Introduction
At this level nubia’s Purple Magic has strong traditions within the gaming smartphone phase and it felt assured sufficient to enterprise into the broader gaming world.
The Redmagic 4K Gaming Monitor 27″ is the corporate’s first monitor and it is a beast. It impresses with a cutting-edge miniLED panel that boasts excessive most brightness, good distinction and 1,152 dimming zones for correct HDR expertise. In reality, the panel helps HDR1000 commonplace, which is fairly spectacular for a PC monitor.
And since this can be a gaming monitor, it has all of the hertzes and pixels. The 4K (3840 x 2560px) show can go as much as 160Hz and presents low latency too.
Clearly, with all that premium tech on board, the Redmagic 4K Gaming Monitor does not come low-cost. With a launch value is $869 it seems like Purple Magic is assured sufficient about its product to place it as a premium monitor, so let’s take a deep dive and see if its price your cash.
Unboxing the Redmagic 4K Gaming Monitor
The monitor ships in an enormous field with every little thing you’d have to set it up. The machine ships with an HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C and USB-A to USB-B cables. The ability adapter is exterior, which is fairly massive and hefty but when it goes bust, you may simply change it for a brand new one as an alternative of getting to restore or substitute the entire monitor.
There are additionally 4 bolts for a VESA 75 x 75mm wall mount.
Design, ergonomics, stand
We might name the monitor’s design fairly constrained and even formal for a gaming-centric machine. There are not any funky design parts or flashy LEDs, besides the RGB LED-illuminated triangle on the again, which is fairly stealthy anyway. And you may solely see it from behind, so it will not be distracting in any respect. You’ll be able to’t see it from the entrance even in a darkish room.
The enclosure is strong plastic with matte end and it is good to the contact. Sadly, the stand can be solely made from plastic. Certain, it is sturdy and purposeful, however it could have been good to have a strong piece of metallic maintaining the monitor upright.
Nonetheless, the stand permits you to match the monitor in just about any working atmosphere. It supplies vertical changes, it may well swivel, tilt and rotate the monitor in portrait mode. And because the monitor has a built-in accelerometer, it robotically switches between the suitable modes in Home windows.
Redmagic 4K Gaming Monitor
Alternatively, you may mount the show on the wall utilizing the supplied extenders. It natively helps 75 x 75mm VESA mounts.
Moreover, the monitor incorporates a built-in stand on your headphones and the plastic peace comes off so you are able to do correct cable administration. You’ll be able to run the cables via the stand as an alternative of leaving them hanging round.
Stand design
There is a joystick on the again used for OSD menu navigation however it’s positioned means too far up the again, so that you’d have to achieve for it each time that you must arrange one thing.
Joystick for navigation and fast shortcut buttons
The three shortcut buttons are even additional away and tougher to achieve. The highest one toggles the HDR mode on or off, the second is used to change between sources (in case you have a couple of machine linked to the monitor, you may swap between them on the fly) and the third one is a fast shortcut to the show modes, refresh fee adjustment and a toggle for the built-in crosshair. These are the default assignments anyway, however you may customise these shortcuts to your liking.
Connectivity
The Redmagic 4K Gaming Monitor boasts a variety of connectivity choices however they’re all fairly exhausting to achieve. We had a tough time setting it up as a result of the connectors are in a small compartment so plugging within the cables is a little bit of a problem.
Anyway, the monitor has 2x HDMI 2.1 ports, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, USB-C connector that helps as much as 90W charging, knowledge switch and video enter. There are additionally two USB-A 3.0 ports and a 3.5mm audio jack.
Understand that utilizing the HDMI 2.1 connectors would restrict the refresh fee to 120Hz at 2160p, so in order for you the quickest doable refresh fee at 4K, it’s best to use the DisplayPort.
Gaming options and show modes
There are many gaming-specific options to undergo, however maybe crucial ones to recollect are the 160Hz refresh fee, 1ms response time, overdrive of 4.5ms (in all probability gray-to-gray) and help for FreeSync. And since Nvidia opened up its API a few years again, you may nonetheless use the variable refresh fee with an Nvidia GPU.
Gaming-related modes and options
The monitor permits you to tinker with most of these choices. You’ll be able to arrange the refresh fee, the response time and allow/disable FreeSync.
As anticipated, the show has a few gaming profile presets, relying on the style. It has MOBA and FPS. There’s additionally a built-in body fee counter and a large selection of crosshairs. To illustrate you do not just like the crosshair design in a selected recreation or you’re are an avid AWPer in Counter-Strike and also you want that crosshair for simpler no-scopes. The Redmagic 4K monitor has you coated.
The remainder of the colour presets are sRGB, AdobeRGB, DCI-P3 and Eye care mode. however extra on these within the subsequent part.
To our shock, we weren’t capable of activate the automated brightness, nor the dynamic distinction options. Not that we might maintain them on, however nonetheless.
Maybe that is the place we complain concerning the total OSD menu navigation. It is in all places. Urgent down on the joystick key turns the monitor on and off, you may’t use it for menu choice. A proper press selects the mode, the left one takes you again whereas up and down cycle between modes/menu alternatives. It’s totally unintuitive and peculiar. We additionally did not just like the menu translations. A few of them are complicated, even.
Picture high quality
For the reason that monitor incorporates a miniLED panel, we had excessive hopes for the general high quality. MiniLED panels are a extra superior model of the usual LED-backlit panels with extra backlight diodes. This permits extra lighting zones (1,152 on this case) and better most brightness. The backlight nonetheless shines via a shade filter, although, so the underlying show expertise continues to be IPS LCD. That is why miniLEDs are far nearer to conventional panels than microLEDs.
microLEDs are nearer to OLEDs in a way that they do not want a shade filter and every diode is self-emitting.
In any case, the marketed specs are fairly spectacular. Purple Magic lists 650 nits most brightness and 1,300 nits spot brightness when watching HDR content material, 1,000:1 distinction ratio, 10-bit shade depth and 99% protection of all shade areas – AdobeRGB, sRGB and DCI-P3. For the reason that panel has 1,152 lighting zones and excessive most brightness, the monitor is HDR100-certified. It is not the best one however we contemplate it as a correct HDR commonplace.
Extra image settings
The show seems nice. It presents vivid colours, deep blacks and although the anti-glare floor is not best, the Redmagic 4K will get brilliant sufficient to compensate. With out additional ado, let’s get to the check scores.
Brightness, distinction, shade replica
We examined the colour replica, brightness and distinction within the sRGB, AdobeRGB and DCI-P3 shade modes as a result of testing the colour accuracy within the Film, Eye care or within the gaming modes is pointless. It is apparent that shade accuracy is not the precedence in these three modes. The Film, MOBA and FPS gaming modes colours are oversaturated fairly a bit.
Let’s begin with probably the most generally used sRGB mode. With the Normal shade temperature preset, we bought a median dE2000 of three, which is okay however we did not just like the purple-ish tint of the grays and whites. Additionally, the utmost brightness was simply 474 nits. It is not unimpressive however it’s removed from the marketed 650 nits. Distinction is not spectacular both – 929:1.
sRGB preset: Normal • Heat
The excellent news is that the Heat shade temperature preset fixes nearly every little thing. Brightness went as much as 532 nits, distinction was 1009:1 and the common dE2000 was near-perfect at 0.7. We’re notably impressed by the utmost deviation – simply 1.5.
We ran the identical check at 200 and 140 nits to verify the consistency is sweet. We’re glad to report that even at 140 nits, the common dE2000 was under 1. So in case you are planning on doing some color-sensitive work or work on initiatives that require design for bodily prints, the Redmagic 4K Gaming Monitor will do the job simply tremendous.
sRGB preset, Heat: 140 nits • 200 nits
We had comparable expertise within the AdobeRGB and DCI-P3 modes as effectively. The Normal shade temperature makes the whites and grays too purple and/or pink-ish. That is why we advocate you stick with the Heat preset always.
Nevertheless, shade accuracy in these two modes is not good, however it’s fairly strong nonetheless. In AdobeRGB, the show peaked at 521 nits, 996:1 distinction and dE2000 of two.5. The utmost dE2000, although, is a bit too excessive. The reds and greens, specifically, are oversaturated.
AdobeRGB: Normal • Heat
The DCI-P3 with the Heat preset presents higher accuracy at 522 nits (once more 991:1 distinction) with common dE2000 of solely 0.9. The reds smash the near-perfect rating however that is the one noticeable anomaly.
DCI-P3: Normal • Heat
All in all, the Redmagic 4K Gaming Monitor proves to be good not only for gaming however for color-sensitive work too, particularly within the sRGB mode. Video games, motion pictures, design work – it may well do all of it.
HDR expertise
In comparison with the usual IPS LCD panels, the HDR expertise is strong for probably the most half. The distinction between non-HDR and HDR content material on the display is not hanging however it’s undoubtedly noticeable. The darkish components of the scenes in motion pictures are well-pronounced and video games like Cyberpunk 2077 look fairly good in HDR mode.
Nevertheless, leaving the HDR mode energetic always is probably not the most effective thought, particularly when looking or simply navigating via Home windows. Distinction appears low more often than not and colours are washed out. The monitor does not can help you change the colour mode when Home windows’ HDR toggle is energetic.
Regardless of the small points, we consider the HDR1000 implementation within the Redmagic 4K monitor is nice for gaming and not-so-amazing for every little thing else. Do not count on OLED-level HDR expertise however count on a significantly higher one than most LCD panels on the market.
Options
Certain, there are many choices within the $800-1,000 value vary however solely a handful of them supply a miniLED panel that may go as much as 160Hz at 4K decision. The ThundeRobot LU27F160M is one among them together with the ViewSonic VX2781-4K-PRO and the Innocn 27M2V. In reality, all of them use the identical miniLED panel so the distinction between these is fairly minimal. They may also be discovered at roughly the identical value.
Alternatively, the Coolermaster Tempest GP27U may spark your curiosity as it may well do just about every little thing the remainder of the miniLED-powered screens can however it tops them with a Quantum Dot filter layer, G-Sync certification and it is promoting within the mid-$800s. Sadly, the native dimming zones are simply 572, albeit HDR1000 is within the specs sheet.
We’d additionally advocate looking on the LG UltraGear 27″ OLED Gaming Monitor. It is a strong sub-$1,000 different with a superior OLED panel. It has a better 240Hz refresh fee, HDR10 commonplace and it is G-Sync-certified. The draw back is the decrease 2560 x 1400px decision. In any case, OLED is OLED and that Grey-to-Grey response time of 0.03ms is fairly darn spectacular. To not point out the proper blacks.
Verdict
Not like the Purple Magic telephones, the Redmagic 4K Gaming Monitor will not shock you with affordability. It will value you simply as a lot as comparable miniLED screens. However its efficiency greater than justifies the premium.
When you have the possibility to seize one, we are able to simply advocate it. It is not solely appropriate for gaming with its excessive decision, vivid colours, low response time and quick refresh fee, however it’s additionally appropriate for HDR content material (HDR gaming too!) and color-sensitive work. We solely wished for a greater OSD menu navigation (the joystick navigation is a multitude and it is too far up the again making it tougher to achieve) and sturdier stand.
