RedMagic 9 Pro gaming smartphone review – notchless screen and active cooling system

Throughout the long history of phones, we have seen many attempts by manufacturers to create niche categories, such as a camera phone or a music player phone, but most of them have simply become part of our everyday smartphones. However, gaming models, which seem to have been left in history, still managed to find their audience and continue to develop actively. Moreover, they have features that are usually unavailable in regular smartphones. One of the latest such models, RedMagic 9 Pro, even offers an active cooling system. I will tell you how much it helps in games and whether it is convenient to use such a smartphone in this review.

RedMagic 9 Pro specifications

The editorial team thanks the online store Allo.ua for providing the smartphone RedMagic 9 Pro for review

Package contents

The smartphone comes with a fairly good set of accessories, including a 65W power supply, a USB-C charging cable, and a plastic case.

Design, materials and usability

It’s hard for smartphones today to surprise users with their design, so manufacturers are trying to focus more on the details, which is very noticeable in RedMagic 9 Pro. Therefore, in general, we have a familiar design with Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and back panels, an almost flat aluminum frame, and at first glance, nothing unusual. But the design of the smartphone is revealed in the details.

Firstly, the 6.8-inch display of the model does not have a selfie camera notch, it is located under the screen itself and is really almost invisible. Secondly, at first it seems that there are three large camera modules on the back of the RedMagic 9 Pro, and there really are three of them – but the usual place of the third one is actually occupied by a fan window, which is also backlit.

Thirdly, on the same back cover you can find an LED backlight in the form of the inscription 09, which hints at the model number. And, fourthly, the cameras do not protrude from the body at all, which is a rarity nowadays.

I think the general design logic of the RedMagic 9 Pro is generally clear: the manufacturer used, on the one hand, the currently popular body shape, but supplemented it with a number of small but interesting details. And in the case of the lack of a camera notch, even important ones.

All the buttons on the smartphone are located on the right side of the case, from top to bottom are the volume, power, and red slider buttons. You might think that it is responsible for switching to silent mode, and that would be logical.

But it’s worth remembering that this is a gaming smartphone, so the slider activates the game mode. In fact, it’s a separate interface that shows all the games installed on RedMagic 9 Pro, while freeing up RAM and turning off notifications. To be honest, it would be better if the slider switched to silent mode, or at least it could be customized.

Another notable design element of the RedMagic 9 Pro is the ICE 13.0 cooling system holes located on the right and left sides of the case. Due to this feature, the smartphone is not waterproof.

However, fine dust shouldn’t be a problem, as the cooling chamber through which air flows is isolated from other components of the case. At the same time, the cooler has a self-cleaning function, and if you don’t deliberately put sand in it, it should work reliably. I’ll talk about the efficiency of the ICE 13.0 system later.

Returning to the design, it is also worth noting that on the right side of the RedMagic 9 Pro case there are touch triggers that are backlit and have a vibration response. The volume and power buttons are generally quite comfortable, but the latter is round and not very large, so you will need to get used to it.

An optical fingerprint scanner is used to unlock the smartphone. It works quickly and is well positioned so that it is easy to hit with the thumb of the right or left hand.

On the top and bottom of RedMagic 9 Pro, you can see quite large slots, and these are not cooling systems, but speakers. They are really loud and create a tangible stereo effect. They will be more than enough for games and videos.

Speaking of audio, there’s also a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the top of the smartphone. A nice bonus for users who have wired headphones.

In addition, there is an infrared sensor next to the 3.5 mm jack that can be used to control compatible devices. Interestingly, the smartphone interface has a remote control that can connect to TVs via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, but the IR port itself requires a third-party application.

Measuring 164×76.4×8.9 mm and weighing 229 grams, RedMagic 9 Pro is a rather large smartphone, but given its 6.8-inch screen and 6500 mAh battery, its body is hardly bulky and fits quite comfortably in the hand.

Display

The smartphone has a 6.8-inch OLED display (BOE Q9+) with a resolution of 2480×1116 pixels, an aspect ratio of 20:9, a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, and a peak brightness of 1600 nits. In the screen settings, you can change the color gamut and temperature by selecting bright or muted colors, as well as their warm or cold rendering. In general, there are a lot of options for the display, and users can configure it for both the wider DCI-P3 color gamut and the standard sRGB.

The 1600-nit peak brightness automatically kicks in in bright sunlight, so the screen remains visible and readable.

You can change the display refresh rate in RedMagic 9 Pro to 60, 90, 120 Hz, or choose to automatically change depending on the content.

In general, the smartphone has a high-quality screen, which also has no notches. The front-facing camera is hidden between the pixels of the display matrix, which are densely enough to hide it completely. Therefore, the presence of a selfie camera is generally noticeable only in bright sunlight, because the pixels do not glow as brightly as on the entire display.

Platform and cooling system

The RedMagic 9 Pro uses the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor with Adreno 750 graphics, 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of fast UFS 4.0 internal memory, but without the possibility of expansion. The configuration is generally at the level of this year’s top smartphones, complemented by modern wireless modules Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, as well as support for GPS (L1+L5), BDS and GALILEO navigation systems.

The performance of the smartphone is expected to be at a very high level, it runs all available Android applications and games without any problems.

The active ICE 13.0 cooling system, consisting of an evaporation chamber and a fan capable of spinning up to 20,000 rpm, gives RedMagic 9 Pro a certain advantage over other Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 smartphones. This primarily translates into better results in synthetic tests, with the device scoring more points in Geekbench 6 and PCMark.

The same can be said about the graphics test, the smartphone shows very good results in 3DMark.

In fact, the additional cooling allows RedMagic 9 Pro to hold a high load for longer without dropping the CPU and graphics frequencies. But in this regard, the situation is quite funny, because synthetic tests create an unrealistic load, while RedMagic 9 Pro tries to get the most out of its platform and does not drop frequencies. That is, the fuse that is supposed to limit the system-on-chip when its temperature rises does not work. The good news here is that in real use you really get more power, the bad news (for some) is that the device shows very cool results in stress tests, but cannot complete them because it overheats. This is a mishap.

I didn’t just mention real-world use, because in my opinion, this is where the RedMagic 9 Pro platform reveals itself to the best of its ability, and you can play quite demanding games like Rome for several hours: Total War or World of Tanks: Blitz without any performance degradation and with relatively little body heat. In this regard, the active cooling system really pays off.

It’s worth noting that the fan is almost silent, and you can only hear it in a very quiet room or if you hold your smartphone close to your ears. The fan automatically turns on when you start the game and during fast charging, but you can turn it off completely if you need to.

Overall, the RedMagic 9 Pro offers a flagship platform that, thanks to its active cooling system, delivers slightly faster speeds than similar models with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and less body heat under prolonged load.

Interface and game mode

The smartphone runs on the Android 14 operating system with its own RedMagic OS 9 interface, which has very wide customization options.

For example, if a smartphone comes with a gaming theme out of the box, it’s very easy to switch it to standard Android, making the system design almost the same as on Pixel smartphones.

In RedMagic OS 9, you can additionally change the animation speed and shape of icons, choosing the most comfortable option for yourself.

There are also additional options, such as the ability to enable pop-up panels with quick settings, control of smartphone gestures and movements, duplication of applications, and others.

In general, it will not be a problem to master the RedMagic OS 9 interface if you have at least once dealt with the latest versions of Android. However, there are also some nuances here. For example, for some reason, the manufacturer decided that the option of contrasting text by default is convenient. Although it is primarily intended for people with poor eyesight, and if the user does not have such a problem, this setting will simply make the font less readable.

In addition, there is a mysterious “Mind Synchronization” item with an AI icon in the settings, which you might think is where the artificial intelligence settings are hidden.

But nothing of the sort, this item hides 5G (not really relevant to us), an additional pop-up panel with quick access to apps, and for some reason instructions on how to use multitasking gestures. A strange set of features for such a menu item.

However, in general, RedMagic OS 9 is a fast and user-friendly interface that has all the strengths of Android 14, plus extensive customization options.

We should talk separately about the game mode and the settings in general, which allow you to make the game more comfortable. As I mentioned above, there is a slider on the right side of the smartphone that switches it to game mode. This is a separate interface that allows you to browse installed games faster and has a number of additional settings and plugins that should make the gameplay more convenient.

In the game mode, you can set up triggers, and a fairly simple interface allows you to assign them to any virtual keys. It is quite convenient and helps a lot in such dynamic games as shooters.

In any game, you can swipe from the upper left part of the screen to open a special menu that contains quick settings, macros, and additional modules that can help you during the game.

For example, if you are playing a card game and don’t know which card to draw, there is a module that can do it for you. There are also modules that help you aim in shooters, invert screen colors to better see opponents on dark maps, and so on. It’s a kind of a set of slightly cheat add-ons that can make the game really effective.

However, it is worth noting that not all users need such additional gaming features, many of them require detailed customization, and this is clearly not something that casual gamers will do.

Cameras

I already mentioned above that the design of RedMagic 9 Pro can be a bit confusing in terms of the number of cameras, so in this section we will finally analyze this issue. The smartphone has two main sensors:

• 50-megapixel wide-angle Samsung GN5 ISOCELL with 1/1.57″ sensor, f/1.9 aperture and optical stabilization;
• 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle Samsung JN1 ISOCELL with 1/2.76″ sensor, f/2.2 aperture and electronic stabilization.

Additionally, there is a 2-megapixel macro camera with f/2.4 aperture, but this option is quite an amateur, so even in the smartphone interface, switching to this module is hidden among the additional camera modes.

As you might expect from a gaming smartphone, photography is not the RedMagic 9 Pro’s strong suit. The main 50-megapixel wide-angle camera takes generally good pictures during the day, but they lack a wider dynamic range.

Due to the camera’s high resolution, the main module can take photos with a zoom of 2 to 10x, but this is just a crop, so the quality of the images will deteriorate with each zoom step.

When shooting at night, the detail of the photo decreases and more noise appears, but in general, the night mode and optical stabilization allow the camera to receive more light. However, post-processing algorithms are sometimes too aggressive and make colors too unnatural, so the photo looks like a generated one.

The ultra-wide-angle camera is quite different from the main camera in terms of color reproduction, here they are more muted, but it copes with its task in good light, allowing you to capture more of the scene.

Unfortunately, when shooting at night, an ultra-wide-angle camera has a harder time getting enough light onto the sensor due to its relatively small aperture and lack of optical stabilization. As a result, the quality of the images can vary greatly depending on how well the subject is lit.

The front camera in RedMagic 9 Pro is a 16-megapixel module with f/2.2 aperture, hidden behind the display pixels, so it is almost invisible when using the screen, but it is difficult for such a camera to receive light. Therefore, the quality of selfies depends on the lighting.

But it’s worth noting that, compared to the first such cameras, the module in RedMagic 9 Pro is already a good step forward, and it can be called quite usable.

Battery life

The smartphone is equipped with a 6500 mAh battery, which is very good, given the model’s not very large size and thickness. At the same time, RedMagic 9 Pro demonstrates a high level of autonomy: in the PCMark test under load and with the screen active in standard performance mode, the device discharged from 100% to 19% in 13.5 hours.

Thus, in normal use, you can expect several days of operation on a single charge. In games, everything will depend on how much each particular game loads the system. But in general, the RedMagic 9 Pro battery should last for many hours of gaming sessions.

The smartphone is charged only by wired method via USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, but it supports fast charging up to 80 W according to the Power Delivery 3.0 standard. The device charges from 0% to 50% in just 15 minutes, and a full charge takes only 40 minutes.