Nubia Redmagic 10 Pro review: Mobile gaming monster

Price When Reviewed

From $649

Nubia’s Redmagic has been a stalwart in the affordable gaming smartphone market for a number of years, and the lineage continues into its tenth generation with the introduction of the Redmagic 10 Pro.

This features a refined design, upgraded display, and a larger battery than those found on the already impressive Redmagic 9S Pro. I go through my pre-match stretch routine so I’m nice and nimble, then take the game to this would-be champion.  

Design & Build 

• Solid, premium construction
• Big and heavy
• No water resistance (due to fan ports)

Nubia definitely seems to follow the adage that, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. The Redmagic 10 Pro shares much of the design language and construction of its recent predecessors, the Redmagic 9 Pro and Redmagic 9S Pro. 

Its 163.4mm x 76.1mm x 8.9mm dimensions are marginally smaller than those models, but in the hand, they all feel practically identical, while the 229g (0.5lbs) weight is the same as before.

There have been a few alterations to the back panel though, with the flash and sensor module moving position slightly, which sadly means my protective case from the previous models no longer fits without obscuring them. You do get a plastic tray-style case in the box though, which improves the grip if not exactly offering much in the way of protection. 

Martyn Casserly

As you can see by the measurements, the 10 Pro is a bulky and substantial device. The metal and glass construction feels premium, but this is undoubtedly a two-handed device, mainly due to its weight.

Nubia is consistent with the physical controls, as the right flank is home to dual 520Hz touch-sensitive shoulder triggers, the power and volume controls, plus the famous red switch that opens up the dedicated Game Space software suite. If you prefer, you can assign the switch to open the camera, turn on the flash, launch the voice recorder app or switch between sound modes instead. This is genuinely an excellent feature that should appear on every smartphone. 

Twin fan ports are placed on either of the longer sides of the 10 Pro, and twin speakers adorn the shorter edges. On the top, you’ll also find a 3.5mm headphone jack, while the lower edge is home to the USB-C charging port and the dual SIM tray. 

The rear panel is flat glass, which covers the cameras, so the device sits flush on a table and doesn’t wobble about. There are also the trademark RGB lights that live under the shoulder triggers, the Redmagic logo and the X that denotes this is the 10 Pro. You can adjust the colours that they emit, as well as when they come on. 

Martyn Casserly

Unfortunately, there’s no water or dust resistance on the 10 Pro (there wasn’t on the previous models either), as the fan ports make it basically impossible. You do get a choice of liveries though. My review model comes in the Dusk colourway, but there are also Shadow and Moonlight variants available. 

Screen & Speakers

• 6.85-inch 1.5K AMOLED display
• 144Hz refresh rate
• 95.3% screen-to-body ratio
• Dual speakers with Snapdragon Audio

One of the main reasons for the dimensions of the 10 Pro is to accommodate the 6.85-inch AMOLED panel. Nubia has refined the design this time around though, with 1.25mm ultra-narrow bezels giving the device a very impressive 95.3% screen-to-body ratio. Thankfully, there’s also decent palm rejection and accidental touch software working hard to ensure this doesn’t become a problem. 

The display itself runs at a 2688 x 1216 (1.5K) resolution, with a refresh rate of 144Hz. Combine this with the 2,000 nits peak brightness levels claimed by Red Magic (my own testing resulted in 1230 nits during normal conditions), you have a screen that’s excellent for gaming, general use and watching video content.

There’s the added bonus that Nubia continues to use an under-display fingerprint sensor and selfie camera, so there are no interruptions on the gorgeous 6.85-inch panel. 

Martyn Casserly

There’s also a great level of response, with the 2,500Hz instant touch sampling rate and 960Hz overall touch sample rates rapidly reacting to my controls and taps during fast gaming sessions. 

Colours are also bright and rich, albeit with a slight tendency to over-saturate in places when in the default ‘Colourful’ mode. Switching to ‘Standard’ gave the tones a lighter touch, but you can play around with various elements in the display settings until you find the flavour that suits your taste.

Dual 1115K speakers deliver the audio and do so with a hefty amount of volume on tap. The frequency spectrum is well represented, with full-bodied sounds added to movies, music and gaming sessions. 

If you want the best audio though, the 3.5mm headphone jack will allow you to plug in some gaming headphones for an immersive experience. Alternatively, there are also Bluetooth 5.4 capabilities that will connect you wirelessly to headphones, earbuds or external speakers.  

The embedded fingerprint sensor is pretty much the same as it was on the previous versions, in that it works well but can occasionally be a bit fussy. It’d be nice to see the superior ultrasonic scanners found on some Samsung and Google phones make it to Redmagic handsets at some point.

Specs & Performance

• 4.32Ghz Snapdragon 8 Elite processor
• Dedicated RedCore 3 gaming chip
• ICE-X cooling system

You can’t have a gaming phone without some serious hardware involved, and that’s the case with the Redmagic 10 Pro. At its heart is the new 4.32GHz Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which is something of a beast.

It’s one of the first smartphones to feature Qualcomm’s new custom Oryon CPU which is designed to power on-device AI features. Nubia also states that the processor comes with a 45% power boost and is 44% more battery-efficient than the previous chip. 

This is paired with another chip, the RedCore 3, which is there to improve graphical performance, and power management and help with cooling. The latter aspect is also handled with the updated ICE-X cooling system that boasts another first, in that it includes a sheet of metal between the fan and vapour chamber made from processed liquid metal that is often found in gaming laptops. Alongside this, there’s the 23,000 RPM fan to keep the air and heat inside the device moving.

Storage and memory are also fast, with the former coming in either 256GB/512GB of UFS 4.1 Pro capacities, while the latter is 12GB or 16GB of LPDDR5X Ultra. If that’s not enough, then there’s also the Dusk Ultra configuration that offers a 24GB/1TB complement, which is the first time Red Magic has offered this much onboard storage in the international market. 

So, with all those specifications available, how does the Redmagic 10 Pro fare when you fire up some games? Very well, as it turns out.

Martyn Casserly

Hopping behind the wheel of Real Racing 3 is always a good indicator of how well the processor and display can handle fast-moving graphics. The game runs very smoothly indeed on the 10 Pro, with clear and detailed images that avoided any jaggedness or fluttering as I hurtled around the track.

The gyroscope and accelerometers all did their job of delivering quick commands to the car as I tilted the 10 Pro left and right to steer. The cooling system also delivered, as the device didn’t heat up too much during the playtime. Yes, you can hear the fans a little, but they’re not noisy. 

Genshin Impact is another hard test, and I found that the game ran smoothly on the highest graphics settings, even though the game advised against this as it could cause overheating due to the load.

After 30 minutes of playing, the device was only slightly warm and the fans hadn’t got in the way of the fun. It did drain 8% of the battery in that half hour, so if that were to be extrapolated out then you’d be looking at around six hours of playing time. Dropping down to the high graphics settings instead could obviously allow you more adventuring before the charger had to be found. 

Nubia Redmagic 10 Pro benchmarks

Here’s how the Redmagic 10 Pro fared in our standard benchmark test. We usually include PCMark’s battery test, but this app was listed as incompatible with the 10 Pro – I’m assuming this is due to the pre-release software I was using, as other Redmagic models have been able to use the app.

Cameras

• 24mm 50Mp main camera
• 14mm 50Mp wide camera
• 16Mp under-display selfie camera

On the past few models, the cameras Nubia has been using on its Redmagic phones have been fine, but not the best. Sadly, there have been no significant upgrades to the hit-and-miss camera performance.

The two main rear cameras (there’s also a 2Mp depth camera to help with portrait modes) offer decent results either in normal or wide settings. I didn’t notice too much hesitation with the focus, and the unit generally works swiftly to help you capture subjects. 

To be fair, the weather was terrible while I was testing the 10 Pro, so it didn’t get any warm, bright sunny days with which to shine. But, in the flat light in which I had to shoot, there were still some good images captured. The bokeh effect on the portrait mode can be impressive, but (like with many phones) if the background is complicated then the software can get confused where that ends and the subject begins.

Martyn Casserly

There are plenty of modes to play with – including multi-exposure, cloning, star trails and others, which can be fun to try. But, to be honest, the normal camera mode will be where people spend the majority of their time, and the 10 Pro can give you some nice results.

There’s not too much difference between the normal and ultrawide lenses either, which isn’t always the case with some other cameras I’ve reviewed, where the latter loses lots of colour and exposure balance. 

Nubia persists with leaving its watermark setting defaulting to on, which is a truly daft thing. I’ve complained about this for the past four models, and yet it doesn’t change. I’ve deliberately left the banners this creates on the image in some of the ones you’ll see in the gallery below, as this is what you’ll get if you don’t immediately go into the settings menus and turn it off. 

Video is aided by Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS), and on the whole, it turns out respectable footage. Focusing tracks sharply and the camera handles moving from lighter to darker environments pretty well. Obviously, when the light drops too much you’ll quickly see grain in the footage, so it’s best to shoot videos where you can clearly see your subjects. 

Here are some examples of photos shot on the Redmagic 10 Pro:

Battery Life & Charging

• 7,050mAh battery
• 100W fast charging capabilities
• 80W charger included

The 10 Pro features a massive 7,050mAh battery – the largest that’s appeared so far in the Redmagic range, and one of the biggest we’ve ever seen on a phone.

It also supports 100W fast charging, though you only get an 80W GaN charger in the box (which is still better than many other manufacturers). Nubia says that the battery density has been increased by 25% over the previous model, so it can retain the same size but offer more power. Certainly, stand-by time is well managed, as I put the phone down for a couple of days, came back and it had only lost around 10-15% of charge. 

In day-to-day use, the 10 Pro has plenty of power on tap and I never worried about getting to the end of the day with the cell running dry. In fact, if you’re not gaming (although why then would you be buying this phone?), this can easily be a two-day device. 

As I covered above, you’re probably looking at around 6 hours of gaming from a single charge on the 10 Pro, although this will vary depending on how bright you have the screen, the graphics settings in the game, and whether you’re streaming content or using Bluetooth controllers/headphones. 

Martyn Casserly

Annoyingly, as I mentioned earlier, our normal battery test app – PCMark – was incompatible with the 10 Pro at the time of writing. I’m assuming this due to the pre-release software build I’m using, but it does mean I can’t get an accurate measurement of how long the battery lasts in comparison to others in this class. As I said, the battery life is good though.

What I can tell you is the recharging rates, with the 10 Pro (using the included 80w charger) restoring 51% after 15 minutes, and 86% in half an hour. The return to 100% took a total of 38 minutes, which is excellent.

There’s no wireless charging, but the wired speeds more than make up for it.

Software

• Redmagic 10 OS
• Android 15 with one update planned
• Security updates until end of 2027

As is standard on this range, you get Android (in this case Android 15) running under the heavy skin of Redmagic 10 OS. It can be something of a love it or hate it interface.

There’s a focus on futuristic icons and menus, but these can be easily changed to ones from a range of included themes. You’ll find plenty of device-specific options in the settings – such as assigning functions to the physical Red Switch, choosing the colours of the RGB lights and customising the screen graphics that appear when notifications come in.

Martyn Casserly

You do still encounter some weird translation errors or phrasings, but Red Magic OS does get a bit more refined each year. 

As I’ve already covered in previous sections, there were some apps that the Google Play Store listed as incompatible with the device. These included Instagram and the ability to set up a bank card in Google Wallet. I’ve not seen this on previous models, so hopefully, by the time you get your hands on one, the software will be updated to fix this issue. 

One of the standout features for gamers on the Redmagic platform is Game Space. This is a dedicated suite of tools and deep settings that can bring enhancements to games. These include screen filters that let you see enemies clearer, a Scout mode that has a magnified section at the middle of the screen that looks like a sniper’s scope, picture quality improvements, plugins for games, a gallery for screenshots and plenty more. If you’re serious about your gaming, Game Space is almost worth the asking price on its own.

Martyn Casserly

Nubia has confirmed that the Redmagic 10 Pro will receive just one Android version upgrade, while the security updates will be delivered for at least three years. That’s well behind most of the Android competition, with Samsung and Google offering seven years of support.

Before buying the Redmagic 10 Pro, be aware that it only really has a lifespan of three years. After that, continuing to use it is a security risk.

Price & Availability

There are a few configurations of the Redmagic 10 Pro that are available from the Redmagic UK and Redmagic US sites. Here’s how they break down in terms of price:

• Shadow 12GB/256GB – £579/€649/$649
• Moonlight 16GB/512GB – £709/€799/$799
• Dusk 16GB/512GB – £709/€799/$799
• Dusk Ultra 24GB/1TB – £879/€999/$999

This means that Nubia has kept the pricing from the Redmagic 9S Pro, which is good for potential customers, who have had to put up with price increases all across the tech world over the past few years. 

No networks or carriers are selling the phone on contract, so your best bet is to buy outright and pair it with a SIM deal. 

The most obvious competitor to the Redmagic 10 Pro is the recently launched Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro, although it’s a bit more expensive at £1,099/$1,199.99 than the entry-level 10 Pro configurations. Also, there’s the standard Asus ROG Phone 9, which costs £949.99/$999.99, both of which also feature the new Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. 

You could also look around for the Red Magic 9S Pro, as it will no doubt drop in price now that the 10 Pro has arrived. Check out our round-up of the best gaming phones for more options. 

Should you buy the Nubia Redmagic 10 Pro?

Gaming phones are admittedly a quite specialist area, but if you’re in the market for one then the Redmagic 10 Pro is an excellent option. The top-tier processor and accompanying hardware mean this should have no trouble with anything you throw at it, plus the cooling system should preserve the hardware for a good while. 

The cameras are on the average side, which isn’t unusual in this category, and the software does have some kinks to work out that hopefully will all be fixed in future updates. Software support is also limited.

But if you’re serious about mobile gaming and want battery life that can support long sessions, the Redmagic 10 Pro is the phone for you.

Specs

• Redmagic 10 OS / Android 15 (1 upgrade planned)
• Security updates until end of 2027
• 6.85-inch 1.5K AMOLED display (95.3% screen-to-body ratio)
• 144Hz refresh rate
• 4.32Ghz Snapdragon 8 Elite processor
• Dedicated RedCore 3 gaming chip
• 12GB/16GB or 24GB LPDDR5X Ultra memory
• 256GB/512GB or 1TB UFS 4.1 Pro storage
• ICE-X cooling system
• 24mm 50Mp main camera
• 14mm 50Mp wide camera
• 2Mp Depth camera
• 16Mp under-display selfie camera
• Dual speakers with Snapdragon Audio
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• 520Hz touch-sensitive shoulder triggers
• Programmable sliding button
• Dual SIM
• NFC
• Bluetooth 5.4
• GPS
• Wi-Fi 7
• LTE
• 7,050mAh battery
• 100W fast charging capabilities
• 80W charger included
• USB-C charging port
• 163.4mm x 76.1mm x 8.9mm 
• 229g