Life is tough on the cutting edge. Less than a year has passed since REDMAGIC released the 10 Pro, its (then) flagship gaming phone, but the company has already felt compelled to follow it up with an even newer, slicker model.
In case you need reminding, we thought the REDMAGIC 10 Pro was a “solid smartphone with serious gaming grunt”.
To expand on that a little, we also described it as “a games console in the shape of a phone, with powerful speakers, capacitive shoulder buttons, ostentatious RGB lighting, and even an audible fan that you can activate to keep the phone cool during particularly intense gaming sessions”.
That brings you pretty much up to speed on what the REDMAGIC brand of smartphones is all about. While we undeniably live in an age when smartphones are capable of giving all but the latest consoles a run for their money, REDMAGIC also leaves most smartphones in the dust.
So what can REDMAGIC possibly have done in the last six months to improve upon the cutting edge REDMAGIC 10 Pro?
Looks
In terms of looks, not much has changed. The REDMAGIC 10s Pro is a lean, angular device with sharp corners and a defiantly minimal aesthetic. Girding the slim device is a strip of brushed graphite-looking material, and the glass at the back of the phone is transparent, revealing some well-packed electronic innards.
There are unobtrusive buttons for activating gaming mode, powering on/off, and a volume rocker, along with two speaker grilles and two touch-sensitive shoulder buttons. Aside from the bright red gaming mode button, the REDMAGIC 10s Pro looks like it’s trying not to be noticed.
But it’s still an impressive piece of design in an understated way. It boasts a tiny bezel and a generous 6.85” screen (like the previous model). According to the review guide we’ve been given, it has a 95.3% screen to body ratio, which is “the highest ever”.
We’re not sure whether that applies to all phones or just REDMAGIC’s range, but either way the !0s Pro is a sexy, shiny slab of fun.
A sexy slab of fun.
Specs
It’s fair to say the 10s Pro is a modest upgrade on the 10 Pro, which is pretty much as you’d expect. The margins get finer at the front of the pack.
So in many respects there’s been no change. The 6.85”, 144 Hz, 1.5k screen is still a 6.85”, 144 Hz, 1.5k screen, the dual speaker is still 1115K, and there’s still the same 0815 X-Linear Motor. The battery, once again, is a generous 7050mAh, with an 80w GaN charger.
But there are some marked improvements in terms of hardware. The headline improvements are, of course, in the CPU and GPU, which have crept up from 4.32 GHz and 1100 MHz to 4.47 GHz and 1200 MHz respectively.
The all-important cooling system has also received an upgrade, from Liquid Metal 1.0 to Liquid Metal 2.0. That means this cutting edge, T1000-sounding material now covers a 30% larger area. In combination with some rejigged pipework, this has resulted in more than double the thermal conductivity and a 5% cooler CPU overall, even with the extra Hz.
If you’re not technically minded, here’s all you need to know: the REDMAGIC 10s Pro is powerful enough to take pretty much anything in its stride. And the battery is big enough to keep the lights on for a couple of days between charges under normal use.
What we said about the 10 Pro still holds: “the REDMAGIC 10(s) Pro has a stunningly bright, crisp, colorful display and loud, punchy speakers, making it perfect not just for gaming but for watching films and TV shows”.
Oh, and once again there’s a 3.5mm jack, if you care about that sort of thing.
Buttons!
Software
Other improvements are restricted to software, and the use of AI to create extra performance and efficiency.
For instance, while the (if anything, now slightly more underwhelming) dual 50 Megapixel rear cameras are still the same, the front-facing 16 Megapixel camera is now powered by an upgraded AI algorithm, allowing you to take clearer and more natural selfies. The difference is subtle, but detectable.
Likewise, the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Leading Version processor comes with an enhanced neural processing unit and GPU, designed to advance on-device generative AI while handling complex multi-modal AI tasks. This purportedly gives this new processor a 30% power boost over its predecessor.
The upshot: the REDMAGIC 10s Pro is fast. Whether you’ll notice the difference in the normal course of your phone-using life is uncertain. But if you exist at the bleeding edge of smartphone gaming you may well benefit from a boost in performance.
Gaming
Appropriately enough, the biggest software improvements have been reserved for the REDMAGIC 10s Pro’s raison d’etre: gaming.
It goes without saying that this is a pretty formidable handheld console. It has plenty of power, a gaming-oriented interface, and even a pair of capacitive shoulder buttons. But Game Space is arguably the thing that elevates REDMAGIC into the big leagues.
This software gives you quick access to plugins, peripherals, pictures, and countless other settings and features.
To give you a flavor of the available tweaks, you can change the aspect ratio, view achievements, make notes and store them on your picture board, record gameplay, connect to a monitor via Host mode, and engage a whole range of different plugins such as Somatosensory Control, which lets you turn gestures and motions into inputs.
The REDMAGIC 10s Pro’s software lets you record and monitor stuff like gacha pulls and in-game events, extract hard-to-see information so that you can read it, display game info such as playing time, and much more. Meanwhile a clever AI-powered intelligent learning function lets your device track your behavior and start coming up with bespoke control schemes.
You can even create a custom crosshair, and a custom zoom zone to simulate the effect of a scope. All of these changes and tweaks are viewable in an area called, with customary modesty, the Super Base.
Some people can still get sniffy about mobile phones as serious gaming devices, but the REDMAGIC 10s Pro does as much as it possibly could to silence the critics. Arguably, no console offers the same amount of customization and flexibility.
It’s just a shame that the casting functionality remains fiddly, and Chromecast remains unsupported.
Reflections within reflections.
Conclusion
The REDMAGIC 10s Pro is an impressive bit of kit. Then again, so is the REDMAGIC 10 Pro. Should you get a 10s Pro if you’re newly in the market for a dedicated gaming phone? Sure. Are you likely to notice a dramatic difference between the two models? Probably not.
There are improvements on paper, related mostly to cooling and AI-powered processing speed. And there are improvements that you can actually see, including various software features.
But only the most ravenous early adopters should consider upgrading from the previous model to this one, or paying significantly more for the latest version.
The REDMAGIC 10s Pro is an incremental upgrade in a niche where every nanotweak matters. If you belong in that niche, you won’t be disappointed with the nanotweaks on offer.
But, if you’re anything like us, you can safely hold off on upgrading for a couple more years without FOMO.
The post REDMAGIC 10s Pro Review – A Step Up? appeared first on Gamezebo.
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