nubia RedMagic 10 Air review
Redmagic OS 10 with Android 15
The RedMagic 10 Air runs on the latest customized RedMagic OS 10, based on Android 15.
Update 24 April: RedMagic reached out to us to clarify that the RedMagic 10 Air will receive three years of software updates, not just one as we originally thought. However, there is no clear commitment on whether that means three major OS updates or just three years of security updates. We'll update this page once we know more.
As far as changes go, the new software looks and feels exactly like the old one we used on the Red Magic 9S Pro. So go and check out the Software section of that review to get a grasp of it.
RedMagic OS 10
There are a couple of new software features to talk about, though, and they are naturally AI-powered.
RedMagic OS 10
For instance, the new Redmagic OS 10 takes advantage of all the features under the Gemini AI umbrella. That includes AI Photo Search, various tools for image editing, real-time translation, etc.
Gamespace
The Gamespace is an in-game overlay and a set of tools designed to enhance the gaming experience. It has been a staple of Red Magic gaming phones since their inception. It hasn't changed much over the past couple of generations, but this one adds a few extra features. But first, let's go through the most notable functionalities.
Gamespace and in-game overlay
The Game space's in-game overlay has experienced a significant redesign with Redmagic OS 6. It now consists of two large, symmetrical menus on each side of the display. Most of the functions are readily accessible with a single tap, which is greatly appreciated. You can monitor your CPU and GPU frequency and, crucially, in-game fps using an overlay. There are some quick access shortcuts for supported messenger apps as well for more convenient window-based chatting while in the game.
The more powerful settings are in their own sub-menu within the overlay. You can adjust CPU and GPU performance profiles, screen sensitivity, and sampling rate, and you can enable a particular visual profile for the display to make certain game elements more easily visible.
Plugins are a relatively new addition to the Red Magic Game Space. Unfortunately, like many other UI parts, these suffer from poor and incomplete translations, and it isn't easy to discern what each one does.
Plugins
X Gravity is the system nubia uses to map external devices like a controller or keyboard and mouse to on-screen controls. This is something that the Red Magic 10 Pro lets you easily do out of the box, which is a bit controversial for competitive play since it offers a major advantage. But you can also turn the phone into a controller when playing games on an external screen.
Auxiliary line is a way to define on-screen circles that appear around your character and signify things like the area of effect of certain skills or attacks - particularly useful for MOBA games. Stopwatches give the player an array of on-screen stopwatches to quickly time things like a skill or spell cooldown on enemies.
The Crosshair feature is particularly useful for shooters. Not only does it draw a crosshair overlay on the screen, but it can also zoom into a particular area of the image.
AI Trigger offers some competitive advantage as the system waits for a certain event to happen, say an empty magazine, and it will automatically tap on the reload button.
Of course, there are the shoulder triggers - one of the best gaming features of the RedMagic 10 Air by far. They provide a really nice experience for racing and first-person shooter games. Or you can map a certain action or tap with a tilt gesture, for example. So, instead of reloading with a tap, you can just til the phone and reload your weapon. It's quite convenient and can be found under the weirdly-translated "Somatosensory manipulation" sub-menu.
Shoulder triggers
The new Gamespace now adds a handful of filter overlays. Each one offers unique color corrections, and some of them may even provide a competitive advantage in some games. The Scout mode, for example, zooms in in the middle of the screen to help with the visibility of enemies in the distance.
Color filters
Circling back to X Gravity and the ability to map in-game, on-screen controls to physical accessories like a joystick or keyboard and mouse, it should be considered how major of a feature this is on the RedMagic 10 Air. The phone itself offers several convenient ways to connect to peripherals. Unfortunately, unlike its Pro and Pro+ siblings, the Air does not support video output via USB Alt mode.
RedMagic Studio on PC
Still, there is the Redmagic studio - a Windows app that lets you screencast over Wi-Fi or a USB cable connected directly to the PC. It works at a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The whole pairing process with the desktop app is seamless and extremely easy. You can set up different mapping profiles for all the games you play, and the keyboard/mouse input is pretty solid.
RedMagic studio settings
The streaming feature works in all phone menus and apps, not just games, so it may be useful for more than just gaming. The gestures and keyboard typing feel native. You can even use the phone itself as a trackpad for touch input or alternatively opt to have it entirely autonomously functional so you can cast one app to a TV or monitor while using your phone for something entirely different. The whole system is extremely flexible and works surprisingly well. Props to nubia.
Benchmarks and performance
As already mentioned, the RedMagic 10 Air underwent somewhat of a chipset downgrade compared to its Pro and Pro+ siblings. Instead of running on the latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Elite, the Air runs on last year's flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It is still an excellent chipset with plenty of performance to throw around, so we are honestly not too disappointed by the downgrade.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has an octa-core CPU configuration consisting of one prime Cortex-X4 core, clocked at up to 3.3 GHz, five Cortex-A720 cores, working at up to 3.2 GHz and two Cortex-A520 cores, clocked at up to 2.3 GHz. The onboard GPU is an Adreno 750.
The RedMagic 10 Air can be purchased in either a 12GB/256GB configuration or a 16GB/512GB one. Our review unit is of the latter variety. It uses fast LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage.
Beyond the main chipset, there are two custom chips or co-processors to help with performance. They are called Energy Cube and RedCore R3. The latter, in particular, handles frame pacing and can also do interpolation to increase frame rates. It also handles audio enhancement, reduces power draw in gaming-specific tasks, and works with the ICE-X Cooling system to keep temperatures down.
GeekBench 6
- Multi-core
- Single-core
ROG Phone 9/9 Pro
Poco F7 Ultra
vivo X200 Pro
Red Magic Nova
Red Magic 9 Pro
RedMagic 10 Air
Red Magic 9S Pro
AnTuTu 10
ROG Phone 9/9 Pro
Red Magic Nova
Red Magic 9 Pro
Red Magic 9S Pro
Poco F7 Pro
RedMagic 10 Air
Galaxy S24 Ultra
3DMark
- Wild Life Extreme (2160p)
- Solar Bay (1440p)
Honor Magic7 Pro
Red Magic 9 Pro
Galaxy S24 Ultra
Poco F7 Pro
Sony Xperia 1 VI
RedMagic 10 Air
ROG Phone 8 Pro
Looking at some actual benchmark results, the RedMagic 10 Air performs as expected for its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. That is to say, pretty much on par with the Red Magic 9 Pro and 9S Pro. No surprises there. As we said already, you are not looking at top-tier 2025 performance, but there is still plenty on the table for some high-end gaming.
Thermal-throttling
Sustained performance and thermal-throttling are just as important, if not more, in a gaming phone. Ironically, despite its name, the RedMagic 10 Air lacks the company's signature internal active cooling fan solution. What it does have, however, is a large 6,100 mm2 vapor chamber and liquid metal. The entire cooling setup is called ICE-X, which is a familiar moniker.
Thermal-throttling
The RedMagic 10 Air does admittedly get quite toasty on the outside with prolonged stress loads, but it also manages to sustain a decent level of performance in the process, which is kind of the best we can hope for in a gaming device. Heat is well-managed. It is worth mentioning that our benchmarks and the thermal-throttling tests were conducted using the phone's top performance mode, rather confusingly called "Rise".
Reader comments
- Lister
- 8 hours ago
- n1s
I like how they pushed this out before Samsung and Apple. Who started this trend?
- xPandamon
- 11 hours ago
- JHj
If the camera wasn't an oversaturated mess, it could have been a decent buy. But those photos just look completely off.