Red Magic isn’t the company you’d normally think of when it comes to high-performance gaming monitors, or any monitors, for what it’s worth.
The company, which is best known for its Android gaming phones, has made a steady push in the world of PC gaming, having released a mechanical gaming keyboard and a gaming mouse recently.
Red Magic now also sells a gaming monitor that is a delight to use and offers stunning 4K visuals, a high refresh rate, and HDR 1000 support.
The monitor features a 27-inch Mini-LED panel that offers excellent contrast and brightness levels. After using the monitor as my daily driver for a while now, I can confidently say that the RedMagic 4K Gaming Monitor works great for entertainment and gaming and works well as a productivity monitor.
Versatile stand and clean design
The RedMagic 4K Gaming Monitor has a versatile stand that allows you to rotate, tilt, swivel, and adjust the screen’s height to suit your preference. It has minimal bezels on the top and each side, with a thicker bezel at the bottom that houses the RedMagic logo.
Overall, the monitor offers a clean and sturdy design that matches its minimalistic gaming aesthetic.
The back of the monitor features a triangular centrepiece that emits RGB light effects that aren’t gaudy and enhance the gaming experience in a dark room.
The monitor’s stand is one of its highlights, as it allows you to adjust the screen in various ways. You can rotate the screen 90 degrees clockwise or anti-clockwise to switch between landscape and portrait modes. You can also tilt the screen back and forth, swivel it side to side, and adjust its height up or down. The stand also has a chamber through which you can run your cables, resulting in a cleaner overall look that helps you keep your desk tidy and free of stray wires.
The only major complaint with the design is that the buttons to control the on-screen display (OSD) menu are located in an awkward spot on the rear of the panel. The menu is not entirely intuitive to use at first, but it gets easier to navigate once you get used to it.
Extensive connectivity options with a minor design inconvenience
The Red Magic 4K Gaming Monitor has a wide selection of ports for connectivity. It has two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, one USB-C port, two USB-A ports, one audio/headphone jack, and one power port. The HDMI 2.1 ports support up to 144Hz refresh rate at 4K resolution, while the DisplayPort 1.4 port supports up to 160Hz refresh rate at 4K resolution.
The USB-C port can also deliver video signal and power delivery up to 90W, alongside data transmission, making it ideal for connecting laptops or smartphones.
The monitor, however, does not feature built-in speakers, so connecting external speakers or using a pair of headphones is a must.
The only complaint here is that the ports are hidden away in a small compartment behind the bottom bezel, and plugging in ports during the initial setup can be a cumbersome task.
Smooth and responsive gaming experience
There are primarily five types of display technologies that manufacturers use for panels — LED, Mini LED, QLED, MicroLED, and OLED.
These technologies vary in how they illuminate the picture on your monitor, which affects the quality of colours, blacks, whites, contrast ratios, and brightness. The choice of display technology is the main factor determining the monitor’s cost and also greatly influences your viewing experience, depending on your specific need.
The RedMagic 4K Gaming Monitor uses a MiniLED back panel. MiniLED monitors function in a similar way to traditional LED monitors. The monitor uses a single backlit panel, with 1,152 light partitions and over 2,000 small mini LEDs, allowing for a thin frame with bright, vivid colours and sharp contrast.
The monitor has a contrast ratio of 10000:1 and a peak brightness of 1,300 nits, which is evident with the deep blacks and bright whites the monitor is able to display without losing details in games like Valorant, where spotting hidden enemies before they spot you is of utmost importance.
160Hz support with 4K is great for modern AAA titles, making the gameplay smooth and responsive, allowing you to enjoy gameplay the way developers intended for it to be enjoyed.
The monitor also has a low response time of 1ms, which reduces motion blur and ghosting effects and makes it easier to react quickly in-game with swift and precise movements. It supports AMD FreeSync Premium technology, which synchronizes the monitor’s refresh rate with the frame rate of your graphics card to eliminate screen tearing and stuttering issues. The monitor also works well with Nvidia G-Sync Compatible mode (using DisplayPort), which offers similar benefits for Nvidia graphics cards.
You can adjust the refresh rate, response time, and display modes directly from the OSD menu. The menu also has presets for different profiles, including ‘Movie Mode,’ ‘FPS Mode,’ ‘MOBA Mode,’ and an eye-care mode that reduces blue light and adjusts the screen to show warmer colours, ideal for long work hours.
Additional display modes include an ‘Adobe Mode,’ a ‘DCI-P3 Mode,’ and a ‘sRGB Mode.’
The OSD menu also offers six different crosshairs in case you don’t want to use the crosshairs provided in-game. In titles like CS:GO and Valorant, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty, pros also use their monitor’s omnipresent crosshair for easier no-scopes.
Other controls available in the OSD menu include colour settings, brightness and contrast, a setting for local dimming and settings for the OSD itself.
In conclusion, the RedMagic 4K Gaming Monitor from a company primarily known for its Android gaming phones proves to be a pleasant surprise in the world of PC gaming monitors.
While the monitor may not have built-in speakers, and its OSD menu and control positioning aren’t intuitive, its impressive display capabilities, versatile design, and comprehensive connectivity options outweigh the drawbacks.
Red Magic’s gaming monitor is available to purchase now for $869 USD (about $1,147 CAD).
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
