Liquid-Cooled RedMagic 11 Pro Smartphone was Built to Last Through the Grind, This Durability Test Proves It

Zack Nelson’s latest durability test goes inside the RedMagic 11 Pro, a gaming phone with water running through its veins. You know the one—it’s the first to put true liquid cooling on a slab of glass and metal no thicker than your daily driver. Nelson doesn’t just open it for show; he puts it through its paces first, scratching, bending and even setting parts on fire to see if the hype holds up in real world scenarios.

Start with the screen, that massive 6.85-inch AMOLED on the front. Nelson drags his picks across it, starting lightly and increasing the pressure. The pre-applied protection takes the first hits at level two on the Mohs scale, leaving faint marks that get deeper at level three. Peel it away and the real Gorilla Glass beneath is strong until level six when scratches appear and level seven when they get deeper. No breaking or spiderwebs—just surface scratches. Then comes the flame: 20 seconds of direct heat and a small white scar appears, but the screen is back to 144Hz and colors bursting over a billion shades in no time.

When you flip to the back of the phone, the real fun is only just beginning. The flat sheet of glass that’s visible – the blue coolant inside is clear enough to see – has six scratches and seven grooves – the standard for exposed glass on a phone that’s been designed for holding in your hand, not just as the casing for the display. You won’t find any camera bumps breaking up the smooth surface; the three rear cameras lie flat against the back, with the main 50-megapixel one – it has stabilisation – flanked by a wide angle sister and a macro sensor that puts its 2-megapixel weight to shame. Nelson goes round taking a chunk out of the visible cooling loop right on the surface, fully expecting it to melt or splutter. Instead, the liquid inside starts to churn, sucking the heat away so quickly that the flame just fizzles out harmlessly. That loop is the phone’s lifesaver, circulating server-grade fluorinated fluid round its edges, completely unphased by the fire burning away at it. Adhesive keeps this back panel stuck in place, but a bit of heat and patience will loosen it up for a closer look, and you’ll see how the whole thing is sealed against spills with red gaskets that flex but never give out.



The edges are framed in aluminum, which gives the whole thing a robust but scuff-prone metallic look to it. A box cutter leaves streaks down the sides – but the frame just laughs it off, no dents or warping at all. Those shoulder triggers, which give off a nice 520Hz whine when you’re aiming quickly, are flush with the body and as stiff as anything – with red buttons for grip when your hands are sweating all over the place. The bottom is bookended by vents – one draws in air for the internal fan, while the other is blowing out heat. The ports are all sealed up tight – there’s a headphone port on top, a USB-C one below which handles 80w, and a rubber ring that’s up to dealing with water immersion.


Bend tests are all well and good, but they don’t actually bend this thing. Nelson’s machine applies pressure from both the front and back, and it snaps all sorts of smaller constructions like twigs. What about the RedMagic 11 Pro? It flexes just enough to absorb the strain before springing back flat; there are no creaks or cracks to report.


The internals are guarded by twenty T4 screws, which require a careful screwdriver dance to release, but once inside, the layout exposes a clever stack: a 7500mAh battery with easy-pull tabs, a motherboard packed with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and that fan whirling up to 24000 RPM like a little jet engine. The entire cooling array comes apart as one piece, with the pump, tubes, vapor chamber, and wireless coil fused together, revealing squishy lines of coolant that barely loop at the tips to kiss a metal duct above the chip. Dust may enter the exhaust over time, mesh or not, but the IPX8 classification ensures that submersion will not drown the works; water just passes through the fan and into its own duct.