REDMAGIC 11S Pro review - gaming perfection with one frustrating flaw

I'm not going to lie, part of me has been dreading writing this REDMAGIC 11S Pro review. You see, on paper, there's little that separates this phone from the REDMAGIC 11 Pro that I gave a 9/10 score just a few months ago. I opened the box, and it looked the same. I set the phone up with a sense of déjà vu, a sort of cell phone Groundhog Day. Then I started playing a game, and that's where things changed. That's when I started to understand.

The 11S Pro is the quintessential gaming phone, for better and, as I'll get into later, occasionally for worse. The big question, though, is whether it has what it takes to dethrone its younger sibling, the 11 Pro, from the top of our guide to the best gaming phones. So, let's find out, shall we?

Price and availability

The REDMAGIC 11S Pro goes on sale on June 10, with early bird orders available on June 9 for those who pick up an early bird voucher via the official REDMAGIC site. You can check out the prices and configurations in the table below:

For this review, I was sent the 16GB+512GB version in the Nightfreeze colorway.

Specs

Here are the REDMAGIC 11S Pro's specs:

Performance and gaming

Considering that the REDMAGIC 11S Pro is an overclocked mid-cycle refresh of a phone I already know packs a performance punch, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro, I went into this review expecting great things. The difference between the two phones is that this model utilizes an overclocked version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, which suggests even more performance power. So, I booted up Honkai Star Rail, a top pick from our guide to the best mobile games, to put the phone to the test.

As anticipated, this phone is great for gaming. I had HSR running at the highest possible graphics settings and didn't run into any issues whatsoever. The frame rate runs at a consistent 60FPS, while the visuals are detailed and responsive. I also checked out Neverness to Everness and PUBG Mobile, and there are no issues there either, with the phone's hardware lending itself to console-level performance.

As for thermals, the 11S Pro has a bunch of features purpose-built to keep the phone cool, including a waterproof fan and a massive vapor chamber, which REDMAGIC suggests is the biggest in the industry. The hardware gets the job done. At no point, even an hour or so into a gaming session or when downloading the massive amounts of data required to play Honkai Star Rail, did I feel the phone getting too toasty, with the fans automatically kicking in if required.

Features and software

The REDMAGIC 11S Pro comes with REDMAGIC OS 11 pre-installed, the brand's latest Android 16 skin. It's a pretty user-friendly operating system for the most part, and if you've used an Android phone before, it shouldn't feel all that foreign. There's the occasional inconsistency with translations, but it's nothing egregious. You've also got a bit of bloatware to deal with - the usual offenders, such as mobile game clones and Booking.com - but it doesn't take all that long to clear out any apps you don't use.

On the AI front - after all, it's 2026 - the 11S Pro comes with Google Gemini pre-installed as well as Mora, REDMAGIC's AI assistant. Gemini can be pretty useful if AI chatbots are your bag, but Mora isn't all that great. She's essentially another chatbot, but her responses aren't as in-depth as Gemini's, and her design just gives me the creeps a bit, for some reason. I asked about how I should hydrate myself on a hot day, and Mora recommended water, oolong tea, and keeping my REDMAGIC device charged for "whatever challenges come your way." Okay then, Mora.

In the Game Space app, you can find a bunch of plug-ins to enhance the mobile gaming experience, including everything from an optional crosshair for FPS games to controller sensitivity remapping. Honestly, it's a bit overwhelming looking over your options at first, but if you take a bit of time to test them out, some can be pretty useful. You can also use Game Space to launch your games, saving you a bit of time trawling through your apps, and to screencast onto a compatible monitor. It's still probably the best gaming-specific software I've used on a phone, even if it could be a bit cleaner and less overwhelming in some aspects.

Design

There are a lot of words you could use to describe the REDMAGIC 11S Pro's design, but "subtle" isn't one of them. I like this approach, for the most part, as so many other Android flagships look so similar these days; it's nice to get something a little different. It's a very sleek phone, with a completely flat back, glass panels on the front and back, and a tight radius on all four corners, lending it more of a brick shape than curvier alternatives such as the latest Pixel and iPhone flagships.

I will say, though, some design elements don't sit quite right with me. On the back, you can find REDMAGIC's tagline, "Win More Games," and it just feels like the brand is trying just a touch too hard here. There's also an arrow on the back, pointing north-east, which I just can't make any sense of whatsoever. It isn't pointing to anything. I don't get it. Still, on the bright side, the phone is IPX8 rated, which is the gold standard for water and dustproofing, so at least it's nice and durable.

Display and audio

The REDMAGIC 11S Pro's 6.85-inch screen combines perfectly with the phone's performance capability to offer a gaming experience that felt unimaginable on mobile just a few short years ago. For a start, it's AMOLED, which means vivid colors and rich blacks. Add in a 144Hz refresh rate, offering ultra-smooth gaming visuals, and a peak brightness of 1,800 nits, so the screen is legible even in direct sunlight, and I honestly don't know what else I could ask for in a display.

Not only does the 11S Pro have a stellar display, but it's also more than decent in the audio department. The stereo speakers cover the gamut of high to low frequencies well, including bass booms in explosive combat. They also do a great job with detail, combining with the Game Space feature that boosts the sound of enemy footsteps, giving you an advantage in games such as Fortnite or PUBG Mobile.

Cameras

You might have noticed that, so far, this REDMAGIC 11S Pro review has been pretty glowing. Unfortunately, this phone does have something of an Achilles heel, and that's one of its cameras. I'll be honest, it doesn't come as a massive surprise, as in my three years of testing REDMAGIC phones, it's become something of a recurring issue, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing.

The back cameras aren't all that bad; they're just nothing to write home about. I captured the image of my dog, Floyd, below using the 50MP main lens, and it's a pretty nice picture. It's a little heavy on the processing, but it's still a decent picture I'd be happy sharing on social media. The ultra-wide is also decent, if slightly lacking in detail compared to the cameras you'll find on the latest Xiaomi and Honor flagships.

Now, onto my main problem with the 11S Pro: the selfie camera really is quite bad. I'm not sure if it's the lens itself or REDMAGIC's image processing tech, but any selfie I take looks washed out, color-wise, and eerily artificial. I mean, there's a real uncanny valley vibe to any photo I take with this selfie camera. It's a real shame, as almost everything else about this phone is so great, but there are a lot of cheaper options that offer better selfies, and considering that a phone's front-facing camera is a pretty important factor in our self-obsessed age, it could be a deal-breaker for some.

Battery

Okay, so now back to the good stuff - the REDMAGIC 11S Pro is an absolute battery beast. Its 7,500mAh battery is an absolute tank, offering in excess of 30 hours of juice for everyday use or around ten hours of gaming. That's exactly what you'd want and expect from a flagship phone in 2026, so on that front, the 11S Pro delivers.

The 11S Pro is also wildly impressive in the charging department. With 80W charging capabilities and a charger in the box, you can easily juice this phone from flat to full in under an hour, which is something you still can't say about the latest Apple and Samsung flagships. It's also a rapid wireless charger, which is even rarer than ultra-fast wired charging rates, with a full recharge only taking just over an hour without having to plug your phone in.

Should you buy the REDMAGIC 11S Pro?

If you're looking for a phone with elite performance, a glorious display, and ultra-long-lasting battery life, I can't recommend the REDMAGIC 11S Pro enough. Nothing you can throw at this phone fazes it, not even the most demanding games on the Google Play Store, and it keeps nice and cool even during extended gaming sessions. It feels more like a compact handheld console that doubles as a phone, rather than the other way around, and I mean that as a compliment.

However, if you need a phone that's got a great selfie camera, or you prefer an understated design, the REDMAGIC 11S Pro might not be the phone for you. Fortunately, plenty of alternatives can offer those factors, but this device really is for the gamers, and everything else comes second. For me, that's fine, as I'm not a big selfie guy, and I don't care what my phone looks like if it can run Neverness to Everness at maximum settings, but it depends on your own preferences.

Alternatives

If our REDMAGIC 11S Pro review hasn't won you over, here are a couple of alternatives to check out.

iPhone 17

If you're happy to sacrifice a bit of performance firepower for a more subtle design, better cameras, and slightly more user-friendly software, the iPhone 17 is a viable REDMAGIC 11S Pro alternative. It's a more compact phone than the Android, so you're not getting as much screen real estate, but it makes up for that by giving you access to the ever-growing library of Apple Arcade games and the suite of Apple Intelligence AI features.

Poco F8 Ultra

The Poco F8 Ultra is a similar phone to the REDMAGIC 11S Pro in a lot of ways, especially in terms of performance. Both phones use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, so they're both ideal for gaming. The big difference is in the cameras, with the Poco offering a superior photography experience. The REDMAGIC has better thermals, though, so it depends on which you value more. For more details, check out our Poco F8 Ultra review.