Something to look forward to: Upon its international launch earlier this year, the Nubia RedMagic 8 Pro was already an impressive package, offering flagship specifications in one of the cheapest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 phones. A new upgraded model pushes performance further, featuring as much RAM as a high-spec laptop.

Nubia has unveiled an upgraded variant of the RedMagic 8 Pro with increased performance and an improved cooling system. The costliest model has the most RAM ever featured in a smartphone.

According to GSMArena's translation, the RedMagic 8S Pro replaces the original Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC with the faster 8+ Gen 2 for a ~5% performance increase. The CPU clock rises from 3.2 GHz to 3.36 GHz, while the GPU's speed climbs from 680 MHz to 719 MHz. Nubia claims the faster chip slightly outperforms Apple's A16 Bionic in multi-core performance tests.

Nubia has also refreshed the phone's cooling system to match the increased load. Compared to the earlier model's ICE 11, the ICE 12 cooler features a new 5W/mK thermal paste solution and an overhauled graphene heatsink while maintaining the same fan speed. The company also upgraded the phone's operating system from the Android 13-based RedMagic OS 6.0 to RedMagic OS 8.0.

The display, cameras, and battery remain unchanged from the 8 Pro. That means the phone still features a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen with a 1,116 x 2,480 resolution, a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz, 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage, and 1,300 nits of brightness. Moreover, it retains the 50-megapixel, 8-megapixel, and 2-megapixel triple rear camera setup and the 16-megapixel front-facing lens. It also has the same 6,000mAh battery, but Nubia has upgraded the charger from 65W to 80W.

Most of the RedMagic 8S Pro's RAM and storage choices remain untouched, except for the new top-tier option. Customers can order the standard phone with 8 GB or 12 GB of memory and 256 GB or 512 GB of internal storage starting at CNY 4,000 (about $550). However, Nubia also offers an 8S Pro+ that starts at 16 GB of RAM for CNY 5,500 ($760). The transparent deuterium variant is available with a maximum of 1 TB of storage and an unprecedented 24 GB of memory, which will set you back by about $1,000. Although the Pro+ has a smaller 5,000mAh battery, the charger makes up for it at 165W.

Theoretically, that amount of memory in a mobile device could improve multitasking with the latest high-end mobile games like Honkai: Star Rail without needing to close other apps, though it still sounds exaggerated and unnecessary.

The RedMagic 8S Pro launches in China next week and pre-orders are already open. The phone has yet to appear on storefronts for other regions.