RedMagic Astra 2 review
Design, build quality, handling
The RedMagic Astra 2 is a nice little tablet with an aluminum unibody and a Gorilla Glass 3 shield. There are no screen cutouts, no sticking-out parts on the back. And if it weren't for the visible liquid cooling and RGB backlighting, it could have been labeled as boring.
But boring is the last thing the Astra 2 is. From the moment you pick it up, it feels like a truly premium device. And once you start using it, it quickly becomes clear that this slate is a real beast.
One thing at a time, though. The Astra 2 is available in Eclipse Black and Starfrost Silver (ours) colorways. Both options feature a frosted finish, which is (mostly) fingerprint-resistant and grippy enough.
The Astra 2 is IP54-rated for dust and splash resistance. While unimpressive, most tablets don't have ingress protection at all, so we do appreciate the basic protection against the elements.
The tablet measures 207.1 x 134.2 x 6.9 mm and weighs 363 grams, which is quite compact for a tablet.
And now, let's take a close look at RedMagic Astra 2.
The front is where you'd find the 9.06-inch OLED screen with even bezels and no cutouts. The panel has been upgraded to support the jaw-dropping 185Hz refresh rate and a Synaptics touch system with 300Hz average touch sampling and 2000Hz peak sampling.
The thick bezels help with an unobstructed view when gaming or watching movies. You can rest your fingers comfortably and still get the whole picture, literally.
The 9MP front-facing camera and a bunch of sensors are placed inside one of the longer bezels, almost invisible.
The back of the tablet is mostly aluminum except for the glass rectangle with all those logos and insignias. Here you can see the cooling pipe with blue liquid. The RGB backlight is right under the pipe (which also includes the RedMagic logo), and you can configure its behavior from Settings.
Also, here is the 13MP AF main camera with 4K capturing and the LED flash.
There is an on/off switch for the liquid cooling in Settings, but it only controls the circulation of the blue liquid when idling. Under load, the tablet will auto-activate the cooling system when needed, no matter the option you've selected.
The sides of the RedMagic Astra 2 are quite feature-rich.
There are two symmetrical stereo speakers on each of the short sides, a USB-C port (3.2 Gen 2, up to 75W charging), and the power/lock key.
The power key has an integrated fingerprint scanner on its surface. It's always-on and super accurate.
The long sides are also of interest. You can see another USB-C port (USB 2.0 this time, up to 40W charging) on one of the sides, while on the other sit the volume rocker and the Magic Key, which starts the Game Space by default but can alternatively be set to start the rear camera, activate the flashlight, launch the voice recorder, or switch to mute or vibration mode.
Having two USB-C ports allows you to use one for charging and the other one for TV out or connection to some gaming peripherals.
The RedMagic Astra 2 is of superior build, offers a good grip for gaming and multimedia, and has a compact and lightweight body. We do appreciate the splash resistance, too.
