A gaming powerhouse with compromises

For nearly so long as smartphones have been round, gaming telephones have existed as gadgets that prioritize battery and efficiency, usually on the expense of skinny designs and options like digital camera high quality. The RedMagic 10S Professional is the most recent of those gaming telephones, however as a substitute of merely prioritizing efficiency and battery, the machine provides additional options like set off buttons on the corners for players who need that additional management.

Not solely that, however the RedMagic 10S Professional is definitely fairly reasonably priced, given how high-performance it’s. The machine prices roughly $699, which is way lower than many similar-performing options. However ought to players actually go for a purpose-built gaming cellphone just like the RedMagic 10S Professional, or ought to they persist with gaming on one other machine that is likely to be simply as highly effective?

RedMagic 10S Professional specs

Design

Take one have a look at the RedMagic 10S Professional and also you’ll acknowledge that it’s purpose-built for players who know what sort of cellphone they’re getting. It has a Snapdragon 8 Elite emblem on the again, complemented with the RedMagic emblem, crimson accents on the again and sides, and so forth.

The construct of the cellphone is type of distinctive, too. It’s a reasonably blocky machine with flat sides and sharper corners than nearly all of different telephones today. That’s not essentially a nasty factor, but it surely’s definitely bulkier than most non-gaming gadgets you could find out within the wild. That’s, till you get round to the digital camera system on the again, which is totally flush with the remainder of the again of the cellphone. That’s seemingly due to some various factors, like the dearth of a telephoto digital camera and the truth that the machine is already fairly thick. Regardless, many will just like the method.

There are different distinctive design touches, too. There’s a crimson swap on the fitting aspect of the machine that you simply may assume is a ringer swap, however truly it launches the RedMagic Recreation Area function, which is actually a sport launcher the place you’ll be able to customise efficiency settings to your video games. To get out of Recreation Area, you’ll be able to’t simply swipe up on the show — you must bodily toggle off that swap.

The cellphone additionally has the aforementioned set off controls on the left and proper corners once you maintain it horizontally. These are capacitive contact controls, not precise bodily buttons, so some won’t love how they work, but it surely’s nonetheless type of cool that they’re there within the first place. In fact, they have been included within the RedMagic 10 Professional from final yr, although, so that they’re not fully new for this cellphone, and you probably have a RedMagic 10 Professional, you received’t get any additional buttons or controls by upgrading.

On the entrance of the machine, you’ll additionally get an under-display front-facing digital camera, which helps make the show uninterrupted once you’re gaming. The trade-off, after all, is that the digital camera high quality is prone to be very low, however we’ll get into that within the digital camera part.

Show

The display screen on the RedMagic 10S Professional is constructed for efficiency as nicely. It’s not essentially the best decision show, however it’s a step up over the 1080p display screen on the earlier technology mannequin, coming in at 2688 x 1216 pixels. Extra importantly, it has a excessive refresh price, which reaches 144Hz. Coupled with its huge 6.85-inch dimension, it’s a handsome display screen.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

The show has a peak brightness of 2000 nits, and I discovered that it simply received brilliant sufficient for the overwhelming majority of conditions, together with out of doors use. It’s maybe not fairly as brilliant as some rivals on the market, however once more, I by no means had a problem with its brightness. I think most customers could have an identical expertise. Altogether, this display screen is superb for gaming, watching motion pictures, or actually doing anything.

Beneath the show might be discovered an optical fingerprint sensor, and it appeared to work nicely in my use. It was correct and comparatively fast, and I by no means had any main points with it.

Efficiency

Maybe a very powerful factor concerning the RedMagic 10S has nothing to do with its design or show. It has to do with how nicely it performs. Fortunately, the cellphone performs very nicely. It has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor coupled with both 12GB, 16GB, or 24GB of RAM. Our overview mannequin has 16GB.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

Complementing that setup is a fan that may be custom-made to easily run primarily based on warmth ranges or to chill faster. There are different settings for the fan too, like having it flip off robotically once you enter a cellphone name.

So how does the cellphone carry out? Effectively, very nicely. That’s removed from stunning. With the top-tier chipset mixed with the fan for improved cooling, it simply handles all fashionable cell gaming conditions. I performed a number of totally different video games on the machine, together with Name of Obligation: Cell, Asphalt 8, and extra, and located that the fan did a fantastic job at retaining the cellphone cool. That mentioned, in the event you’re not gaming with headphones, you may discover that the fan can get a little bit loud, however that’s to be anticipated.

Battery and charging

The second massive benefit of utilizing the RedMagic 10S Professional is its huge battery. The cellphone has a 7,050mAh battery, which is completely ginormous and far bigger than you get in client telephones. In fact, in the event you’re gaming for hours every single day, you’ll eat up that battery fairly shortly, but it surely’ll last more than a smaller battery would on a distinct cellphone. In the event you don’t sport for hours every single day, most customers will be capable to stretch the cellphone to 2 or extra days of use, which is fairly spectacular.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

More often than not when producers declare that telephones have two-day battery lives, they imply underneath very mild utilization, however medium customers will simply get two days, and heavy customers may discover that they’ll too, relying on what they’re utilizing their cellphone for.

The charging tech on provide right here is fairly good too. The cellphone costs at as much as 80 watts with a wired connection and comes with a charging brick and cable within the field to get these speeds. Sadly, there’s no wi-fi charging right here, which is a little bit of a bummer contemplating the worth that this cellphone comes at. Most different telephones on this value vary assist wi-fi charging.

Digital camera

The largest compromise you’ll should make when shopping for the RedMagic 10S Professional comes within the type of the digital camera. The cellphone technically has a triple digital camera system, however don’t assume meaning there’s a telephoto digital camera. As an alternative, you’ll get a 50-megapixel principal digital camera, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide digital camera, and a 2-megapixel digital camera that’s used for added data in sure situations. That final digital camera isn’t one you can swap to manually; it’s merely there to kick in robotically as wanted.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

So how does the digital camera truly carry out? Effectively, not unhealthy. In good lighting environments, photos truly look fairly detailed and vibrant. Whereas it’s maybe not essentially the most natural-looking digital camera expertise on the market, I nonetheless like the best way that photos turned out. That mentioned, the ultrawide digital camera seemed a little bit totally different than the primary digital camera and struggled to seize the identical vibrant colours. Not solely that, however and not using a telephoto digital camera, zoomed pictures shortly look blurry and grainy — although in the event you zoom to round 2x or so, photos nonetheless look respectable.

Low-light photos have been positive more often than not, but in addition maybe considerably inconsistent, particularly between lenses. In severely low lighting, the cellphone struggled fairly a bit, however in different situations, it was positive.

The front-facing digital camera is frankly fairly horrible. That is considerably to be anticipated given the truth that it’s an under-display digital camera, which nonetheless hasn’t been developed sufficient to take nice pictures. Photographs are grainy, lack depth, and appear to be they got here from a cellphone from 15 years in the past.

Once more, don’t count on an unbelievable digital camera expertise right here, and the dearth of telephoto implies that the RedMagic 10S Professional isn’t as versatile as different triple-camera smartphones on this value vary. However that’s merely a compromise you’ll should make if you’d like a devoted gaming cellphone.

Software program

The opposite compromise that you simply’ll should make comes within the type of the software program expertise, which I didn’t love. The way in which the software program works is comparatively inventory, although there are many additional settings associated to gaming options within the settings app, like these associated to the sunshine strip and fan.

The way in which it appears, nonetheless, isn’t actually my favourite. Issues are type of blocky and dated-looking, although you’ll be able to customise your method out of this by a few of the built-in settings.

Picture supply: Christian de Looper for BGR

Sadly, the cellphone comes filled with bloatware, together with video games you seemingly don’t wish to play, and apps like Reserving.com, MoboReels, MoboReader, WPS Workplace, and extra. Many of those might be eliminated, which is nice, but it surely’s annoying that they’re there within the first place. Most annoying of all is “NextApp,” which makes it appear to be there are folders of bloat in your App Drawer, when actually they’re not put in in your machine. These faux folders can’t be eliminated, so that they’re all the time there, which could be very irritating.

One software program function that I did like was RedMagic’s Recreation Area although. Right here you’ll be able to customise the efficiency settings on a game-by-game foundation, tweaking contact sampling price, whether or not you need high efficiency or high battery life, GPU settings, and extra. It’s a neat instrument for players who need to have the ability to customise how their cellphone works once they’re gaming, as a substitute of merely leaving issues as much as the machine itself to handle.

The RedMagic 10S Professional sadly solely comes with three years of software program updates, which is healthier than earlier gadgets however nowhere close to the likes of Google and Samsung, that are presently providing six or seven years of OS updates.

Conclusions

The RedMagic 10S Professional could be very highly effective, gives a novel design, and has fascinating gaming-focused options just like the shoulder triggers. If all you actually do along with your cellphone is sport, then it could be value contemplating.

That mentioned, loads of individuals do different issues with their cellphone, too. Even in the event you sport rather a lot in your cellphone, there are many conditions through which you may want a distinct machine. For instance, if you’d like a tool with a stable, versatile digital camera, or in the event you sport with a controller like these made by Spine, through which case you’ll seemingly by no means use the shoulder triggers constructed into the machine.

The massive exception to this argument is the battery life. In the event you prioritize battery life above a triple digital camera and need a gaming-focused cellphone, the RedMagic 10S Professional is a wonderful machine. However if you’d like a extra well-rounded smartphone expertise with a flexible digital camera and higher software program expertise, there are different gadgets on the market for you.

The competitors

There are different gaming telephones on the market, however a lot of them are way more costly than the RedMagic 10S Professional. The Asus ROG Cellphone 9 Professional, for instance, prices a hefty $1,600. The ROG Cellphone 9 is a little bit cheaper, however nonetheless begins at $1,000. In the event you’re not tied to a particular funds, then it’s most likely value going for a kind of telephones as a substitute.

In case you are tied to a particular funds, then it’s value contemplating the standard suspects, like the Samsung Galaxy S25, which nonetheless performs excellently as a gaming machine however has a triple digital camera and a greater software program expertise. That mentioned, it doesn’t have wherever close to the battery life that the RedMagic 10S Professional has.

Ought to I purchase the RedMagic 10S Professional?

Sure, however provided that battery life and gaming-focused options are extra essential to you than a slim design and a flexible digital camera.