Redmagic 8 Pro Review: Our Gaming Mobile of the Year

The life of a mobile gamer can be a difficult one with low frame rates, overheating, and more! Therefore, I jumped at the chance to try out the Redmagic Pro 8 which aims to solve all these problems. If it can do this, the Redmagic 8 Pro could easily be the best Mobile Phone for Gamers on the market right now. In this Redmagic 8 Pro Review, I will take a look at all of this, so keep reading and find out if this is the phone for you!

This Redmagic 8 Pro Review was conducted using the Redmagic 8 Pro Void (16GB RAM + 512GB Memory) version.

Design

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first opened up the Redmagic 8 Pro. Gaming phones have often been a bit clunky in look and feel. Thankfully, this is definitely not the case with Redmagic 8 Pro. It feels very crisp to hold, with smooth straight edges and a display that goes right to the edges, ensuring no game you’re playing will have part of the screen cut off. Always a bugbear of mine when playing Fortnite on my current phone!

There are also several nice aesthetic touches that add a little extra and definitely make this phone stand out in the mundane mobile market of iPhones and Samsungs. The back of the phone is seethrough, allowing you a sneak peek at some of the phone’s inner workings. And, although a tiny detail, there is a small red slide button on the side to lock the phone which really pops.

Also, perhaps even most importantly for gaming, the phone feels great to hold. During testing, I spent a good few hours adventuring through Genshin Impact’s Tevyat and didn’t feel the strain at all. The phone has a nice weight to it (228g/8oz) and a screen that is just the right size at 6.8in (172.7mm). Not too big that you feel you are playing on a tablet and not too small that you are straining to see the action.

Lastly, a nice touch is the addition of two 520Hz Shoulder Triggers on one of the landscape sides of the mobile. These essentially add two extra buttons which can be easily mapped to almost any game. This is particularly useful for any button-intensive games such as CoD: Mobile or League of Legends: Wild Rift. This can essentially negate the need of using a Mobile Phone Controller.

Power

Running on the Android OS, the RedMagic 8 Pro makes use of Redmagic’s fastest-ever chipset – the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, a dedicated gaming chip Red Core 2, UFS 4.0, and LPDDR5X. Enough with all the jargon, what does this actually mean!?

Well, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has a peak CPU speed of 3.2 GHz, 16GB of RAM (12GB RAM for the Matte version, and up to 512GB ROM from the UFS 4.0. This is some serious power that can handle pretty much any mobile game out there. Indeed, with these specs, we found it a breeze testing it on Pokemon Unite, Brawl Stars, and Asphalt 9 Legends.

The Redmagic 8 Pro also has a handy feature that you can access when playing any game came Game Space. Simply swiping in from the top right or left will bring up a display showing you the current performance of the phone. This can also be used to bring down the settings, but with all the games we tested on, it was able to stay near its maximum with no issues. It can also automatically adjust if it needs to.

Display

Any self-respecting mobile phone for gaming must also have a great display to capture all the details, and the Redmagic 8 Pro definitely excels here. Not only is it a great size at 6.8 inches, but it also features a 120 Hz refresh rate, a resolution of 2400×1080 pixels, and a massive 960Hz touch sampling rate ensuring no latency with your in-game actions.

With all this, the visuals were truly stunning on all the games we tested. Additionally, with a lot of mobile gaming happening on the go, the Redmagic 8 Pro’s peak brightness of 1300 nits ensured that it was even bright enough for outdoor gaming while I waited for my train on the morning commute.

Battery Life

Another important aspect of mobile gaming is ensuring you are using a phone that has a great battery life and that can also charge fast. The Redmagic 8 Pro boasts a 6000mAh dual cell battery with 65W super fast charging, but how does this actually translate in the real world? Well, pretty damn good!

After failing miserably to get some killstreaks in CoD: Mobile for a few hours, it was finally time to charge and I found it went from pretty much empty to full in just over 40 minutes. Additionally, from a full battery with intensive gaming, I managed to get several hours out of it. Much better than many competitors and with a Type-C charging port you should have a few spare cables lying around to add to the one provided with the phone.

Cooling Technology

Another big selling point of the Redmagic Pro 8 is its innovative ICE 11 Cooling System. Making use of an extra layer of graphene under the screen, a vapor chamber heat dissipation plate, a high-speed turbofan, high-conducting gel, and more, the Redmagic 8 Pro promises to be the coolest phone in the range so far.

To test this out, I fired up one of the most processor-heavy games I play on mobile, Genshin Impact, at max graphics settings. On launching a game the fan automatically kicks into gear to preempt any overheating. After an hour on Genshin Impact, although the phone was warm, it was not crazy, and there was worry about any overheating problems. The same could not have been said for my old mobile phone!

However, one downside of such a powerful fan is the noise. Indeed, although not super loud, it was audible over some of the game music though it’s hard to get too annoyed with this considering how cool it does keep the Redmagic Pro 8.

Full Specifications

Specifications	Description
Chip	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 + Dedicated Gaming Chip Red Core 2 + UFS 4.0 + LPDDR5X
Battery & Charging	6000mAh dual-cell battery + 65W super fast charging for EU/US/UK/GL
Triggers	520Hz touchpad dual shoulder triggers
Weight	228g
Storage	12GB RAM + 256GB (Matte) / 16GB RAM + 512GB (Void)
Turbofan	Extremely low power consumption, 20,000 RPM high-speed fan. Includes built-in colorful RGB lights
Cooling System	ICE 11 Cooling System: Composite Graphene, Vapor Chamber Heat Dissipation Plate, Air Aluminum Box, High-Speed Turbofan, Super Soft High Heat Rare Earth, High-Conducting Gel, Copper Coil, Heat Dissipation Plate, Cooling Air Duct, Protective Case, Turbo Cooler with an extra layer of graphene under the screen
Screen	FHD + AMOLED, 120Hz Screen Refresh Rate, 6.8 inches, 20:9, Resolution 2480*1116, Multi-finger between 960 Hz Touch Sampling Rate, DC Dimming with a screen-to-body ratio of 93.7% including 16 million colors. With Gorilla Glass 5 for protection
Size	164.5mm*77mm*9.47mm
Front Camera	16MP 2nd generation under-display-camera (UDC)
Rear Camera	50-megapixels Samsung GN 5 sensor 1/1.57“
Game Space	50-megapixel Samsung GN 5 sensor 1/1.57“
Connectivity	Bluetooth 5.3, WiFi 7 802.11b/g/n/ac/ax/be (Tri-band 2.4G, 5G, 6G), Type C, 3.5mm audio interface, NFC, 7th Gen Fingerprint sensor, Increased Heart Rate Detection Function
Audio	Dual smart PA, dual speakers, 3 gaming mics, DTS x sound, 3.5 mm headphone jack, repositioned for a more comfortable handheld gaming experience
Material	Aviation Aluminium Middle Frame + Double-sided glass + metal box/metal box + glass/metal synthetic rear cover
Lighting Effect	Colorful Fluorescent Fan RGB ( Void version) and RGB Band Lighting ( Matte version)

Conclusion

As is probably pretty clear by now, we LOVED the Redmagic 8 Pro. It easily solved most of the problems we have with other mobile phones for gaming such as poor battery life, overheating, and weak processors! Honestly, this is definitely the best phone I have used for gaming, and would not hesitate in recommending it to anyone looking for an upgrade to their mobile gaming experience.

Although the phone is not cheap, it is far cheaper than a top-of-the-range iPhone or Samsung and is specially made for gamers, giving you a lot of bang for your buck. Overall, I give the Redmagic 8 Pro a magical 5 stars out of 5. What are you waiting for, pick one up today, you won’t regret it! Buy it here directly on their site for the best deals.

However, if you’re not quite ready to go for the newer expensive model, then Redmagic is offering some great deals on last year’s models, the Redmagic 7 and Redmagic 7 Pro. Additionally, you can use the code 20OFF for an extra $20 off.

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