GoKawiilRedMagic's $849 11S Pro, unveiled Wednesday, includes a few small tweaks to the prior RedMagic 11 Pro that debuted last fall. But as continues to be the case across the phone industry, the new phone also gets a $100 price bump that might be attributed to the rising cost of electronics.
The RedMagic 11S Pro has two main changes: The phone now includes the "Leading Version" of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, while the liquid cooling system that debuted on the 11 Pro is now transparently visible across every model in the line. This means that you can see the liquid coolant move around inside of the phone when it's activated, which seems like just a cosmetic change. On the RedMagic 11 Pro, the Cryo edition did not have a transparent back that allowed you to see the system, even though it is there.
Enlarge Image Every model of the RedMagic 11S Pro features a visible liquid cooling system, which will rotate in a circular pattern when activated. Mike Sorrentino/CNET
Outside of those focuses, the phone is largely identical to the model that came out last fall, including features like a large 7,500-mAh battery, 80-watt wired charging with the charger included in the box and a built-in cooling fan that can run at 24,000 revolutions per minute. Most of these features benefit anyone prioritizing mobile gaming at high graphics settings. These features extend playing sessions with a bigger battery while avoiding overheating by using that cooling fan and the liquid cooling system.
Cameras -- which have never been a focus for this gaming phone line -- include a 50-megapixel wide and 50-megapixel ultrawide on the back. A 16-megapixel selfie camera is placed underneath the display, which is great for viewing content since you don't have any display cutouts, but typically this does come at the expense of making photos and video chats look a little fuzzy.
Enlarge Image The RedMagic 11S Pro features the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Leading Version as its processor, which is a slight iteration on the one that debuted on last fall's 11 Pro. Mike Sorrentino/CNET
The RedMagic 11S Pro also runs on Android 16 with the company's own overlay, which in my brief hands-on time I saw had fixed some of the issues I'd seen on prior RedMagic phones. The company's preinstalled web browser (simply named "Browser") no longer pops up random advertising when opening, which was a big annoyance, considering the high price of that phone.
RedMagic also made the Google Discover feed the default for when you swipe left from the home screen, rather than the company's own board feed, which I think feels like junk. (You can still pick it from the settings menu, though, if you like it.)
Unfortunately, RedMagic still adds a watermark to photos taken with its cameras by default, but it's a setting you can turn off.
RedMagic fans will likely continue to like what the company's bringing with the 11S Pro, considering the company's focus on making powerful phones that make it easy to run games at high settings. But the $100 price increase over the model that just arrived last fall is annoying.
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