{"id":159999,"date":"2026-05-27T13:20:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/05\/27\/i-tested-this-liquid-cooled-phone-in-a-uk-heatwave-it-made-me-sweat\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T13:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:23:07","slug":"i-tested-this-liquid-cooled-phone-in-a-uk-heatwave-it-made-me-sweat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/05\/27\/i-tested-this-liquid-cooled-phone-in-a-uk-heatwave-it-made-me-sweat\/","title":{"rendered":"I tested this liquid-cooled phone in a UK heatwave, it made me sweat"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Robert Triggs\/Android Authority<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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If you want the gaming focus of an Android handheld without giving up the full smartphone experience, the niche market for gaming phones may be a good fit for you. The latest entry in this field is the REDMAGIC 11S Pro, which features a new AquaCore cooling system with a 24,000-rpm turbo fan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The brand claims that it is the first to bring fluorinated liquid cooling to a mass-produced smartphone. It’s undoubtedly attractive to see little bubbles blowing on the back of the handset, but is it just a gimmick, or does it offer real benefits for demanding gamers?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That’s what I’m here to find out today, with the added twist of an unseasonal heat wave in the UK. If a gaming phone can prove its worth in 33\u00b0C (91\u00b0F) temperatures, it can do it anywhere.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

redmagic 11s pro benchmark<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Robert Triggs\/Android Authority<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Before the heatwave hit, I ran my regular benchmark suite, and the results are equal parts encouraging and worrying for Regmagic’s latest gaming handset.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The good news starts with Geekbench 6, where the phone outshines its competitors, even outpacing the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s overclocked Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 by 3% in both single- and multi-core tests. This makes it the fastest Snapdragon-equipped phone we’ve tested so far.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"redmagic<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Snapdragon chip also maintains a significant lead over rival silicon. This is 17% better in single-core and 21% better in multi-core than the Dimensity 9500 of Oppo Find X9 Pro. The Pixel 10 Pro XL’s Tensor G5 processor and its older CPU cores lag even further behind; The 11S Pro has a 65% single-core advantage and almost doubles its multi-core performance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But gaming is what you’ll want a REDMAGIC handset for, so I turned to 3DMark’s suite of stress tests to find out how the handset performs under sustained graphically intensive workloads.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Starting with Wildlife Extreme, a high-end traditional rasterization workload, the phone is clearly a top performer. It goes a little further at once, but also maintains performance far better than the competition. It retained 77% of its highest score by the end of the test, compared to rival models which fell between 60% and 49% of their best under stress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, there is one major caveat here. The REDMAGIC 11S Pro is capable of maintaining impressive peak performance even at the cost of extreme temperatures. A maximum temperature of 59\u00b0C and an average of 49\u00b0C made the phone so hot that it became difficult to hold even several minutes after the test ended, let alone during the test.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The next hottest rival I tested is the OnePlus 15, which peaked at 46\u00b0C in the same test, but most handsets aim to stay below 45\u00b0C, with average temperatures below 40\u00b0C. Redmagic is much hotter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Even with vapor and fan-assisted cooling, 60\u00b0C is too hot for any gaming phone.<\/q><\/p>\n

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The same trend is seen in the Solar Bay ray-tracing stress test results. Again, temperatures reached 59 \u00b0C, with an average of 50 \u00b0C, compared to nearest rivals, which peaked at a still warm but more manageable 44 \u00b0C.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"RedMagic<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Real Gaming in Heatwave<\/h2>\n

Stress testing is one thing; Actual games are less demanding, with lighter graphical workloads and more balanced requirements between CPU and GPU. Most flagship phones in my testing can maintain 60 fps or higher well, even in long gaming sessions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, the UK heatwave provides me with a unique opportunity to test the latest silicone at sub-optimal temperatures. I booted up COD Mobile Battle Royale, Asphalt Legends and played Mario Kart Wii for 20 minutes through the Dolphin emulator to see how the RedMagic 11S Pro handled the heat. I maxed out all possible graphics settings to target the highest possible refresh rate and left REDMAGIC’s software to manage temperatures and performance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With the graphics cranked up and targeting 120Hz on a large, open map, Call of Duty Mobile’s battle royale remains one of the better real-world stress tests for modern mobile graphics. After 20 minutes of gaming, the phone reached 43 degrees Celsius, which is well below the worst-case stress test benchmarks, but still uncomfortable to hold. The handset was undeniably hot by the end of the play session, but it managed to maintain 120fps the entire time, with almost no junk or frame hitches. Not bad, given the muggy background temperature of 33\u00b0C at the start.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Actual game temperatures are much more normal, but even a fan cannot cope with the hot weather.<\/q><\/p>\n

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I only gave the phone 10 minutes to cool down between gaming sessions, but even then, Asphalt came back with a starting temperature of an already high 39 degrees Celsius. Even with fans and a cooling loop, the high background temperature prevents heat from dissipating from the device quickly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Robert Triggs\/Android Authority<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Unfortunately, not giving the phone much time to breathe led to some performance issues, with the handset struggling to hit close to 60fps, let alone 120fps, instead averaging just 45fps and a minimum closer to 30fps. Not good. By the end of the test, the phone had only reached 41\u00b0C, so not as hot as last time, but clearly hot enough to degrade performance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The same problem did not emerge in a final 20-minute session of playing Mario Kart Wii via the Dolphin emulator. Despite a starting temperature of 37\u00b0C and a final temperature of 41\u00b0C, the handset was able to maintain a steady 60 FPS in the game. There were odd slowdowns in menus in particular, but I haven’t (yet) seen a phone play this game without any errors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n