The RedMagic Astra 2 is the world's first liquid-cooled tablet — and the fastest Android tablet I've ever tested

TechRadar Verdict The RedMagic Astra 2 is just about the fastest Android tablet in the game, with unmatched sustained performance and a similarly fluid OLED display. It’s not the classiest customer on the market, and it’s a shame to see it receive such a hefty price bump over its predecessor. For dedicated gamers looking for a tablet, however, it’s a uniquely equipped proposition. Pros +Class-topping performance +Solid build quality +Fluid OLED display Cons -Considerably more expensive than before -Clumsy UI -Still lacking a kickstand Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you're buying the best. Find out more about how we test. Jump To: Price & availability Specs Design Display Performance & camera Software Battery Should you buy? Also consider How I tested RedMagic Astra 2: Two-minute reviewHaving conquered the gaming phone space by outlasting the competition, RedMagic has decided to take its RGB-lit fight to the tablet market.The RedMagic Astra 2 is the company’s third globally available gaming tablet, and the second in a row to adopt a more compact iPad Mini-like form factor.Like its immediate predecessor (and indeed its phones), the RedMagic Astra 2 offers flagship performance at a mid-market price. Thanks to the combination of a top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor and a new liquid cooling system — the first of its kind in a tablet — it offers range-topping sustained performance.Latest Videos FromTechRadarThe Astra 2’s 9.06-inch OLED display doesn’t offer the most expansive gaming canvas, but it still covers an awful lot of bases. It’s sufficiently portable, nice and punchy, plenty sharp enough, and it gets to a scorching 185Hz in the few games that support it. (Image credit: Future)Other gamer-friendly improvements include a slightly lighter body and a fractionally larger battery, together with zippy 75W wired charging. The provision of a second USB-C port is another benefit for those looking to indulge in extended gaming sessions.RedMagic’s software offering is as unlovable as ever, though its Game Space UI offers a unique window onto the mobile gaming world. It’s ideal for those who like to tweak and optimize their games to the nth degree.The main trouble here is a decidedly 2026 one. The Astra 2’s price has increased dramatically, so much so that it's now within range of Apple’s mighty iPad Air (2026) and several classy Android tablets.Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inboxSign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.For all-round gaming chops, however, there’s no other tablet that can quite match it.RedMagic Astra 2 review: price and availabilityGlobal availability from August 2026From £599 / $749Much more expensive than beforeThe RedMagic Astra 2 goes on sale in late August, with availability confirmed for the US, UK, Australia, and much of Europe, among other territories.You can pre-order it now from the official RedMagic website.While it isn’t among the more expensive tablets on the market, the RedMagic Astra 2 has received a rather alarming price increase. Doubtless prompted by the current AI-driven RAM shortage, the new tablet starts from £599 / $749 for a model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage.That’s a price bump of £160 / $200, or around 36%, over last year’s RedMagic Astra, which is a little hard to stomach given that the Astra 2 only really offers the expected level of annual spec upgrades. You can also opt to double your storage and increase the RAM to 16GB at a cost of £679 / $849.Still, while price hikes are never welcome, they are understandable at this point in 2026. Besides, the RedMagic Astra 2 remains a unique value proposition. You won’t find another tablet with this level of performance combined with a super-fluid OLED display for this sort of money.Value score: 4 / 5RedMagic Astra 2 review: specs Swipe to scroll horizontally RedMagic Astra 2 specs Header Cell - Column 0 Header Cell - Column 1 Dimensions: 207.1 x 134.2 x 6.9mm Weight: 363g Display: 9.06-inch 2.4K (2,400 x 1,504) up to 185Hz OLED Chipset: Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 RAM: 12GB / 16GB Storage: 256GB / 512GB OS: Android 16 with RedMagic OS 11.5 Primary camera: 13MP Front Camera: 9MP Battery: 8,300mAh Charging: 75W wired Colors: Eclipse, Starfrost RedMagic Astra 2 review: design (Image credit: Future)Solid metal construction with IP54Visible liquid cooling system207.1 x 134.2 x 6.9mmWeighs 363gRedMagic has been far more reserved with its tablet design than it has with its gaudy gaming smartphones.This is a neat, relatively trim mini-tablet with a solid aluminium body in Eclipse (black) or Starfrost (white). It measures just 6.9mm thick, and weighs a reasonable 363g — so it's a tad lighter than its predecessor. It still feels substantial, but proves quite manageable.The brand’s gaming aesthetic can be glimpsed through the strip of glass on the rear of the tablet. It’s here that you’ll find a faux transparent section purporting to show some of the tablet’s innards, together with Snapdragon chip branding and an exhortation to “Win More Games”. Thanks — I'm trying.Out, on this occasion, goes the visible cooling fan of the RedMagic Astra. In its place is a visible manifestation of the brand’s new liquid cooling system. Like the RedMagic 11S Pro, this presents as a bunch of white globules snaking along a path that’s illuminated (in a color of your choosing) by RGB lighting.While the effect isn’t quite as effective here as it is in the company’s latest flagship phone, it remains pretty cool (no pun intended) without looking too tacky. (Image credit: Future)Another new inclusion this year is a second USB-C port on the longer edge of the tablet. This makes for a much more comfortable experience when playing while charging, as dedicated gamers are wont to do.I continue to find it a bit of an odd omission that there’s no Nintendo Switch 2-style kickstand here — especially as the lack of capacitive air triggers (as found on RedMagic’s phones) indicates that this device is intended to be used with a Bluetooth controller.The drop in size from the original RedMagic Nova tablet has seen that device’s quad speakers jettisoned in favor of a dual set, though the output is perfectly loud and clear, and there’s DTS:X Ultra support. I have an issue with the placement of these speakers, however, as they’re too easy to block when playing landscape gaming content — which is surely the whole point of the exercise.I’m not hugely fond of the tablet’s haptic motor either, which feels flabby and rattly rather than the tight, controlled pulses of more expensive devices.Design score: 3.5 / 5RedMagic Astra 2 review: display (Image credit: Future)9.06-inch OLED with 2.4K resolutionSpeedy 185Hz refresh rate1,600-nit peak brightnessThe RedMagic Astra 2 uses the same 9.06-inch display size as its predecessor, which makes it more of a mini-tablet than the 10.9-inch RedMagic Nova Tablet.Forget about the size difference, though, because this is a much better screen than the Nova’s. It’s an OLED display, which brings the benefits of proper HDR implementation, vibrant colors, and perfect black reproduction.There’s a sharp 2,400 x 1,504 (2.4K) resolution, and RedMagic has bumped the maximum refresh rate even higher from 165Hz to 185Hz. True, this is something of a gimmick given that the vast majority of games won’t make the most of it, but if ever there’s an excuse to ramp things up, it’s with a gaming tablet.Thankfully, if there is a game that runs at such elevated frame rates, the RedMagic Astra 2 is potent enough to capitalize. More on that in a moment. (Image credit: Future)Brightness levels are good, with a maximum full-screen brightness of 1,100 nits in high brightness mode and 1,800 nits of peak brightness in HDR situations.Hardcore competitive gamers might grumble about the 16:10 aspect ratio that RedMagic has selected, as it’s arguably not optimal for landscape action games.Those with more rounded tastes will appreciate that it still looks good with traditional landscape games — especially those of a more tactical nature — and also works nicely when scrolling through web content in portrait view; Android tablets with wider screens don't give you the same versatility.Interestingly, the Astra 2's display is coated in Gorilla Glass 3, which is a pretty old material at this point, having launched all the way back in 2013.Display score: 4 / 5RedMagic Astra 2 review: Performance & camera (Image credit: Future)Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset12GB or 16GB RAM256GB or 512GB storage13MP rear camera and 9MP front-facingRedMagic has equipped its new gaming tablet with exactly the same Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 chip as its latest gaming phone, the RedMagic 11S Pro.This remains the fastest chip on the market for any Android device. Combined with either 12 or 16GB of RAM (there’s no 24GB option this year), it makes for extremely strong performance.This is aided by an all-new cooling system, which is the first of its kind in a widely available tablet. As we’ve already discussed in the Design section, RedMagic has replaced its usual physical cooling fan with a liquid system.Much like the previous fan-driven approach, this liquid system serves to enable the RedMagic Astra 2 to run demanding games smoothly for longer. When normal tablets run hot — as they invariably do after a short while playing games — they throttle back, reducing clock speeds and thus diminishing performance. That effect is mitigated here.Running 3DMark’s demanding Solar Bar Extreme Stress Test, which conducts 20 consecutive minute-long GPU workouts, the Astra 2 scored an impressive 99%. This means that the best GPU loop test was nigh-on identical to the worst, indicating that it was running flat-out throughout.As for the level of performance itself, it’s right near the top of the tablet pack. There aren’t all that many top-end tablets running on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, so the Astra 2 is just about the fastest tablet this side of an iPad Air or Pro.It positively obliterates the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra and the Honor MagicPad 4, scoring 3725 in Geekbench single-core and 11,678 in multi-core.Practically speaking, the Astra 2 will run Destiny: Rising smoothly at either High Rendering Quality and Ultra Frame Rate (120fps) or Ultra RQ/High FR (60fps).There’s just a solitary 13MP camera on the rear and a 9MP camera on the front. It should surprise and dismay no one to learn that neither is very good, though the main camera will grab you a passable shot in good lighting. Image 1 of 4 (Image credit: Future) Performance score: 5 / 5RedMagic Astra 2 review: software (Image credit: Future)RedMagic OS 11.5 on Android 16Cluttered yet speedy UIDedicated Game Space UI for gaming optimizationRedMagic OS 11.5 runs atop Android 16 on the Astra 2, and it’s precisely as charmless as I found it to be on the RedMagic 11S Pro smartphone.RedMagic isn’t the only Android manufacturer that finds tinkering with Google’s powerful yet concise Android OS irresistible. They’re all at it.I’ll even give the company credit for the progress it has made. No more is this UI filled to the brim with superfluous widgets, glitches, and examples of untranslated Chinese text. It’s reasonably well put together, with smooth-enough animations and logical menu layouts, and Google’s Feed is mercifully included to the left of the main home screen.It’s far from a looker, however, and there’s plenty of bloatware. Booking.com, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, AliExpress, and several ropey games come preinstalled, whether you like it or not. RedMagic itself includes its own duplicate web browser, and there are dedicated app icons leading to yet more iffy app installations.The highlight of RedMagic OS has always been the company’s Game Space UI. Flip the tactile red switch on the top edge of the tablet, and you’ll jump into a dedicated gaming UI.Here you can add games, optimize performance levels on a game-by-game basis, block notifications, and even initiate plugins for selected titles. The latter include an AI coach that gives you tactical suggestions based on the live scenario, a resolution booster, visual audio indicators, and much more.For the average user, none of this will be of any consequence whatsoever — it’s fiddly, technical, downright nerdy stuff. But this isn’t a tablet that’s been built for such average users. It’s for gamers seeking an edge in successive rounds of PUBG Mobile or Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.Software score: 3 / 5RedMagic Astra 2 review: battery (Image credit: Future)8,300mAh battery75W wired chargingRedMagic has equipped its tablet with an 8,300mAh battery, which is fractionally larger than the cell inside the original Astra, though much smaller than the one powering the RedMagic Nova Tablet.For a tablet of this size, 8,300mAh is plenty. For regular non-gaming use, you’ll be able to get through a full working day of constant use, or several days of more normal (i.e., infrequent) use before you need to charge.Games will obviously sap that time more quickly, but you can still expect to play multiple hours of the most demanding games before the Astra 2 finally gives up the ghost.When it comes time to recharge, the Astra 2 supports 75W wired charging. You won’t get such a provision in the box, but using a compatible Nubia charger, I was able to secure 65% charge in just 30 minutes, and a full charge in less than an hour.The provision of that second USB-C port on the bottom edge of the device makes it comfortable to charge while you’re gaming or otherwise using the tablet in landscape orientation, too.Battery score: 4 / 5Should you buy the RedMagic Astra 2? Swipe to scroll horizontally RedMagic Astra 2 scorecard Attributes Notes Rating Design It's not subtle, but the Astra 2 feels solid in the hand, and its visible liquid cooling system is a fun flourish. 3.5 / 5 Display It’s not the most expansive screen out there, but it’s bright, sharp, and extremely responsive, with an aspect ratio that covers all bases. 4 / 5 Performance As fast as Android tablets get, especially with its unique liquid cooling system. 5 / 5 Battery Decent capacity and fast charging, with the added bonus of a second USB-C port. 4 / 5 Software Not a particularly slick or inviting UI, with too much bloatware, but it optimizes Gaming content. 3 / 5 Value Not as cheap as before, but you’ll still struggle to get this performance for similar money. 4 / 5 Buy it if...You use your tablet predominantly for gamingFrom its top-notch sustained performance to its secondary USB-C port and dedicated gaming UI, the Astra 2 is optimized for mobile gaming.You’re after the fastest Android tablet aroundFew tablets run on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip. None pair that with a meaty liquid cooling system. This thing is fast.You want a well-specced tablet for less than £600If you want a fast tablet with a good quality OLED display, but don’t want to break the bank for an iPad Pro, the Astra 2 is worth considering.Don't buy it if...You like your software crisp and unclutteredRedMagic OS is far from the cleanest UI in town, with an ugly look and too much bloatware.You want the absolute best performance, money no objectThe Astra 2 might rule the Android roost, but the iPad Pro continues to be the fastest tablet on the market — at a higher price, of course.You value classy designThe RedMagic Astra 2 is relatively reserved by the standards of dedicated gaming devices, but its look is far from sophisticated.RedMagic Astra 2 review: also considerWant a reasonably priced yet powerful tablet? Check out these alternatives:iPad Air (2026)The 11-inch version of the latest iPad Air costs the same amount as the Astra 2, and technically tops it in the performance stakes with its M4 chip — though it lacks the liquid cooling to sustain that performance, while its LCD display only hits 60Hz. It has access to more and better games, though, and features a much better UI. Note that we've only reviewed the 13-inch iPad Air.Read our full iPad Air 13-inch (2026) reviewHonor MagicPad 4The Honor MagicPad isn’t a dedicated gaming tablet, but it’s similarly priced, boasts decent performance, a beautiful OLED display, and is generally a more rounded and pleasant-to-use tablet package.Read our full Honor MagicPad 4 reviewReview test period = 3 weeksTesting included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, photography, gaming, streaming video, music playbackTools used = Geekbench 6, 3DMark, native Android stats, Nubia 80W power adapterFirst reviewed: July 2026 Jon is a freelance journalist who has been covering tech since the dawn of the smartphone era. Besides TechRadar, his words and pictures have appeared in The Telegraph, ShortList, Tech Advisor, Trusted Reviews, Expert Reviews, and more. He largely covers consumer technology, with a particular focus on smartphones and tablets. However, he's also been known to dabble in the worlds of entertainment and video games. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.