This $611 Android competes with my Pixel 9 Pro (and does a few things better)

I’ve held lots of Android phones in my hand, some feel awkward because of their size, while others fit just right. That Goldilocks effect is real, and in my experience, Redmagic phones just feel right in my hand. 

Also: The best Android phones to buy in 2025

But who wants to buy a phone based on its shape and size? It’s all about power, display, and battery. Well, I’m here to tell you that the Redmagic 10 Air phone checks all the boxes. Let’s chat.

My experience

As soon as I pulled the phone out of the box, my first thought was, “I’m going to like this phone.” Well, I was right; it’s a keeper. From the brilliant and elegant display to the smooth animations, the Redmagic 10 Air is impressive.

The thing that struck me immediately was the buttery smoothness of the animations. I was captivated. In fact, I couldn’t stop swiping down and opening apps to watch the movement. Sounds cheesy, but it really is that impressive.

Of course, this is, in part because Android has historically struggled to keep up with the smoothness of iOS, but the Redmagic 10 Air is about as close as I’ve witnessed. I would also say the UI is about as close as I’ve seen to the elegance of iOS. But what about the power?

Also: I changed 10 Samsung phone settings to significantly improve the user experience

The 10 Air is marketed as a gaming phone. What does that mean? To begin with, it uses a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU enhanced by a RedCore R3 chip (a custom gaming chip designed to complement the Snapdragon CPU and address the demands of gaming). To test, I downloaded a few demanding games: “Guns of Glory” and “Star Trek Fleet Academy”. Color me impressed.

Graphics were beautiful, on-screen action was smooth, speakers sounded great, and playing various titles was engaging. I couldn’t find a single fault with how well this phone handled gaming. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it was more impressive than playing the same games on my Pixel 9 Pro. If you’re a gamer, this phone will impress. If you’re not a gamer, it’ll really impress.

About an hour into using the phone, I downloaded the new version of RedMagicOS (10.0.5). I was surprised at how fast it updated, since on my Pixel it can be a long process. The 10 Air took roughly one minute to download it, and roughly three minutes to finish. No matter what I threw at the 10 Air, it performed way above my expectations. Given its price point, it could easily be a flagship killer.

Also: Looking for an affordable phone? This $179 Motorola feels like a much more expensive device

I’ll caveat by saying that the 50MP triple-camera system is nothing to write home about. It’s great at capturing detail and brightness in shots, but the lack of contrast and oversaturation put the imaging system a tier below more premium handsets like the iPhone 16 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S25 series. Then again, this is a gaming phone we’re talking about.

Buyers in the US should also be cautious of the phone’s network band support, which is more limited than models from larger manufacturers. I’d highly recommend you visit Redmagic’s spec page and check with your carrier to see if its LTE/5G data can be received properly by the phone.

ZDNET’s buying advice

If you’re looking for a new Android phone and want one that’s equal parts aesthetics and performance, you could do a lot worse than the Redmagic 10 Air. This phone is sleek and powerful and could easily replace whatever phone you currently use without a hiccup. The price is right, and the phone is powerful and elegant. What’s not to love?

Redmagic 10 Air tech specs

• Display – 6.8″ AMOLED with a 2480 x 1116 resolution, a refresh rate of 120 Hz, a touch sampling rate of 2000 Hz, and an aspect ratio of 20:9.
• Cooling – ICE-X cooling system
• CPU – Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 at 3.3 Ghz with Cortex-X4 and Red Core 3 cores.
• GPU – Adreno
• RAM – 12 or 16 GB
• Storage – 256 or 512 GB.
• Connectivity – 5G/TDD/FDD/WCDMA/CDMA/GSM, 2G GMS 2/3/5/8, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, 3G WCDMA/UMTS B1/2/4/5/6/8/19, 4G FDD-LTE B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/18/19/20 /26/28A/28B/66, TDD-LTE B34/B38/39/40/41/42, 5G NR n77/n78/n1/2/3/5/7/8/20/26/28/38/n40 /n41/66
• Cameras – Rear 50 MP+50 MP with OV50E40/OV50D40 sensors, a pixel size of 1.0μm, 0.64 μm, and an aperture of 1.00, 2.05. Front 16 MP.
• Sensors – Fingerprint, G-sensor, Electronic Compass, Gyroscope, Proximity, Ambient Light Sensor, Under-screen Light Sensor, Infrared Sensor
• Battery – Battery: 6,000mAh with quick charging that supports up to 80W