REDMAGIC 10 Pro pros and cons
Snapdragon Elite chipset and world first liquid-metal cooling system offers phenomenal performance.
Massive 7,050mAh battery with 100W fast-charging support.
Stellar AMOLED display with silky refresh rate and great brightness.
Improved, but still lacking in the camera stakes.
Bold - and highly reflective - design can be polarising.
This month marks seven years of REDMAGIC carving a niche in the gaming phone market, and the REDMAGIC 10 Pro is arguably its most focused attempt yet to affirm itself as the leading player in this high-performance arena.
Built with gamers front and centre, the 10 Pro is all about maxing out benchmarks, frame rates, and thermal control - but that's not to say it's a one-trick pony.
With a huge battery, stunning AMOLED panel and powerful cooling, this phone isn't just a gaming powerhouse - it's a capable all-rounder, albeit with a couple of drawbacks.
If you can put up with a couple of software snags and camera compromises, you'll find sheer performance and value that's hard to match in the REDMAGIC 10 Pro.
Design and specifications
The REDMAGIC 10 Pro wears its gaming heart on its sleeve.
Angular lines, RGB lighting and visible components through the rear panel all scream its performance credentials.
As ever with REDMAGIC, the 10 Pro offers a wide range of colour variants, including Shadow (with a matte black rear), Moonlight (in a pearl white finish), Dusk (transparent black that shows off the LED lighting), and an extravagant Golden Saga Limited Edition.
Less fingerprint magnet and more fingerprint factory, the ultra-reflective rear of the dusk model (in for review) made it a photography minefield - but it's every bit the bold gaming device its levelled as!
Each version has its own character, but all feature the same robust build quality with a glass rear, metal midframe and Gorilla Glass-covered display.
The 10 Pro measures 163.4 mm in height, 76.1 mm in width, and 8.9 mm in thickness, with a weight of 229 grams - a bulkier build which may be less comfortable for users seeking a more compact device...but dimensions perfect for mobile gaming.
Under the bonnet, it's powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, paired with up to 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a whopping 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage.
You also get dual shoulder triggers with 520Hz touch sampling, a dedicated gaming mode switch, and a built-in cooling fan capable of 23,000 RPM.
There's no IP rating, no wireless charging, and no expandable storage - but the 10 Pro knows exactly who - and what - it's made for.
Display and audio quality
The 6.85-inch AMOLED display is flat, fast, and with a 20:9 aspect ratio, it's simply fantastic for gaming.
It pushes a 144Hz refresh speed and a blisteringly responsive 960Hz touch sampling rate, meaning every swipe, tap and flick registers instantly.
Resolution is 1216 x 2688, with the 1.5K display supporting HDR10+, ensuring vibrant colours and deep blacks whether you're fragging enemies or bingeing Netflix.
It's big, bright, completely uninterrupted by notches or cut-outs thanks to an under-display selfie camera - meaning some compromise on camera clarity, but the payoff is a distraction-free panel.
Audio is punchy through the dual stereo speakers, with solid stereo separation and enough oomph to feel the groove of a rap beat as much as gunshots and explosions.
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Camera capabilities
Let's be clear - the 10 Pro isn't a photography phone first.
That doesn't mean it's a selfie-taking slouch however, as the area which we've repeatedly highlighted in prior REDMAGIC reviews as needing an upgrade, has made strides.
It features a triple rear setup: a 50MP main sensor with optical image stabilisation, a 50MP ultra-wide lens, and a 2mp macro camera.
In daylight, the main sensor performs well. Shots are colourful and detailed, though oversaturation creeps in occasionally.
Dynamic range is acceptable but falls short of the finesse you'd see in former flagship devices like Google's Pixel 8 or Galaxy S24.
Portrait mode does a good job of edge detection, and shutter lag is minimal.
The ultra-wide is solid, providing consistent colour balance and decent edge-to-edge sharpness.
It doesn't hold up quite as well in low light, where noise starts to become more pronounced.
Low-light photography, in general, is where the REDMAGIC 10 Pro loses ground.
Night mode is available, but results can be soft or grainy. This is a camera that works best in daylight or well-lit indoor settings.
Selfies, taken via the 16MP under-display camera, are the biggest compromise. It's undeniably a cool move to offer an invisible lens - meaning a notch-free screen for gaming- but results remain imperfect.
Skin tones can look washed out, and fine detail is often lost.
For video calls it's certainly serviceable, but any budding social media stars may wish to look elsewhere.
Performance and software
This is where the REDMAGIC 10 Pro obliterates expectations.
With the Snapdragon 8 Elite, paired with active cooling and REDMAGIC's Red Core R3 co-processor, this thing chews through games with aplomb.
Genshin Impact, COD Mobile, Asphalt Legends Unite - all run flawlessly at maximum settings, with no noticeable heat build up, thanks to ICE-X cooling (a world's first multi-layered liquid metal...basically the Terminator T-1000 of smartphones), as well as the internal fan.
That being said, not all games managed to run at 120fps, with Genshin Impact being one high profile example that didn't level up to faster frame rates...
In benchmarks, it does nevertheless consistently land among the top phones available.
Thermal throttling is minimal even after extended sessions, and the shoulder triggers remain precise and responsive, making competitive gaming a genuine advantage.
The software, however, is divisive. REDMAGIC OS 10 is based on Android 15 - complete with the AI-assisted bells and whistles Google brings to today's smartphones - but is hampered by redundant apps, spotty translations, and inconsistent UI decisions...
It's definitely a lot more refined that iterations past, but still an area to be mindful of in that equation of value versus performance.
Some users will appreciate the gamer-centric features, such as live FPS counters and crosshair overlays, but others may find the OS too heavy-handed.
One red(magic) flag is that only one major Android update and three years of security patches are promised by the manufacturer...a ways off the long-term support offers by others.
Battery and charging
Battery life is nothing short of phenomenal. The 7,050mAh battery regularly delivers over 10 hours of screen-on time, even with the 144Hz refresh rate active.
Light-to-moderate users can squeeze out two days between charges.
The 80W fast charger included in the box can take the phone from flat to 100 percent in around 45 minutes, with 50 percent reached in just under 20...but the one that it comes with in some other territories gets you awesome 100W charging.
There’s intelligent charge splitting to reduce heat, as well as the fan automatically spinning up during charging to keep temps in check.
There’s no wireless charging, which might disappoint some, but the speed and efficiency of wired charging more than compensates.
REDMAGIC 10 Pro UK pricing and availability
In the UK, the REDMAGIC 10 Pro is available in several configurations and pricepoints at the time of writing, from £579 for the entry-level Shadow colour variant with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, all the way up to £879 for 1TB of storage and twice the RAM.
The 16GB and 512GB of storage models nestle in the middle at £679 SIM-free.
It’s available directly from REDMAGIC's UK webstore, where there's currently a £30 discount incentive across the range.
All models include a protective case and the charger in the box (80W rather than 100W, mind), the presence of the latter being a welcome novelty these days.
Final verdict
The REDMAGIC 10 Pro is the most unapologetic gaming phone you can buy in 2024, and coming in at half the cost of the likes of the ROG Phone 9 Pro, it's proof that performance doesn't need to come with a hefty price tag.
It isn't built for everyone - it still looks every part an LED wonderland, whilst compromises in photography and an unrefined user experience in their quest to deliver the ultimate gaming accessory continue to be areas of improvement for REDMAGIC.
Yet for those brave - and cost-conscious - souls seeking bleeding edge gaming credentials, innovative hardware and boundless battery life, the 10 Pro is built for the online battlefield.
