Latest news with #10Air
Irish Examiner
29-05-2025
- Irish Examiner
RedMagic 10 Air review: Serious gaming power in a slim, affordable package
RedMagic has built a reputation for producing gaming phones that combine cutting-edge technology with affordability, and the new RedMagic 10 Air is no exception. Slimmer, lighter, and still packing serious firepower, this phone is specifically designed for mobile gamers who want top-tier specs without breaking the bank. With a starting price of just €499, it's hard not to raise an eyebrow in interest. Design and build The 'Air' moniker makes sense the moment you pick it up. Weighing 205 grams and measuring just 7.85mm thick, the RedMagic 10 Air is noticeably lighter than its predecessors while maintaining that signature gaming flair. The build feels premium, with a metal frame, tactile buttons, and angular design language that RedMagic fans will instantly recognise. RGB lighting remains, as it wouldn't be a RedMagic gaming phone without it, but this slim-down model lacks an active cooling fan. You've got that iconic glowing ring around the camera flash, and while it's purely aesthetic, it certainly adds to the gamer appeal. The capacitive shoulder triggers return and work brilliantly, although I miss the dedicated gaming mode sliding switch — now it's just a button. The biggest downside in the design department? No 3.5mm headphone jack. For a phone designed with gamers in mind, that omission is particularly noticeable. One of the distinctive features of recent RedMagic phones is their flat back. However, the 10 Air differs from these due to the raised rings around the cameras and flash. Display and cameras RedMagic has equipped the 10 Air with a 6.8-inch AMOLED display, and it's a joy to use, especially for gaming. It's a flat panel (thankfully) with a crisp 2,480 x 1,116 resolution, offering a solid 400 PPI. Peak brightness hits 1,600 nits, so it holds up well even in bright sunlight. The refresh rate tops out at 120Hz, which makes for silky-smooth interactions whether you're scrolling, swiping, or battling it out in Call of Duty. The fingerprint scanner under the display is reliable, although it can be slow at times. RedMagic is sticking with its under-display selfie camera, which helps achieve a clean, notch-free display ideal for immersive gaming and media consumption. Of course, the trade-off in camera quality is substantial. For selfie lovers or vloggers, it's not great, but then again, RedMagic knows its audience, and front camera quality isn't its top priority. To be fair, their image processing improves the quality enough to make it more usable. Around the back, the RedMagic 10 Air features dual 50MP sensors — a main camera and an ultra-wide lens. Daylight shots from the main sensor can look quite good, with solid detail, though colours can be overly saturated and occasionally inaccurate. The ultra-wide, unfortunately, is a step down with noticeable softness and noise, particularly in lower light. Video capture offers 4K at 30/60fps and even 8K at 30fps. The main lens features optical and electronic image stabilisation, but don't expect cinematic-level footage. Performance Despite using last year's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the RedMagic 10 Air remains a performance monster. In day-to-day use and intensive gaming, it handles everything you throw at it without breaking a sweat. The version I tested had 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, but even the 12GB variant should be more than enough for most users. The thermal performance is solid, too. While it gets warm under load, it doesn't become uncomfortably hot or throttle to the point of affecting gameplay. RedMagic's gaming mode, accessible via the top-right red button, gives you quick access to performance tweaks and trigger mapping. It's well integrated and a real asset for gamers. Hardware and software The dual stereo speakers are surprisingly decent for a thin phone, and the inclusion of an IR blaster is a nice bonus. The 6,000mAh battery easily powers you through a full day of heavy use, and the included 80W charger gets you to 100% in just over 50 minutes. RedMagic OS, based on Android 15, is reasonably smooth and functional, but not without quirks. Some UI translation oddities remain, and, sadly, RedMagic continues its trend of including excessive bloatware. At the time of review, the RedMagic 10 Air will only receive one year of major OS updates, which is well behind what competitors offer. Verdict The RedMagic 10 Air offers impressive gaming performance, battery life, and display quality at an attractive price. Unlike many other gaming phones, the RedMagic 10 Air looks and feels like a stylish, well-designed smartphone, not just a gaming device. Be prepared to make a few compromises, particularly in terms of camera quality, software support, and the absence of features like a headphone jack. €499 RedMagic
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Yahoo
REDMAGIC 10 Air Gaming Smartphone Review
The REDMAGIC 10 Air smartphone is the latest release in the REDMAGIC 10 series lineup. Designed for performance, the 10 Air brings many of the design elements and specifications from the well-received REDMAGIC 10 Pro into a slimmer, more cost-effective package. With its unique features, powerful specs and impressive price point, the REDMAGIC 10 Air aims to stand out in the competitive gaming smartphone arena. The design of the REDMAGIC 10 Air sets it apart from many other phones I've reviewed recently. Available in three distinct colours—Twilight, Hailstone and Flair—the Hailstone version received for review is sharp and visually striking. Notable design elements include the hidden front-facing camera, which is positioned behind the screen. It is virtually invisible to the naked eye, allowing for an uninterrupted viewing experience. The display itself covers an impressive 93.7 percent of the front surface, resulting in a beautiful and immersive visual presentation. Unique to the REDMAGIC 10 Air is the programmable Magic Key, located on the left edge, which enables users to control various system functions. On the right edge, you'll find the standard volume and power buttons, along with responsive shoulder triggers for advanced gaming control. The back panel houses a dual 50-megapixel camera system. Overall, the REDMAGIC 10 Air has a sleek and minimalist look. More impressive, however, is how thin the 10 Air is. Measuring 164.3 x 76.6 x 7.85 mm and weighing 205 grams, the REDMAGIC 10 Air is approximately 10 percent lighter and thinner than the Pro, while offering very similar specifications. Compared to my Poco F7 Ultra, the 10 Air is lighter, thinner and larger. There's a lot I love about the design, with just two small changes I'd like to see in the next iteration. For starters, as a decidedly gamer-focused phone, it would have been nice to see a secondary USB-C charging port located along the left edge. This is something I appreciated about the ROG Phone 9, and it's a feature that would serve the RedMagic 10 Air well. The other small critique is the placement of the triggers. While they work well functionally, the positioning, combined with the 10 Air's straight-edge design, makes them a bit harder to reach while your thumbs are on the face controls. They're usable, just slightly less comfortable than other top-trigger phones I've tested. Moving on to specs, the REDMAGIC 10 Air is equipped with some impressive hardware. A Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor powers the device, supported by the REDMAGIC Red Core R3 and Energy Cube—two components designed to enhance gaming performance through advanced AI processing, delivering blazing-fast speeds up to 3.3 GHz. To further enhance the performance of the 10 Air, the phone features an impressive 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.0 Storage, all working in tandem to boost the speed of the RM 10 Air during high-demand tasks. The inclusion of the Snapdragon X75 5G modem, which supports dual-band 5G Wi-Fi, also enables the RM 10 Air to download and upload at impressive speeds. All of this hardware works in unison to create an impressively powerful mobile gaming environment. This is complemented by the beautiful 6.8-inch AMOLED screen, which features a 120Hz refresh rate (adaptive) and can produce a peak brightness of 1,600 nits. With a resolution of 2,489 x 1,116, the display produces beautifully rich and colourful images. It feels vibrant, even in clear weather, whether swiping through reels or playing Diablo Immortal. Video playback is notably gorgeous and bright. Performance testing on the REDMAGIC 10 Air was quite impressive. Geekbench 6 showed single-core performance scoring at 2233 and multi-core performance scoring of 7068, just a hair below the POCO F7 Ultra (which scored 2296 and 8140), though this is to be expected considering the more powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite housed in the POCO F7 Ultra. While the specs and price are comparable, what helps the REDMAGIC 10 Air stand out is its bent towards gaming. This becomes evident when running the REDMAGIC 10 Air through real-world gaming tests. Across the board, the REDMAGIC 10 Air performed similarly to or better than the POCO F7 Ultra in gaming tests. While both can push the limits of most titles, the REDMAGIC 10 Air handles cooling and longevity better. This is in part thanks to the larger battery and better cooling afforded by the REDMAGIC 10 Air. Additionally, while the POCO F7 Ultra offers a higher instant touch sampling rate of 2560Hz over the RM 10 Air, the latter has a far better average touch rate of 960Hz (vs the Ultra's 480Hz). This results in a more consistently precise touchscreen experience while gaming. Games like Call of Duty: Mobile and Diablo Immortal felt exceptionally responsive and precise. Aiming down the sights of my AR in Call of Duty, for example, felt fluid and accurate. The overall gaming experience was impressive, with every title tested running smoothly and without performance issues. For those looking to enhance their mobile gaming experience, REDMAGIC has included a game overlay that provides useful configuration and information. It's easy to access and provides an impressive number of shortcuts to control various settings on the phone. This allows for easy catering of the gaming experience without ever having to leave the screen. Among the game booster software I've tested, REDMAGIC offers some of the best and most robust control. While some features offer excellent quality of life improvements, such as on-button screen capture, others, like screen extraction, feel somewhat gimmicky. The latter, for example, selects a pre-defined portion of the screen and makes it more prominent, thus making it easier to see. On PC, I could see this being useful. On a mobile display, however, it ends up being in the way. It's an interesting idea that doesn't translate into a useful feature. Overall, though, most of the game-centric features on the REDMAGIC 10 Air are solid improvements to the base Android gaming experience. Regarding the battery, the REDMAGIC 10 Air comes with an impressive 6000 mAh battery and 80w fast Charging. Longevity wasn't an issue in testing. Even when putting the REDMAGIC 10 Air through its paces on the bench and in real-world testing, the phone performed exceptionally well. Every day usage (productivity and social media surfing) is handled with ease, with plenty of battery to spare at the end of the day. Also, charging from 0-100% can be tackled in just under an hour if you have a speed charger brick on hand (testing was performed with a 120w quick charging brick and cable). The only disappointing element of the battery design is that the REDMAGIC 10 Air doesn't support wireless charging, which is something I'd love to see in future iterations of the Air series. Camera hardware on the REDMAGIC 10 Air is fine, though a bit lacklustre. It offers two OV50E 50 MP lenses. The first offers built-in OIS optical image stabilization that is on by default. This helps compensate for less-than-smooth filming conditions and provides a solid amount of smoothness while filming. It also translates to providing clear images during photo shooting. The second lens is an ultra-wide OV50D. It's designed to provide better distraction reduction that can creep into ultra-wide shooting. Together, the two create a solid photo capture experience, though not quite as impressive as some other camera systems I've tested in this generation of Android Smartphones. Photos, while clear, aren't as sharp as I'd like to see with a 50 MP lens. The auto white balance also tends to wash the subject out. It's not terrible, but simply not as nice as others I've tested. Ultrawide capture is also quite decent, despite my earlier critiques. Filming is solid, though, with options for up to 8K30, with the sweet spot being 4K60. Film capture is smooth at each resolution setting and is quick and responsive. The REDMAGIC 10 Air is an interesting smartphone. It provides quality performance, beautiful display and solid battery life. Some small design choices make handling things like charging and accessible triggers a bit cumbersome during gaming, but otherwise, the REDMAGIC 10 Air is a mobile gaming smartphone alternative. Priced responsibly at $699.99, it's worth considering if you are in the market for a gaming smartphone.
