RedMagic 10 Professional Arms-On: Kitted Up for Gaming, however Hit or Miss as a Telephone

The RedMagic 10 Professional is a $649 gaming cellphone with higher-end {hardware}, and it gives a terrific worth by way of what you get – not less than on paper. After I performed Useless Cells, I used the cellphone’s gameplay mode to take away the body cap and toggle larger decision graphics, and it nonetheless performed at a stable 90 frames per second. Mortal Kombat Cellular immediately ran on the full 144fps, the best the display screen helps. And whereas Grand Theft Auto San Andreas is an older title, the Android model controls simply, thanks partially to the responsive 960Hz contact sampling fee — however I nonetheless advocate utilizing a controller. Video games just like the aforementioned Useless Cells look vibrant and easy; nonetheless, after a couple of days of testing the RedMagic 10 Professional, it is in any other case largely hit-or-miss by way of being a superb cellphone.

The RedMagic’s beefy specs embody a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, whose quick speeds I first examined with the tech/cell/asus-rog-phone-9-pro-review-gaming-powerhouse-from-front-to-back/” rel=”” class=”c-shortcodeLink c-shortcodeLink-active”>Asus ROG Telephone 9 Professional. The RedMagic 10 Professional helps 100-watt wired charging pace to energy up its large 7,050-mAh battery, each of which we not often see in telephones that promote within the US. I stay up for testing the cellphone’s battery and recharging pace.

The ten Professional builds upon the tech/cell/redmagic-8-pro-review-a-gaming-phone-with-lots-of-power-and-problems/” goal=”_self”>RedMagic 8 collection’ design together with an under-display front-facing digicam that gives an uninterrupted 6.85-inch canvas for video games and movies. This 12 months’s RedMagic cellphone has a show that helps a 144Hz refresh fee, which ought to be greater than adequate for easy animations and scrolling, even when it is not the best refresh fee I’ve seen on a gaming cellphone. The two,688×1,216-pixel display screen has a peak brightness of two,000 nits. RedMagic additionally has an inner cooling fan and a liquid metallic cooling system that is usually seen in gaming PCs.

Within the graphics and gaming-centric benchmark check 3DMark Wild Life Excessive, the RedMagic 10 Professional scored comparably to the Asus ROG Telephone 9 Professional which prices $551 extra. The RedMagic additionally ranked barely forward of the Asus within the Geekbench 6.0 CPU benchmark. So clearly RedMagic checks the field by way of the cellphone’s gaming prowess. It is simply the ten Professional’s skill to be a good cellphone that leaves me pissed off and dissatisfied.

In my early testing of the RedMagic 10 Professional, I hit a lot of hiccups with the software program that attempted my persistence. Many of those points are the identical ones that I had with tech/cell/redmagic-8-pro-review-a-gaming-phone-with-lots-of-power-and-problems/” rel=”” class=”c-shortcodeLink c-shortcodeLink-active”>prior RedMagic telephones. It is irritating that there hasn’t been a lot enchancment.

Essentially the most obtrusive annoyance is the digicam software program that defaults to making use of a watermark to all photographs, and makes disabling it extraordinarily unintuitive. As an alternative of eradicating it from throughout the digicam app or the cellphone settings, it’s good to launch RedMagic’s Recreation House menu by turning on its purple bodily swap, tapping your profile icon after which scrolling right down to the choice to show off the “Crimson magic watermark.” These menus even have inconsistent grammatical model, which I simply discover jarring inside cellphone software program.

RedMagic additionally makes a lot of modifications to the Android expertise that I discover get in the way in which. As an example the Google Information feed is initially changed by “Z-Board,” which I shortly turned off as a result of it reads to me like built-in promoting although it payments itself as “Advisable information and repair information.” It additionally defaults to its personal browser app, however that is simpler to vary to a different choice like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

And whereas it’s cool to make use of a cellphone that has an uninterrupted display screen, the under-display digicam takes unhealthy images. As an example, on this selfie from the 16-megapixel shooter, the background may be very washed out, even after I used a microfiber material to scrub the “lens” part of the display screen a number of occasions. The RedMagic 10 Professional’s rear cameras embody a 50-megapixel foremost digicam, a 50-megapixel ultrawide digicam and an unnamed 2-megapixel digicam. I requested RedMagic to make clear what the third digicam was — usually it will help with portrait mode.

RedMagic doesn’t have a terrific document for software program and safety updates. RedMagic’s website claims that its phones get “greater than two years of software program assist” which is low by 2024 requirements. Whereas Asus can also be offering two years of main software program updates for its ROG gaming cellphone, it’s not less than ensures 5 years of safety updates. I requested RedMagic to make clear its assist timeline, however have not heard something again.

Who’s the RedMagic 10 Professional for?

The RedMagic 10 Professional will not be meant to lure individuals away from extra conventional flagship telephones just like the Samsung Galaxy collection. However its cheaper price level does make it one of the vital inexpensive telephones with the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which beats all the 2024 telephones that CNET has examined by way of sheer gaming efficiency. Its “all-screen” show makes it a robust media machine, particularly when you join it to a gaming controller when enjoying extra console-level video games on it. The large battery and quick charging pace additional increase its attraction as a pocket-size gaming system. For the extra ROM-experienced crowd, you possibly can doubtlessly flash this system to fit your wants higher than RedMagic’s present software program expertise. 

The hand held gaming market can also be turning into more and more aggressive, which raises extra questions round who the most effective viewers for a gaming cellphone just like the RedMagic 10 Professional is, particularly when the system’s performance as a cellphone is its weak level. A tech/gaming/oled-steam-deck-hands-on-a-complete-handheld-gaming-upgrade/” rel=”” class=”c-shortcodeLink c-shortcodeLink-active”>Steam Deck — whereas too massive to slot in one’s pocket — gives direct entry to many PC video games at a cheaper price than the RedMagic, even when the Steam Deck itself is not additionally a cellphone. The Asus ROG Telephone 9 collection is a better advice as each a succesful cellphone and a gaming system, however its beginning worth is a a lot larger $1,000. 

However with an early chicken sale date of Dec. 12 adopted by a common on-sale date of Dec. 18, the RedMagic 10 Professional will likely be particularly notable for being one of many first telephones to hit the North American market with the newest Snapdragon processor inside. And maybe for early adopters which might be additionally gaming lovers, that is sufficient to leap in. However most individuals will probably be higher off ready for the primary wave of flagship Android telephones that can even embody this processor, or ought to maybe take into account the dearer Asus cellphone if gaming’s a precedence alongside a extra organized software program expertise.