RedMagic Astra 2 review

17 July 2026



  • M
  • MattB
  • 4Z2
  • 02 Sep 2026

The launch of this tablet was a joke, you paid $1 to secure your tablet and all of them sold out in 40m, they literally scammed people out of money. I understand it's difficult to ramp up the production etc but this is not the way to go, people will remember and will not buy any products from you anymore. Issue a refund for the people that did not get their tablet and stop playing around. For the table itself it's incredible power and form factor and truly the top notch right now, however RedMagic really needs to start listening to it's customer base and bring features we are all asking for for years and years, get rid of the stupid off center USB C and move it where it belongs and bring a micro SD card to this tablet for god sake, that's literally all you need to do to be absolutely dominating the tablet space, bring more security updates and OS updates for longer for these devices too. I understand the CEOs worry that if they do that people won't have a reason to buy the next tablet, but that's simply not true. At this price point what we are getting needs to go that extra step for people to buy it, you can't have it all, high price and lack of necessary features. I think the tablet is really great i would give it 4 stars only because of the things mentioned here but the launch event where they screwed up so many people i can only give 2 stars because of that, they still did not issue any refunds and pushed the dates another month to scam even more people out of money, this is not cool and i will NOT be buying any other RedMagic product in the future.

    • S
    • SkyFX
    • mcB
    • 08 Aug 2026

    Price is way too close to PC handhelds, that doesn't have to waste previous power or fiddle with drivers to emulate PC games.
    And without 5G, SD card slot, or even a headphone jack, it doesn't have any edge over those whatsoever.

      CoolGuy, 22 Jul 2026serious gamers don't game on mobile lol...fair enough

        Obiorah , 25 Jul 2026Best gaming tablet, but it is not what we were expecting fr... moreThey've added an additional USB C port, liquid cooling, liquid metal, and upgraded the chip. (hmmm kinda typical semi-minor upgrades). Though I hope the pricing improves over time due to the RAMpocalypse. Also, let's hope that Astra 3 gets everything perfect just like how they perfected the RedMagic 8Pro before way back 2023.

          CoolGuy, 22 Jul 2026serious gamers don't game on mobile lol...Oh really? and yet mobile gaming is the most profitable and has the largest marketshare globally lol. All mobile AAA games(especially those eSports titles like CODM etc.) are totally free and f2p like the esports PC games of old days. In Asia, mobile gaming alone is the largest and they held mobile esports tournaments too.

          Not to mention the reality that Android devices can now emulate PC games and its getting better and better day by day. Just go bypass charging + mobile cooler and you're good for prolong PC emulation. (Redmagic devices has this).

          Hoping they'll add an SD card slot due to the rising RAM / storage prices ..

            • O
            • Obiorah
            • XBF
            • 25 Jul 2026

            Best gaming tablet, but it is not what we were expecting from redmagic and no much upgrades from the Astra gaming tablet

              CoolGuy, 22 Jul 2026serious gamers don't game on mobile lol...Sure do.

                • R
                • Recovery
                • t7X
                • 23 Jul 2026

                it couldn't beat the quality of the speakers on the Pad 5 GSMARENA reviewed 5 years ago.

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • B4r
                  • 22 Jul 2026

                  RushGamer, 21 Jul 2026For those commenting about "throttling in prolong gami... moreRedmagic devices enable Diablo Mode by default when they detect any benchmarking suite, this is the 'justification' 3DMark gave for banning them. I actually tested my own RM11 Pro in the same way the review did and got a near identical result to that review, so clearly it's a chipset that not even actively cooled devices can run at 100% all the time. Apparently it draws something like 20W at full power, which is a leven of power consumption higher than some handheld PCs.

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • B4r
                    • 22 Jul 2026

                    mawlki, 21 Jul 2026It's actually pathetic this thing is limited to wirele... moreIt does at least have a second USB-C this time around so you can bypass charge and use an adapter at the same time... but when Asus (RIP) has proven it's not hard at all to have both that and a native 3.5mm on a much smaller device it's still very disappointing. For this size and including a PC emulator it really should have has an SD card slot too, even if 1TB was physically possible to offer it wouldn't be enough when PC games are involved.

                      • D
                      • Dop3 tech
                      • XKb
                      • 22 Jul 2026

                      And the native windows emulator

                        • C
                        • CoolGuy
                        • JBU
                        • 22 Jul 2026

                        mawlki, 21 Jul 2026It's actually pathetic this thing is limited to wirele... moreserious gamers don't game on mobile lol...

                          It's actually pathetic this thing is limited to wireless bluetooth gaming headsets. Serious gamers use 0 latency wired connection 3,5mm headphones.

                            • M
                            • Mike
                            • 8JH
                            • 21 Jul 2026

                            RushGamer, 21 Jul 2026For those commenting about "throttling in prolong gami... moreThis.

                            I don't know why they don't include Diablo Mode in the tests. Every RedMagic with this funcion DOES NOT THROTTLE when using it. The smartphone can get up to 50ºC and it DOES NOT THROTTLE.

                              Anonymous, 19 Jul 2026It seems to me that their answer for not being able to keep... moreFor those commenting about "throttling in prolong gaming", well dunno if GSMArena know that RedMagic has a feature called "Diablo Mode" in the Gamespace where it will maximize both its CPU/GPU performance with no throttlng. GSMArena didn't even mentioned if they utilize and what Game mode they used. If its just Eco or Balance of course it might throttle a little as both of those are to prolong performance while maintaining battery life.

                              Heck Samsung and Apple will throttle in just 10 minutes of AAA gaming.

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • y6W
                                • 21 Jul 2026

                                So the 8e5 throttles too hard as they push full loads in benchmarking.

                                But in actual gaming (most they care), might at least smooth gameplay with a bit high visuals by default.

                                But paying off the value of 8e5 with everything max graphics, ultra performance, raised to 10000hz touch sampling, did it everything.

                                As the limiting factor with the Mobile nature of 8e5 throttles down, yeah still needs improvements here to be stable, and to be acknowledge the throttling behavior of Astra 2.

                                If Qualcomm made a big change in packaging that still use the PoP method which a bit compromise in heat, plus the heat load at +15W is a bit horrifying, but cool to see the peak here.

                                  Akinaro, 20 Jul 2026So we have 700$ gaming device that after 30min of heavy gam... moreand the $400 one will be down to $100+ after 30mn as well 🤣

                                    make a gaming tablet but with rubbish battery life even worse than astra 1

                                      Anonymous, 21 Jul 2026If you want a powerful compact tablet, better yet, a comfy ... moreIt is indeed a dream device. This and the Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 5.

                                      But I think I'm good with my Legion Tab Gen 3 (SD 8 Gen 3) except for its not-so-polished software.

                                        swired, 21 Jul 2026Not all of em. For emulation freedom , Snapdragon is always... moreNot just custom driver support, but optimizations too.

                                        The same opening sequence of a particular PS2 game runs poorly on a Dimensity 8350 but flawless (98%) on a Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 at the exact same emulator settings, despite them being mostly equal. Heck, even an Exynos 2400(e) can't do it.

                                        I also had a similar result with an 8 Gen 1 before selling it.

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