RedMagic 10 Pro review: an excellent Android gaming phone

Our Verdict

The RedMagic 10 Pro isn’t just a beast of an Android gaming phone; it’s a great all-rounder, with a glorious display, a super long-lasting battery, and a surprisingly elegant design. The cameras could be better, and I'd appreciate longer software support, but outside of that, I can’t recommend it enough.

Reasons to buy

• Best-in-class performance
• Brilliant display
• Super-fast charging
• Great value

Reasons to avoid

• Camera could be better
• Relatively short software support

Following the big reveal of Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, I’ve been waiting with bated breath to get my hands on the RedMagic 10 Pro. Last year’s equivalent was an incredible Android flagship for mobile gamers, and considering the performance improvements promised by the new processor technology, I expected that 2024’s RedMagic flagship could only be more impressive. Spoiler: I was right.

The RedMagic 10 Pro is both an absolute gaming beast and a more than impressive all-rounder at the same time. Still, the competition from our list of the best gaming phones is hotter than ever, especially following the recent reveal of the 10 Pro’s biggest rival, the Asus ROG Phone 9. So, is the 10 Pro worthy of taking the top spot? Or is it not enough of an upgrade on the already impressive 9 Pro to steal the show? Let’s get into it.

Price and availability

Early access tickets go on sale for the RedMagic 10 Pro on the brand’s official site on December 12, with open sales beginning on December 18. The phone is available in three different configurations, which you can check out in the table below, but it’s worth pointing out that all the options are cheaper than the rival Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro. For this review, I used the 12GB+256GB model in Shadow.

Specs

Here are the RedMagic 10 Pro’s specs:

Features and software

As you might expect, the RedMagic 10 Pro comes with a fair bit of gaming-specific software features. If you flick the red switch on the side of the device, Game Space loads up, with so many tools and tricks that I could double this review in length by detailing them all. Still, I know you’re busy, so I’ll just concentrate on the highlights.

With Game Space open, you get a fancy launcher, which includes all your favorite games, performance mode options, and a bunch more settings to tinker with. Then, there’s the in-game overlay, which constantly keeps track of your CPU and GPU performance. From the overlay, you can turn on the capacitive shoulder triggers – more on that later – start screen recording, change your refresh rates, and even set reminders if you’re worried about spending too long gaming (not that it’s possible). The options are endless, and it’s easily the most comprehensive gaming software on an Android phone.

Outside of Game Space, one of my favorite features is the 10 Pro’s Mini Game Wallpapers. You can swap out your boring old wallpaper for something a bit more interactive, whether it be Snake, Tetris, or even a Celeste rip-off that has no business being as engaging as it is. It’s not a massive feature, but it’s another way for RedMagic to tell you this phone is for gamers without a garish design.

Then there’s Mora. Mora is RedMagic’s AI virtual assistant, but this is no Siri copycat. Instead, Mora is more of a digital companion who looks a lot like a Genshin Impact or Honkai Star Rail character. There aren’t a bunch of uses for Mora outside of using her as an alarm, which is sure to earn you a perplexed look from your other half, by the way, or she can entertain you with some animations while the phone is charging. I’m sure there’s an audience for this, but as someone who still can’t really wrap their head around the whole V-Tuber and Waifu thing, it’s not me.

In terms of general software, I don’t have any major complaints. The phone comes with the latest RedMagic 10 Android 15 skin, which is a pretty smooth operating system and one you can easily customize from the settings. It’d be nice to get long-lasting Android support than just three years, which pales in comparison to the seven years of the latest Google Pixel devices, but it still covers you through to 2027/

There’s still a bit of bloatware, including a folder full of ‘hot games’ that I would struggle to describe as even tepid, but you can delete them pretty quickly, alongside the dreaded Booking.com app. It’s also worth mentioning that both fingerprint and facial recognition work fine, and I never had any problems unlocking the phone.

While the RedMagic 10 Pro doesn’t have the same sort of bespoke AI tools you get with a Samsung or Apple phone, you still get Google Gemini, which always surprises me with how powerful it is. Using Gemini, you can generate images – like this Border Collie crossed with a Labrador below – edit your images, and translate voice or text in real-time. Honestly, I kind of prefer this AI approach to Apple’s, as it’s almost all in one place and it’s remarkably easy to use.

Design and audio

While RedMagic is hardly reinventing the wheel with the 10 Pro’s design, I have to say, it’s very classy. The whole thing is smooth. There’s no camera bump on the back; instead, the lenses are packed inside the phone’s body. There are only three bits of the 10 Pro that stick out: the power button, the volume rocker, and the Game Space switch. It’s a properly elegant gaming phone, and that’s a sentence I never thought I’d write, considering how just a few years ago this niche was occupied with countless monstrosities trying too hard to stand out from the crowd. My apologies to the RedMagic 3, but it’s true.

I love a sleek design, but the real highlight of the 10 Pro’s build is the shoulder triggers. Even I, someone who usually avoids FPS games at all costs, can appreciate these. You simply load up a game, pull Game Space open from the side of the screen, and assign the left and right triggers to a space on the screen. While I’m still not the best at PUBG Mobile, this addition makes aiming and shooting much easier than with the touchscreen controls and could be a lifesaver if you’re planning a marathon FPS session but can’t get your hands on a mobile gaming controller.

Before moving on, I have to highlight the 10 Pro’s speakers. They’re loud. I know loudness isn’t everything, but it’s great for immersing yourself in games, and I nearly jumped out of my skin as bullets whistled past in PUBG Mobile. The bass response is also better than I expect from a cell phone, which is always a win, as it’s both high quality and loud enough to let your Bluetooth speaker gather dust while you play your tunes through the phone.

Display

Right off the bat, I have to say that the RedMagic 10 Pro’s display is glorious. It’s not just nice and vivid, hitting a peak brightness of 2,000 nits, but it’s almost all-encompassing, with a staggering screen-to-body ratio of just over 95% and a 1.5k resolution. Yes, my friends, gone are the days of big chunky bezels, and you’ve got no shortage of display retail estate to play with here.

Still, the best thing about the 10 Pro’s display is its 144Hz refresh rate. It makes for incredibly smooth gameplay, and side-by-side with something like my iPhone 13, you can really see the difference between 60Hz and 144Hz visuals. I could go on for paragraphs and paragraphs about how much this display brings the best Android games to life but just know that this display is as good as it gets in the current market, and it never disappoints.

Cameras

I never expect much from a gaming phone’s cameras; after all, most who want the latest phone primarily for taking social media-worthy snaps already have an iPhone 16 or Google Pixel 9. Still, the 50MP main camera with optical image stabilization, 50MP ultrawide, and 2MP macro lens are more than capable, even if they fall a little short of the dazzling results of some of the other best Android phones.

As ever, I’ve used my dog Floyd as a model while testing the 10 Pro’s cameras, and as you can tell from the picture below, the results aren’t half bad. There isn’t quite the definition in his coat, both in terms of texture and color, that I’ve achieved with other devices, but it’s got a great natural tone, and there’s a real depth to the brown color of his eyes. Admittedly, some images blurred a little, so the stabilization could be a bit more robust, but it shouldn’t be a problem if your subject is a human, as we’re not quite as erratic as a Border Collie who thinks he’s outside to play and not be a model.

To put the ultrawide to the test, I stepped outside my front door and took a picture of the landscape I’m lucky enough to call home, which again, you can see below. Despite it being a pretty overcast day, not exactly the ideal lighting scenario, the ultrawide lens does a great job of capturing the details of a wide landscape, even if the color doesn’t pop quite as much as I’d like.

In terms of the 16MP selfie camera on the front, it’s decent. It isn’t quite as detailed as I’ve seen with some other front-facing cameras, like the one on my Honor Magic6 Pro daily driver, but if you’re just using it for the occasional selfie and video calls, you should get by just fine. There’s also a plethora of camera features to try out, varying from document scanning to time-lapse photography and everything in between. I’m not much of a smartphone photographer, but it’s great to have all these options.

Performance

Given that the RedMagic 10 Pro is a gaming-specific Android phone equipped with Qualcomm’s latest and great Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, I went into testing this phone anticipating the very best. Unsurprisingly, the 10 Pro delivered. Whether you’re just scrolling through social media or playing demanding games like Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail with the settings turned up as high as they go, this phone handles it like a pro at every juncture.

Without getting into the nitty-gritty of benchmarking scores and the like, I can assure you that if you’re looking for an Android with elite performance, this is it. The CPU and GPU boosts promised by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset are evident, and the experience of playing Honkai Star Rail is as smooth as it is on any other phone, including the new ASUS Rog Phone 9 Pro, or even any other platform for that matter.

Not only is the performance incredible, but the 10 Pro’s state-of-the-art ICE-X Cooling System does exactly what it says on the tin. Even during mammoth gaming sessions, I never felt the device get anything more than lukewarm, so I could keep grinding for new characters without having to don a pair of oven gloves. The fan can get a little loud, which might draw some attention if you’re playing Asphalt on the train, but otherwise, I’ve no complaints.

Battery

Considering the RedMagic 10 Pro packs the brand’s biggest-ever 7,050mAh battery, it shouldn’t come as a shock that this thing just goes and goes. During testing, the 10 Pro lost around 10-15% battery for every hour of gaming, so you could theoretically play around eight or nine hours of PUBG Mobile before it ran out of juice. If you’re using it less intensively, it can last up to two days before reaching for the charger, which is more than I can say for a lot of the Android flagship competition and even the latest base model iPhone.

As I’ve come to expect when reviewing RedMagic phones, it isn’t just the battery life that’s great, but charging speeds too. Using the charging cable and plug from the box – yes, you get both – you can fully juice your phone from flat in around 30 minutes or get a solid 50% boost in around 15. That’s much quicker than the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S24 or iPhone 16, putting yet another arrow in the 10 Pro’s ever-expanding quiver.

Should you buy the RedMagic 10 Pro?

All-in-all, the RedMagic 10 Pro is an absolute powerhouse of a cell phone, with out-of-this-world gaming performance, a massive AMOLED display, and super long-lasting battery life. Honestly, a gaming phone like this has no business being such an all-rounder, and the fact you can get it for cheaper than flagships from other brands like Samsung and Apple makes it all the more impressive.

The only real drawback to picking up the 10 Pro rather than something like the new iPhone 16 or Samsung Galaxy S24 is that those phones have a bit more in the way of AI features, longer software support, and better cameras. Outside of that, and the fact it’s still a $600+ cell phone, I can’t think of any reason why I wouldn’t recommend this latest RedMagic flagship, and I’m already looking forward to finishing this review so I can get back to gaming.

Alternatives

If this RedMagic 10 Pro review hasn’t sold you on the Android gaming phone, check out some picks for potential alternatives below.

iPhone 16

If you’re currently an iPhone user and you’re not sure if you’re willing to jump over to Android just yet, the iPhone 16 is the most apparent alternative. Admittedly, it’s not quite as impressive when gaming, with its 60Hz refresh rates noticeably less smooth than the RedMagic’s 144Hz. However, it is Apple Intelligence-capable, so you can take advantage of all of Apple’s new and upcoming AI features. For more details on this option, see our iPhone 16 review.

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro

In the gaming phone niche, Asus and RedMagic are at loggerheads year after year, and it’s no different this time around. The Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro is the main challenger to the RedMagic 10 Pro, with both offering best-in-class performance and brilliant displays. It comes down to the finer details, so if you want to compare the two, check out our Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro review before the global release in January.