Redmagic has announced the global version of the Redmagic 9S Pro gaming smartphone, and inside is a processor you may not be familiar with. It’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which you’ll absolutely know, but it’s the “Leading Version” of the chip.
The what? It turns out that this is the name Redmagic has given to an overclocked version of the already very powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and it seems we’ve already seen it under a different name and on a different phone.
According to a Redmagic blog post, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version is very closely related to the specially tuned Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, which is housed inside the Samsung Galaxy S24 series and the new Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Z Fold 6 folding phones. The Leading Version of the chip takes the CPU clock speed from 3.3GHz to 3.4GHz and the Adreno 750 GPU’s clock speed from 900MHz to 1GHz.
The weirdly named processor is the main feature that separates the Redmagic 9S Pro from the Redmagic 9 Pro, which was announced in late 2023 with a standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 inside. Redmagic pulled a similar stunt with the Redmagic 8 Pro when it upgraded the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Leading Version for the Redmagic 8S Pro.
Is there anything else that differentiates the new Redmagic 9S Pro from the Redmagic 9 Pro? To help keep temperatures under control with the higher-performing chipset, the cooling system has been enhanced with a new cooling gel and different materials, which Redmagic says increases efficiency by a notable 20%. The phone’s design has changed slightly, and there is a new backlight and shoulder button lighting system.
The Redmagic OS 9.5 interface also has a few changes over Android 14. There are interactive wallpapers where you can play classic games like Tetris and Snake without unlocking the device, plus some small customization features that may appeal to gamers, including a way to force an aspect ratio or screen orientation change. Otherwise, the screen, battery and charging, headphone jack, weight, and dimensions are all the same as on the Redmagic 9 Pro.
The Redmagic 9S Pro is available internationally in four colors. The Sleet and Frost versions come with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space and cost $649, while the Snowfall and Cyclone models come with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage space for $799.
