REDMAGIC 11 Pro Gaming Smartphone review

The REDMAGIC 11 Pro smartphone, a direct, next-generation successor to last year’s REDMAGIC 10 Pro, has just recently been revealed and will soon be available for Early Bird pre-order access this week. Like its predecessor, the 11 Pro sets itself apart from the competition as the first consumer smartphone with AI server-grade liquid metal cooling—a feature rarely seen in other gaming devices apart from gaming laptops.

The previous version of this technology significantly lowered the temperature of the 10 Pro’s chipsets and draws heat away from the battery, resulting in longer play sessions, better graphical performance and a balanced dissipation of heat across the device, making it safe to hold even during the most intense battles. As expected, the REDMAGIC fashionably kicks things up a notch and asks the question: What if you could witness the liquid metal cooling process in action through the device’s semi-transparent casing?

The result is a striking design that incorporates the REDMAGIC 11 Pro’s revolutionary AquaCore Cooling system into a “space time ring” motif that almost tells its own story. In reality, the fluorinated coolant flows through the circular channels at a seemingly glacial pace and isn’t very exciting to watch most of the time. Players will be far more focused on the game on the device’s screen than on the subtle cooling process taking place on the back. Still, there are other features on the back of the phone that make up for it.

“Packing a 4.6 GHz Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, Adreno GPU and a dedicated RedCore R4 chip, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro is all about power, performance and speed.”

Packing a 4.6 GHz, 5^th Generation Snapdragon 8 Elite SOC, 3^rd gen Oryon CPU, Adreno GPU and a dedicated REDMAGIC RedCore R4 gaming chip, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro is first and foremost all about power, performance and speed, along with plenty of cooling and energy efficiency to make the most of it, and it’s easy to see that REDMAGIC is quite proud of what they have built.

For instance, while the REDMAGIC 10 Pro was the very first to introduce liquid metal cooling, the 11 Pro is the first smartphone (built by REDMAGIC or otherwise) to incorporate AI server-grade liquid cooling into its design, coupled with a waterproof, 24,000 rpm REDMAGIC signature cooling fan and world-leading vapour chambers (the mobile industry’s largest at 13,116 mm²). In other words, serious mobile gamers will have a very difficult time getting the REDMAGIC 11 Pro to crash or overheat, even when playing more demanding games.

In the box, purchasers will find the REDMAGIC 11 Pro, an 80-watt USB-C fast travel charger, a USB-C female-to-female cable for data transfers and charging, and, in a thoughtful and consumer-friendly gesture, a complimentary case to protect the 11 Pro from drops. According to REDMAGIC, the 11 Pro has been tested to withstand “hundreds of thousands of drops.”

Regardless, buyers should put the included case on the phone right away, then look for a tempered glass shield and a sturdier case that offers better screen protection and grip. While the REDMAGIC 11 Pro is built to survive a serious fall, likely because it needs to prevent liquid metal leakage, it would still be unpleasant to use with a cracked AMOLED screen, even one made of Corning Gorilla Glass. It’s best to protect a premium smartphone like this from the start.

Starting at $749.99 USD, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro comes in three style variants based on RAM and storage capacity (12GB RAM + 256GB ROM, 16GB RAM + 512GB ROM, and 24GB RAM + 1TB ROM), with the latter two options featuring transparent metal bodies which are purpose-built to show off the aforementioned Liquid Metal 3.0 coolant-filled chambers.  I personally received a ”Nightfreeze” loaner model for review, which is predominantly transparent black and grey, but those seeking a more standout colourway can choose the silver “Subzero” option instead, which gives a slightly clearer peek at the 11 Pro’s innards.

Conversely, the 12GB RAM + 256GB ROM base model, dubbed “Cyro,” exclusively offers a non-transparent, stripped-down casing that conceals the vapour chambers entirely, but presents a more fashionable and conservative look that customers with less-demanding gaming content needs might find to be the most attractive. Regardless of model, a dynamic RGB lighting strip illuminates the turbofan, “triggers” (shoulder buttons) and the REDMAGIC logo on the back of the device, helping to complete the futuristic look.

“I’ve never been the biggest fan of mobile gaming, yet I still managed to have a great time on the REDMAGIC 11 Pro.”

As one would expect from a cutting-edge gaming phone, the star attraction is the REDMAGIC 11 Pro’s BOE X10 AMOLED full-screen display, which has a maximum resolution of 2688 x 1216 and can operate at speeds of up to 144Hz, depending on the demands and limitations of the applications being run. Sporting a peak brightness of 1800 nits, a 100% DCI-P3 Wide Colour Gamut, and black frame insertion, the 11 Pro is able to produce true-to-life colours, minimal screen flicker, and clear visuals even in sunlit outdoor conditions.

As far as performance goes, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro is an impressively powerful piece of kit that’s far more gamer-focused than I imagined it would be. For instance, located just below the power button on the smartphone’s right side is a metallic-orange button referred to as the “Customized Magic Key.” Sliding up the key will immediately transport the user from any screen or app they might be running to the REDMAGIC 11 Pro’s “Game Space” mode, which effectively serves as a unified launcher for games, as well as a settings menu for the mode itself. While the slider key is engaged, players cannot quit directly out of  “Game Space” mode; they’ll have to disengage the Magic Key first.

In some ways, the Game Space “lock” feature is beneficial, as it prevents players from accidentally touching or opening unrelated apps and inadvertently pulling themselves out of a game while Game Space acts as its guardrails. What’s confusing, though, is that individual games can also be launched normally from the home screen, and when that occurs, said games load up via a Game Space-related app called Energy Cube 3.0.

The best way to think of Energy Cube is an alternative version of Game Space but with less guardrails; players can quit out of games and can also access many more settings than they can in Game Space, such as adding a frame counter, enabling the shoulder trigger buttons, tweaking GPU performance or changing the framerate cap from 30 to 60fps, settings which all appear to carry over to Game Space even if the game that is running wasn’t opened there.

My console gamer sensibilities make it difficult for me to regard the corner sensors on the power-button side of the REDMAGIC 11 Pro as “shoulder triggers,” as there are no actual triggers to pull or hold onto, and they’re completely flat and flush with the rim of the device. If you can get past that, however, they become quite intuitive as shoulder buttons that can be remapped to just about any in-game button, and they also work in portrait mode. They can also be used as “shutter buttons when using the camera, a very smart throwback move.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of mobile gaming, but I nonetheless still managed to have a great time on the REDMAGIC 11 Pro overall with the usual mobile gaming suspects, namely Genshin Impact, Zenless Zone Zero and Call of Duty Mobile. All three games played fine at “High” quality settings at 30fps. Still, as a gamer who prefers a smoother framerate, I was more than happy to ratchet down the character details in both Genshin and Zenless in exchange for a more fluid, 60fps experience.

Zenless Zone Zero was easily the most impressive of the three games I played, offering very respectable, stylized graphics and rock-solid 60fps gameplay. This even held true when I used the Game Base feature to connect my game to a larger monitor.

By the way, I should mention that the REDMAGIC 11 Pro never became hot in my hands, even after hours of on-and-off playing; the nearly silent turbofan would automatically kick in when the action got intense, but the temperature never registered with me as anything above “warm,” even when my fingers occasionally blocked the ports while handling the device. The cooling fan can also be engaged manually via a widget on the home screen, which, when starting up, humorously simulates the sound of a hot rod revving and then launching from the starting grid.

One of the more fascinating ways REDMAGIC has set its gaming smartphones apart from the competition is by including an optional AI personal assistant named “Mora,” who also appeared on the 10 Pro. Mora is visually represented as an attractive, pink-haired anime character who has travelled back in time from the year 2122 to serve as REDMAGIC’s official mascot. When fully enabled with permissions, Mora stands idly on the REDMAGIC 11 Pro’s home screen and responds to touch interactions with voiced comments in limited ways. It does feel a bit waifu-coded at first. Still, there’s nothing inappropriate about the feature, aside from occasionally triggering the same five or six reaction lines when interacting with her.

“Home Screen Interactive Mora” can be disabled from appearing on the home screen if the user desires by going into the REDMAGIC 11 Pro’s Mora App and toggling off the feature. Still, at the very least, it’s worth checking out some of the other neat things that Mora can do before dismissing her services out of hand. Players can engage in AI-powered chats with Mora, which I found interesting for digging into her backstory and learning more about her 2122 origins.

It’s quaint that REDMAGIC went so far as to build Mora up as a character. Frankly, I won’t be surprised if future iterations of REDMAGIC phones eventually come pre-installed with full-fledged action games starring her. Players can also livestream with Mora as a sidekick, or create AR content with Mora sitting, standing or posing within the frame (pretty standard AR stuff).

With “Mora Care” toggled on, Mora will make innocent inquiries about how you are feeling based on your “system” and “life,” and the frequency of these inquiries can be adjusted to Low, Medium or High. “Wake-Up Call” offers an alternative alarm system for one’s smartphone that doesn’t just have Mora wake users up, but also has her chastise them for snoozing through alarms. And though direct integration with Game Space, Mora will eventually be able to “manage in-game conversations with Mora’s voice,” “offer strategic advice and hints during select games (i.e. Mobile Legends Bang Bang, Free Fire, PUBG Mobile), and perform hands-free actions via voice commands. According to REDMAGIC, these features will become available next month, in December 2025.

While I ended up liking the concept of an AI companion far more than I ever thought I would, REDMAGIC’s poor execution of the idea leaves much to be desired. Believe it or not, Mora has not one, but two different AI vocal talents providing her voice. Neither actor sounds at all like the other, and the primary voice (which is featured in 97 percent of all Mora-related activity sounds) sounds so bored that she might as well be phoning her performance in.

Just imagine the words “Hello Captain,” or “It tickles, it tickles” in the most disinterested tone you can imagine, and you should immediately get the picture. The actor even includes the pronunciation of the tilde symbol (~) wherever it appears, resulting in awkward greetings like “Hello tilde” and “Mora loves you tilde.” The sound bytes also tend to lag noticeably behind Mora’s animated gestures.

Although I ended up more intrigued by the idea of an AI companion than I expected, REDMAGIC’s execution of the concept falls short. Mora uses two different AI voice actors who sound nothing alike, and the main one delivers lines so flatly that they’re unengaging. The actor even reads out symbols like tildes (~), creating awkward phrases such as “Hello tilde” and “Mora loves you tilde.” The audio clips also often lag behind Mora’s animations.

Things don’t improve much with the secondary voice, which is more enthusiastic but performed in a forced, stereotypical Japanese-style accent. It appears to be a leftover from an earlier version of Mora that wasn’t fully removed from the latest version of REDMAGIC OS. With more consistency and ambition to develop Mora into a digital assistant on the same level as Siri, Gemini or Bixby, the feature could be genuinely appealing. For now, though, Mora feels more like decoration than a functional companion.

“For Android gamers who treat their phones like PCs, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro delivers the closest thing yet to a portable gaming rig.”

Moving on to more practical features, one major improvement the REDMAGIC 11 Pro offers over its predecessor is 80-watt wireless charging—a convenience my colleague Dayna found sorely missing when reviewing the 10 Pro. The 11 Pro also supports two-way wireless reverse charging, handy for topping up a second compatible device. Once enabled in the settings, you simply place the 11 Pro back-to-back with the other device to start charging.

Of course, sharing power with other devices requires a lot of extra juice, but not to worry, REDMAGIC has that covered with an upgraded 7500mAh battery that is no bigger in size than the 10 Pro’s 7050mAh. The REDMAGIC 11 Pro can easily last over a day and a half with regular use, blast through intensive games for up to 7.5 hours, livestream on YouTube for nearly double that time, and even remain in standby mode for up to 11 days.

It also bears mentioning that getting into the REDMAGIC 11 Pro is remarkably faster for me than any other smartphone I’ve previously used. It features a 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensor located under the screen, which captures registered prints with nearly 100% accuracy and instantly unlocks the phone. Facial recognition is just as speedy, provided “Raise to Wake” is enabled and the phone is physically raised to the user’s eyes.

When it comes to its cameras, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro represents mostly an incremental step forward, retaining the same 50-megapixel wide and 50-megapixel ultrawide rear cameras, along with the 16-megapixel selfie camera found on the 10 Pro. The 11 Pro adds a third, 2-megapixel rear auxiliary lens for macro shots and slightly reduces the selfie camera’s sensor size by about a millimetre. Still, it’s essentially the same setup as last year, with nearly identical photo and video performance.

While technically nothing new, as someone who leans more toward content creation than photography, I found it impressive that the 11 Pro can record video at up to 8K30, 4K60 and even 1080p240—especially for a device where gaming is clearly the main focus.

If there’s room for improvement, it’s in the camera interface, where many key functions that would interest shutterbugs and curious users are hidden rather than prominently placed. For example, the main camera settings button sits directly below the Android home button—an obvious recipe for navigational trouble.

On the plus side, similar to the 10 Pro, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro’s camera array is built flush with the body, so there’s no annoying camera bump. This lets the 11 Pro lie flat on a table without wobbling and makes it easier to wirelessly reverse charge other flat devices. Users who appreciate backup audio options will be glad to know the 11 Pro includes a 3.5-mm headphone jack. Those who prefer to game or enjoy content in the open air will also find that the REDMAGIC 11 Pro’s powerful 1015a + 1115e onboard speakers are more than up to the task.

I’ve played many mobile games on Android smartphones over the years, but the REDMAGIC 11 Pro is the first gaming phone I’ve used that truly offers a PC-level gaming toolbox. Through the combined Game Space and Energy Cube features, users can customize their Android gaming experience much like PC players do with their rigs and laptops. If you primarily game on Android, play the latest titles and take mobile gaming seriously enough that a cumbersome interface or two won’t bother you, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro should easily be your smartphone of choice.