RedMagic 11 Air Review: Design, Display, Performance, Cooling, Battery

Before the arrival of the Year of the Horse in the Chinese lunar new year, RedMagic’s Air series, which focuses on thin and lightweight design, has ushered in an update, launching a new device with more RedMagic design elements — RedMagic 11 Air.

RedMagic 11 Air returns from the previous simple and smooth transparent frosted back cover to its brand’s iconic transparent design. RedMagic uses a custom curved back glass here. The curved structure makes the body shape look fuller and more textured, while also improving grip, making it smoother and more conforming in the hand.

Under the smooth transparent panel, orderly textures resembling racetracks and circuit connection ribbons can be seen, emphasizing a sense of machinery and the delicacy of precision circuitry. In the upper-right corner, there is a circular ring with the RedMagic logo in the center, an element paying homage to the shape of a vinyl record.

The camera lenses are still arranged straightforwardly, without a clearly defined DECO area. The main camera and ultra-wide camera are placed at the top, and below the main camera are the fan and the fill light. Under the transparent back, RGB lighting is arranged in places such as the RedMagic logo and the area corresponding to the fan, and under different usage scenarios (gaming, notifications, charging, etc.), there will be different lighting effects.

The phone is available in three colors: Star White, Aurora Silver, and the Quantum Black version in our hands. The metal middle frame of the Quantum Black version has a delicate matte sandblasted finish, and the arrangement of buttons and ports is slightly simpler than that of the standard RedMagic 11 Pro.

On the right side are the gaming shoulder triggers, power button, and volume buttons. When not enabled, the shoulder trigger structure feels more imperceptible, enhancing the integration of the middle frame.

However, constrained by the body size, the shoulder triggers can only be placed near the edge of the body. When held, it cannot fit the palm like a handheld console, and the arched-finger grip posture is sometimes not very comfortable.

On the left side of the body, a red dedicated multifunction button is retained. By default, it opens the game space, and users can customize other functions in the settings.

Like the RedMagic 10 Air, the thin-and-light-focused 11 Air also does not come with a wired headphone jack. The SIM card tray and USB-C port are still located at the bottom.

The front of the phone is equipped with a 6.85-inch 1.5K 144Hz Wukong screen. The display also uses under-display camera technology and an ultra-narrow 1.25mm bezel design, with a screen-to-body ratio of 95.1%. When the screen is lit, the front of the device is almost entirely screen.

The screen uses BOE Q10 luminous material, with a peak brightness of 1800 nits, supports 2592Hz PWM + DC dimming, and has SGS low blue light certification. The screen supports a 144Hz refresh rate and global 960Hz, instantaneous 2000Hz touch sampling rate. In games, Honor of Kings supports native 144Hz high frame rate mode, and native 144Hz adaptation is also supported for League of Legends Mobile, CrossFire, Arena Breakout, Naruto, Peacekeeper Elite, KartRider, and QQ Speed. Support for 144Hz will also be added later in games such as Delta Force and Call of Duty Mobile.

In terms of performance, RedMagic 11 Air is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform, and is paired with the self-developed RedCore R4 gaming chip and the CUBE Sky Game Engine. Combined with LPDDR5X RAM + UFS 4.1 ROM storage configuration, there are two storage versions available. In the current indoor environment, the phone achieved an AnTuTu score of 3,217,99.

The official states that it currently supports 2K + 144Hz super-resolution and super-frame concurrent output in more than 200 games. When playing Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero, there may only be one or two brief stutters at the beginning of map loading, while the vast majority of the time the operation is very smooth. With a sufficiently responsive screen, the sense of smoothness in operation is also very satisfying.

Like the standard RedMagic series, RedMagic 11 Air has a built-in PC emulator, supporting games such as Assassin’s Creed Rogue, Tomb Raider, and the Need for Speed series. The phone has touch shoulder triggers, which can meet the key operation requirements of PC games.

This time, RedMagic 11 Air is equipped with the built-in Hurricane 4.0 cooling fan, making it the first RedMagic Air series phone to feature an active cooling fan. Combined with the updated ultra-thick Ice-Step VC, the cooling efficiency of the Air series is improved, allowing stable 60fps operation even when the PC emulator is enabled.

In terms of battery, RedMagic 11 Air is equipped with a 7000mAh battery and supports 120W Magic Flash Fast Charging. Compared to the previous generation’s 6000mAh + 80W Magic Flash Fast Charging combination, this is a significant improvement. For a RedMagic Air model that focuses on being ultra-thin while also being equipped with a PC emulator, a larger battery is indeed very practical.

In addition, this generation also adds full-scenario bypass charging technology. When the phone is used while charging, power can be supplied directly to the system, reducing heat generation under high-performance scenarios.

In charging tests, RedMagic 11 Air paired with the official 120W charging combo takes 59 minutes to charge from 0 to 100%. For universal fast charging, when paired with AI XiaoDian ULTRA, it can reach 76W charging, and a full 0-100% charge takes 63 minutes.

Finally, let’s look at the camera. RedMagic 11 Air is equipped with a 50-megapixel main camera that supports optical image stabilization. It also includes an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera, and has not been replaced with an auxiliary lens due to positioning or pricing, which is still very good.

Finally, let’s look at pricing. RedMagic 11 Air has two storage versions:

12GB+256GB initial sale price 3499 yuan, 2999 yuan after national subsidy
16GB+512GB initial sale price 4199 yuan, 3699 yuan after national subsidy