Redmagic 11 Pro review: The most extreme gaming phone you can buy in 2025
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and RedCore R4 gaming chip combine to deliver one of the fastest gaming experiences available on a smartphone. Picture: Noel Campion.
If you’ve ever wondered what a gaming phone could be if the manufacturer removed every limit, the Redmagic 11 Pro is it. It is first and foremost a gaming phone, built for performance, but living with it day to day reveals a fascinating mix of brilliance and compromise.
Redmagic isn’t shy about its gamer-centric identity, and the 11 Pro embraces it more boldly than ever. In this day and age, phones without a camera bump don’t exist unless you’re willing to compromise on camera tech. Redmagic understands its users who demand top-notch specs and performance, even if that means compromising on the cameras.
The flat back, exposed cooling system and illuminated accents make the 11 Pro one of the more unique and eye-catching designs you’ll see in 2025. This year’s model is even more stunning thanks to redesigned RGB lighting and an optional transparent rear panel that lets you see the new liquid-cooling system flowing in real time. It’s nerdy, ridiculous and absolutely brilliant.
The aluminium frame feels sturdy, though the glossy elements and glass surfaces attract fingerprints easily.
The shoulder triggers are now physically larger, making them easier to rest a finger on during long gaming sessions. There’s even an RGB-lit logo on the opposite side, adding to the overall spectacle. Despite all these moving parts, the phone offers IPX8 water resistance, allowing brief submersion without damage, although I wasn’t brave enough to test it.
For normal everyday use, it’s a little heavier than a typical flagship, yet still sits comfortably in the hand thanks to its flat sides and balanced weight distribution.
The 6.85-inch AMOLED display is stunning and one of my favourites on any phone. Because the selfie camera sits beneath the display, you get a seamless, uninterrupted viewing area with no notches or punch-holes. The panel is bright, reaching around 1,800 nits, and colours are vivid without feeling artificially saturated.
A 144Hz refresh rate keeps gaming and everyday scrolling feeling superfluid, though it’s not an adaptive LTPO panel. That means it can’t drop down to extremely low refresh rates to save power, and you have to choose between responsiveness and battery life. Still, as a gaming display, it’s outstanding.
The touch sampling rate is exceptionally high, which I noticed when playing fast-paced shooters, where even light taps registered immediately.
Despite everything happening under the glass, the under-display selfie camera is less noticeable than past versions. You only see it under direct sunlight or on all-white screens, and even then, it's barely noticeable. For watching films, browsing or gaming, it’s one of the most immersive displays you’ll find.
Cameras have never been the main reason to buy a Redmagic phone, and that remains true here. The 50MP main and 50MP ultrawide cameras are perfectly usable, producing well-balanced, colourful images during the day with decent dynamic range. The main camera’s low-light performance is surprisingly good, and photos come out sharper than on last year’s model thanks to better software tuning.
The ultrawide holds up well enough outdoors but struggles in dimmer conditions where noise becomes more noticeable. The 2MP macro camera can be handy on rare occasions, but in general, I doubt many people will use it.
The 16 MP under-display selfie camera is not great, but it is fine for video calls. Even with beauty filters turned off, skin tones can look a bit off, and details are softer than you would get from a regular punch-hole camera because screen pixels sit between the lens and the subject. Night-time videos recorded with the selfie camera also show pixel grid patterns due to light passing through the display.
The phone can shoot 8K and excellent 4K 60fps footage from the main camera, though the ultrawide’s 8K mode is more of a technical showcase than something you’d want to use regularly.
The 11 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, paired with Redmagic’s dedicated RedCore R4 gaming chip. It has up to 24GB of LPDDR5T RAM and up to 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage. Even the most demanding games and apps load in seconds, and multitasking feels snappy.
You also get a 3.5mm headphone jack, an ultra-fast ultrasonic fingerprint sensor that works even with wet fingers, a DisplayPort-capable USB-C 3.2 port for 4K output to a monitor and a customisable “red-magic key” that lets you jump directly into the gaming hub.
The new AquaCore liquid-cooling system is unlike anything else in a phone. Watching the coolant at the rear of the phone move under the glass is mesmerising, but the real value lies in performance stability. After more than an hour of continuous Real Racing 3 and Call of Duty Mobile gameplay, the phone stayed locked at 144 fps.
Other demanding titles, such as Wreckfest, and games like PUBG ran exceptionally well, maintaining high frame rates with only minor fluctuations. The 24,000 RPM fan ramps up when needed, and although you absolutely hear it, it’s quieter than expected.
The phone gets warm on the outside because the cooling system is designed to pull heat away from internal components. Still, it never reaches a temperature that makes it uncomfortable to hold. That said, while running the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme stress test, the phone got very hot and even failed to finish once. Even so, real-world gaming performance is excellent. The active fan and liquid cooling help keep temperatures under control, resulting in more consistent performance.
Gaming on this phone feels more like using a handheld console than a smartphone. The larger shoulder triggers help enormously, the haptic feedback is excellent, and the stereo speakers are loud and full-bodied.
The 7,500mAh battery is enormous and gives the 11 Pro excellent longevity. A full day of heavy use, including long gaming sessions, was never a problem. If you’re not gaming extensively, two-day or even more endurance is achievable.
The phone supports 80W wired and, for the first time, 80W wireless charging. You also get two-way reverse charging, which lets you top up accessories on the go.
Redmagic OS 11.0, based on Android 16, is cleaner and more stable than earlier versions. The interface is close to stock Android but with heavy customisation options, gaming profiles, performance toggles and built-in AI features powered by both Google Gemini and Redmagic’s own MORA assistant.
There are still a few quirks, such as the lack of folder support and occasional bugs in the Game Space interface, but overall, the software has matured significantly.
The Redmagic 11 Pro is the ultimate gaming smartphone, combining desktop-level performance with wild cooling tech and a mesmerising full-screen display. It’s not for camera lovers, but for gamers, it’s unbeatable at this price.
From €699 Redmagic
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