RedMagic 11S Pro: One-minute review

Taken in isolation, the RedMagic 11S Pro is a hugely compelling phone offering class-leading performance and unique custom gaming features for a less-than-flagship price.

No other brand is offering this kind of niche package for performance-focused mobile gamers... except for RedMagic itself barely six months ago. As good a deal as the RedMagic 11S Pro appears to be, one simply can’t ignore the fact that, to all intents and purposes, it's identical to the RedMagic 11 Pro, yet costs $100 / £80 more.

It’s undoubtedly one of the fastest phones on the market, with a ‘Leading Version’ of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and a shrewd liquid-plus-active cooling system that enables a level of sustained high performance that no other brand can match.

Battery life, too, is mighty, courtesy of a huge 7,500mAh cell, while charging is suitably rapid at 80W. I’m also glad that speedy wireless charging remains part of the package.

RedMagic isn’t new to this game, and more or less the same glaring issues remain from the very first model, albeit in less egregious fashion. The 11S Pro is still an unwieldy beast, RedMagic's software continues to be difficult to love, and the camera system continues to fall well short of even a decent mid-range phone.

That’s the bargain you typically strike when buying a gaming phone (see the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro), so it would be churlish to drive the point home too hard. Just know that you’re buying a very particular gaming tool here, not an accomplished all-rounder.

All this for a price that only skirts flagship territory. Ultimately, though, the 11S Pro doesn't represent the same value proposition as previous phones in the family.

RedMagic claims that its phone “introduces major upgrades across performance, cooling, display, battery, and AI gaming”, but that could only really be argued in comparison to the previous year's RedMagic 10S Pro. We’ve seen this movie already, and it was significantly cheaper to gain entry the first time around.

If you’re after the very best gaming phone on the market, then the RedMagic 11S Pro is out there in a field of one. But in a trend that’s about as 2026 as it gets, the phone doesn’t quite do enough to distinguish itself from its immediate predecessor.

RedMagic 11S Pro review: Price and availability

• Released on June 10, 2026
• Priced from $849 / £709
• Significant price bump over predecessor
• Not available in Australia

The RedMagic 11S Pro goes on sale from June 10, 2026, and the bad news is that it’s significantly more expensive than its predecessor.

Prices start from $849 / £709 for the model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. That figure increases to $949 / £799 for 16/512GB, and there's no 24/1TB option this time around. The RedMagic 11S Pro isn't available in Australia.

By way of a comparison, back in November, the equivalent variants of the RedMagic 11 Pro launched for $749 / £629 and $849 / £799, respectively. That’s a $100 / £80 price bump in just six months for (as we’ll go on to discuss) essentially the same phone.

If we’re making a generational comparison, the 11S Pro is $150 / £130 more expensive than the RedMagic 10S Pro. It seems niche gaming phone manufacturers are no more immune to global component pricing pressures than Samsung or Xiaomi.

• Value score: 4 / 5

RedMagic 11S Pro review: Specs

RedMagic 11S Pro review: Design

• Same liquid cooling design as 11 Pro
• IPX8 certified
• Dedicated gaming mode switch and capacitive shoulder buttons

If I were to be particularly flattering to RedMagic here, I’d liken the brand’s design approach to that of Porsche.

The silhouette might not be as distinctive or appealing as that of a premium German supercar — we’re basically looking at a big, featureless slab of glass and metal here — but the point is that it has remained broadly consistent across multiple generations.

There have been refinements, most notably with a camera array that is now completely flat. That unique flourish is just about the only thing that’s subtle about the phone, however.

It’s particularly thick and heavy (measuring and weighing 8.9mm and 230g, respectively), and its right-hand edge is chock full of physical controls. Alongside the power and volume keys, there’s a red slider switch for entering the phone’s custom gaming UI.

These are flanked by a pair of capacitive 'shoulder' buttons, which can be mapped to controls on a game-by-game basis — a massive bonus for competitive shooters, in particular.

Meanwhile, on both the right and left edges, there are exhaust vents to allow the physical 24,000rpm cooling fan to do its thing. They also mean that the phone is only IPX8 rated — in other words, it’s waterproof, but far from dust-proof.

Literally all of this was true of the RedMagic 11 Pro, which reflects the fact that the RedMagic 11S Pro is basically the same phone, give or take a few minor tweaks. Its dimensions are identical right down to the fraction of a millimeter, and there’s the same faux-transparent effect and liquid cooling ring motif on the rear.

The latter is undoubtedly the most eye-catching design element of any RedMagic phone to date, as little white globules of fluid circulate like some kind of miniature lava lamp. The effect is hypnotic.

Stereo speakers make a return on the 11S Pro, but they continue to underwhelm. It’s not that the sound quality is bad, but there isn’t the low-end heft you might expect of such a hefty media-focused device.

• Design score: 3 / 5

RedMagic 11S Pro review: Display

• 6.85-inch OLED display
• 144Hz refresh rate
• 2,000 nits peak brightness

RedMagic has kept broadly the same display in operation dating back to the RedMagic 10 Pro in late 2024 — that is, a 6.85-inch OLED with a 1216 x 2688 (aka 1.5K) resolution.

The refresh rate continues to top out at 144Hz, which is higher than the 120Hz average, if shy of the very highest on the market. Motorola’s flagship phones tend to hit 165Hz, for example.

With that said, the list of games that can boost past 120Hz remains relatively short. What matters is that this is a fine canvas for gaming content, aided by that expansive size and a complete lack of obstructions.

RedMagic’s signature under-display front camera might make for terrible selfies (more on that later), but it also means that you won’t find an annoying lens obstructing the action. That applies just as much to videos as it does to gaming content.

The one feature that sets the RedMagic 11S Pro’s display ahead of that of the RedMagic 11 Pro’s is Magic Touch 4.0, which purportedly boosts touch accuracy by 10%. I can’t honestly say that I noticed the difference, but I guess every little helps if you’re a competitive gamer with reflexes undimmed by time and alcohol.

• Display score: 4 / 5

RedMagic 11S Pro review: cameras

• Mediocre 50MP main camera with OIS
• Similarly uninspiring 50MP ultra-wide
• Pointless 2MP macro in place of telephoto
• Terrible 16MP in-display selfie camera

Discussing the camera system in a gaming phone reminds me a little of discussing the camera system in a tablet. It’s kind of a pointless endeavor, because taking pictures is obviously not the priority here.

Of course, tablets can get away with taking bad pictures because everyone tends to have a smartphone with them. The RedMagic 11S Pro is that smartphone.

There’s been no change-up since the RedMagic 11 Pro’s camera, nor indeed since the model(s) before that. You get the same 50MP OmniVision OV50E main sensor with OIS and a 7P lens; the same 50MP OV50D ultra-wide; and the same superfluous 2MP macro camera in place of a dedicated telephoto.

The latter omission is somewhat galling, given that you can pick up a CMF Phone 2 Pro with a dedicated zoom provision for less than $300 / £300.

With that said, we can only work with what we have, and the RedMagic 11S Pro takes predictably so-so snaps. Mind you, that's become slightly less easy to excuse given the $100 / £80 price increase, which brings the phone within range of the Google Pixel 10.

The main camera is by far the best of the bunch and is capable of producing moderately sharp images. RedMagic’s image processing is on the heavy-handed side, with unnaturally prominent colors during the day and excessive brightening at night, but it’s capable of producing clear results that you won’t mind sharing on social media.

You’ll find that the phone is forced to crop in on that main sensor for zoomed shots. They look fine at 2x, but rather ropey at anything longer, with 5x and 10x being the signposted provisions.

That 50MP ultra-wide camera is competent at best, overcompensating for its smaller sensor size and inferior optics with heavy-handed processing and punched-up colors. The main criticism I have is that these shots don’t really get close to the tone of the main sensor.

As ever on a RedMagic phone, the selfies here are some of the worst around. It all comes down to that 16MP under-display camera that I mentioned before. What’s great for gaming is terrible for image quality, as significantly less light is able to get to the sensor.

One premium tool the RedMagic 11S Pro does have at its disposal is its high-end processor, which is put to use in supporting 8K/30fps or 4K/60fps video capture.

• Camera score: 3 / 5

RedMagic 11S Pro review: camera samples

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RedMagic 11S Pro review: performance

• Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Leading Version
• 12GB or 16GB, or 24GB of LPDDR5X Ultra RAM
• Liquid and active cooling

RedMagic insists that the 11S Pro employs a superior ‘Leading Version’ of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Its CPU is clocked to 4.74Hz rather than 4.6Hz for the RedMagic 11 Pro.

More speed is always a good thing, particularly within a gaming phone context, but we’re talking about a negligible difference here. You simply won’t be able to tell the difference in practical gaming terms, with both phones capable of running Destiny Rising and The Division Resurgence at smooth frame rates with greater graphical detail.

I even struggled to pick up on a difference in benchmark tests, with similar scores between the two phones in Geekbench 6.

One potentially significant difference was in the Wild Life Extreme Stress Test, which measures GPU performance across an extended 20-minute period. The 11S Pro scored higher than its predecessor, which could be a hint that the upgraded AquaCore Cooling System is doing its job.

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Of course, it’s just as likely that this was a non-hardware-related variation, as can often happen with these GPU tests, or that the difference simply came down to updated drivers.

I should also note that UL Solutions, the company behind the 3DMark benchmark app, delisted the RedMagic 11 Pro back in April because of the way that the phone bypassed safety limits to get favorable results. That doesn’t mean that the RedMagic 11S Pro’s performance should be doubted, but it does ram home the point that such benchmark test results should be taken with a pinch of salt.

There’s been a slight change in the type of RAM used, with RedMagic switching from LPDDR5T in the 11 Pro to LPDDR5X Ultra. Both are high-performance advances on the kind of LPDDR5X RAM most flagship phones use.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that the RedMagic 11S Pro performs as well as or better than any other phone on the market, especially over sustained periods, but that it doesn’t move much beyond its predecessor, if at all.

Which, ultimately, brings me back to the central question at the heart of this review: what’s the point of the S-series these days, especially at its new higher price?

• Performance score: 5 / 5

RedMagic 11S Pro review: software

• Cluttered but fluid UI
• Game Space gaming UI
• 5 years of OS and security updates (in Europe)

It would be foolish to expect a major UI overhaul in this minor, half-generational, not-quite-upgrade. The RedMagic 11S Pro might run on the latest RedMagic OS 11.5 layered on top of Android 16, but it’s got the same busy UI as its predecessor.

Menus and icons remain functional rather than stylish, and a long way short of Google’s stock Android UI.

You also have to put up with way too many unrequested third-party apps, including (on my test model at least) Facebook, Booking.com, TikTok, AliExpress, Instagram, and several poor-quality games.

As we’ve come to expect, there’s a rudimentary smattering of AI tools, including AI note summaries, recording transcriptions, and AI-generated wallpapers. You’ll want to rely on the preinstalled Google Gemini app for the genuinely useful stuff.

The latest UI isn't without its improvements, though. You no longer get an obnoxious screen-hogging widget on the Home Screen dedicated to turning the cooling fan on and off (something that happens automatically anyway).

RedMagic has done away with its awful Google Feed replacement to the left of the main Home Screen, too, which is a relief.

Instances of glitches, poor translation, and errant Chinese text have seemingly been reduced, if not completely eliminated, and everything moves fluidly and reliably enough.

RedMagic’s Game Space UI remains in place. Flick that big red switch, and you’ll be taken to a landscape interface that lets you launch games, manage performance levels, tweak screen sensitivity, and initiate plug-ins on a game-by-game basis.

Elsewhere, you'll get five years of promised software support (both OS and security) in Europe. That’s short of the best efforts from Google and Samsung, but probably longer than most will be running the phone for, so I have no complaints.

• Software score: 3 / 5

RedMagic 11S Pro review: Battery life

• 7,500mAh battery offers two days of usage
• 80W wired charging
• 80W wireless charging

If you’re talking about a smartphone that’s designed to run flat out for extended periods of time, then you’d better believe that battery size matters. Reassuringly, the RedMagic 11S Pro packs a chunky 7,500mAh cell, just like its predecessor.

Stay away from the games, and you’ll be able to sail through two full days of use on a single charge.

That’s not what we’re here for, of course, but even if you stir the odd intensive Destiny Rising mission into your daily routine, you’ll still get to bedtime without needing to recharge.

The charging provision also remains unchanged from the RedMagic 11 Pro. Once again, it’s more than enough. You’re looking at 80W wired charging, which can get you to 70% in 30 minutes, and on to a full charge in less than an hour. Given the sheer size of that cell, it’s not bad at all.

There’s also 80W wireless charging support, which is a relatively recent (and most welcome) addition to the RedMagic family.

You still won’t find the second landscape-oriented USB-C port that I feel would benefit any self-respecting gaming phone, but it’s a relatively minor omission.

• Battery score: 5 / 5

Should you buy the RedMagic 11S Pro?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

RedMagic 11S Pro review: also consider

RedMagic has the gaming phone business to itself, and supplies the two biggest alternatives to the 11S Pro.

How I tested the RedMagic 11S Pro

• Review test period = 1 week
• Testing included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, social media, photography, gaming, streaming video, music playback
• Tools used = Geekbench 6, 3DMark, native Android stats, bundled Nubia 80W power adapter

First reviewed: May 2026

Jon is a freelance journalist who has been covering tech since the dawn of the smartphone era. Besides TechRadar, his words and pictures have appeared in The Telegraph, ShortList, Tech Advisor, Trusted Reviews, Expert Reviews, and more. He largely covers consumer technology, with a particular focus on smartphones and tablets. However, he's also been known to dabble in the worlds of entertainment and video games.