Redmagic upgrades its liquid-cooled gaming phone with extra RGBs
The circular liquid-cooling system now features its own RGB lights. | Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge After introducing true liquid cooling to its gaming phones last year, Redmagic is upping the ante in its 12 Pro by building RGB lights into the transparent cooling loop, too. And they work! Sort of. The lights do turn on, and they can be set to glow in set patterns, activate for specific apps, or trigger for…
Key points
- Redmagic's 12 Pro adds RGB lights to its transparent liquid-cooling loop, but the blue coolant dulls the effect.
- The phone starts at $949, a $200 increase over the 11 Pro, with preorders from November 12th.
- The 12 Pro drops the 3.5mm headphone jack and has only IPX8 protection around its fan section.
Redmagic has added RGB lighting to the transparent liquid-cooling loop on its new 12 Pro gaming phone, following the true liquid cooling introduced on last year's models. The lights turn on and can glow in set patterns, activate for specific apps, or trigger for notifications and calls, but the cooling system's fluorescent blue liquid works against them: blue or white lighting looks more blue, green turns turquoise, and red or orange mostly produce colored bubbles in a blue tide.
The phone also has a small light ring below the main camera, a side light inside the chassis, and thin strips on the touch-sensitive shoulder buttons. Two strips of visible liquid cooling in the top-right corner have no RGB lights, so they stay blue regardless.
Cooling and core specs
The liquid cooling's output pressure is 130kPa, 85 percent higher than the previous generation, and it is joined by a built-in fan and a vapor chamber intended to manage the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. The phone comes with 12GB or 16GB of RAM and 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage, plus an 8,400mAh battery with 80W charging.
Most of the phone carries an IP69 rating for water and dust resistance, but the section around the fan is only IPX8 with no rated dust protection. The 3.5mm headphone jack has been removed. The rear cameras are a pair of 50-megapixel main and ultrawide units, flush with the body under the same glass panel as the rest of the back.
My skin is not normally this smooth, and this is after turning off every beauty filter I could find.
— The Verge
Display, price and availability
The 185Hz refresh rate display reaches its maximum speed only during certain compatible games, according to the article. Redmagic says it is the first 185Hz display with an under-display selfie camera; the 16-megapixel camera is hard to see, but photo quality is limited and aggressive AI beautification appears impossible to turn off.
The 12 Pro starts at $949, $200 more than the 11 Pro and $100 more than May's 11S Pro, rising to $1,199 for the top specification. Every version includes liquid cooling and RGB lights. Preorders begin November 12th, with shipping from the 18th.
