REDMAGIC Astra [Hardware] Review – A Tablet That’s Out of This World?

Another day, another REDMAGIC product to review. This time it’s the Astra tablet, a piece of hardware focused towards gamers.

That has inevitable problems, but also several advantages – especially if you’re a gamer, which we’ll assume you are if you happen to be reading these words. So without further ado here are our thoughts on REDMAGIC’S latest bit of kit.

Out the Box

Straight away this is another hefty feeling piece of tech from REDMAGIC. Hefty might not be the right word, but it feels solid and dependable out of the box.

The edges are bevelled with the corners rounded off, which work with its surprisingly smaller size. But this size was deceptive, as we learnt soon enough. 

Overall the look isn’t too ‘gamer friendly’ – which was actually welcome considering some of REDMAGIC’s efforts in the past that have arguably swayed too much into slightly off-puting gamer style chic. The transparent back plate is just enough for you to get what the tablet is going for in this regard. 

The pared-down design includes the selection of ports, with one USB-C available. Alongside this the camera lens doesn’t protrude, making holding the Astra comfortable to hold for long periods.

How Does It Perform?

Well, the first thing you notice is that the Astra has a massively impressive 9-inch OLED screen. Everything we played or watched super crisp with vivid colours and deep blacks. 

The aforementioned camera however, is merely okay – but we doubt you’re going to use this for much photography. 

It’s playing games where the Astra comes into its own, as expected. Powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite and including 16GB of RAM, it also offers 512GB of storage.

It handled every game we threw at it, from intense competitive PvP titles to top of the line graphically impressive JRPGs. 

One feature that became apparent playing on the Astra was its active cooling system too, which makes sure it doesn’t become a red hot hand burning slab of pain. Very welcome. The battery life was also solid, often going days without the need for a charge despite regular use. 

Gamer Friendly?

In terms of game playing performance, we have no complaints. But there’s a few other elements to the Astra that gamers will be interested in. 

First off is Game Space, which allows you – via a small red switch on top of the Astra – to switch between the tablet’s standard OS and a more console focused set up.

From here you can access your games but adjust how you play each one, from display settings to control set up. You can also capture video and download a host of plugins to improve (or change, at the very least) your gaming experience. You can also use a REDMAGIC phone as a controller. 

Other than this, there’s perhaps the slightly more suspect addition of Mora. It’s effectively an anime girl avatar that appears in the background on the tablet’s menus and makes varying comments – from the superfluous to ones more relevant such as how much battery you have remaining. You can fortunately turn this feature off if it’s not your bag.

Worth It?

We think if you’re a gamer in need of a new Android tablet you should be strongly considering the REDMAGIC Astra. 

It’s powerful, a good size – fitting in almost any bag – and offers some very interesting features for gamers. We think there’s room for further improvement in terms of features as well, which makes us excited to see what REDMAGIC has planned next. You can check out the REDMAGIC website here to find out even more about the Astra too.

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