone with 18GB RAM’

Nubia just beat Asus to launch the world’s first smartphone with, wait for it, 18GB RAM. It’s not a typo: 18GB smartphones are a thing now. The brand in question has launched its new Red Magic 6 series in China and one of its models comes with whopping 18GB RAM and 512GB storage. That’s only one bit though. The series that spawns two models, Red Magic 6 and Red Magic 6 Pro, also features a 165Hz display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, ‘actual fan’ for cooling, and 120Hz fast charging. The Red Magic 6 and Redmi Magic 6 Pro are gaming phones which means they also look like one.

Both the Red Magic 6 and Red Magic 6 Pro come with a 6.8-inch 1080p+ AMOLED display with a 165Hz refresh rate—this is adaptive, which means it can go from as low as 30Hz all the way up to 165Hz (in supported game titles). The phones also boast of a 360Hz multi-touch sampling rate (up to 500Hz one-finger touch sampling rate) and 10-bit colour support.

Under the hood, both the phones come with a Snapdragon 888 processor paired with up to 18GB LPDDR5 RAM and up to 512GB UFS3.1 storage. While the Red Magic 6 comes with a 5,050mAh battery with 65W fast charging, the ‘pro’ model has a smaller 4,500mAh battery but with whopping 120W fast charging which is claimed to charge the phone from 0-50 percent in just 5 minutes.

Both the phones retain previous models’ touch-sensitive shoulder triggers but with improved 400Hz touch sampling rate to reduce latency. Nubia’s signature active cooling air fan has also been updated with a faster 20,000 RPM spin in the pro model (in the Red Magic 6, this is 18,000 RPM). Both phones also pack copper heat sinks to further keep thermals in check.

For photography, both phones come with three cameras on the back, including a 64MP main, 8MP ultra-wide-angle and another 2MP macro sensor.

The Nubia Red Magic 6 starts at CNY 3,999 (roughly Rs 45,000) for the base variant with 8GB/128GB. The Nubia Red Magic 6 Pro meanwhile starts at CNY 4,399 (roughly Rs 49,500) for the base variant with 12GB/128GB. The pro model has a top-end model, or Transparent Edition, with 18GB RAM and 512GB storage that will sell for CNY 6,599 (roughly Rs 75,200). The phones will start selling in China from March 11. Global availability and pricing are yet to be announced.

Nubia won’t be the only brand to launch a phone with such over-the-top specs though. Multiple reports suggest the upcoming ROG Phone 5 from Asus that is scheduled to launch on March 10 globally (including in India) will also break the 16GB RAM barrier and have one model, at least, with 18GB RAM. Whether you’ll ever need so much RAM on your phone is a different question altogether.