23-04-2025
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.
