X
CNET logo Why You Can Trust CNET

Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. How we test phones

RedMagic's Thinner Gaming Phone Gets a 7,000-mAh Battery and a Cooling Fan

The RedMagic 11 Air might prove that a phone doesn't have to be bigger to get these larger batteries.

Headshot of Mike Sorrentino
Headshot of Mike Sorrentino
Mike Sorrentino Senior Editor
Mike Sorrentino is a Senior Editor for Mobile, covering phones, texting apps and smartwatches -- obsessing about how we can make the most of them. Mike also keeps an eye out on the movie and toy industry, and outside of work enjoys biking and pizza making.
Expertise Phones |Texting apps | iOS | Android | Smartwatches | Fitness trackers | Mobile accessories | Gaming phones | Budget phones | Toys | Star Wars | Marvel | Power Rangers | DC | Mobile accessibility | iMessage | WhatsApp | Signal | RCS
Mike Sorrentino
2 min read
Back of the RedMagic 11 Air

The RedMagic 11 Air gets a cooling fan and a big 7,000-mAh battery in its slimmer design.

RedMagic

The RedMagic 11 Air may have figured out how to fit one of the biggest phone batteries available into a slimmer design. Unveiled Thursday, the new gaming phone has a 7,000-mAh silicon carbon battery and a cooling fan, along with many of the same features as last year's RedMagic 10S Pro.

The new phone has the same depth as the prior RedMagic 10 Air at 7.85mm (0.3 inches), and is a smidge heavier at 207 grams (7.3 ounces) versus the prior phone's 205 grams. This is a comparable weight and depth to phones like Apple's iPhone 16 Pro, but the specs list of the 11 Air largely mirrors the heavier RedMagic 10S Pro that I tested last year. That phone was 229 grams, and included a slightly bigger 7,050-mAh battery.

Like the 10S Pro, the 11 Air includes the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and starts at $529 for a model that includes 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Upgrading to 16GB and 512GB of storage brings the cost to $629. 

The phone's large battery can recharge at 80-watt speeds -- which is incredibly fast for this price range -- and the camera system includes a 50-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 16-megapixel front-facing camera.

RedMagic's phones prioritize gaming over all else, and includes a larger 6.85-inch OLED display that runs at a 144Hz refresh rate. It will also include the RedMagic 11 software system, which I wasn't a fan of when I tested the RedMagic 11 Pro. This software overlay includes specialized console-style menus for gaming -- which I like -- but it also makes questionable choices like a default web browser that includes advertising.

The RedMagic 11 Air will come in Phantom black and Prism white colors, and early bird vouchers for the phone will become available on Feb. 5 ahead of its Feb. 11 open sale date.