Imagine Santa Claus sending you to heaven where you can pick any component and create the productivity phone of your dreams. You can be as bold as the hardware inside your laptop, and even borrow some tricks, like a physical fan and liquid cooling, from gaming laptops. Sounds dreamy and outlandish, doesn't it?
Well, that's essentially what the Red Magic 11 Pro is. Red Magic has released some excellent phones over the years, but its latest release takes things to the next level. See those blue tunnels on the back of the phone? Well, they're coolant tracks, and you can actually see it moving as the phone shifts through performance gears.
This is all? Well, that's far from true. This phone is packed to the brim if you want top-notch performance above all else. But there's plenty of “regular phone” on the table, making the Red Magic 11 Pro a stunning $749 price point. There are some paper cut outs, but if you're after a phone that will turn heads anywhere, this is one cheeky beaut.
Performance Monster
Let's be real. You buy the Red Magic 11 Pro for raw performance, and it delivers. The version I have for review has 16GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage, but you can upgrade it to 24GB of RAM and 1TB of internal storage. Led by the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, this combination does not disappoint.
On AnTuTu, this is the first phone I've seen to break the four million score mark. By comparison, that's nearly 40% higher than Apple's latest iPhones. It was only slightly slower than its Apple competitor in terms of single-core performance, but it was still literally breathing down its neck. In Geekbench he was ahead iPhone 17 pro about a 10% gap in multi-core tests.
Moving on to more intensive work, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor powering the Red Magic allowed it to outperform the mighty A19 Pro inside Apple's flagship in terms of frame generation power output in 3DMark tests by almost 33-35%.
But what surprised me most were the stability scores, especially after running demanding stress tests. After running 3DMark stress tests, stability scores were typically around 70-80%. These are some of the highest scores I've seen from a flagship phone.
What does it mean? Well, if you play games, the frame rate will remain constant and you won't notice any aggressive performance throttling even if you play them with the best graphics settings. I also noticed that there were no sudden spikes in temperature or power consumption when the phone was running.
These benchmark results are also a good representation of actual gameplay. In general, any game that supports 120fps will reach this level and maintain maximum performance. The phone also features frame interpolation technology that can increase the frame rate from 60 fps to 120 fps. Demanding games such as Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail played well at maximum graphics settings.
In Zenless Zone Zero, the frame interpolation technology worked quite well, increasing performance from 60 to 120 frames per second. Drops were also fairly minimal, with numbers only dropping to 118fps during intense action scenes despite graphics settings being maxed out.
Even without going into Diablo mode, Wuthering Waves ran smoothly at 60fps in Rise and with graphics settings maxed out. Other games such as Call of Duty: Mobile and Diablo Immortal also played quite well. Overall, this is a phone built for gaming, and if you're looking for something forward-looking for retro emulation, cloud and native mobile gaming, then this is it.
But you don't always have to go crazy and overclock the performance in Diablo mode to get the most out of the built-in processor. Rise mode handles games very well. Built-in shoulder buttons make a big difference in games, and they're bigger this time.
Then there are exclusive game plugins that feel almost like cheating when enabled in games. The AI ​​Trigger plugin in particular helped me double my shooter hits while making it a cakewalk. There are many other useful gaming features that take the Red Magic 11 Pro to the next level.
Yes, the overall user interface is terrible, but when you get into GameSpace, it's a completely different world with deep performance and game settings. No smartphone brand does this quite like Red Magic and it deserves sincere praise.
This cooling technology is not a gimmick.
Red Magic has equipped its latest flagship with an AquaCore cooling system, which is touted as the industry's first mass-produced flow-through liquid cooling system. It sits alongside other thermal management systems such as the vapor chamber, liquid metal, and a physical fan with side vents.
The fan speed has also increased to 24,000 RPM, and the vapor chamber is the largest you'll find on a phone. The liquid cooling system uses fluorinated fluid and you can actually see it moving through a channel visible through the rear glass shell.
It's currently impossible to pinpoint exactly how much cooling can be attributed to this system, but in my tests, the Red Magic 11 Pro was the most capable phone in terms of thermal management. After running a ray tracing stress test, the phone's temperature rose to just 41 degrees Celsius (or 105 degrees Fahrenheit).
When testing it on the 20-cycle Wildlife Extreme Stress test, the phone's temperature rose by just seven degrees Celsius. In flagship phones, these tests often cause the phone to overheat and in some cases become too hot to hold.
On the other hand, Red Magic 11 Pro never gave me such trouble. I would like to point out that the ambient temperature around me is usually in the range of 13-15 degrees Celsius (about 55 degrees Fahrenheit), so it is likely that heat transfer through the metal case is more efficient compared to summer. When gaming, the phone again stays cool noticeably better than its predecessor.
After a 30-minute session of Genshin Impact, the maximum temperature I recorded was 37 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit), mostly concentrated in the fan area. This happens mainly because the fans circulate hot air through the chassis. The remaining portion of the rear glass shell was usually a little cooler, but not noticeable enough to be felt by the fingers.
After playing Free Fire for 30 minutes at the best graphics settings, the phone's temperature only rose from 34 to 37 degrees Celsius. After a 30-minute session of hacking and slashing demons in Diablo Immortal at the best graphics settings, the maximum temperature I recorded was 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
The metal body naturally runs warmer, but overall the Red Magic 11 Pro's liquid cooling technology definitely helps keep the phone running smoothly without any nasty overheating.
What else shines here?
The Red Magic 11 Pro features a 6.85-inch OLED panel with extremely thin bezels, 2K resolution, 144Hz refresh rate and 1800 nits peak brightness. These are all signs of a good screen, designed specifically for viewing content and playing games. I just wish it was a little less reflective, although the image quality and viewing angles are acceptable.
From a distance, it looks like the most exciting phone panel ever. If you look closely, you'll notice that the selfie camera is hidden under a layer of pixels. Yes, I like the clean look, but the under-display camera isn't exactly stellar and takes average selfies at best. In low light conditions the situation gets worse with very soft self-portraits.
I love the battery life of this device. It is equipped with a massive 7500mAh battery. Even if you play demanding games for 3-4 hours every day, the phone will still last until the end of the day. Additionally, support for 80W wired charging and 80W wireless charging is another major benefit.
At the back are two 50-megapixel cameras alongside a 2-megapixel zoom camera. No, it's not a typo, and as you'd expect, the pictures come out bad. The other two photos are fine, but don't go too deep into things like color realism, realistic shadows, and detailed surfaces.
Overall, the Red Magic 11 Pro doesn't fit the typical mold of a budget phone like iPhone 17 or OnePlus 15. And yet, it is far superior to these two devices in several important areas such as performance, memory, storage capacity, battery size, charging capabilities and display quality.
Otherwise, it's average at best, especially considering the limited number of Android updates it will receive in three years. But with a starting price of just $749, this phone is an incredible value if you're really after mobile gaming nirvana.
