The biggest compromise on the 11S Pro, as on many gaming phones, is the camera. On the back is a 50-megapixel main camera as well as a 50-megapixel ultra-wide. There is also a minor auxiliary objective that doesn’t add much in practice. There is no telephoto lens at all.
In good lighting, the main camera is solid. Details are sharp, fine textures hold up well, and RedMagic leans toward a punchy, saturated look that most people will appreciate right out of the camera. Where it falls a bit short is dynamic range, which is only okay: it doesn’t remove highlights or retain shadow detail like the best phones in this price range do.
Low light is where the main camera struggles. Images become noisy and soft, fine details disappear, and bright areas tend to fade. It’s usable for a quick shot, but it’s not something I’d want to rely on after dark.
The ultra-wide is the weaker of the two rear cameras. It’s fine in good lighting, but edge sharpness drops off noticeably, dynamic range is lower than the main sensor, and low-light photos fall apart pretty quickly. The color setting also doesn’t quite match the main camera, so switching between the two isn’t perfectly seamless.
Since there’s no dedicated zoom lens, every bit of scope here is a digital crop from the main sensor. It holds reasonably well up to around 5x or 6x, which covers most everyday situations. However, push it to the maximum 10x and the image turns into a bit of a mess.
The 16-megapixel under-display selfie camera is the price you pay for that clean, uninterrupted screen. Under-display cameras haven’t gone very far yet, and this one produces soft, slightly washed-out still images. It’s fine for video calls and not much beyond that.
Add it all up and the camera system is the clearest sign that this is a gaming phone first and foremost. It’s the same setup as the RedMagic 11 Pro, and if photography matters to you, this is the area where the gap between a gaming phone and a standard flagship is most apparent.
