RedMagic's 10S Pro Is One of the Most Powerful Phones I've Ever Tested
The RedMagic 10S Pro gaming phone, announced Thursday, might be the most powerful Android phone of 2025 so far, and it has quite the power boost over last year's RedMagic 10 Pro.
The new device, which starts at $699 (£579, roughly converts to AU$1,230) for 12GB of memory and 256GB of storage, includes a "Leading Edition" of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. My review unit is the midlevel $849 model with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage, while RedMagic's highest-end model is $999 for 24GB of memory and 1TB of storage.
But power is clearly the showcase of the 10S Pro, and in my early benchmarks using the graphically demanding 3D Wild Life Extreme test, the phone pulls one of the highest scores I've ever seen. The 10S Pro heartily beats last year's 10 Pro and the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro, which run on the earlier edition of the Elite processor. The 10S Pro even beats the $1,300 Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra while costing hundreds of dollars less.
RedMagic 10S Pro benchmark tests vs. RedMagic 10 Pro, Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
3DMark Wild Life Extreme Geekbench 6.0 RedMagic 10S Pro 7,193; 43.07fps Single: 3,050; Multi: 9,586 RedMagic 10 Pro 5,869; 35.15fps Single: 3,123; Multi: 9,756 Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro 5,923; 35.47fps Single: 3,075; Multi: 9,710 Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra 6,950; 41.62 fps Single: 3,053; Multi: 9,707
In the more computationally focused Geekbench 6.0, the RedMagic 10S Pro scores comparably with the phones from Asus and Samsung.
In real-world use, this means the phone easily handles high frame rates and graphics settings in Android games that provide them. I often test Mortal Kombat Mobile and Dead Cells since both titles include support for high frame rates, and the phone quickly boots them up while running at 120 to 144 frames per second. I similarly had confidence in cranking up the graphics in other titles like Asphalt Legends, in which cars go flying in frequent collisions. And in a test that is less reliant on the processor, I used Xbox Cloud Gaming to play Doom: The Dark Ages, which benefits from the uninterrupted 1.5K-resolution display (2,688x1,216 pixels) that places the front-facing camera behind the display.
Playing Doom: The Dark Ages over Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Mike Sorrentino/CNET
That 6.85-inch display is largely the same as the RedMagic 10 Pro's, which runs at a 144Hz refresh rate and can reach a peak brightness of 2,000 nits. The screen also includes the same 960Hz touch sampling rate, meaning it's very responsive to quick taps in games that rely on that. RedMagic says the 10S Pro also gets an improved cooling system, and its 7,050-mAh battery can recharge at 80W speeds.
RedMagic's phones also include a suite of gaming optimization software, which lets you adjust settings such as the power consumption of games, the option to force titles to run in vertical or horizontal orientation, and customizable controls that include using shoulder-button-style sensors or a virtual joypad with buttons.
Fans of RedMagic phones who don't already own the RedMagic 10 Pro will likely appreciate the upgrades offered here, especially in terms of performance. RedMagic also improved its software update support with the 10S Pro, with a company representative stating that it will get three years of both major software updates and security support. While that's nowhere near the seven years of support we're seeing from Google and Samsung, it's much better than the RedMagic 10 Pro, which is only receiving one major software update and three years of security updates.
The 16-megapixel front-facing camera is underneath the display.
Mike Sorrentino/CNET
RedMagic's phones are still tougher to recommend outside of the gaming-focused audience who understand that the device's biggest selling point is the powerful specs sheet. When setting up the phone, I still encounter a lot of software enabled by default that interferes with enjoying the phone out of the box. This includes a camera watermark that needs to be turned off to avoid turning every photo you take into an advertisement for RedMagic, a RedMagic-specific news feed that replaces the Google version that's typically seen on Android, and a few apps that cannot be uninstalled, like Daily Wallpaper.
This photo at CNET's New York office was taken on the 16-megapixel front-facing camera on the RedMagic 10S Pro. This selfie camera is underneath the display.
Mike Sorrentino/CNET
The camera is also a much lower priority for a phone like this, especially since the 16-megapixel under-display selfie camera will make you appear a bit fuzzy on video calls.
This is the same photo at CNET's New York office, but taken on the 50-megapixel main camera.
Mike Sorrentino/CNET
The rear camera system includes a 50-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 2-megapixel camera that's said to enhance photo quality in certain modes. The camera's lenses are flush with the phone's body and do not have a bump.
While the Asus ROG Phone 9 costs more money at $1,000 and is now -- on a power level -- slower than the 10S Pro, it offers a more balanced experience between being a phone, camera and gaming device. Its software is closer to a stock Android experience, but it does offer lots of gaming optimizations, similar to what RedMagic provides on this phone.
But if you're a big Android gamer and want the most powerful specs for less money -- and you understand the tradeoffs RedMagic makes to achieve this -- the 10S Pro is currently the most graphically powerful phone out there until the next wave of gaming phones arrives.
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