I purchased the REDMAGIC 10S Pro Wuthering Waves Limited Edition.
Luxurious collaboration model
The REDMAGIC 10S Pro Wuthering Waves Limited Edition is a special model in collaboration with the Wuthering Waves character, Camellya. In addition to a Camellya illustration on the back, the wallpaper and icons also feature a special collaboration design.
Furthermore, the outer box, protective case, and charger are also special editions with Tsubaki’s illustrations and icons, making it a serious collaboration, unlike some manufacturers that just add an engraving.
Equipped with the high-clock version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Leading Version, it allows for native 90FPS gameplay in Wuthering Waves.
Thanks to REDMAGIC’s signature built-in cooling fan, performance is sustained, and the under-display camera allows you to play games without being disturbed by a punch-hole.
This review is based on the 16GB+512GB version with RedMagicOS10.5.9MR.
- High-performance, high-clock Snapdragon 8 Elite
- Flat display with no punch-hole
- The back is also almost flat with no wobble
- Large 7,050mAh battery with bypass charging support
- Capable of 50-70W fast charging even with third-party chargers
- Easy operation with shoulder triggers
- Video output support via USB 3.2 port
- Heavy, though reasonable for the specs
- Weak bass from the speakers
- Task-killing implementation is mediocre
- Battery life is not very good
| REDMAGIC 10S Pro (NX789J) | |
|---|---|
| OS | Android 15 |
| RAM | 12GB / 16GB / 24GB LPDDR5T |
| Storage | 256GB / 512GB / 1TB UFS 4.1 Pro |
| SoC | Snapdragon 8 Elite Leading Version |
| Display | 6.8-inch 2688×1216 144Hz refresh rate AMOLED |
| Size | 163.42 × 76.14 × 8.9mm |
| Weight | 229g |
| SIM | nano SIM + nano SIM |
| Rear Camera | 50MP (OV50E40) + 50MP (OV50D40) + 2MP |
| Front Camera | 16MP (OV16EQ) |
| Battery | 7,050mAh |
| USB Port | USB Type-C (USB 3.2) |
| Bands | 2G GMS 2/3/5/8 3G 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/n41/66/71 NSA ENDC n1/7/28/38/40/41/71/77/78 |
目次
In the luxurious red box, you’ll find the REDMAGIC 10S Pro itself, along with several Camellya collaboration items.
When you open the lid, the first thing you see is a board with a Camellya illustration.
It includes a mini character keychain, a protective case, a charging cable, and a charger.
The charger also has a Camellya-themed design, so you can have a complete Camellya setup from the device to its accessories.
A protective film is pre-applied.
An acrylic stand is also included.
Display: Easy to see with no punch-hole
The REDMAGIC 10S Pro is equipped with a 6.8-inch display with a resolution of 2688×1216.
It has a built-in under-display camera, so there are no punch-holes or notches, and the rounded corners are minimized, so nothing obstructs your games or videos.
It’s a flat display, and the edges don’t reflect light, making it easy to see from edge to edge.
The saturation is high, so it’s not suitable for those who require color accuracy.
The under-display camera is almost invisible, and its outline is not noticeable unless in very dark or bright places.
Compared to a regular in-display camera, the image quality is softer and slightly lower, but I think it’s fine since people rarely take selfies with a gaming phone, and it’s good enough for face authentication to work without issue.
The pixel arrangement is a diamond pixel layout.
When measuring the brightness with a LX-1336B while displaying a full white image at maximum brightness, it reached a maximum of 1286 nits.
Outdoors in daylight, it would go above 1100 nits and then drop to around 900 nits after a few tens of seconds. Although 900 nits is bright enough, I wish it would last longer.
This is a unit that indicates the degree of brightness; the higher the number, the brighter it is.
It is said that 400-500 nits are needed indoors, and 800-1000 nits are needed outdoors to see clearly.
Incidentally, many models limit the maximum brightness unless automatic brightness adjustment is turned on.
The refresh rate supports 144Hz and can also be set to 120Hz.
You can set the refresh rate for each individual app.
When measuring the touch sampling rate with the Touch Sample Rate Tester, the Movement Rate for both single-touch and multi-touch was around 830Hz on average.
This is related to the sensitivity of the screen when touched.
A higher number often means the screen responds more quickly to touches.
However, the actual touch latency is not determined by this alone; other factors can influence it, and the final touch latency can sometimes be high.
As a guideline, a Movement Rate that is about twice the screen’s refresh rate is normal, over three times is high, and for gaming phones, it’s often around 5-6 times.
The total touch latency measured with the WALT Latency Timer was 27.5ms.
This is the time it takes for the screen to respond after being touched.
The smaller this number, the faster the response.
Gaming phones typically have around 25ms, while regular smartphones are generally in the 30-40ms range.
With Widevine L1, you can play high-quality streaming content on services like Amazon Prime Video.
Back: Matte finish, no fingerprints
The back has a smooth, matte finish that is resistant to fingerprints and smudges.
The Tsubaki illustration is drawn in black and is not overly conspicuous.
It weighs 232.2g.
While unavoidable due to the large 7,050mAh battery, it feels solid and heavy.
The camera area does not protrude and is flat.
Only the flash part protrudes slightly to protect the cover glass, so it doesn’t wobble when placed on a desk.
This is especially convenient for rhythm games, as many people place their phones on a desk to play.
Even though it’s a gaming phone, it has a 50MP main camera and can take decent photos.
Speakers: Weak bass
The REDMAGIC 10S Pro has symmetrical stereo speakers with speaker holes on the top and bottom sides.
It also has a 3.5mm earphone jack, so you can use wired earphones without an adapter.
It supports DTS Sound, which can be turned off even for the speakers.
The bass is weak and lacks punch, with vocals and high tones being more prominent. Setting it to Music mode and boosting the bass with the equalizer made it a bit better.
It uses an AW882XX SmartPA.
Checking the supported codecs with Bluetooth Codec Changer showed it supports AAC / aptX / aptX HD / aptX Adaptive / LDAC / LHDC.
LHDC V5 compatible earphones are not restricted by manufacturer and can be used with those from other companies.
Port: Fast charging possible even with PPS chargers
The battery capacity is a large 7050mAh and supports 80W fast charging.
The USB 3.2 port allows for high-speed data transfer and also supports video/audio output via DisplayPort Alt Mode.
The criteria for automatically closing background apps are strict; by default, they are closed too quickly, and if you grant permission in the settings, they continue to run even during sleep, which is an extreme behavior.
As a result, if you don’t close apps, the battery drains quickly, and despite the large capacity, the battery life is not very good. Other companies’ phones manage to suppress battery consumption moderately without closing apps during sleep, so I hope this gets optimized…
Besides the included charger, you can fast charge without problems using a PPS charger that supports 100W or more.
For example, with the Baseus Nomos 5-in-1 Desktop Charger, it charged at a measured rate of about 50-70W.
This is reassuring for those who don’t want to use the included charger to keep it pristine.
Charging is quite fast, as it maintains a rate of over 50W even when the battery level exceeds 60%.
If you want to reduce the strain on the battery, you can turn off Turbo Charge to lower the charging speed.
It supports charge separation (bypass charging), which can be turned on at any time, not just during games.
You can also set it to turn on automatically when the battery reaches a specified level.
In addition to charge separation, there is also an option to stop charging at 80%.
It supports Wi-Fi 7, and for some reason, I was able to connect at 6GHz even though it’s the Chinese version.
The power and volume buttons are on the right side.
At the left and right edges are the shoulder triggers, which allow you to perform tap and long-press operations without touching the screen after setting them up.
This makes difficult or repetitive tasks in offline games easier.
By registering them as a game, you can even set up macros for general apps to semi-automate them.
It features a large 12,000mm² vapor chamber, liquid metal placed directly on the SoC, and a cooling fan to efficiently dissipate heat.
Performance: Capable of 90FPS gameplay in Wuthering Waves
The REDMAGIC 10S Pro is equipped with a high-clock version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, allowing you to play Wuthering Waves at a native 90FPS, not through frame interpolation.
In Geekbench 6, the package name spoofed version (= not affected by the manufacturer’s unfair boosting) scored 971 in single-core and 9551 in multi-core, while the normal version scored 3130 in single-core and 9857 in multi-core.
The large difference indicates that performance control based on package name is being implemented.
Many manufacturers have been caught cheating by identifying famous benchmark apps like AnTuTu by their package name and loosening thermal controls or locking the clock speed to high to make scores look better during benchmarks.
This behavior is different from normal app usage, leading to situations where “benchmarks are good, but other apps don’t perform that well.”
Since the boosting behavior differs for each manufacturer, comparing boosted results is meaningless.
Therefore, it is important to change the package name to disguise it as a general app and get the correct, unboosted score.
This is a benchmark that quantifies the CPU’s processing performance, used in tasks like background blur and text processing.
Single-core performance is important for light, everyday tasks, while multi-core performance is crucial for heavy games.
A score of 1200 for single-core and 3000 for multi-core is generally considered comfortable for most uses.
In the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test with a spoofed package name, the score went from 5890 to 3389.
Wild Life Extreme is a benchmark that uses the Vulkan API and quantifies GPU performance with 3840×2160 resolution graphics.
A higher score means smoother 3D rendering in games, and a higher Stability indicates that high performance can be maintained for a long time.
Since this is only a generic, simple indicator for Vulkan API usage, and considering that popular games rarely use the Vulkan API, the score is not very useful. It is mainly used to check the heat generation during GPU usage.
You can only make inferences like, “if it performs well in Vulkan, it will probably perform well in OpenGL too,” or “if it tends to get hot, it will be difficult to maintain FPS in actual games.”
The PCMark Work 3.0 (package name spoofed version), which measures performance in everyday use like document editing, scored 13115.
This is a benchmark that quantifies processing performance in tasks such as web browsing and image/video editing.
A higher score means faster processing, but since the balance with battery consumption is also important, a lower score is not necessarily bad.
A score of 8000 or more is sufficient.
It is equipped with UFS 4.1 Pro storage and LPDDR5T memory.
The results from the CPDT Benchmark showed top-class read and write speeds.
Sequential read/write is the read/write speed that affects things like copying large files and video encoding/decoding.
Random read/write is the speed for reading/writing small files, and this speed is important when using apps and games.
When playing the CPU-intensive game Genshin Impact for 30 minutes in Beyond mode, at max graphics, 60FPS setting, in Natlan (moving along a path while using skills in combat), and measured with Scene 8, it averaged 59.8 FPS with a power consumption of 112.54mW per FPS.
The battery temperature rose to a maximum of about 43°C.
Although it generates a bit of heat, it delivers stable performance.
Lower power consumption per FPS is considered more power-efficient.
Good power efficiency leads to lower battery consumption, while poor efficiency results in faster battery drain.
A phone with poor power efficiency in games tends to have high battery consumption in other apps as well, often making you feel that the battery drains quickly.
Average FPS (frames per second) indicates how smoothly the display can be maintained, and higher is better.
(To be more precise, a high average FPS with fewer “janks” or stutters results in a better perceived smoothness.)
When playing the GPU-intensive game Honkai: Star Rail for 30 minutes in Beyond mode, at max graphics, in Penacony’s “Golden Hour” while repeatedly using Acheron’s technique, it averaged 44.6 FPS.
Power consumption and heat generation are high, and for GPU-intensive use, long gaming sessions are a bit tough without lowering the graphics settings or using an external cooler.
In Wuthering Waves, you can select the 90FPS option for the maximum frame rate.
The REDMAGIC 10S Pro already supports frame interpolation for games like Wuthering Waves, Genshin Impact, and Honkai: Star Rail, but this allows for native 90FPS, enabling smooth gameplay without any latency or image quality degradation.
When playing at 90FPS with the highest graphics settings, it averaged 86.4 FPS over 30 minutes.
Although it still generates a fair amount of heat, it’s impressive that it can maintain over 80 FPS in native 90FPS gameplay, which is more demanding than frame interpolation.
OS: Almost no Japanese localization
The REDMAGIC 10S Pro Wuthering Waves Limited Edition is only sold in China, and the only language options are Chinese and English.
Although you can set it to other languages by running settings put system system_locales ja-JP (change ja-JP to your language) via adb shell and rebooting, the settings and quick settings remain mostly in English.
Regular apps installed from the Play Store will be in your language.
The home screen and icons have a special Camellya design.
The theme files can be downloaded from here.
If Lockscreen Wallpaper, which sets a random wallpaper for the lock screen, is enabled, the special Camellya wallpaper won’t be displayed, so be sure to turn it off.
In addition to the wallpaper, the AOD and in-display fingerprint sensor icon also have special designs.
Because it is the Chinese version, Nearby Share and Location History cannot be used, but Android Auto is available.
It supports a rich set of gesture functions, such as turning the screen on/off with a double tap, taking a partial screenshot with three fingers, and turning the flashlight on/off by shaking the phone.
Summary
- High-performance, high-clock Snapdragon 8 Elite
- Flat display with no punch-hole
- The back is also almost flat with no wobble
- Large 7,050mAh battery with bypass charging support
- Capable of 50-70W fast charging even with third-party chargers
- Easy operation with shoulder triggers
- Video output support via USB 3.2 port
- Heavy, though reasonable for the specs
- Weak bass from the speakers
- Task-killing implementation is mediocre
- Battery life is not very good
The REDMAGIC 10S Pro Wuthering Waves Limited Edition comes with luxurious accessories and a system theme with an elaborate design, and its gaming performance is quite high, thanks to the high-clock 8 Elite and the built-in cooling fan.
It has a great look and performance, and the under-display camera allows you to enjoy games comfortably on a flat, full screen without a punch-hole.
The feature for suppressing battery consumption of background apps is mediocre, and the display panel itself also consumes a lot of power, so the battery life is not very good. I hope that at least the background operation will be optimized in a future update.
The biggest drawback of the Wuthering Waves Limited Edition is… it can only be bought in China, and only a few thousand units were made.
The REDMAGIC 10S Pro Wuthering Waves Limited Edition was sold for 5999 yuan.
The standard edition can be purchased from the official website.