Nubia's Red Magic gaming smartphones are known for their high-end hardware configurations. Their latest flagship offering is the Red Magic 5G - a Snapdragon 865 SoC-powered phone that also carries a 144Hz high refresh rate AMOLED display, a 4,500mAh battery with support for 55W fast charging, and last but not least, a rotating fan for the sake of active cooling. The phone runs a customized UX skin named Red Magic OS on top of Android 10, which is full of hidden features and easter eggs.

Red Magic 5G XDA ForumsRed Magic 5G Gaming Review - Smartphone Gaming has never looked smoother

Back in May, Nubia publicly released the kernel source code for the device to help aftermarket developers start tinkering. The bootloader unlocking part is rather simple, and now we’re getting a look at the first custom kernel released for this device. MattoftheDead aka MOD Kernel by XDA Senior Member mslezak gives you all the freedom to play with the different clock frequencies supported by the SoC. Most of the debugging related codes have been stripped down to make it lightweight. The custom kernel also features the wakelock blocker routine by XDA Recognized Developer andip71 to reduce idle battery drain. The developer recommends SmartPack-Kernel Manager to tweak the kernel parameters.

Overclockers should be happy to hear that a special build of this kernel also allows you to run the GPU at a freaking 940 MHz! Such a high clock speed is only meant for the enthusiasts and definitely not recommended for typical usage. The regular version the custom kernel allows GPU overclocking up to 900 MHz, which is still enough to score over 670K under AnTuTu Benchmark.

nubia_red_magic_5g_mod_kernel_antutu

The latest version of MOD kernel is 1.2, albeit it is still tagged as a beta. While the kernel first had a series of issues, particularly related to frequency auto-reset, these have been ironed out since then. If you’re interested in tweaking and modding your Nubia Red Magic 5G, then this one might be worth a look.

MOD Kernel for the Nubia Red Magic 5G: Download || Source || XDA Discussion Thread