Red Magic 11 Pro Review: Liquid Cooling Inside a Smartphone?
The Red Magic 11 Pro Makes You Choose
Imagine a phone that gives you almost everything you could ask for, but forces you to sacrifice a few things that actually matter. Would you do it?
This is the Red Magic 11 Pro. And honestly, what is this phone?
What Makes This Phone Different
This thing has actual liquid cooling inside a smartphone. Not just a vapor chamber or heat spreader. There is real coolant moving through the phone, paired with an internal fan that ramps up when things get hot.
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From a repair perspective, that alone makes this phone fascinating. Moving parts inside a smartphone are rare for a reason, but Red Magic leaned fully into it.
On top of that, you get a transparent back, visible internals, RGB lighting, shoulder touch buttons for gaming, and somehow they still kept the headphone jack. This phone is not trying to blend in.
Performance and Daily Use
Performance is exactly what you’d expect from a phone built like this. It’s fast, stable, and designed to run hard for long gaming sessions without thermal throttling.
The fan does spin up under load, and yes, you can hear it. That’s not something you normally say about a smartphone, but if you’re buying a phone like this, you probably already know that and everything here clearly exists to serve gaming first, not everyday convenience.
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Display | 6.85-inch AMOLED, 2688×1216, 144Hz refresh rate |
| Processor | Snapdragon 8 Elite with RedCore R4 gaming chip |
| RAM and Storage | Up to 24GB RAM and 1TB UFS 4.1 storage |
| Cooling System | Active liquid cooling with internal fan and vapor chamber |
| Battery | 7,500mAh with 80W fast charging |
| Water Resistance | IPX8 (no official dust rating) |
| Cameras | Dual 50MP rear cameras, under-display selfie camera |
| Extra Features | Shoulder gaming triggers, headphone jack, RGB lighting |
Durability and the IP Rating Problem
Here’s where things get interesting.
You’d assume a phone with vents and a spinning fan would have no water resistance at all. Surprisingly, it’s rated IPX8, meaning it can survive being submerged in water.
But the problem is the X.
There’s no official dust resistance rating. From a repair standpoint, that’s not ideal. Fans pull air in, and air brings dust with it. Over time, that can mean buildup, noise, or wear on internal components.
It doesn’t mean the phone will fail, but it does mean long term durability is a real question mark.
The Cameras Are Not the Focus
The cameras are fine. They work. They get the job done.
But they’re clearly not why this phone exists. Image quality is decent, but it doesn’t compete with flagship camera phones. If photography matters to you, this isn’t the phone you should be buying.
Red Magic put its money into cooling, performance, and gaming hardware, and the cameras feel like an afterthought.
Final Thoughts
The Red Magic 11 Pro knows exactly what it wants to be.
You get insane performance, real active cooling, gaming controls, and features other phones abandoned years ago. In return, you give up dust resistance, camera quality, and some long term durability confidence.
For the right person, that trade-off is absolutely worth it. For everyone else, it might feel like too much compromise.
See you in the next article!
