The Red Magic 9S Pro claims to hold the AnTuTu score record – gamers do love their benchmarks. But do they love the 9S Pro? How about you? There is also the Red Magic 9S Pro+ with a different battery/charger setup and different memory configuration.
The Red Magic 9S Pro is going global on July 16, you can have a look at the official site. We only have the prices for China now, but for comparison, the Red Magic 9 Pro that it replaces starts at a very reasonable €650 for a 12/256GB model.
Overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 • Unblemished 6.8” 120Hz 10-bit display
The 9 and 9S aren’t that different. The S-phones use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version, which has a 3.4GHz prime CPU core and a 1GHz GPU. Impressive numbers, but they are a small overclock over the 8 Gen 3 chip used in the 9-series.
However, the Red Magics have active cooling, which with the help of the redesigned ICE 13.5 system, promises to keep the chipset 19.5°C cooler (1.5°C better than the 9-series cooling system).
Impressive battery system • active cooling with a 22,000 RPM fan
Below are the Chinese prices for the Red Magic 9S Pro and 9S Pro+. We should mention the battery too. Like their predecessors, the Pro has a larger 6,500mAh battery that is nevertheless quick to charge at 80W – 100% in 35 minutes. The Pro+ goes even faster – 100% in 16 minutes – but sacrifices capacity (5,500mAh) for increased charge rate (165W).
| 12GB/256GB | 12GB/512GB | 16GB/512GB | 24GB/1TB | ||
| Red Magic 9S Pro | Dark/White Knight | CNY 3,800 | CNY 5,200 | – | – |
| Transparent | CNY 5,000 | CNY 5,400 | – | – | |
| Red Magic 9S Pro+ | Dark/White Knight | – | – | CNY 5,800 | – |
| Transparent | – | – | CNY 6,000 | – | |
| Special edition | – | – | – | CNY 7,000 |
The Red Magic 9S Pro and Pro+ are gaming phones and their designs leave no room for questions. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be used as regular phones and they have some characteristics that you may find appealing. The price, for starters, is quite competitive for a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 device.
Also, the 6.8” OLED display is a flat rectangle – no rounded corners, no punch holes (the 16MP camera is under the display). There is a 50MP main + 50MP ultra wide camera setup on the back, which sits flush, no camera bumps here. The 6,500mAh battery in a phone that is 8.9mm thick and weighs 229g deserves a mention too.
There is no water resistance due to the fan cooler, but wouldn’t you prefer to have the performance you paid for instead of a thermal-throttled version of it – when is the last time you spilled water on your phone, anyway?
Red Magic 9S Pro
There is one final question before we get to the polls. The Red Magic 10 is almost certainly only a few months away and it will bring an actively-cooled Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 (most likely). Wouldn’t you rather wait for that?
So, would you buy the Red Magic 9S Pro and, if yes, how will you use it – for gaming or as a jack of all trades? Again, the 9S Pro is going global two weeks from now.
What about the Red Magic 9S Pro+ – if it was available near you, would you get this version instead for its faster charging and/or more memory?