I love testing Red Magic gaming smartphones, even though I'm far from being an avid mobile gamer. I love them for their low price, fantastic performance, and almost comically strange flaws.
Gaming smartphones vs. traditional flagships – what's the difference?
Today's smartphone market is a bit all or nothing – almost every phone is very balanced, offering what it theoretically should for its price segment. The differences between individual models are so minor that often it's better to just throw your hands up and grab the first one you see, rather than watch thirty reviews and spend a month agonizing over which to choose.
Red Magic is an exception. This series of smartphones is perfectly tailored for gamers, unlike most other flagships, getting better year after year and introducing truly noticeable changes, but it also has very clear shortcomings. Because if it didn't, at 649 euros from official European distribution, it wouldn't be worth considering any other phones at all.
Check out the review of another gaming smartphone
Red Magic smartphone flaws – what you need to know before buying?
And if system updates aren't important to you, you don't mind the gaming aesthetic, you can use the smartphone menu in English or 'Polglish' (Polish-English dialect), and you don't take too many photos, then indeed nothing else is worth it. Yes, that's a long list, but there will probably still be plenty of Vikings left in the target group.
Thanks to the manufacturer not investing in tons of advertisements, Red Magic phones not occupying the most prestigious spots in electronics stores (next to RTV!), and precisely because of these shortcomings, they are simply absurdly cheap.
And some flaws can even be turned into advantages – glass half full! Yes, the cameras are pretty mediocre, especially the front one, but that's because it's hidden under the screen and is completely invisible while using the smartphone. There's probably no other model on the market with such an "immersive" screen – wonderful for gaming and watching movies. And at least the rear lenses don't protrude from the casing. Not at all! The back of the Red Magic is a perfectly smooth surface.
Large battery and fast charging – Red Magic 10 Pro's advantage
And because of this, the phone doesn't feel bulky at all, even though they've crammed in a huge 7050 mAh battery, which will easily last well over a day of use. Charging? 40 minutes to full with the charger from the box! Yes, I didn't know that was still possible either. The speakers in this casing aren't bad either, and in this generation, the manufacturer even added a traditional headphone jack, which everyone else apparently "couldn't fit anymore".
Oh, and the fan. Quite useful, but not to cool your enthusiasm, but to cool the most powerful Qualcomm processor on the market, which has probably only appeared in two smartphones so far. And only here is it paired with such fast built-in memory.
Among the other attractions, we also have triggers on the side of the casing, which act like two physical buttons in games. You simply assign them to a screen tap in the appropriate place. It seems like a minor detail, but it completely changes the perception of the phone as a gaming tool, and even shooters start to make sense here. Especially since it's much easier to prove your superiority over eight-year-olds playing at school on this Red Magic.
Is the Red Magic 10 Pro worth buying?
It's just a shame that they haven't been able to properly translate the system into Polish for years; for example, when first launching the camera, the Red Magic advises me to hold my hand steady 'while shooting,' which sounds quite unsettling. I'd say maybe they'll fix it in updates, but probably not really. The company only promises one Android update and two years of security patches, which is more typical for phones around 500 zlotys. Nevertheless, I'm delighted that we have a choice. That if someone doesn't care about updates and cameras, they can have the most powerful smartphone for many years for half the price of top models on the market. If it weren't for the cameras, I would consider it myself. And I still recommend it!
