nubia RedMagic 10 Air review

Design, build quality, handling

The RedMagic 10 Air is a very slick and, as its name suggests, slim device. It measures 164.3 x 76.7 x 7.85mm and weighs 205 grams, which is both 10% slimmer and lighter than the RedMagic 10 Pro.

Unlike its Pro and Pro+ siblings, which don't have camera humps or islands, the Air's cameras do protrude ever so slightly. Besides that, their vertical arrangement reminds of the rest of the lineup. However, the RedMagic 10 Air is free of any aggressive geometric patterns or excessive writing. The only things on its elegant, frosted, slightly satin-like back are a logo and "REDMAGIC" written out. It's definitely a lot more understated and "classier" than its siblings.

However, that is only true if you go for either the Shadow Black or the Frost Blade White color options. The Flame Orange variant is very "in your face" with its bright orange finish and lots of additional shapes and logos on the back.

There is nothing standard about the button layout on the RedMagic 10 Air. Well, apart perhaps from the general location of the volume rocker and power button on the phone's right-hand side. And even these have been lowered slightly to accommodate the two capacitive triggers, also on the right-hand side of the frame. The latter are excellent and perhaps second only to Asus' take on the idea in the ROG Phone lineup.

RedMagic 10 Air

The left side of the frame houses the so-called Magic key. It is mappable to many actions, including app launching, which makes it very powerful.

The bottom of the phone is quite busy with the dual Nano-SIM card tray, main microphone, Type-C port and the main speaker. There is no secondary speaker on the top of the frame. Instead, the phone uses an amplified front-firing earpiece for the second channel. Even it is hard to spot since it is well concealed above the display.

Speaking of concealing things, you will find nothing but an uninterrupted large 6.8-inch display on the front of the phone. Flat, for the most part, except for the very edges of the glass, which are slightly rounded. It is worth noting that you can see the selfie camera through the display in a dark room. It is not overly distracting, but it is there if you look for it.

The RedMagic 10 Air uses an under-display selfie camera solution, and all of its sensors are tucked away underneath the front panel. The same goes for the fingerprint reader, which is of the optical variety and is both snappy and accurate.

One more thing: RedMagic even found room for an IR blaster on the top frame of the phone, which is a neat little addition.

Circling to the back for a quick second, you might wonder why there are three round bits when the Air only has two rear cameras. The topmost element is a small, customizable RGB ring that doubles as the camera flash.

The RedMagic 10 Air both looks and feels very premium. It has an aviation aluminum middle frame and glass on both sides. RedMagic does not mention exactly what kind of glass it is or what level of protection it offers, but we do know that there is anti-glare etching on the front and a special matte-gloss tech for the back.

Unfortunately, despite the lack of an integrated active cooling fan, the RedMagic 10 Air only has an IP54 ingress protection rating.