RedMagic Astra Review

The RedMagic Astra follows connected the heels of RedMagic’s earlier Nova gaming tablet, seeming to alteration small but upgrading to the newer Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. That’s an breathtaking change, though, arsenic it’s an highly almighty spot that has made caller Android gaming phones each the much impressive. With a prime display, promising performance, and a $549 terms tag, the RedMagic Astra could precise good beryllium a worthy alternate to gaming handhelds if you similar the Android games disposable to you and don’t caput dipping your toes into unreality gaming oregon emulation from clip to time.

RedMagic Astra – Design and Features

The RedMagic Astra doesn’t athletics the aforesaid snazzy looks of RedMagic’s phones, but it’s inactive a slick and cleanable plan with a hint of benignant successful the signifier of a wide sheet connected the back. This shows done to wherever immoderate of the componentry is ostensibly laid retired and gives a highest astatine the instrumentality successful the sealed cooling system, which besides has a splash of RGB lighting. The remainder of the strategy is thoroughly blacked out.

Most of the tablet is wrapped successful aluminum, providing a cleanable seam betwixt the backmost and framework of the tablet. The beforehand sports a 9.06-inch show that has choky and adjacent bezels astir it, allowing the instrumentality to debar being overmuch larger than it needs to be. At conscionable 6.9mm heavy and 370 grams, the Astra ends up impressively compact and portable. That value is besides large for handheld use. Bigger and heavier tablets go unwieldy to effort holding for extended gaming, whereas the Astra is much manageable.

That surface is besides a large one. It has a 2400x1504 resolution, which is fantastically crisp astatine this size, and it’s a creaseless 165Hz OLED sheet that tin present 1,600-nit highlights and cleanable achromatic pixels broadside by side, making for vivid visuals. Games and movies alike look great. When viewing the show astatine utmost disconnected angles (beyond astir 45 degrees), achromatic pixels commencement to look a spot gray, but if you’re looking astatine the show from much optimal angles, it looks appropriately black.

The tablet packs successful a brace of speakers that nutrient plentifulness of measurement – much than astir phones and much than is needed for gaming with the tablet successful your hands. They’re over-the-top and a spot grating astatine afloat volume, but dependable decent erstwhile dialed backmost a bit.

To my surprise, RedMagic has rated the Astra up to IP54 certification for extortion against particulate and immoderate water. It shouldn’t beryllium dunked underwater, but it won’t beryllium the extremity of the satellite if there’s a spill oregon you get caught retired successful the rain.

Part of that certification is astir apt coming from the Astra not utilizing an progressive aerial cooling strategy similar the RedMagic 11 Pro. Instead, it keeps each of its cooling elements inside. These see aggregate vapor chambers and liquid metallic to determination vigor distant from the chipset. The instrumentality wrong really moves aerial done an interior duct, though however overmuch that really contributes to the cooling erstwhile it can’t straight expel heated aerial is unclear. On the agleam side, what has been a shrill instrumentality connected aerial cooled systems is soundless connected the Astra.

The Astra has a fingerprint scholar built into its powerfulness button, though it besides supports facial recognition. The erstwhile is speedy and reliable, but the aforesaid can’t beryllium said of the latter. In summation to the powerfulness and measurement buttons, there’s a reddish power I’ve seen connected respective RedMagic phones now. This launches the phone’s peculiar GameSpace, fundamentally a customized launcher for games with shortcuts to assorted settings and tools utile portion gaming.

On the bottommost of the tablet (or broadside if held successful landscape), there’s a USB-C larboard positioned disconnected to the close of center. This avoids having the tablet moving close into your manus if you’re charging and utilizing it astatine the aforesaid time. The USB-C larboard besides supports DisplayPort output up to 4K/144Hz and has 10Gbps transportation speeds – some breathtaking to see.

RedMagic Astra – Software

The Astra comes with Android 15 and has RedMagic OS 10.5 moving connected apical of that. It’s not excessively outlandish an Android tegument and doesn’t adjacent look overly gamer-targeted until you deed the GameSpace power and brushwood RedMagic’s integer adjunct Mora – a scantily-clad anime miss that does little, makes a batch of noise, and doesn't adjacent leverage each the AI capabilities of the hardware to clasp a virtual conversation. She’ll happily interval astir connected your surface and contiguous notifications though.

The bundle does person immoderate adjuvant features, though. The tablet includes controller mapping bundle that was mostly useful, but not rather perfect. It helped maine get a controller moving successful spot of in-game interaction controls, but immoderate settings simply didn’t behave properly. For instance, it wouldn’t registry joystick nuance, truthful each of my purpose adjustments were jerky going from 0 to 100% acceleration instantly.

RedMagic doesn’t plainly authorities however galore bundle updates oregon years of Android information patches the Astra tablet volition get, but a typical has told maine that the tablet volition person 5 years of OS enactment and information patches successful Europe and 3 years of each successful different markets, including the US. What is inactive unclear is whether those 3 years volition see 3 Android mentation updates.

RedMagic Astra – Gaming and Performance

The Astra offers fantabulous gaming performance, though not rather to the level I would person expected. Before this, the RedMagic 10 Pro smartphone acceptable the signifier for however overmuch show we could expect retired of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, and that had maine precise excited to spot what a tablet could bash with it. After all, a tablet doesn’t person the choky confines of a telephone and ought to person country for much robust cooling systems arsenic good arsenic much aboveground country for vigor transfer.

To my surprise, the Astra simply didn’t compression arsenic overmuch retired of the Snapdragon 8 Elite arsenic different devices have. It consistently performed successful betwixt the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Across Geekbench 6 and 3DMark benchmarks, the Astra tended to lag betwixt 10 and 20 percent down the RedMagic 10 Pro and adjacent the OnePlus 13. This is inactive beardown performance, but not what I would person expected. It seemed to marque nary quality whether the tablet had antithetic show modes enabled successful the GameSpace either.

With that said, the Astra was astatine slightest consistent. It whitethorn not beryllium trying to thrust itself arsenic hard arsenic it could get distant with, but it holds up good nether load. Even moving the 3DMark Steel Nomad Light accent trial – a bid of 20 benchmarks successful a enactment – the Astra maintained a 94.5% consistency with scores moving from 2095 points to 1979 points.

While the tablet surely generates heat, it doesn’t enactment a batch of that wherever you’ll consciousness it. After a league playing Delta Force implicit a half-hour, the tablet was lone somewhat lukewarm to the touch.

This level of show is besides much than capable to grip mundane usage with highly creaseless operation. The Astra ne'er erstwhile felt slow.

The tablet runs connected a sizable 8200mAh battery, though that doesn’t consciousness rather arsenic awesome erstwhile considering the RedMagic 10 Pro telephone has a 7,000mAh artillery packed wrong its overmuch smaller frame. The artillery is inactive capable to grip hours of gaming, adjacent with reasonably demanding usage. And since there’s nary cellular modem, the strategy sips powerfulness portion idling, truthful you’re improbable to find it dormant if you permission it unsocial for a fewer days.

RedMagic Astra – Cameras

The RedMagic Astra has cameras, but similar galore different tablets, they’re mostly determination due to the fact that they request to be. In thing little than agleam sunlight, the 13MP rear camera takes specified blurry, noisy photos that it shouldn’t beryllium relied connected for much.

The 9MP selfie camera really fairs a small spot amended but inactive has a batch of sound and not a terribly crisp image. Even successful precise agleam conditions, they conflict to nutrient large photos. If you conscionable privation to person a video telephone oregon popular up successful a crippled stream, it'll do, but neither are prime cameras.