I’ve been offered an opportunity to review a gaming phone, specifically the Redmagic 9S Pro, so I thought I could put it side by side with my current gaming phone and give you an insight into the fact that a gaming phone doesn’t have to break your budget to deliver. Below you can find out why this phone has impressed me so much, so if you came for a complete Redmagic 9S Pro review, here you have it!
I thought I should go with a title that sounds like it’s been ripped right out of a movie – but with a twist. That’s exactly how my view of this device is, because while it is great, it has some features that leave room for improvement. I’m going to go through every single one of them so you can make an educated choice.
Oh, and for the sake of argument, I have compared this phone with my ROG Phone 6D Ultimate – similar to the ROG Phone 6 Diablo Immortal Edition – which we’ve already talked about.
The good
Top-tier hardware
Hardware-wise, this phone is a beast. Just by taking a look at its specs, you can tell. All that is amazing when it comes to performance but, as a gamer, I’m looking for something a little extra – something that can further enhance my gaming experience.
I believe that’s where the “Red Switch” comes into play. It’s something I haven’t seen integrated this way into a gaming phone, and it intrigued me the most.
The red switch is on the side of the phone right under the power button – it’s hard to miss, really. When you switch it on, you get access to the GameSpace, which is the phone’s gaming interface. There, you have various options to play around with.
First and foremost, there’s Gravity X, which is something like a platform that allows you to connect anything (a keyboard, a TV, a mouse, or a controller) to the Redmagic 9S Pro and fully customise the gaming experience. I used my GameSir G8+ Bluetooth controller with it, and they were a match made in heaven.
AI for gamers – is it cheating?
Something else I noticed – which made me raise some questions – is that there’s a customizable AI companion called Mora. She’s pretty cool, and she brings a library of plugins and little widgets and options to help in-game.
That made me wonder, “Can I program her to do something in the game?” Yep, I could. And I have to admit – I couldn’t bring myself to have Mora play games for me, but I am pretty sure it is doable.
But then again, we live in a world where AI governs a lot, so having one in my pocket felt pretty powerful, especially one designed for games. Is that cheating?
Good display, good sound
As you might expect, the display is perfect, and the sound is too. I had no issue running anything on max graphics, and with the sound on, it really felt like I was immersed in the games.
Cooling system without a need for other tech
In the beginning, I mentioned I had my own ROG Phone that I used for comparison – well, the Redmagic beat it by a mile when it came to the cooling system. Unlike the ROG Phone, the Redmagic 9S Pro doesn’t need any other piece of tech to turn on the cooling system.
You can simply turn it on in the Settings and carry on with your games. It works wonders – trust me. I never once ran into a game overheating the device, and I tried a lot of them just to see if I could get it to overheat.
The bad
We’ve talked about a lot of pros that come with this phone, but there is one bad that I simply cannot understand – that is the front camera.
And boy, oh boy, do things get ugly here. If you don’t mind going on a video call and having people think you’re calling from 2003, you can give it a pass – but if you want to take a selfie in anything better than a 2MP camera, you will have to do it on another device.
This phone’s front camera, although it is beautifully integrated, is not good – it looks like it’s been taken straight out of the year 2000, and the movement is choppy at best. While it doesn’t have a camera bump or a notch, and it’s incorporated perfectly within the display, it sadly doesn’t work as well as I expected it to do.
We live in an era where video calls are something we do daily, and with the 9S Pro’s outstanding features, having a front camera that makes you look almost pixelated makes absolutely no sense. At least the back camera is great.
… And the pretty!
If the front camera was bad, the same can’t be said for the back camera. It takes wonderfully detailed pictures, and it is so much better than I expected from a gaming phone. To put it into perspective, having a good camera is not something a lot of gaming phones pride themselves on.
The Redmagic 9S Pro can do that because this camera has a myriad of settings that can turn any picture into a professional photograph.
Sleek design, flashy lights!
I left the best for last. The phone’s design is simply sleek at first, but once you start using it, you’ll discover that it has a lot of fun little features that definitely make it look the part. It is a gaming phone through and through.
While it doesn’t have any flashy display on the back as the ROG Phone does, the Redmagic 9S Pro has a simple design that is enhanced by trigger buttons that are lit, as well as the logo and cooling fan. It has a beautiful aesthetic, and if you like a more minimalist approach to your phone, this makes for a great choice.
You can purchase the Redmagic 9S Pro from the official website at €649.00 for the 12GB+256GB version, or €799.00 for the 16GB+512GB version.