Hot off the heels of October’s announcement of the new top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, the RedMagic team has already implemented the chipset into a new smartphone dubbed the RedMagic 10 Pro – but how does it compare to the RedMagic 9S Pro?
While previous RedMagic releases have essentially been spec bumps with a new chipset and not much else, there’s more going on with the RedMagic 10 Pro. It sports the aforementioned top-end Snapdragon chipset alongside a bigger, faster screen, boasts a larger battery and much more.
The question is, is it enough to tempt RedMagic 9S Pro users to upgrade? Here’s how the two gaming powerhouses stack up on paper.
Pricing and availability
The RedMagic 10 Pro starts at a rather affordable £579/$649 considering the spec on offer, and that’ll net you a 12GB+256GB combo. Other variants are available at additional cost, going all the way up to 24GB+1TB, and it’s available to buy globally right now following release on 3 December 2024.
The RedMagic 9S Pro also started at £579/$649 for a 12+256GB combo, though it capped out at 16GB+512GB. However, RedMagic has halted sales of the 9S Pro on its site following the release of the 10 Pro, making it pretty hard to get a hold of at this point.
The RedMagic 10 Pro offers Snapdragon 8 Elite power
The biggest difference between the two gaming-focused smartphones is the processor powering them; while the RedMagic 9S Pro sports the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 found in most flagships in 2024, the RedMagic 10 Pro is one of the first smartphones to market with Qualcomm’s latest top-end chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
While there’s always a performance bump between generations, the gap between the 8 Gen 3 and 8 Elite is massive, largely down to using the same Orion CPU architecture as the laptop-focused X Elite chipset. This means that the new chipset offers a 45% boost in the CPU department, 40% in the GPU department and 45% in the NPU department while also being more power efficient.
You certainly won’t struggle to play high-end AAA mobile games on either of these chipsets, but the RedMagic 10 Pro will undoubtedly offer some of the best mobile performance of any smartphone on the market right now.
The RedMagic 10 Pro has a bigger, faster and brighter screen
There’s more here than a simple spec bump; the RedMagic 10 Pro also sports various upgrades in the all-important display department.
First up, the screen is half an inch bigger at 6.85 inches, though this is down to shrinking the bezels rather than making the phone bigger than it already is. Still, the slimline bezels, combined with the under-screen camera, make for a massive canvas for playing games.
There’s also a boosted refresh rate this time around, going up from 120Hz to 144Hz, and with 2000nits peak brightness, it’s 400nits brighter than the previous-gen AMOLED panel.
The RedMagic 10 Pro has a bigger battery and faster charging
The RedMagic 9S Pro had one of the biggest batteries found in any phone clocking in at a frankly massive 6500mAh, but the company is keen to outdo that with the RedMagic 10 Pro. That said, the latest gaming phone sports a whopping 7050mAh battery, again making it one of the biggest batteries ever found in a smartphone. The idea is that this will lead to unprecedented battery life, both generally and when gaming, but we’ll have to verify that once we review the new model.
Coupled with that frankly massive battery is a boost to charge speeds, from 80W to 100W, which should do a good job at minimising the amount of time you spend tethered to the wall. And, like most gaming phones, both the RedMagic 9S Pro and 10 Pro offer bypass charging to directly power the internals when gaming.
The RedMagic 10 Pro offers better long-term support
One area where RedMagic smartphones have lacked is in the software department, and more specifically, long-term support. While manufacturers like Google and Samsung have committed to a massive seven years of OS upgrades, you’d be lucky if your RedMagic smartphone got a single upgrade.
Well, that’s starting to change, albeit at a snail’s pace, with the RedMagic 10 Pro officially offering one OS upgrade and, rather strangely, two Redmagic OS upgrades. It’s still not quite up there with some of the best, but we can only hope that this continues to improve with subsequent releases going forward.
The RedMagic 9S Pro has a more gamer-centric design
If the RedMagic 9S Pro has anything still going for it, it’s probably its gamer-focused design. The rear of the 9S Pro features not only the RGB lighting we’ve come to expect from gaming phones, but other gaming-centric additions like the ability to see the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset via a transparent panel – even if the chipset you see isn’t the actual chipset powering the phone.
The RedMagic 10 Pro has toned things down a whole lot, with a much cleaner look, especially on the rear. There is still a pattern to be found, caught in the shimmer of the light, but there’s no longer a focus on seeing the chipset and other components on the rear. Even the RGB lighting has been toned down somewhat.
Early thoughts
The RedMagic 10 Pro looks like it offers a solid upgrade not only in the all-important performance department but also when it comes to display, battery life, charging and even long-term support.
It looks like it’ll be an easy recommendation for those on the hunt for a gaming phone, but whether owners of the still-powerful RedMagic 9S Pro will appreciate the upgrades on offer here is yet to be seen.
