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Red Magic’s latest gaming phone looks like it escaped from an esports lab

This is the kind of phone teenage me would worship

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Red Magic 11S Pro Full Rear Design
Vikhyaat Vivek / Digital Trends

Some phones have great cameras, while others go for a super-slim design. Red Magic’s latest looks like it wants to boot up a ranked match the second you touch it. The Red Magic 11S Pro series has officially launched in China, marking the brand’s eighth anniversary with a pair of unapologetically gaming-focused phones.

The lineup includes the Red Magic 11S Pro in Matte White and Matte Black, along with the Red Magic 11S Pro+ in Transparent Black and Transparent White. And yes, the transparent versions are exactly the kind of over-the-top hardware flex that gaming phones should still be doing.

How Red Magic built an overkill gaming phone with Snapdragon

At the heart of the series is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Leading Version, paired with Red Magic’s RedCore R4 gaming chip and Energy CUBE 3.0. Red Magic says the setup is built for sustained high-frame-rate gaming, including demanding mobile titles and cross-platform gameplay. Considering how Red Magic flagships are typically leading synthetic benchmark charts (like AnTuTu), we can expect this latest model to push these figures once again.

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This is the whole reason why this phone exists. It is not a quiet mainstream flagship with a gaming mode hidden in settings. The Red Magic 11S Pro is a phone built around the idea that heat, touch latency, frame pacing, and controls actually matter.

You’ve heard of a water-cooled PC; here’s a water-cooled phone

The cooling system is where Red Magic gets wonderfully ridiculous. The 11S Pro series uses the company’s AquaCore Cooling System, designed to keep performance stable during long gaming sessions. In simpler terms, this is a liquid cooling system.

This isn’t the first time the brand has leaned into water cooling with its gaming phones, with its global Red Magic 11 Pro marketing calling it the world’s first mass-produced smartphone with liquid cooling. Now, the 11S Pro series carries the same technology.

Full-screen display, triggers, and AI coaching

Gaming is everywhere, even in the display. The phones use a 6.85-inch BOE X10 AMOLED true full-screen display with a 144Hz refresh rate and an under-display camera, keeping the screen free of notches or punch-holes. Touch response gets the esports treatment too, with up to 3000Hz instantaneous touch sampling and 520Hz shoulder triggers, which also brings a built-in controller-like experience.

The phones run Red Magic OS 11.5, which also introduces Mora AI Tactical Coaching for in-game assistance. The gamer in me would have absolutely lost it over this years ago. RGB lighting, transparent finishes, shoulder triggers, water cooling, and an AI coach all packed into one phone is deeply excessive.

Big batteries and faster charging

The Red Magic 11S Pro gets an 8,000mAh battery with 80W fast charging, while the 11S Pro+ uses a 7,500mAh battery with 120W fast charging and up to 80W wireless charging. So the Pro leans harder into endurance, while the Pro+ gives you faster top-ups and wireless charging flexibility.

The Red Magic 11S Pro starts at 5499 yuan for the 12GB + 256GB model, which is roughly $800. Meanwhile, the 11S Pro+ starts at 6199 yuan (~$910) for the 12GB + 256GB version, going up to 7999 yuan (~$1,175) for the 16GB + 1TB model. The phones are already on sale in China, while global availability details will be announced on May 27, 2026.

Vikhyaat Vivek
Vikhyaat Vivek is a tech journalist and reviewer with seven years of experience covering consumer hardware, with a focus on…
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