Battle of the gaming phones

RedMagic has launched a lighter, more affordable alternative to its four-star gaming smartphone, the Magic 10 Pro, with the RedMagic 10 Air.

Promising to offer an “excellent balance of performance and efficiency” for gamers seeking “power without the premium price of the 10 Pro”, how does the new RedMagic 10 Air compare to its pricier alternative, the RedMagic 10 Pro?

We’ve highlighted the main differences between the two in RedMagic 10 Air vs RedMagic 10 Pro right here. Keep reading to see if the 10 Air has the potential to join the 10 Pro in our hand-picked selection of the best gaming phones. 

Pricing and Availability

With a starting RRP of £439/$549, the RedMagic 10 Air will be available from 7th May in two of its three colours: Twilight (Black) and Hailstone (White). The smartphone is available with either 12GB/512GB of storage or a more premium 16GB/512GB if you want to splash the cash.

The third option, Flare (Orange), is coming a little later, with a tentative launch in June, and will be exclusively available in the more premium 16GB/512GB flavour.

The RedMagic 10 Pro is slightly more expensive, with a starting RRP of £579/$649 and is available to buy now. Unlike its cheaper alternative, the 10 Pro has more storage options, ranging from 12 and 256GB to a whopping 24GB and 1TB.

RedMagic 10 Pro is powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite

One of the main differences between the two handsets is their respective chips. While the RedMagic 10 Air runs on last year’s Qualcomm flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the 10 Pro is powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Snapdragon 8 Elite is Qualcomm’s current premium processor and is found across some of the best Android phones of the year, so it’s no surprise we found the RedMagic 10 Pro was able to handle “practically anything you can throw at it”. In fact, the 10 Pro trounces even the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in terms of both benchmarking tests and real-world use. 

One caveat is that the 10 Pro does tend to generate heat. Although RedMagic has tried to deal with this with a built-in fan system, we found that the handset boasted better graphic results without the fan in use. 

Speaking of cooling, both phones are fitted with Ice-X liquid metal cooling system which helps keep temperatures low while gaming. RedMagic explains that this cooling system in its 10 Air, alongside the phone’s slim design, makes it “more efficient compared to the 10 Pro” although we can’t verify these claims yet. 

It’s worth remembering that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 was easily among the most powerful chipsets of 2024. Although it will likely pale in comparison to the Snapdragon 8 Elite, we can still expect solid performance for gaming and content creation. 

RedMagic 10 Air is lighter

As its name suggests, the RedMagic 10 Air is noticeably lighter than the RedMagic 10 Pro. At just 205g and 7.85mm thick, it’s 10% lighter and slimmer than the 10 Pro – a phone we hailed as a “chunky gaming phone” at 229g and 8.9mm thick.

The 10 Pro’s heft isn’t necessarily a surprise, as gaming phones do tend to be on the larger side in order to accommodate cooling fans and larger batteries. With this in mind, the fact that the 10 Air is lighter than the flagship Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max highlights just how lightweight it is.

RedMagic 10 Pro supports faster charging

Following on from the above, as the RedMagic 10 Pro is heftier, it’s unsurprising that it sports a much larger battery than its lightweight counterpart. While the RedMagic 10 Air’s battery is 6000mAh, which RedMagic claims is the “largest battery in its class,” the 10 Pro boasts a whopping 7,050mAh. 

We found the RedMagic 10 Pro’s mighty battery resulted in “absolutely phenomenal day-to-day performance,” as the phone is easily a two-day, if not three-day, device depending on usage.

Not only that, but the RedMagic 10 Pro also supports up to 100W wired charging, while the 10 Air supports up to 80W. We actually received an 80W charger when we reviewed the RedMagic 10 Pro and still found this to be incredibly speedy, taking under 40 minutes to charge from 1-100%. 

RedMagic 10 Pro has a trio of rear cameras

Both the RedMagic 10 Pro and 10 Air have 50MP main and 50MP ultrawide rear lenses, but the 10 Pro also includes a fairly pointless 2MP macro lens. The main lens performed the best and offered the most detail and light captured, even in low light, while the ultrawide provided a “decent offering for a mid-ranger.” With this in mind, we can expect a similar performance for the 10 Air. 

It’s worth remembering that gaming phones will never offer the best camera performance. If a decent camera set-up is important to you, then we’d recommend visiting our best camera phones guide instead. 

RedMagic 10 Pro reaches up to 144Hz

With up to a 144Hz refresh rate, the RedMagic 10 Pro promises exceptionally smooth animations and gameplay for compatible titles, while the 10 Air is up to 120Hz. Even so, it’s worth noting that most games cap out at 120Hz anyway, so this shouldn’t necessarily be much of an issue or deciding factor between the two handsets. 

Refresh rate aside, the RedMagic 10 Pro has a 6.85-inch AMOLED display while the RedMagic 10 Air is very slightly smaller at 6.8-inches and a 1.5K full screen.

Early Verdict

Considering we hailed the RedMagic 10 Pro as our best overall gaming phone, the RedMagic 10 Air has a lot to live up to. However, if you’re keen to get a taste of the RedMagic gaming experience and save a few hundred pounds in the meantime, then the 10 Air seems like a promising handset. 

We’ll hold off on giving a conclusive verdict until we spend more time with the RedMagic 10 Air, so check back soon for our final verdict.