RedMagic 10S Pro review: A mobile gaming powerhouse in your pocket
RedMagic 10S Pro gaming smartphone. Pictures: Noel Campion.
Gaming smartphones have long walked the tightrope between sheer performance and practical usability. The RedMagic 10S Pro is not just another overclocked phone with flashy LEDs. It's a purpose-built, no-compromise gaming powerhouse, while being surprisingly balanced for everyday use.
The 10S Pro isn’t subtle, and it doesn’t try to be. With its transparent back panel, visible cooling fan, and customisable RGB lighting, it fully embraces its identity as a gaming smartphone. The design is quite similar to the 10 Pro, and personally, I really like the bold, tech-forward aesthetic. While many phones today feature large, protruding camera bumps, the flat-back design of the 10S Pro eliminates this. The result is a cleaner look and a more comfortable feel during extended handheld use.
Build quality is excellent, with a solid feel in hand and tactile buttons. The shoulder triggers and programmable Magic Key fit seamlessly into the overall design. It's also reasonably slim, especially for a phone with such a massive battery, allowing it to pass for a regular flagship when needed, until the RGB lights kick in.
The 6.85-inch AMOLED display is stunning, featuring a 1.5K resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, and 2,000 nits of peak brightness. It’s immersive, smooth, and bright enough for direct sunlight. The fact that the selfie camera is hidden under the display means you get more screen real estate without any distractions. This results in a 95.3% screen-to-body ratio and ultra-thin bezels, making games look expansive and completely uninterrupted.
Despite packing in a monstrous 7,500mAh battery and active cooling components, the 10S Pro balances its weight well. I played extended sessions of Call of Duty Mobile and emulated some classic titles in RetroArc, and the experience was excellent.
The integrated air vents don’t interfere with grip, and although it’s a large phone, it’s designed for landscape use and gaming comfort first, and it nails both.
While the phone is excellent for short gaming sessions, I opted for the GameSir G8 controller during longer play sessions, as its ergonomics offered a more comfortable and supportive grip. The flat back also helps it fit more securely into a grip, unlike phones with a camera bump, which can create wobble or uneven contact.
This 10S Pro includes capacitive shoulder triggers with 520Hz polling rate, ultra-responsive MagicTouch 2.0 touch sampling at 2,500Hz, and advanced haptics that make every shot and crash feel physically real.
RedMagic’s Game Space utility is a treasure trove of tools, including performance tuning, screen recording, live streaming setup, and a control panel that rivals any gaming laptop. I appreciated being able to remap buttons, monitor temperatures, adjust fan speed, and block notifications, all in real-time.
What really blew me away, though, was the PC emulation and direct keyboard/mouse or gamepad support. I played games on a monitor using the phone as the core hardware. It supports a USB 3.2 port and also supports 8K video output.
RedMagic hasn’t had the strongest track record with updates, but the 10S Pro is promised five years of software support, including major Android upgrades.
Powering the 10S Pro is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Leading Edition, paired with up to 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Combined with the RedCore R3 Pro chip and UFS 4.1 Pro storage, this phone crushes benchmarks. In my testing database, it currently holds the top spot for raw performance.
In real-world use, the frame interpolation technology smoothed gameplay to near-console quality, and frame drops were non-existent. In general, the 144Hz refresh rate is noticeably smoother in everyday tasks, even when compared to a 120Hz panel, offering smoother scrolling, animations, and overall responsiveness.
In gaming sessions, the phone gets warm, but never hot. That’s thanks to the upgraded ICE-X cooling system, which utilises liquid cooling and a turbo fan in a dual-cell architecture that incorporates Liquid Metal 2.0 and features a 30% larger dissipation area.
The fan is surprisingly quiet, even at full speed, and I never experienced thermal throttling, a feature even flagship phones can’t always claim.
Dual stereo speakers with DTS:X Ultra 3D sound and a powerful X-axis linear motor deliver immersive audio and tactile feedback. I often found myself using the phone’s built-in speakers over Bluetooth buds. While the speakers are excellent, the 10S Pro also features a 3.5mm headphone jack, a particularly welcome addition for gamers who prefer low-latency, wired audio.
Whether it was explosions or subtle environmental cues in FPS games, the soundstage was rich and clear. The haptic engine adds just enough rumble to enhance gameplay without feeling gimmicky.
While cameras aren’t the focus here, RedMagic still delivered a capable setup. The 50MP main sensor with OIS and 50MP ultra-wide lens handles daylight shots well, though dynamic range struggles in harsh lighting.
The 16MP selfie camera is adequate for casual video calls and social snaps, but since it's positioned under the display, image quality comes out noticeably soft. RedMagic continues to refine the output with software enhancements, but there’s only so much that can be done given the hardware limitations.
For gamers, streamers and content creators, it does the job, especially with the built-in streaming support.
Gaming phones often sacrifice battery life in favour of performance, but not in this case. The 7,500mAh battery easily delivered around 10 hours of gaming or roughly two full days of mixed use, occasionally stretching to a third day depending on usage. The dual-cell silicon anode tech ensures power is delivered efficiently and safely.
When it finally drains, the included 80W GaN charger was able to get it to 52% in 15 minutes, 85% in 30 minutes, with a full charge taking just 40 minutes. There’s also smart charging separation, which helps protect battery health, along with an active cooling fan to keep temperatures low while the phone is plugged in.
The RedMagic 10S Pro is a gaming phone that manages to stay cool, last long, and look good doing it. It blurs the line between smartphone and handheld console, offering unmatched performance, immersive visuals, and thoughtful gaming features. If you're a mobile gamer or power user, this is the phone to beat in 2025.
From €649 RedMagic
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