Nubia Red Magic 11 Air - photos, specifications, and price. Is it worth buying?

Red Magic 11 Air – not exactly slim, but powerful. A treat for gamers!

The impressive gaming smartphone Nubia Red Magic 11 Air debuts in China. It's also coming to Europe!

Nubia Red Magic 11 Air is "Air" primarily in name. It measures 163.82 x 76.54 x 7.85 mm and weighs 207 g. So, it's not thick, but it does have some dimensions and weight, and unfortunately, it has slightly protruding cameras, unlike the Nubia Red Magic 11 Pro, which we recently tested. However, it retains iconic Red Magic elements, such as RGB backlighting, an extensive cooling system with a fan, side touch triggers with a 520 Hz sampling rate, and an additional, programmable button that launches the game menu by default. Like the main Red Magic models, this one also has a 16-megapixel under-screen selfie camera and a large, frameless display – the bezel measures 1.25 mm. The Red Magic 11 Air features a 6.85-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1216 x 2688 pixels, a 144 Hz refresh rate, and 2592 Hz PWM dimming, covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 7i. The frame is metal, the back is protected by Gorilla Glass 5, and the entire device is IP54-rated.

Red Magic 11 Air
photo: Red Magic

The smartphone is based on last year's Qualcomm flagship, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, supported by LPDDR5X Ultra (9600 MB/s) and UFS 4.1 (4200 MB/s read) memory. The operating system is Android 16 with RedMagic OS 11, and it's powered by a 7000 mAh battery with 120-watt charging, though this may be limited in the global version. In addition to the aforementioned under-screen selfie camera, the smartphone features a 50-megapixel main camera with a 23mm equivalent focal length, f/1.89 aperture, and 1/1.55 sensor format, enhanced with optical image stabilization, and supported by an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera. Two body colors are available, as are two memory variants – 12+256GB and 16+512GB. In China, they are priced at 3,500 and 4,200 yuan, or $505 and $605, respectively. The global launch of this model is scheduled for January 29, but prices should remain very attractive considering its specifications.