When "Air-Water Dual Cooling" Meets "ARRI Cinema Camera": In-Depth Cross-Comparison of RedMagic 11S Pro+ and Honor Magic 9 Pro Max

On the 2026 flagship phone landscape, the RedMagic 11S Pro+ and the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max represent two completely different paths to the "ultimate". The former is the last purist on the gaming phone track, using air-water dual cooling and binned chips to push sustained performance to the physical limit; the latter is the culmination of all-round flagships, using a 2nm chip, ARRI cinema-grade imaging and an 8800mAh battery, attempting to prove that "one phone can do everything the best".

The price difference between these two phones is about 300 yuan (the RedMagic 11S Pro+ 12+256GB is priced at 6199 yuan, and the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max starts at 6499 yuan). But for the same money, what you buy are two completely different product philosophies.

I. Chip Strategy: Binning vs Process Generation Gap
The two carry Snapdragon chips of different generations, which is the most easily overlooked but far-reaching divide.

The RedMagic 11S Pro+ uses the 5th-Gen Snapdragon 8 Elite Leading Edition, with the main frequency raised to 4.74GHz. The "leading" of this chip is not simple overclocking, but constitution grading: only chips that can work stably at 4.74GHz and pass the adaptive voltage regulation test can be installed in the RedMagic 11S Pro+. In other words, the chip of every RedMagic 11S Pro+ has already been verified as "no throttling at high temperature" before leaving the factory.

The Honor Magic 9 Pro Max is the first to carry the 6th-Gen Snapdragon 8 Super Elite Edition, TSMC 2nm GAA process, with the CPU using a 2 big + 6 small Oryon architecture, and two super cores rushing to 5.0GHz. The energy efficiency advantage brought by the process generation gap is structural: under the same performance power consumption is reduced by 25-30%, and energy efficiency is improved by 37%. More critical is the innovation of the packaging solution — the Offset PoP high thermal conductivity solution places the SoC and the memory staggered, with the SoC core directly contacting the cooling system, reducing the path resistance of heat conduction from the physical level.

Conclusion from the testing perspective: RedMagic's "Leading Edition" squeezes the constitution limit within the same generation of process, while Honor enjoys the generational process dividend. The former still has an advantage in single-core high-frequency gaming scenarios (such as the main thread load of "Honor of Kings"), and the latter has a thicker "foundation" in multi-core energy efficiency and sustained load scenarios.

II. Cooling Architecture: Active Dual Cooling vs Passive Heat Spreading
This is the most essential hardware divide between the two products, and it also directly determines their "sustained output capability".

The air-water dual cooling system of the RedMagic 11S Pro+ is the only composite active cooling solution on sale in the current phone industry. The water cooling part is driven by a piezoelectric ceramic micropump circulating fluorinated liquid, the coolant working temperature range reaches -60℃ to 108℃, and the curved liquid flow channel improves circulation efficiency by 10% over the previous generation. The air cooling part is a 24000r/min centrifugal fan with 43 ultra-thin forward-curved arc blades. The whole system also includes a 4D Ice Step VC and Liquid Metal 3.0, with the VC and the SoC directly connected by liquid metal, maximizing thermal conductivity efficiency.

The measured data can illustrate the problem: in the high-load scenario of "Honkai: Star Rail" Golden Hour, the RedMagic 11S Pro+ reaches an average frame rate of 60.96 frames, and the 1% Low frame is as high as 60.88 frames — almost level with the average frame, meaning the frame rate curve is a straight line, with zero fluctuation. As a reference, in this scenario the 1% Low frame of most flagship phones will drop to the 45-50 frame range.

The cooling solution of the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max is the Honor Butterfly Wing VC 2.0 + Hanyu Board-Level Cooling System 2.0, with the VC chamber weight-reduced, paired with high-spec thermal gel. This is the ceiling configuration of passive cooling, but physically it lacks an active forced convection link. In the 30-minute Sumeru City map-running in "Genshin Impact", it achieved an average of 60 FPS, a 1% Low frame of 59.2 FPS, and a maximum body temperature of only 37.3℃. This result is top-level among passive cooling models, but facing RedMagic's active dual cooling, a theoretical gap still exists in high-load sustained scenarios.

SEO keyword differences: RedMagic's search anchors are "air-water dual cooling", "active cooling", "straight-line frame rate"; Honor's anchors are "VC 2.0", "Hanyu board", "37.3℃ low temperature".

III. Fork in Product Logic: PC Emulator vs ARRI Cinema Camera
The experience increments of the two beyond "gaming" point in completely different directions.

The RedMagic 11S Pro+ has a built-in self-developed X86 translation engine and PC emulator, supporting direct Steam connection, PC account game interoperability, real-time save interoperability, and can be externally connected to gamepads, keyboard and mouse, and monitors. This is a 0-to-1 experience increment: for players with a Steam library, the phone becomes a handheld PC game terminal. On the screen level, RedMagic insists on the under-display camera true full screen, the 6.85-inch Wukong Screen 2.0, with a screen-to-body ratio of 95.3%, no punch hole, no notch. When playing games in horizontal full screen, the visual integrity of having no punch hole substantially improves immersion.

The core increment of the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max is entirely on the imaging side. It is deeply co-tuned with ARRI, the main camera and the telephoto are both 200 megapixels, the main camera 1/1.28 inch, the telephoto 1/1.4 inch, and both lenses support CIPA 8.0-level stabilization — this is the highest specification of current phone stabilization. More critical is the implementation of the ARRI LogC3 pipeline and the ARRI Look system: users can directly select restoration styles such as "ARRI-ALEXA" or "ARRI-Video" while shooting, without needing to understand the concepts of Log and LUT, and pressing the shutter gives ARRI color. For Vlog creators, this means the color grading link in post-production is moved forward to the shooting scene.

On the screen side, Honor uses a 6.8-inch LTPO flat screen, 4320Hz high-frequency PWM dimming, peak brightness 10000nit (global 2000nit), and 0.98mm extremely narrow black borders. This is a screen designed for framing and monitoring, not for gaming immersion.

IV. Costs and Trade-offs
The cost of the RedMagic 11S Pro+ is clear: 230g weight, 8.9mm thickness, and an imaging system that stays at the "usable" level (50MP main camera + 50MP ultra-wide + 2MP macro). The right-angle frame's grip feel is more suitable for "holding up" than "grasping", and the shoulder key position is low and needs getting used to. Its target users are very clear: heavy mobile gamers, Steam library owners, frame-rate-sensitive users.

The cost of the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max is equally clear: its 233g weight is slightly higher than RedMagic, but its product positioning is "all-round flagship", needing to balance between imaging, screen, battery life, and performance. Its gaming performance is "top-level but not extreme", and its cooling is "strongest passive but not active". For hardcore players pursuing extreme frame rate flatness and a PC emulator, it lacks RedMagic's physical-add-on-level cooling architecture.

Conclusion: The Selection Logic of Two "Ultimates"
The RedMagic 11S Pro+ is a product of vertical limits: using binned chips, using air-water dual cooling to squeeze sustained performance, using the PC emulator to expand scenario boundaries. Its value does not lie in the numbers on the benchmark leaderboard, but in the frame rate curve of "Genshin Impact" after 60 minutes, and the experience increment of the phone running Steam games.

The Honor Magic 9 Pro Max is a product of system efficiency: using the energy efficiency dividend of the 2nm chip, the ceiling configuration of passive cooling, and ARRI's imaging pipeline, integrating "gaming" and "creation" into the same device. Its value lies in one phone simultaneously satisfying heavy gaming and cinema-grade video shooting, without needing to sacrifice imaging or thinness for cooling.

The purchase logic therefore becomes simple: if your daily gaming time exceeds 2 hours, you play sustained high-load games such as "Honkai: Star Rail" and "Delta Force", or you want to use the phone to run PC games, the air-water dual cooling and PC emulator of the RedMagic 11S Pro+ are something Honor cannot replace. If you are a user with dual needs of "gaming + creation", needing one phone to handle both "Genshin Impact" and 4K Log video shooting, the ARRI imaging system and 2nm chip energy efficiency of the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max are the more complete choice.

As for the performance gap — RedMagic's 1% Low frame advantage is truly perceptible in gaming scenarios, and Honor's 2nm energy efficiency advantage is truly perceptible in battery life scenarios. Both have achieved the ultimate in their own dimensions, only the definition of "ultimate" is different