Redmagic 11 Air in the test: Slim gaming smartphone with endurance, RGB and fan

The Redmagic 11 Air is a thin smartphone with a 144 Hz OLED, an active fan and a large battery. Shoulder buttons and strong performance ensure smooth gaming.

The Redmagic 11 Air is an all-rounder that will appeal to everyone – not just gamers. It combines a Snapdragon 8 Elite with active cooling, side shoulder buttons and a large battery with a whopping 7000 mAh. There is also an almost borderless OLED display with 144 Hz and the front camera, which is hidden under the screen. There is a lot of glass at the front and back and, at least at first glance, there are four camera lenses looking at the prospective buyer. Is it all just for show or is this stylish device also suitable for everyday use? This is what our test shows.

As soon as you touch it you notice that the 11 Air is different than most smartphones. Despite the large battery, the housing is only just under 8 mm thick, is very angular and appears deliberately technical, especially on the back. Under the glass cover there, Redmagic has placed a drawing that at first glance appears to show conductor tracks and at the same time reveals a large, RGB-illuminated fan.

Gorilla Glass 7i is used at the front and Gorilla Glass 5 at the back. Despite the fan being open on the side, the device is protected against dust and splash water according to IP54 – unusual, because the fan has to feed air into and out of the case and inevitably requires an opening for this. The choice of materials gives the smartphone a high-quality finish, but the device quickly becomes covered in fingerprints and may be too slippery for some people. The workmanship is excellent.

The camera module fits the eye-catching design: it stands out visibly and makes an impression, but is comparatively simply equipped. Of the supposedly four lenses, only two are real. There is more high-end at the front: the front camera has no notch at all and is located under the almost full-format display. In practice, this looks very modern – especially when playing games and watching videos, as no section spoils the overall impression. But you have to live with the well-known disadvantages of a camera under the display: slightly less light reaches the sensor.

The 6.8-inch OLED panel is one of the device’s strengths. It has a resolution of 2688 × 1216 pixels and reaches up to 144 Hz. The touch sampling rate of up to 2500 Hz is clearly aimed at gamers.

In everyday life, the display impresses with its evenly narrow edges and high brightness. Measurements were almost 1500 cd/m², but were not reproducible. Subjectively, readability outdoors is good. The front camera hidden under the display remains practically invisible during operation. This is a real advantage, especially when playing. An always-on display is also available.

When it comes to the main camera, Redmagic limits itself to the bare essentials: On the back there is a 50-megapixel sensor (Omnivision OV50E) with optical image stabilization and an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera. A telephoto camera is missing – this is usual for a gaming smartphone, but given the price it would have been included. The apertures are f/1.89 for the main and f/2.2 for the wide-angle lens.

In practice, the main camera delivers solid, if not outstanding, results – this is above average for a gaming smartphone, but overall okay for the price range. In good light, you can take clear, sharp shots, but the post-processing is quite aggressive. The wide-angle camera is clearly inferior: its images appear cooler, show noise more quickly and capture fewer details than those of the main lens. That’s enough for social media posts, but you shouldn’t expect anything more.

The front camera with 16 megapixels is located under the display. Redmagic buys this unusual placement with rather soft selfies, which are then smoothed out using software – this quickly makes colors and surfaces appear unnatural. In good lighting conditions the result is still acceptable.

For videos, a maximum of 8K (4320p) with 30 frames per second is possible with the main camera. However, 4K with 60 fps is more practical and makes more sense, especially when panning to the side. The quality is good in both cases. The front camera records at 1080p at 60 fps and delivers absolutely sufficient results for video chats.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite works inside the Redmagic 11 Air. Although this is not the current chipset, but the previous generation, it still delivers very high computing power – especially in games. Depending on the variant, 12 or 16 GB of RAM and 256 or 512 GB of internal UFS 4.1 storage are available. There is no microSD slot.

In everyday life, the smartphone impresses with its fast response times and overall very smooth performance. In our benchmarks, the device achieved around 25,800 points in PCMark Work 3.0 and 6850 points in 3DMark Wild Life Extreme. The results underline the strong gaming focus: In addition to the main processor, an additional Redcore R4 chip is used, which is intended to ensure more stable frame rates and lower latencies – even in demanding titles.

Another special feature of the Redmagic 11 Air is the cooling, as this model is actively designed. The small cooler is said to achieve up to 24,000 revolutions per minute and is combined with a vapor chamber and other layers for heat distribution. In everyday life, however, it primarily starts in games and benchmarks – and that’s a good thing, because the noise of the fan can be clearly heard in the immediate vicinity. Although heat does arrive at the back during longer benchmark sessions despite the fan being active, it remains at least moderate and noticeably helps to maintain maximum performance for longer.

This also helps with long-term gaming. There are capacitive shoulder buttons on the side that work with a sampling rate of 520 Hz and worked reliably in the test. Otherwise, the touch keys are hardly noticeable in everyday life and are therefore not a nuisance, but they are a real added value in games that support them.

What’s a bit of a shame – considering the rest of the features of the upper-class phone – is the speed of the USB-C port. It is specified as USB 2.0 and is correspondingly slow. When it comes to radio, the 11 Air also remains rather conservative, with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4. On the other hand, NFC and an infrared port for controlling household appliances, which many current flagships no longer offer, are positive.

The fingerprint sensor is well placed, but in the test it didn’t always appear “generous” the first time. However, this went away after another firmware update and the optical sensor then responded reliably. The stereo speakers are powerful and don’t have to hide in this price range.

The 11 Air runs Redmagic OS 11, which is based on Android 16, out of the box. The central part is the Game Space, which is started from the factory using a side button (the “Magic Key” can also be assigned differently, for example with the flashlight function) and then turns the smartphone into a console – including performance profiles, overlays and an AI trainer who gives tips while gaming.

Redmagic is building additional AI functions around the interface. These include object recognition via the camera, search directly from the screen and a tactical coach that is supposed to derive clues from game data. There is also Redmagic AI+ with features such as live translator, AI transcript and AI notepad.

When it comes to providing updates, the manufacturer is hardly behind the Pixel or Galaxy competition from Google and Samsung. Redmagic names five generations of Android version updates and security updates for the 11 Air and newer models from market launch – if the manufacturer implements it that way, that’s great! Since the 11 Air starts with Android 16, versions up to Android 21 would theoretically be covered.

The battery is a real statement: 7000 mAh in such a slim gaming smartphone is rare – even in higher price ranges. In the practical test, the smartphone lasted around two days. In normal everyday life, most users should be able to use it for a good three days – an excellent value, especially given the flat design. However, if you gamble a lot, you have to expect that a shift will be in the pit after just a few hours.

Charging is also quick. Some announcements mentioned 120 watts, but an 80-watt power supply is included in the scope of delivery. This means that a full charge takes just over an hour – a pleasantly short value for 7000 mAh. The bypass mode is interesting for gamers: It directs the power directly to the hardware while playing, thus relieving the strain on the battery and further reducing heat development. In the test, however, this advantage was at best measurable, but hardly noticeable. The only thing missing is wireless charging.

The Redmagic 11 Air is available in two storage variants. The version with 12/256 GB costs 499 euros directly from the manufacturer. You can get it on Amazon for 529 euros. The version with 16/512 GB costs 599 euros directly from the manufacturer. On Amazon it is around 619 euros. The colors available are Phantom (black/transparent), Prism (white/transparent) and brand new Trace (orange/transparent)

The Redmagic 11 Air is actually a specialist – but one that can do almost everything despite its comparatively low price. Active fan, shoulder buttons, large OLED display with high sampling rates, a selfie camera hidden under the screen, lots of memory, an extremely fast chipset and, on top of that, a 7000 mAh battery: this combination is rarely found in the classic smartphone market.

On the other hand, the main camera is okay, but ultimately just mediocre. The wide-angle lens is even more noticeable, and a telephoto camera is completely missing. Wireless charging would also have been the cherry on the cake – none. In addition, there is the USB-C port, which only works according to the 2.0 standard and further spoils the otherwise excellent impression of the thin and very stylish smartphone. But these are all bearable points: The Redmagic 11 Air is a really good smartphone with a fantastic price-performance ratio – only amateur photographers don’t get their money’s worth.