REDMAGIC 11 Air Review – Lightweight or Heavy Hitter?

https://ift.tt/Oje6JuS Nobody can accuse REDMAGIC of laziness. Barely a month goes by without another new product announcement or launch fro...

https://ift.tt/Oje6JuS

Nobody can accuse REDMAGIC of laziness. Barely a month goes by without another new product announcement or launch from the prolific Chinese gaming-focused handset manufacturer, and the latest product to land on our desks is the REDMAGIC 11 Air.

Why “Air”? Well, because the special skill this model brings to the party is lightness. Whereas previous REDMAGIC handsets that we’ve reviewed have been pointedly boxy and substantial, as befits machines of unrivalled gaming grunt, the REDMAGIC 11 Air is a more delicate specimen.

If the REDMAGIC 11 Pro is a greatsword, designed for cleaving and bludgeoning, then the REDMAGIC 11 Air is a rapier. It’s lighter in the hand, easier to conceal, and altogether less menacing at a glance. Fortunately, it’s just as effective in achieving its purpose.

Which, to be clear, is running games.

And it’s arguably even more effective at achieving its secondary purpose, which is being a general all-purpose smartphone with decent battery life, media capability, sound quality, and all round useability.

Looks

Though significantly slimmer and lighter than its predecessors, the REDMAGIC 11 Air has the same angular form factor and large, 6.85-inch OLED screen. It also has the same transparent back, revealing the workings beneath – but in this case the workings are more elegant and aesthetically pleasing.

In place of the large vents on either side of the handset is a single vent, for drawing away the heat generated by the handset’s formidable gaming machinery. In place of the two fairly obvious touch-sensitive shoulder buttons are two touch-sensitive shoulder buttons that are barely noticeable.

And in place of the big orange slider for booting up the proprietary Game Space software and activating gaming mode there’s a smaller, more discreet orange button.

There’s a small red logo that lights up on the back of the device when Game Space is running, but not the various other rainbow LEDs that scream for attention on the REDMAGIC 11 Pro and previous models.

In short, the REDMAGIC 11 Air is a toned-down version of its more muscular stablemates, while still being very obviously a handset preserved for fans of gaming, cutting edge technology, and flashy glowing logos.

If you want a phone that can run games without necessarily rubbing everybody’s face in the fact, the REDMAGIC 11 Air could be for you.

Specs

When you’re in the market for a gaming handset, performance is what really matters, and the REDMAGIC 11 Air confidently delivers.

Under the hood it’s packing a Snapdragon 8 Elite CPU, RedCore R4 Gaming Chip, and 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, along with up to 512GB of UFS 4.1 storage. That’s more than enough to keep up with the current crop of mobile games, even at the higher end of technical requirements.

The display, meanwhile, is rich, colorful, and silky smooth thanks to a 144 Hz refresh rate and OLED technology. This makes it ideal for gaming and media, supported by excellent haptics and solid, punchy sound from the stereo speakers.

It’s worth mentioning here that the REDMAGIC 11 Air lacks the 3.5mm headphone jack of its predecessors. This is a feature that’s increasingly absent from handsets but one that some users miss. If support for wired headphones was one of the things you liked about your last REDMAGIC phone, you may be disappointed by the lack of it here.

The REDMAGIC Air 11 boasts an impressive 7000 mAH battery cell and 120W fast charging, meaning it’s amazingly quick to charge and lasts well over a day (depending on what you’re using your phone for, of course). Battery-wise, you’ll have no complaints.

Alas, the same can’t be said for the camera. In common with all REDMAGIC handsets, the camera performance is solid but unremarkable. Along with a 50MP main camera there’s an 8MP ultrawide camera on the back and a 16MP under-display selfie camera.

Life is full of compromises, and it’s reasonable to think of the REDMAGIC 11 Air’s underwhelming photographic performance as the price paid for its outstanding gaming grunt and overall power.

In any case, if smartphone photography matters to you, look elsewhere.

Software

The REDMAGIC 11 Air runs Android 16 beneath REDMAGIC’s custom skin. Aside from the large game fan widget that comes with the OS out of the box (and which you can remove from the home screen at any time) the skin is extremely minimal and unobtrusive.

While it’s unlikely that gaming is entirely absent from the thoughts of anybody buying the REDMAGIC 11 Air, it’s also true that you could happily use one without ever booting up a game.

Being a cutting edge smartphone, the REDMAGIC 11 Air comes with the latest version of Android and promised support for a further two major Android updates. In terms of software longevity, that puts it behind devices like Google’s own Pixel series and others. REDMAGIC mitigates this with five years of security updates, meaning that your device will at least remain secure into the 2030s.

There’s also a generous helping of AI, with REDMAGIC’s proprietary Game Space platform boasting a number of AI-driven features, such as behavioural learning and real-time tactical guidance in a suite of games including PUBG Mobile.

In-game chat and voice commands are second-to-none, allowing you to play hands-free, and you can use your REDMAGIC 11 Air as a second screen for PC and tablet gaming. Game Space allows you to customise your controls, track achievements, connect peripherals, download a ton of useful plugins, and pretty much do everything you’d expect from a piece of gaming software.

In all other respects, the REDMAGIC 11 Air is simply a very solid Android phone.

Conclusion

If the name REDMAGIC isn’t as familiar to you as Samsung, Motorola, and Google when it comes to mobile phones, that’s partly because it occupies a niche. Not everybody needs their smartphone to be a games console, but for those who do, the Redmagic range stands ready to serve.

With the REDMAGIC 11 Air, as with previous Air models, REDMAGIC is aiming for the midcore rather than the hardcore. As a result, it’s easier to put the gaming stuff to one side and see it for what it is: a light, elegant, and practical smartphone with an excellent screen, ample battery life, fast charging, and an elegant sufficiency of sheer power.

If you happen to like playing games on your phone, so much the better.

There are superior options out there if camera quality and longevity of software support are important to you, but otherwise the REDMAGIC 11 Air is a good all-rounder.

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