RedMagic 11 Pro Review

Design 

• 163.8 x 76.5 x 8.9 mm, 230g
• Active cooling fan and liquid cooling
• IPX8 rated

With the last few generations, RedMagic has been sticking to its squared-off blocky design. And as great as those phones have been, I was beginning to crave some more novelty. 

Thankfully, the RedMagic 11 Pro brings something truly unique to the table – liquid cooling that you can actually watch being pumped around the phone. There’s a clear circular window in the centre of the rear panel, and when the liquid cooling is active, you can see blue fluid moving around in a circular motion.

It’s stupidly cool (excuse the pun), but the bigger question is whether or not it makes a noticeable difference to the performance.

Liquid cooling isn’t the only trick the RedMagic 11 Pro has up its sleeve, either. It also features the iconic LED micro fan that has been present on Redmagic devices for years now. This blows air across the internals to keep the phone performing its best during long sessions.

The other classic Redmagic features also make an appearance. There’s the signature physical slider that quickly opens the Game Space, as well as capacitive touch shoulder buttons to give you an edge in FPS titles.

You also get some backlit elements to add to the gamer aesthetic. The Redmagic logo on the rear panel can be illuminated, as can the touch triggers, and there are a couple of matching accents on the opposite side. 

Each area can be customised to display a different colour, and you can make these LEDs pulsate along with the sound from the phone, pulse and strobe in different patterns, or just stay on all the time. This time, you can actually adjust the colours of the fan, too, and I’m really pleased to see that.

The phone is available in three colourways. The option I have for testing is called Nightfreeze. It’s mostly black, with transparent elements and the aforementioned visible liquid cooling loop. Subzero is a very similar design, only it’s mostly white and features silvery metallic elements.

If you’re not looking to make such a statement, Cryo is an all-black colourway with a matte finish. Cryo is only available for the base model phone with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, while Nightfreeze and Subzero are available for the 16GB+512GB or 24GB+1TB models.

The phone feels extremely dense and premium throughout. It has an aluminium mid-frame and both the front and rear are covered with flat panes of Corning Gorilla Glass (though RedMagic hasn’t specified exactly which version).

There’s a basic case included in the box, made from hard plastic with a frosted corrugated finish that reminds me of a conservatory roof. It’s essentially the same case that came with the Redmagic 10 Air, and I much prefer this compared to the clear case on older Redmagic phones. The older style would scratch and scuff if you so much as looked at it the wrong way, whereas this frosted case should fare better in the long term.

The phone is IPX8 rated, which means it’s basically waterproof, but it’s not rated to withstand dust ingress. It shouldn’t be too surprising, given the active fan, which needs vents to draw in air. That said, a quick rain shower probably won’t harm it, but it might not be the ideal companion for a day at the beach.

Screen 

• 6.85-inch 144Hz 1216×2688 OLED
• Uninterrupted screen with slim bezels
• 1800 nits peak brightness

I’ve always enjoyed the screens on RedMagic phones, and this one is just as impressive. It uses the brand’s signature under-display selfie camera, which means there’s no notch or cutout to get in the way of your content.

It’s seriously impressive tech, and it’s leagues ahead of what Samsung was able to achieve with its previous Z Fold phones. With the screen on, it’s almost impossible to spot the selfie camera, unless you’re really examining it.

Otherwise, you get a blisteringly fast 144Hz refresh rate, 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage and an ample 1800 nits of brightness for outdoor use.

It’s a great-looking screen, which is exactly what you want for gaming, but it’s equally impressive when you’re watching shows via Netflix or Prime Video. Thankfully, it has the required Widevine L1 certification for high-res streaming, too, so you can enjoy your favourites in stunning HDR.

Cameras 

• 50MP main camera (1/1.55-inch sensor)
• 50MP ultrawide (AF)
• 16MP under-display selfie camera

Cameras are rarely the highlight of gaming devices, but I’m pleased to report that RedMagic has been getting better with every generation.

The biggest downsides of this system, compared to your typical flagship phone, are the lack of a telephoto camera and the under-display selfie camera. I’ve already talked about the benefits of the under-display camera, but the downsides are extremely obvious, too.

Basically, if you like taking selfies, avoid this phone. The preview looks smudgy and low-resolution, then when you hit the shutter button, heavy-handed processing turns you into an AI-enhanced cartoon character – often with some weird colours in the mix. 

Of course, if you never take selfies, then you have nothing to worry about. In fact, the main camera punches above its weight. It’s a relatively large sensor, and it’s capable of good results in almost any lighting conditions.

The ultrawide camera is solid, too, with an ample 50MP resolution and autofocus. It’s handy for group photos and wide landscapes alike. I’d recommend avoiding the ultrawide at night, though, as the tiny sensor either introduces grain or blur, depending on the circumstance.

RedMagic’s image processing isn’t quite on par with the top camera-focused brands, but it’s certainly not bad. By default, it’s a little contrasty and vibrant for my particular tastes, but you are given plenty of tools to change the way your images look.

There’s a variety of picture styles, along with very Apple-inspired tone controls, so it’s not too challenging to make images look the way you prefer. You can even shoot in RAW if you use Pro mode.

Video performance is surprisingly decent, too. You can shoot at up to 4K 60fps with both of the rear cameras, or even 8K 30fps, if you like. You’ll likely want to stick to 4K for the best stabilisation, and while the selfie camera can record videos at up to 1080p, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Performance 

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
• 12GB/16GB RAM, 256GB/512GB/1TB storage
• Dual stereo speakers

As usual, the performance is the key selling point of this device, and with the latest Qualcomm chip onboard, as well as the most extreme cooling setup I’ve ever seen, it’s likely one of the fastest we’ll see this year.

A slight hiccup is that this is the first Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 phone I’ve tested, so it’s very hard to gauge how much of a difference the advanced cooling system makes. In any case, as expected, it’s by far the fastest phone I’ve used to date.

It breezes through our usual 3DMark Wildlife Extreme test, barely breaking a sweat. It posted an astounding score of 8113, about a 20% increase on what we saw from the S25 Ultra, with its special overclocked 8 Elite chip.

To push the performance further, I ran the 3DMark Wildlife Extreme stress test, which loops the same benchmark for 20 minutes straight. It achieved 76% stability, and its worst loop was still almost as good as the best from the S25 Ultra – really impressive stuff.

So for now, it seems safe to say that the cooling is doing its job effectively, but we’ll only really know how well it works when some other 8 Elite Gen 5 phones cross our desks.

Of course, this translates to incredible real-world performance, too. I spent a good amount of time playing Wuthering Waves at maximum settings, and while mid-range phones really struggle with this game, the RedMagic took it in its stride.

With this much power at your disposal, it’s less of a question of what you can run and more a question of what you can’t. I have a feeling those who are into console emulation will have a really good time with this device.

As ever, Redmagic’s endless suite of gaming enhancements only serves to make the experience better. The touch triggers on the frame of the phone offer a meaningful advantage in competitive titles, and some of the software tweaks almost feel like cheating. There’s everything from visual aids and crosshair replacements to auto-firing and footstep amplification.

The speakers on this handset are mighty impressive, too. It’s a dual stereo setup with one speaker that fires from the base, next to the USB-C port, and one that doubles up as the phone’s earpiece.

They’re extremely powerful, have a nice, wide soundstage, and there’s more weight to the low-end than you’ll find from a lot of competitors. Of course, headphones are always going to sound better, but if you’re gaming at home, these will get the job done handily. Plus, this phone has a 3.5mm headphone socket, so you have more options than usual.

Software 

• RedMagic OS 11, based on Android 16
• Endless gaming features
• AI powered by Google Gemini

The RedMagic 11 Pro runs RedMagic OS 11, which is the brand’s customised version of Android 16. If you’ve used a recent RedMagic device, you won’t be in for too many surprises; it looks and behaves very similarly.

One pleasant surprise was that my device didn’t have the usual bloatware pre-installed, but since I got my review unit well ahead of launch, that may not be true of retail units.

The software ran smoothly throughout my testing, and it always feels lightning quick. There were a few instances of untranslated prompts appearing with Chinese characters, and some slightly less than ideal translations, but the vast majority of the time, everything worked as expected.

You don’t get quite the same level of polish that you’d expect from a mainstream flagship, but honestly, it’s not far off. I found it easy to live with, and I’m sure most others would feel the same.

You get the usual Google niceties included, like Gemini as the default assistant and Circle to Search, which I always find extremely handy. There’s even a Google Discover feed if you swipe left on the homescreen, which is something that’s often missing. Other than some stylistic changes, it feels quite stock.

Of course, RedMagic’s Game Space is what really sets this phone apart. It acts as a kind of console-like game library, with a separate home screen, making it easy to get into games without the distractions of real life getting in the way. I’ve already mentioned some of its features, but the list feels almost endless. If you like to tinker with settings, you’re in for a world of fun.

One of the more unique features of this OS is the Mora digital assistant. Mora is RedMagic’s anime waifu mascot, and if you like, she can sit on your home screen and make comments about things like your battery percentage throughout the day. You can also talk to her with AI chatbot functionality, and even snap digitally augmented pictures of Mora standing on your desk.

It’s a bit wild for me, but if it’s your kind of thing, the functionality is there. It’s more about novelty than practicality, and that’s fine by me; it’s off by default, and I think most people will probably keep it that way.

Battery life 

• 7500mAh battery
• 80W wired charging
• 80W wireless charging

The RedMagic 11 Pro has a massive 7500mAh battery on board. It’s currently tied with the recently released Oppo Find X9 Pro as the largest battery of any phone I’ve tested to date.

As you might expect, this results in phenomenal battery life, and you can make the phone last two days on a charge without difficulty.

I moved into this phone right after testing the Find X9 Pro, and it didn’t seem to last quite as long as Oppo’s latest. There could be a number of reasons for this, but I was gaming more on the RedMagic, which is always hard on the battery, especially when you add lighting and active cooling to the equation.

When it comes to charging, RedMagic has simultaneously taken one step back and a gigantic leap forward. While the 10 Pro supported up to 100W speeds, the 11 Pro maxes out at 80W; however, unlike previous Redmagic devices, this one has wireless charging.

With the right charging pad, you can charge at up to 80W wirelessly. It’s the fastest I’ve seen so far and double the wired charging speed of the iPhone 17 Pro Max; it’s pretty wild. Of course, 80W wireless chargers are few and far between, but I’m sure RedMagic will be happy to sell you one. Thankfully, the 80W power adapter is still included in the box.

Should you buy it?