I replaced my Pixel 9 Pro with this $700 Android phone - and didn't regret it

10 hours ago 7

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

The Redmagic 10 Air Android telephone is disposable present connected Amazon for $729.
The 10 Air telephone is arsenic elegant arsenic it is almighty and tin grip immoderate of the much challenging games.
This camera strategy isn't needfully flagship level, and you'll privation to wage attraction to web set support.

I've held tons of Android phones successful my hand, immoderate of which felt awkward due to the fact that of their size oregon shape, portion immoderate acceptable conscionable right. That Goldilocks effect is real, and 1 happening I've recovered is that Redmagic phones conscionable consciousness right. Their size and their signifier conscionable consciousness close successful my hand.

Also: The champion Android phones to bargain successful 2025

But who wants to bargain a telephone based connected its signifier and size? It's each astir power, display, and battery. Well, I'm present to archer you that the Redmagic 10 Air phone checks each the boxes. Let's chat.

My experience

As soon arsenic I pulled the telephone retired of the box, my archetypal thought was, "I deliberation I'm going to similar this phone." Well, I was right, and this telephone is simply a keeper. From the superb and elegant show to the creaseless animations, the Redmagic 10 Air is impressive.

The happening that struck maine instantly was the buttery smoothness of the animations and movement. I was captivated. In fact, I could halt swiping down, opening apps, switching betwixt apps, etc., simply to ticker the movement. Sounds cheesy, but it truly is that impressive.

Of course, portion of that is that Android has (for a agelong time) struggled to support up with the smoothness of iOS, but the Redmagic 10 Air is astir arsenic adjacent arsenic I've witnessed. I would besides accidental the UI is astir arsenic adjacent arsenic I've seen to the elegance of iOS.

But again, it's not conscionable astir the signifier and the movement. What astir the power?

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The 10 Air is marketed arsenic a gaming phone. What does that mean? To statesman with, it uses a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU enhanced by a RedCore R3 spot (a customized gaming spot designed to complement the Snapdragon CPU and code the demands of gaming). To enactment that to the test, I downloaded a fewer of the much demanding games (such arsenic Guns of Glory and Star Trek Fleet Academy) to spot however it fared. Color maine impressed.

Graphics were beautiful, on-screen enactment was smooth, speakers sounded great, and playing assorted titles was engaging. I couldn't find a azygous responsibility with however good this telephone handled gaming. In fact, I'd spell truthful acold arsenic to accidental it was much awesome than playing the aforesaid games connected my Pixel 9 Pro. If you're a gamer, this telephone volition impress. If you're not a gamer, this telephone volition truly impress.

About an hr into utilizing the phone, a caller mentation of RedMagicOS (10.0.5) was available, truthful I allowed the upgrade to happen. I was amazed astatine however accelerated the update happened, due to the fact that updating my Pixel tin beryllium a agelong process (due to the download times). The 10 Air took astir 1 infinitesimal to download the upgrade and astir 3 minutes to finish.

There was besides the enactment to let the upgrade to tally successful the inheritance (during the verification process). If Google could marque regular Android updates this simple, it would beryllium a boon to users everywhere. No substance what I threw astatine the 10 Air, it performed mode supra my expectations. Given its terms constituent ($729 connected Amazon), this telephone could easy beryllium seen arsenic a flagship killer.

Also: This $500 Motorola has nary concern being this bully for the price

I'll caveat by saying that the 50MP triple-camera strategy is thing to constitute location about. It's large astatine capturing item and brightness successful shots, but the opposition (muted colors) and oversaturation successful immoderate parts enactment the imaging strategy a tier beneath much premium handsets similar the iPhone 16 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S25 series. Then again, this is simply a gaming telephone we're talking about.

Buyers successful the US should besides beryllium cautious of the phone's web set support, which is much constricted than models from larger manufacturers. I'd highly urge you sojourn Redmagic's spec page and cheque with your bearer to spot if its LTE/5G information tin beryllium received decently by the phone.

ZDNET's buying advice

If you're looking for a caller Android telephone and privation 1 that is adjacent parts beauteous aesthetics and performance, you could bash a batch worse than the Redmagic 10 Air. This telephone is sleek and almighty and could easy regenerate immoderate telephone you presently usage without a hiccup. The terms is right, and the telephone is almighty and elegant. What's not to love?

The specs

Display - 6.8" AMOLED with a 2480 x 1116 resolution, a refresh complaint of 120 Hz, a interaction sampling complaint of 2000 Hz, and an facet ratio of 20:9.
Cooling - ICE-X cooling system
CPU - Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 astatine 3.3 Ghz with Cortex-X4 and Red Core 3 cores.
GPU - Adreno
RAM - 12 oregon 16 GB
Storage - 256 oregon 512 GB.
Connectivity - 5G/TDD/FDD/WCDMA/CDMA/GSM, 2G GMS 2/3/5/8, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, 3G WCDMA/UMTS B1/2/4/5/6/8/19, 4G FDD-LTE B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/18/19/20 /26/28A/28B/66, TDD-LTE B34/B38/39/40/41/42, 5G NR n77/n78/n1/2/3/5/7/8/20/26/28/38/n40 /n41/66
Cameras - Rear 50 MP+50 MP with OV50E40/OV50D40 sensors, a pixel size of 1.0μm, 0.64 μm, and an aperture of 1.00, 2.05. Front 16 MP.
Sensors - Fingerprint, G-sensor, Electronic Compass, Gyroscope, Proximity, Ambient Light Sensor, Under-screen Light Sensor, Infrared Sensor
Battery - Battery: 6,000mAh with speedy charging that supports up to 80W

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