nubia RedMagic 10 Air review

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Introduction

2025 might just be the year of the "thin" or at least thinner smartphone. Samsung already teased the Galaxy S25 Edge, and many rumors point to the iPhone 17 Air becoming a thing as well. In keeping with this trend, RedMagic has unveiled the RedMagic 10 Air. As the name suggests, its primary objective is to be thinner and lighter than its siblings. In this case, it is 10% thinner and lighter than the RedMagic 10 Pro.

As you can imagine, this newfound thin profile comes at some expense. Overall, the Air is meant to sit a step below the other two phones in the current RedMagic lineup, as evidenced by last year's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. It still offers ample performance but is not on the same level as the Snapdragon 8 Elite, powering the 10 Pro and 10 Pro+.

ZTE nubia RedMagic 10 Air 5G specs at a glance:

• Body: 164.3x76.6x7.9mm, 205g; Glass front, aluminum frame, glass back; Pressure sensitive zones (520Hz touch-sensing), Aviation aluminum middle frame, IP54 dust protected and water resistant (water splashes).
• Display: 6.80" AMOLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, 1600 nits (peak), 1116x2480px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 400ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8650-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4 nm): Octa-core (1x3.3 GHz Cortex-X4 & 3x3.2 GHz Cortex-A720 & 2x3.0 GHz Cortex-A720 & 2x2.3 GHz Cortex-A520); Adreno 750.
• Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM; UFS 4.0.
• OS/Software: Android 15, Redmagic OS 10, 3 years of software updates.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.9, 1/1.5", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 50 MP, f/2.2, 1/2.88", 0.61µm, AF.
• Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.0, (wide), 1/2.77", 1.12µm, under display.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps; Front camera: 1080p@30/60fps.
• Battery: 6000mAh; 80W wired, 100% in 52 min.
• Connectivity: 5G; Wi-Fi 7; BT 5.4; NFC; Infrared port.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); stereo speakers.

Also gone is the active cooling fan. Presumably, since RedMagic has implemented such an impressive passive cooling solution, it is no longer needed. We'll definitely put that claim to the test.

Also gone is the massive 7,050 mAh battery of the Pro and Pro+ models. It has been replaced with a 6,000 mAh pack that only supports 80W charging as opposed to 100W.

Aside from these changes, RedMagic has not sacrificed the gaming pedigree of the Air in any meaningful way. It is still a very premium and magnificently crafted aluminum and glass device that has a bit of tasteful RGB lights and, more importantly, two touch triggers on the frame which can be used as extra gaming inputs.

RedMagic has made such good use of the now smaller internal space that they've even included an extra button on the Air - the Magic key, which can be freely mapped to any number of actions. But we'll get to that in a bit.

Unboxing

The RedMagic 10 Air comes in a thick, heavy-duty, two-piece cardboard box. There is some plastic on the inside used for the phone cradle.

The accessory package is surprisingly rich in modern terms. You get a nice thick red USB Type-C to Type-C cable in the box, along with an 80W PD fast charger. Also in the box is a nice hard plastic, transparent snap-on case for the phone. Ours also came with a few stickers, but apparently, those aren't part of the retail package.