The $700 Android phone that made me forget about my Pixel 9 Pro

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Redmagic 10 Air Android phone is available now on Amazon for $729.
• The 10 Air phone is as elegant as it is powerful and can handle some of the more challenging games.
• This camera system isn’t necessarily flagship level, and you’ll want to pay attention to network band support.

I’ve held lots of Android phones in my hand, some of which felt awkward because of their size or shape, while some fit just right. That Goldilocks effect is real, and one thing I’ve found is that Redmagic phones just feel right. Their size and their shape just feel right in my hand.

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But who wants to buy a phone based on its shape and size? It’s all about power, display, and battery.

Well, I’m here to tell you that the Redmagic 10 Air phone checks all the boxes. Let’s chat.

My experience

As soon as I pulled the phone out of the box, my first thought was, “I think I’m going to like this phone.” Well, I was right, and this phone is a keeper. From the brilliant and elegant display to the smooth animations, the Redmagic 10 Air is impressive.

The thing that struck me immediately was the buttery smoothness of the animations and movement, I was captivated. In fact, I could stop swiping down, opening apps, switching between apps, etc., simply to watch the movement. Sounds cheesy, but it really is that impressive. 

Of course, part of that is that Android has (for a long time) struggled to keep up with the smoothness of iOS, but the Redmagic 10 Air is about as close as I’ve witnessed. I would also say the UI is about as close as I’ve seen to the elegance of iOS. 

But again, it’s not just about the shape and the movement. What about the power?

Also: Finally, a rugged Android phone that doesn’t look like a brick (and won’t break the bank)

The 10 Air is marketed as a gaming phone. What does that mean? To begin with, it uses a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU enhanced by a RedCore R3 chip (a custom gaming chip designed to complement the Snapdragon CPU and address the demands of gaming). To put that to the test, I downloaded a few of the more demanding games (such as Guns of Glory and Star Trek Fleet Academy) to see how it fared. Color me impressed. 

Graphics were beautiful, action was smooth, sound was great, and playing various titles was impressive. I couldn’t find a single fault with how well this phone handled gaming. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it was more impressive than playing the same games on my Pixel 9 Pro. If you’re a gamer, this phone will impress. If you’re not a gamer, this phone will really impress.

About an hour into using the phone, a new version of RedMagicOS (10.0.5) was available, so I allowed the upgrade to happen. I was surprised at how fast the update happened, because updating my Pixel can be a long process (due to the download times). The 10 Air took roughly one minute to download the upgrade and roughly three minutes to finish. 

There was also the option to allow the upgrade to run in the background (during the verification process). If Google could make regular Android updates this simple, it would be a boon to users everywhere.

No matter what I threw at the 10 Air, it performed way above my expectations. Given its price point ($729 on Amazon), this phone could easily be seen as a flagship killer.

Also: I use this cheap Android tablet more than my iPad Pro – and it costs a fraction of the price

I’ll caveat by saying that the 50MP triple-camera system is nothing to write home about. They’re great at pulling in detail and brightness of shots, but the contrast (muted colors) and oversaturation in some parts put the imaging system a tier below more premium handsets like the iPhone 16 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S25 series. Then again, this is a gaming phone we’re talking about.

Buyers in the US should also be cautious of the phone’s network band support, which is more limited than models from larger manufacturers. I’d highly recommend you visit Redmagic’s spec page and check with your carrier to see if its LTE/5G data can be received properly by the phone.

ZDNET’s buying advice

If you’re looking for a new Android phone and want one that is equal parts beautiful aesthetics and performance, you could do a lot worse than the Redmagic 10 Air. This phone is sleek and powerful and could easily replace whatever phone you currently use without a hiccup. The price is right, and the phone is powerful and elegant. What’s not to love?

The specs

• Display – 6.8″ AMOLED with a 2480 x 1116 resolution, a refresh rate of 120 Hz, a touch sampling rate of 2000 Hz, and an aspect ratio of 20:9.
• Cooling – ICE-X cooling system
• CPU – Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 at 3.3 Ghz with Cortex-X4 and Red Core 3 cores.
• GPU – Adreno
• RAM – 12 or 16 GB
• Storage – 256 or 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 quick charging that supports up to 80W