Nubia Redmagic 11 Pro review: The first choice of serious gamers

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Redmagic is a company that doesn’t rest on its laurels. Rather than launching simple iterations of its gaming phones every six months, the Chinese manufacturer usually includes some advance in technology that sets a new model apart. That’s certainly the case with its latest – the Redmagic 11 Pro – which it says is the world’s first mass-produced smartphone with AI server-grade liquid cooling.

There are also a few other nips and tucks here and there to make this new gaming phone interesting to those who like to play on the go. But can the new cooling system keep things flowing?

Design & Build

• Solid and familiar design
• New liquid-cooling panel
• IPX8 waterproof rating

Redmagic has remained pretty consistent with its design ethos over the past few years, so the 11 Pro isn’t really breaking any new ground in terms of construction.

The familiar large rectangular frame with an aluminium-alloy band comes in only fractionally bigger than its predecessor, the Redmagic 10S Pro, measuring 163.82mm x 76.54mm x 8.9mm, with a weight of 230g. It’s hefty beast, but one that feels solid in the hand, or rather two hands, as it can be unwieldy in only one.  

The substantial frame houses the 6.85-inch AMOLED panel which, in classic Redmagic tradition, has no notches or punch-holes in the display thanks to the selfie camera and fingerprint sensor positioned under the screen.

As this is a gaming-focused smartphone, there’s more going on in terms of buttons and controls on the flanks. The right side is home to the power and volume controls, along with the ‘Magic’ red sliding button that’s a staple of the brand. This is used for launching the Game Space dedicated gaming software but can be reassigned to a variety of duties in the settings if you prefer – such as opening the camera or turning on the flashlight.

There are two 520Hz touch-sensitive shoulder triggers, one positioned at either end, now in a larger rectangular shape that differentiates the 11 Pro from the smaller curved rectangular ones on the 10S Pro. Redmagic also says that these are upgraded versions that support Portrait mode gameplay, so you can use them in Pokemon Go and similar titles without needing to touch the display.

Each side features outlet vents for the internal fan, with the right also home to the Game Mode strip, which incorporates a couple of RGB lights that match those embedded in the shoulder triggers. These can be set to show your preferred colours, allowing you to personalise the appearance of the device. There are more RGB lights to be found behind the logo on the rear panel as well as surrounding the visible fan, all of which have been a regular feature on Redmagic phones for years.

The centre of the panel reveals a large ring with blue liquid inside. This is the new liquid cooling system

A 3.5mm headphone jack lives on the top edge, while the bottom is where you’ll find the USB-C charging port and one of the speakers (the other is along the top of the display). These have also been tweaked to offer deeper bass responses and a slightly better range of sound.

The rear panel is where the most obvious changes can be seen. Yes, it’s still a flat glass panel with the camera modules underneath – avoiding any kind of bump that would be uncomfortable to hold while playing games – but the centre of the panel reveals a large ring with blue liquid inside. This is the new liquid cooling system, which I’ll cover in more detail later, and I have to admit it’s quite strange to launch a game and watch the liquid move through the ring as it helps lower the internal temperature.

Obviously, you don’t see this if you’re actually paying attention to the display (like much of the RGB lighting) but it’s fun to muck about with and looks pretty damn cool.

The Redmagic 11 Pro comes in three colourways – Nightfreeze (transparent black), Subzero (transparent white) or Cryo (charcoal grey). Bafflingly the Cryo option covers up the cooling liquid circle on the back, so I’ve no idea why you’d choose that option.

With all that liquid flowing around the place, it’s somewhat ironic that the new model receives a boosted IPX8 rating, meaning it’s protected against immersion in water beyond one metre, which is a marked improvement on the splash-proof IP54 rating of the Redmagic 10S Pro.

You get a full plastic case in the box, which is a step up from the partial ones that have been included up to this point. It’s a frosted-style design, which means you still get a view of the cooling ring on the back. Nice.

Screen & Speakers

• 6.85-inch 144Hz AMOLED panel
• 3,000Hz instant touch sampling rate
• Dual speakers (1015a + 1115e)

The screen has been upgraded from the previous model but shares many of the same specifications. So, you get a 6.85-inch AMOLED panel running at 2688 x 1216 with a 144Hz refresh rate.

Thanks to the under-screen selfie camera and fingerprint sensor (the latter of which proved reliable most of the time), the 11 Pro also retains the impressive 95.3% screen to body ratio (yes I know that’s a percentage, but this is how the industry describes these terms).

The max brightness has dropped slightly from 2,000 to 1,800nits, but I measured a very similar 1200nits in normal use, so it’s practically identical to the older model.

Redmagic also introduces a ‘wet hand’ mode to cope with being used in the rain

One area that’s been improved is the instant touch-sampling. On the 10S Pro this was 2,500Hz but on the 11 Pro it’s been beefed up to an even quicker 3,000Hz. ’m not going to pretend that I could tell the difference in real life, but I will say that the responsiveness to onscreen activities was dependable and always felt instantaneous.

This time around Redmagic also introduces a ‘wet hand’ mode to cope with being used in the rain or when you’ve just washed your hands. I tested this while walking the dog in the rain. I didn’t have any problems operating the 11 Pro, which shows that the new technolgy is working well.

As with all recent Redmagic smartphones, the display is lovely: full, rich colours, plenty of brightness and no ugly cutouts to annoy the user. This makes it one of my favourite smartphone series for watching video or playing games.

Sound is decent, with loud volume levels available which don’t show much breakup even when pushing the dual speakers hard. But the best results are found by plugging in a wired set of headphones. Should you prefer wireless, then the Bluetooth 4.2 capabilities proved just as adept, while also providing a solid connection.  

Specs & Performance

• 4.6GHz Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor
• Excellent performance
• Impressive new cooling system

It’s par for the course that Redmagic equips its smartphones with premium-tier hardware, so there’s no surprise that the processor powering the 11 Pro is the latest 4.6GHz Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Alongside that, there’s the upgraded Redmagic RedCore R4 gaming chip, which aids in performance and temperature control.

From an everyday perspective, the Redmagic 11 Pro flies along

These are accompanied by LPDDRX5T RAM (my review sample has 16GB but you can get up to 24GB), and up to 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage (mine has 512GB). So, everything is fast and top of the line, meaning the new device is claimed by Redmagic to boost performance by 20% and GP by 30% over its predecessor.

Certainly, from an everyday perspective, the Redmagic 11 Pro flies along. Apps open instantly, nothing crashes, and gaming is smooth. This has been true of Redmagic’s handsets for a while now, and I don’t see any problems down the line for the 11 Pro.

Obviously, as it’s a dedicated gaming device, that new cooling system comes into play when assessing performance. Redmagic says this is the first mass-produced smartphone with Liquid Cooling, and I can’t think of another one, so that seems to check out.

The approach is fascinating, with the “miniaturised liquid flow channel design” meaning that the phone has ultra-fine liquid channels inside the body, through which flows the fluorinated coolant. Incidentally, as it’s anti-freezing coolant, it will still work in sub-zero temperatures, so all you arctic gamers out there can rejoice.

The liquid cooling is only part of the design though, as the Redmagic 11 Pro also features a vapour chamber, above which sits a liquid metal area for heat dissipation (as on the previous model), plus for the first time there’s a water and dustproof fan, and it’s faster (24,000rpm) than the non-waterproof one in the 10S Pro.  

Aside from the very cool aesthetics I described above, the system works very well to keep temperatures manageable even during heavy gameplay sessions. I did notice a little more noise than I remember with the 10S Pro, but nothing obtrusive. Also, I’d rather a slightly louder whirring sound that a hotter handset.

Redmagic 11 Pro benchmarks

Cameras

• 50Mp f/1.88 23mm main
• 50Mp f/2.0 13mm wide angle
• Improved under-display selfie camera

The cameras on the Redmagic range have been slowly improving over the years, and with the 11 Pro you can certainly get some high quality images if there’s a good level of light or the subject is stationary. To be honest, it’s hard to find bad cameras on smartphones these days, and for a lot of situations the optics on the 11 Pro will be good enough for most people.

The main shooter delivers solid pictures with bright colours and tonal balance. Taking it around my local town, I was able to get a satisfying selection of shots, even with the lighting being a bit awkward with the flat, bright sunlight that dogged all my photography sessions.

Switching to the 50Mp f/2.0 13mm wide angle lens didn’t see the drop in colour saturation that I’ve experienced in the past with other models, making it a far more usable camera when you need a wider field of view – great for landscapes and when you’re too close to the subject for the normal lens.

The main shooter delivers solid pictures with bright colours and tonal balance

Both are assisted by a 2Mp depth sensor to help with focus and isolating portrait subjects, so you get the bokeh that everyone craves.

Video is good too, and you can go up to 8K at 30fps, but the 4K/60fps will be the sweet spot if you want to create YouTube videos or just high-quality home recordings. Focus tracking is fast, with not too much hunting, and the exposure balance quickly deals with moving from brightly lit to dim areas.

Surprisingly, the front facing camera (which is hidden under the display) has improved quite a bit from the awful ones that appeared on earlier Redmagic devices. If selfies are your priority, you might find the slightly over-sharpened images don’t quite match your desires, but for the occasional shot to post on social media the 11 Pro is actually quite usable.

Here’s a selection of photos I captured with the Redmagic 11 Pro:

Battery Life & Charging

• 7,500mAh battery
• 80W fast/wired charging
• Excellent battery life

The 11 Pro comes with a whopping great 7,500mAh cell, which also boasts 80W fast charging and wireless charging.

You’ll be able to get some serious game time in with the 11 Pro before you need to charge

If you’re using this as a standard phone, you’ll easily get two days out of it, maybe more. Those figures naturally drop when you fire up a game or two, but even then the performance was good. Gentle titles like Stardew Valley (which plays wonderfully on the large uninterrupted display) only knocked off 5% of the total charge after an hour of play.

More graphically challenging titles, such as Asphalt Legends, Eternium and others, exacted a higher toll. With those, I found the 11 Pro used up around 10-15% of its charge per hour, which is still a decent return, as you can get 7-8 hours of gameplay. Obviously this is affected by whether the game requires an internet connection, the brightness of your display and so on. But overall you’ll be able to get some serious game time in with the 11 Pro before you need to charge.

When you do, it’s not too long before you’ll be back up and running. Redmagic claims that a zero to 100% recharge will take an hour when using the included charger and cable. Sadly, the review unit I was sent came with a US charger and I’m in the UK. I used a 67W charger from a previous model, which took a longer 1 hour and 57 minutes to get the unit back to full strength. 15 minutes of charging brought the device up to 13%, but again, it should be faster if you get an included charger that works in your region.  

Redmagic says the wireless recharge is similar to a wired one (with maybe an extra 10 minutes or so), but I wasn’t able to test this myself as I only had an old Qi charger to hand. Running the Redmagic 11 Pro through the PCMark battery test we use for all reviews returned a time of 9 hours and 50 minutes, which is very respectable indeed.

Software

• Android 16/Redmagic OS11
• Game Space dedicated gaming suite
• Not much bloatware

Redmagic uses its own skin that runs on top of Android, and has done so for years. With the 11 Pro you get Android 16 and Redmagic OS 11. Everything works as you’d expect. There’s plenty of customisation options in OS 11, with themes and icon packs to make things more futuristic and game-like. You don’t need to use them of course, but some are quite fun and cool-looking.

I was surprised to still find a few instances where Chinese characters appeared in messages or with system items, but they were rare and it’s highly likely that these will be translated properly in further updates once the pre-release software I was using has been replaced.

Updates are better too, with the 11 Pro due to receive 5 years of support in the EU and UK for Android upgrades and security patches. It’s not quite as good in the US and other territories, which only get three years.

Game Space remains one of the jewels in the crown for gamers

There are a few bits of bloatware on the 11 Pro out of the box, but these are just a few apps that can be deleted without fuss.

Game Space remains one of the jewels in the crown for gamers. This software suite can be accessed in-game by swiping simultaneously from the right and left flank or by the red slider switch on the top edge.

In here, you’ll find plenty of ways to tweak system performance and controls, as well as gaming tools such as upscaling video, aiming tools, sound enhancements to hear enemy footsteps, as well as ways to manage screenshots.

It’s not changed much in the last few years, as it’s already a well-evolved set of tools, but for mobile gamers it’s a treasure trove of useful additions.

There are a couple of new updates though, as Mora (the anime-style assistant) is now able to offer AI-powered tips as well as the ability to receive and execute voice commands in-game. The feature wasn’t fully operational during my test period, but it should be live by the time you read this review.

Price & Availability

With costs seemingly going up across the board in technology, it’s good to see that Redmagic is still pricing its devices sensibly. You can pick up the Redmagic 11 Pro now from the Redmagic store or Amazon if you live in the UK, in a few different variants and with the following prices:

• Cryo 12GB/256GB – £629/$749
• Nightfreeze or Subzero – 16GB/512GB – £709/$799
• Nightfreeze or Subzero – 24GB/1TB – £879/$999

There are no current networks that offer the Redmagic 11 Pro on a contract, so you would probably be best pairing it with one of the offers in our SIM deals roundup.

Gaming phones are somewhat of a niche market now, with the only real rival to Redmagic’s offering being the ROG Phone 9 Pro. While that is an impressive bit of kit, it’s now over a year old, much more expensive than the 11 Pro, and we’re not sure if Asus intends to bring a new model to the table any time soon.

If you’re definitely in the market for a gaming platform, there’s always the option of looking for the older Redmagic 10s Pro. It shares many of the features of the newer model and might be available cheaper now that it’s been superseded by the 11 Pro.

Should you buy the Redmagic 11 Pro?

Redmagic has been pushing the boundaries of what to expect from a gaming phone for a few years now. Its devices always come with high-end hardware and reasonable price tags. In the 11 Pro we see the perfect distillation of these ideas.

It’s a hugely powerful gaming device, matched with state-of-the-art cooling, but its price undercuts many standard flagship phones. It’s arguably the best value device not only in gaming smartphones, but the smartphone market as a whole.

Specs

• Android 16 / Redmagic OS11 (with five years of updates)
• Game Space software suite
• 6.85-inch 144Hz AMOLED panel (2688 x 1216)
• 3,000Hz instant touch sampling rate
• 1800nits max brightness
• 95.3% screen to body ratio
• 520Hz shoulder controls
• 16GB LPDDRX5T RAM (can go up to 24GB with other models
• 512GB UFS 4.1 storage (can go up to 1TB with other models)
• AquaCore Liquid Cooling system
• Liquid Metal 3.0 cooling plate
• Vapour Chamber
• Redmagic waterproof 24,000 RPM fan
• 50Mp f/1.88 23mm Main camera
• 50Mp f/2.0 13mm Wide Angle camera
• 2Mp depth camera/sensor
• 16Mp f/2.0 under-display selfie camera
• Dual SIM
• NFC
• 5G Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 5.4
• Dual speakers (1015a + 1115e)
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Magic button (Game Space or user-assignable)
• 7,500mAh battery
• 80W Fast / Wired Charging
• USB-C
• IPX8 waterproof rating
• 163.82mm x 76.54mm x 8.9mm
• 230g