Another smartphone from ZTE's gaming sub-brand is now available globally. The Nubia Red Magic 11 Air boasts powerful specifications, a large battery, an interesting design, and an attractive price.
Somewhat contrary to its name, the smartphone is neither small nor exceptionally thin (7.85 mm thick), but it certainly makes up for this in terms of looks, features, and price – but more on that later. The Nubia Red Magic 11 Air features a rectangular 6.85-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1216 x 2688 pixels, a 144 Hz refresh rate, and 2592 Hz PWM dimming, surrounded by a symmetrical, very narrow (1.25 mm) bezel. It's covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 7i. Beneath the screen is not only a fast fingerprint reader but also an under-screen selfie camera with a 16-megapixel sensor. Although the photos taken with it look slightly worse than those taken with a regular camera, the undeniable advantage is that the inactive camera is completely invisible and the screen is unmarred by any hole.
photo: Red Magic
The casing is held together by a metal frame, and the back is protected by Gorilla Glass 5. The entire device is IP54-rated, although the smartphone is equipped with a cooling system with a high-speed fan – a first for the Air model. At the heart of the smartphone is the not-so-new, but still powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, supported by fast LPDDR5X Ultra (9600 MB/s) and UFS 4.1 (4200 MB/s read) memory, a RedCore R4 gaming coprocessor, and controlled by the Android 16 operating system with RedMagic OS 11. Power is provided by a 7000 mAh battery with 120-watt charging – but unfortunately, there's no induction. There's no eSIM either, but as a consolation, there's Google Play and NFC. The smartphone also features a 50-megapixel main camera with a 23mm equivalent focal length, f/1.89 aperture, and 1/1.55 sensor format, equipped with optical image stabilization and supported by a simple 8-megapixel wide-angle camera.
photo: Adam Łukowski/GSMchoice.com
Unfortunately, unlike the more expensive Nubia Red Magic 11 Pro, which we recently tested, the cameras here protrude slightly beyond the body's outline – but the included case mitigates this issue. The Red Magic 11 Air boasts essential gaming features, such as RGB lighting and side-mounted touch triggers with a 520 Hz sampling rate. It also features an infrared transmitter, stereo speakers, and an additional programmable button that automatically launches the game menu. The smartphone is available in two colors, measures 163.82 x 76.54 x 7.85 mm, and weighs 207 g. There are two memory options to choose from: 12+256 GB and 16+512 GB, priced at €499 or €599 in Europe. For a smartphone with this level of performance and features, the prices are attractive, to say the least...
Nubia Red Magic 11 Air go to specification →
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6.85" OLED
1216 x 2688 px
Aspect ratio: 19.9:9 -
163.82 x 76.54 x 7.85 mm
207.00 g
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50 Mpx
Front: 16 Mpx
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Li-Po 7000 mAh
Quick battery charging
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12 GB, 16 GB
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256 GB, 512 GB
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Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite SM8750-AB
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1Q 2026
