RedMagic 10S Pro review: "some of the highest benchmarks I've seen so far"

Nubia's RedMagic 10S Pro is here, bringing an overclocked version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset for a mid-cycle refresh of the brand's latest gaming phone. This is a powerful piece of kit, but one that still makes the same sacrifices as most of the market. You won't find the cameras of mainstream flagships in here, and I have my own concerns about the potency of its cooling, but for $699 there's fantastic value for hardcore mobile gamers.

Nubia produces some of the best gaming phones on the market, and is one of the last remaining brands focusing their attention on this space. That means those looking to prioritize a slick framerate and speedy displays aren't exactly spoiled for choice.

The RedMagic 10S Pro wants to put itself next to far more expensive devices, all while still offering 'Elite' performance. That's a brief it absolutely nails, though as more mainstream smartphones dig deeper into AI and other software features, the gap between these dedicated devices and Samsung, Google, and Apple's models is widening once more.

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Design

Previous RedMagic gaming phones have toned things down since the days of the 7-Series, but we're starting to slip back into old habits here. While the RedMagic 9S Pro featured a matte black panel with a streamlined, almost business-like aesthetic, we're back to glass for the 10S Pro. That makes for a slightly more gamerfied design, especially with the Snapdragon and RedMagic logo stamps. These are small and fairly innocuous, but still slightly more bold than previous designs.

That's complimented by the usual red highlights, lifting the black and gray colorway of my unit with a flash of color on the Game Space slider and via the supplied cables.

Just like last year's device, the RedMagic 10S Pro is thicker than most smartphones, though the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro matches its 0.35-inch waistline this year. Those sides are occupied by a circular lock button, volume rocker, and Game Space toggle on the right, with a central USB-C port (better for attaching the best mobile controllers) on the bottom and a 3.5mm audio jack on the top.

This is a harsh, angular design and combined with the 229g weight it's a little unwieldy at times. The high screen-to-body ratio makes for fantastic viewing, but can sometimes get half a millimeter in the way of one-handed operation. Similarly, actually using the touch triggers on the top is slightly uncomfortable. Those harder corners dig into the palms when held in landscape mode, a design flaw heightened by the fact that my smaller hands have to stretch to reach these triggers comfortably anyway.

The exposed vents and grills all mean that the RedMagic 10S Pro is only rated for IP54 water resistance. That's protection from splashes only, and a serious downgrade from more mainstream devices.

Onto better news, there's no camera bump here. That means the whole device lays nearly-flat on a surface. I say nearly, because there's one protruding part - the flash. It doesn't stick out by much - in fact, I only noticed it when grabbing the phone from the top for the first time, it's not visible by sight.

Display

The RedMagic 10S Pro works hard to keep you gazing into its face, with a super-skinny bezel around the 6.85-inch AMOLED display. That 1.25mm frame means this screen looks far bigger than it actually is and, in practice, it feels like I'm working with a much higher real estate.

The actual panel is a 144Hz, 2,000-nit beauty with a super clean finish and particularly sharp finish. Color are bold and bright, though not quite as punchy as I've seen on other devices, with impressive reproduction overall. That 144Hz refresh rate doesn't quite hit the highs of the 185Hz Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro, or even the 164Hz Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro before it. It does, however, give you a higher headroom than the RedMagic 9 Pro and its now standard-feeling 120Hz.

This is a completely flat screen, giving it an edge-less quality that feels far more premium in the hand. That's perfect for big-screen gaming, but I also appreciated the extra size across streaming and YouTube as well.

Cameras

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The RedMagic 10S Pro wants your photos to look as booming as possible, which means its 50MP main camera overcompensates with high saturation levels. I don't hate it, my shots look vibrant and punchy - but it's far from realistic. Unfortunately, the ultrawide seems to have the opposite problem. Images taken with this 50MP lens are a little washed out by comparison, and lose the detail and highlights from regular shots.

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This is by no means a bad camera system. It's still picking up light and shadows well, offering a strong definition between tones and showing a surprising ability to capture in motion as well. The bee image abovewas shot during a particularly windy moment, but came out crystal clear with very little blurring.

There's no actual telephoto lens included, a major downgrade if you've been eyeing up more mainstream flagship devices. The digital zoom is only workable up to about 1.5x, 2x at a push. Anything further than this becomes a stack of pixels.

Of course, these cameras do give out in lower lighting conditions, losing a significant amount of vibrancy from their subjects, introducing a lot more visual noise, and losing detail. Similarly, the front camera lacks the depth to produce a dynamic shot as is common in under-display lenses.

Software

RedMagic's software has come a long way from the poorly translated, often buggy mess it once was. There's still a lot of bloat on here, from pre-installed apps that mean practically nothing to entire folders of games and links to bizarre programs. It can all be deleted, though, and the final software experience is pretty similar to anything you'll find on Android 15 right now.

Menus are intuitively laid out, gesture controls work perfectly, and most elements can be personalized in terms of size and color.

Google Gemini is your go-to for AI features here. This is a standard Gemini experience, though it's not as thoroughly integrated into the camera and photo-editing systems as it would be on a Google device. As its stands, you'll find simple edit and search processes included, as well as call subtitles and translation.

Game Space is back and it's pretty much exactly the same as it's always been. I'd live Nubia to update these visuals a little at some point, but you'll still find your game launcher, performance settings, fan customizations, and screenshots all compiled in one handy space here.

Gaming

Nobody's expecting the RedMagic 10S Pro to flounder in performance. This is a stacked machine with up to 24GB RAM and Snapdragon's most powerful chipset to date. It's no wonder it's spitting out some of the highest benchmark numbers I've seen so far.

Heavier games like Genshin Impact keep their cool remarkably well, just like the previous generation. Gameplay is smooth and sharp, I never experienced a framerate drop or judder, and loading times felt particularly snappy. There doesn't seem to be anything I can throw at the RedMagic 10S Pro that it can't handle.

It's also a remarkable step up from far more expensive devices. The Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro only benches a 5,965 score in Wild Life Extreme. The RedMagic 9S Pro comes in under that at 5,606. The 10S Pro's score averaged out at 7,051 across my Wildlife Extreme testing. That's a serious power upgrade.

It means that more of my games can hit their framerate caps and new, more demanding releases are going to do the same as well. That's future-proofing that you can enjoy right now.

Don't forget the gloves though.

Temperatures remain a concern with these devices, especially considering a bug caused my 9S Pro to overheat rapidly when I first started testing it. This was rectified and I didn't experience the same issue on the new RedMagic 10S Pro, but this thing still gets pretty toasty.

There's a 10-layer ICE-X cooling system in play here, with a 23,000 RPM fan, 12,000mm² graphene and copper vapor chamber, and liquid metal around the CPU. I still couldn't comfortably hold the 10S Pro when running through more demanding benchmark processes. Things were less extreme in-game though, and I was able to sit for a good few hours running through my usual thumb tappers without feeling the heat.

Nothing crashed, everything still ran smoothly, and the system seemed to recover quickly. It's still a concern, though, and an indication that the thermal management system still isn't operating how Nubia wants it to.

Battery

Gaming phones live and die on their batteries. After all, they're designed from the ground up for long-lasting portable play. A Nintendo Switch 2 can expend all its power in one go and sit in its case for the rest of a trip. You'll still need your phone once you're done playing.

The RedMagic 10S Pro blows the competition out the water with its 7,050 mAh battery - that's a considerable increase on the 5,000mAh Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and 5,800 mAh Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro. Both of those phones are efficient devices, though, and can last for around two days of casual use. That's where I found myself with the 10S Pro as well, which means this device is using up that larger battery at a far higher speed than others. It's too soon to tell, but that could have a lasting impact on battery health.

Fast charging is available and is incredibly speedy. Unfortunately, as with most gaming phones, there's no wireless charging.

Should you buy the RedMagic 10S Pro?

I've always been a fan of RedMagic's devices from a pure value standpoint. The RedMagic 10S Pro offers market-leading performance with a few caveats, but it does so at a much lower rate than its contemporaries. Even the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro can't keep up with this performance and it's a good deal more expensive. The Honor 400 Pro is nearly $1,000 in USD and falls well below this power level.

If you're going all-in on mobile gaming for your next device, but don't want to break the bank with a premium price tag the RedMagic 10S Pro is still the best option open to you. The cameras aren't great, but they get the job done. I have some battery health concerns, but you're still getting high-end performance for two days of use. Those thermals can skyrocket, but only in the most extreme of stress tests.

Yes, there are caveats - but ultimately this is a phone made to push mobile releases as far as they can go and it excels.

If you just play a few casual games while waiting in line, you'll benefit far more from a more efficient flagship with better cameras, wireless charging, and additional waterproofing. It's also worth noting that Nubia only offers three years of software updates while more mainstream brands will have you covered for up to seven years in some cases.

How I tested the RedMagic 10S Pro

I used the RedMagic 10S Pro as my daily driver for two weeks. That meant it came everywhere I went and acted as my primary smartphone. Aside from more casual Genshin Impact and Call of Duty Mobile play, I benchmarked the device using 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme and Solar Bay and completed several screen-on battery rundown tests. For more information on how we make our recommendations, check out the full GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

I'm also hunting down all the best gaming tablets and the best gaming laptops. Or, for more portable play, check out the best gaming handhelds on the market.