Redmagic 11 Pro Review
Redmagic 11 Pro pros and cons
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 + Aquacore liquid cooling = impressive specs.
Massive battery delivers multi-day endurance.
Notch-free gaming delivered by an under-display camera.
An OS packed with quirky translations, a bit of bloatware and cluttered user interface.
Camera remains lacklustre for zoomed images, night mode and selfies alike.
Angular and very bold design stylings - firmly one for the gamers.
Boasting a notch-free display, battery life that goes toe-to-toe with the best and an active cooling fan, the Redmagic 11 Pro positions itself as the ultimate handheld gaming device…that also happens to be a fully-fledged smartphone.
Not content with that, it also promises the world's first mass-produced flowing liquid cooling system and the latest Snapdragon silicon - Redmagic is clearly trying to set new benchmarks this time around!
Check out our Redmagic 11 Pro review to see if it truly delivers a next-gen experience.
Design and specifications
The Redmagic 11 Pro makes literally no attempt to hide its gaming lineage, retaining the boxy, angular design of its forebears, and - despite some impressive revisions - feels like an exercise in function over form.
The back panel is a standout engineering feat, with an entirely flat rear housing a myriad of camera sensors, allowing the phone to sit perfectly flat on a desk or nestled in a pocket, despite its sizable presence.
Weighing in at 230g and measuring 163.8 x 76.5 x 8.9mm, the handset is undeniably a chunky one, with an assortment of colour - and store - variants available since launch.
An unassuming 12GB of RAM + 256GB of storage ‘Cryo’ black model is altogether unassuming, but the transparent editions accented with silver black and gold - and offering as much as a stellar 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage - all lend a fascinating look at the Redmagic 11 Pro’s internal workings.
The customisable RGB lighting remains present and correct, looking every bit like a late noughties ride from The Fast and the Furious, but has also been given a bit of a tune-up for 2026.
You still get the signature illuminated turbofan and logo (as well as a little etching proudly touting its Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 engine under the bonnet), but there is now a new side-frame RGB light strip and lighting effects integrated into the capacitive shoulder triggers.
At a time when gaming phones were entering stealth mode, Redmagic’s 11 Pro is loud, proud and infinitely programmable, though you can thankfully turn them off if you need to tone things down a little.
The ‘Subzero’ silver model in for review does seem to strike a very fine balance between over-the-top and simply cyberpunk, erring on the right side of gaudy but still every bit the massive fingerprint magnet over its expansive glass rear.
Speaking of the rear, it’s impossible to avoid the huge, pulsating back of the Redmagic 11 Pro literally flowing before your eyes…
A reinforced AquaCore cooling system transfers heat away from its internals, making for what Redmagic boasts as the first ever mass-produced device to leverage technology usually reserved for the most beastly of gaming PCs - liquid cooling.
Paired with composite liquid metal, the 11 Pro threatens to demolish all benchmarks, keeping chilled whilst delivering all the frame rates. That’s not to say this phone doesn’t get hot - whether charging or gaming the cooling system prioritises the chipset over your hands, meaning the metal and Gorilla Glass amalgam frame gets noticeably hot - but remains an incredibly cool achievement, literally and figuratively.
Another great addition is the Magic Key. Situated on the right side of the 11 Pro’s frame, this bold red sliding switch defaults to launching the ‘GameSpace’ overlay for all your tweaking needs ahead of a session.
Sounds awfully familiar for those not new to the Redmagic series, but the change is that this toggle is now fully customisable.
You can map it to instantly toggle the force, switch sound modes, open the camera or even start a voice recording, all serving as a tactile and fidget-friendly feature adding genuine utility beyond gaming.
Durability has seen a massive upgrade. Redmagic has achieved an IPX8 rating for water resistance. While the air duct means the device lacks technical sealing against dust (hence missing the '6' from an IP68 certification), the unique dust-proof design and water protection is a notable achievement for a phone with an array of physical moving parts.
The Redmagic 11 Pro may be a little divisive in the looks department, but is an unmitigated triumph when it comes to technical achievements - an incredibly strong start.
Display and audio
The 11 Pro’s 6.85-inch AMOLED display from Chinese component maker BOE is a marvel, more because of what you can’t see...
The front-facing camera is hidden entirely beneath this next-gen flat panel (branded the X10), meaning no notch, no cutout, and as such no interruptions to your viewing pleasure when looking at the 11 Pro’s screen.
With a resolution of 2688 x 1216 and a refresh rate of 144Hz, motion on the Redmagic’s screen is incredibly fluid and smear-free. The panel also hits a peak brightness of 1,800 nits, ensuring visibility holds up well outdoors, with fairly decent colour reproduction and accuracy, for almost its entire real estate.
The trade-off for an invisible front camera has historically been a loss of clarity or pixel density in the specific part of the screen where the lens is nestled, but Redmagic has tinkered with the arrangement to the point where the ‘hole’ is almost imperceptible - certainly there if you go hunting or crank the brightness, but a material improvement over earlier iterations.
Audio comes courtesy of a pair of asymmetrical stereo speakers delivering a punchy soundstage that helps with gaming immersion, but the welcome presence of a 3.5mm headphone jack means no compromise for those looking for the last word in zero-latency acoustics.
Camera capabilities
Our Redmagic reviews certainly have a storied relationship when it comes to camera credentials - as it's always been felt to be a lower priority for the manufacturer in previous efforts, and it’s a miss that’s keenly felt in otherwise such strong - and great value - devices.
Whilst the 11 Pro certainly hasn’t broken this streak of functionality over fidelity, the hardware has seen some updates but the net result continues to feel - or rather look - behind the pace of premium competition.
The main snapper uses a 50-megapixel OmniVision OV50E40 sensor with optical image stabilisation, a fairly robust start that spits out 12.5MP images by default, but can be coerced into high-resolution.
In ideal lighting conditions, the sensor is perfectly capable of capturing punchy and contrast-heavy images that look great on social media. However, the moment that light drops, the lack of sophisticated computational photography becomes very apparent. Shadows often lack detail and highlights can easily become blown out, where most current generation flagships wouldn’t break a (night) sweat.
The most significant omission is the lack of a dedicated telephoto lens, with zooming duties handled entirely by digital cropping from the main sensor. While 2x shots are passable, pushing to 5x or any efforts to edge towards the maximum 10x results in images lacking somewhat in depth and definition.
The 50-megapixel ultrawide lens is a welcome upgrade on paper, but in practice, the sensor suffers from colour tuning that is a little out of lockstep with the efforts of the main camera. Images tend to be darker and softer, making for inconsistent overall photography experiences when trying to get the best out of the 11 Pro.
The trio is rounded out by a 2-megapixel macro sensor, which feels like a spec-sheet filler rather than a useful tool.
The front camera feels like the most clear encapsulation of Redmagic’s priorities, with a 16-megapixel under-display sensor that is equal parts fantastic for screen immersion but a misstep for photography.
Selfies often look washed out and hazy, with a smattering of light dissipation caused by the layer of display pixels covering the sensor. Bright light sources cause significant blooming and video calls can appear soft and lacking in contrast, then come across harsh through what looks like digital overcorrection.
Naturally the selfie-lovers amongst us might opt for another device, but the bottom line is that the cameras on the Redmagic 11 Pro definitely err towards serviceable rather than stellar when capturing images and video.
Whilst having the capability to capture up to 8K at 30fps, 4K at 60fps and 1080 at up to 240fps for slow motion photography in HDR 10+, and even for RAW formats in the Pro setting - this phone won’t be the one to take with you to capture life’s moments…reaming far more suited to adding to your next Fortnite Victory Royale highlight reel.
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Performance and software
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Mobile Platform is at the helm when it comes to the 11 Pro's horsepower, so we’re talking state-of-the-art performance prowess.
Paired with as much as 24GB of LPDDR5T RAM and 1TB of UFS 4.1 Pro storage, this phone chews through work and play alike, blowing through benchmarks.
The holy trinity of a massive 3D vapor chamber, Redmagic’s signature 24,000 RPM turbofan, and now liquid cooling technology allows the chipset to run at peak speeds indefinitely with minimal throttling or slowdown.
The results speak for themselves - playing the visually stunning Where Winds Meet at Ultra settings consistently clocked a locked 60fps, offering a console-grade experience that simply isn't possible on other handhelds without severe thermal throttling or compromises on visuals.
However, users should temper their expectations regarding personal comfort. The laws of thermodynamics dictate that heat removed from the processor has to go somewhere and in this case, it dissipates directly into the metal and glass rear.
The result is a device that gets undeniably warm to the touch during extended sessions. The fan works miracles to save the silicon from throttling, but it certainly isn't there to keep your hands cool.
The shoulder triggers are a competitive advantage, allowing you to map on-screen buttons to the phone's frame.
This keeps your thumbs off the display and offers a tactile responsiveness that software buttons cannot match - but be aware that whilst the triggers seem somewhat larger than those found in earlier Redmagic devices, the actual responsive element remains the same size…which i found to my dismay during a particularly tense match of Call of Duty Mobile.
The device runs on Android 16 with Redmagic OS 11, an interface that really feels like a tale of two halves.
On one side, you have the dedicated Game Space, which is arguably the best gaming overlay on the market. A flick of the Magic Key launches you into a console-like dashboard where you can tweak everything from CPU clock speeds and fan profiles to touch sensitivity and shoulder trigger mapping. The options are granular, powerful and genuinely useful for enthusiasts who want to extract every frame of performance.
Meanwhile, the overall user experience remains chaotic - aggressive neon themes, sci-fi widgets and a default icon pack that clashes with most third-party apps.
Bloatware is also a significant issue out of the box. You will likely find yourself spending the first hour with the device uninstalling a raft of pre-loaded applications. Expect to see the likes of TikTok, Facebook, Booking.com and several generic games cluttering your app drawer, so be prepared for some rejigging before it suits personal tastes.
AI features abound, both due to its Android underpinnings, and Redmagic’s own efforts. Gemini and Google’s own translation software is piled in amongst AI wallpaper generation and transcriptions, all with varying degrees of efficacy. Certainly not why we’re here, but welcome nonetheless.
Translation issues persist throughout system settings, however. You will occasionally stumble upon menus with broken English or confusing descriptions, such as the ‘Cooling Fan Window’ settings or vague battery optimisation toggles. Speaking of batteries, the system's background management is incredibly aggressive.
By default, the OS has a habit of killing background apps like Spotify or Strava to preserve battery life, requiring you to manually lock essential apps in the multitasking menu to keep them running reliably and passing push notifications.
Software support has improved slightly, but Redmagic still lags industry leaders. You can expect limited OS updates compared to the 7-year commitments seen elsewhere, which is an honest consideration for a device at this price.
Battery life and charging
Stamina is simply absurd. The Redmagic 11 Pro packs a whopping 7,500mAh, matching all but the highest specced flagships in the battery life stakes.
In real-world use, the capacity translates to two full days of moderate use or an entire day of heavy gaming (Redmagic claims up to 7.4 hours of continuous Genshin Impact). You can play for hours on a long haul flight and still land with power to spare.
When the tank finally runs dry, the 80W wired charging tops it up rapidly. Redmagic has also included 80W wireless charging on the global model for the first time, adding a layer of convenience previously missing from the series - as well as a charger in the box.
Charge Separation continues to be a brilliant feature, allowing you to run the phone directly from the cable while gaming without charging the battery to reduce heat and preserve battery health.
Redmagic 11 Pro UK pricing and availability
The Redmagic 11 Pro launched in the UK in late November 2025.
The pricing structure is incredibly competitive considering the hardware on offer, as often is the case from Redmagic.
The base model with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage (Matte Black Cryo) starts at £629, which we’d likely steer clear of, simply due to not being able to see the liquid-cooled action inside!
For those wanting a step up in looks and memory alike, the 16GB RAM and 512GB storage models (Transparent Silver Subzero and Transparent Black Nightfreeze) are priced at £709. A top-tier variant with a staggering 24GB RAM and 1TB storage is also available for approximately £879…not bad, considering both the current cost of RAM and flagships frequently sailing beyond the £1,000 mark.
It is available primarily via the Redmagic website and select online partners. Early bird offers included discounts on accessories like the external cooler and protective cases.
Final verdict
It is worth taking a moment to appreciate the sheer rate of iteration from this Chinese manufacturer, as they’re achieved something fairly impressive here.
The 10S Pro only launched in the UK a scant seven months ago, and in that brief period Redmagic has engineered the jump from standard vapour chamber to a crazy liquid-cooled effort, increased the battery capacity from an already generous 7,050mAh to a market-leading 7,500mAh, as well as solving the water resistance conundrum by securing an IPX8 rating, versus protection from mere splashes via an IP54 rating on the 10S Pro.
While other manufacturers are content with incremental updates over 12 months, RedMagic’s six-month cycle is delivering genuine generational leaps.
With ASUS recently pulling the plug on its ROG Phone series to focus on AI-driven PCs, the ‘gaming phone’ sector has lost its most high-profile rivalry, leaving Redmagic with a niche that it continues to capably serve.
For years, users had to choose between the ROG Phone’s polished software and Redmagic’s raw value.
Now, Redmagic stands alone as the only viable option for a dedicated and high-performance gaming handset in the UK.
If you want customisable shoulder triggers, active cooling and unthrottled performance, this is now the only game in town.
The device is far from perfect, as the cameras are mediocre and the software needs polish.
Yet as a handheld Android-powered smartphone that doubles as a console into your pocket, the Redmagic 11 Pro is the undisputed gaming champion...albeit slightly by default!
