Small form factor tablets are something I have a pretty significant interest in. Daily driving an iPad Mini for the past few years, it’s something I’d struggle to go without now. It’s essentially just a larger phone for me, while still being compact enough to fit into a smaller bag pocket, or even my coat pocket when the UK isn’t in the middle of a heatwave. It’s a great bit of kit for those happy to embrace the Apple ecosystem, but on the other side of the fence, options are surprisingly limited. With me having loved the original Astra, I was excited to jump back in to see exactly how REDMAGIC improved on what I already considered to be a winning formula. 

Bigger, but Not Big

Looking at it, you probably wouldn’t see much of a difference with the original Astra tablet. I sadly can’t give you a side by side, but we have pretty similar bezels and a largely similar design. These aren’t bad points though. What we’ve got is a remarkably slim tablet with the focus being its fantastic OLED display, as well as the power it’s hiding under the hood. It’s not to say there isn’t anything new here though. We’re looking at a second USB C port along the long edge of the tablet, as well as some fancy water cooling that you can see through the panel on the back. Not to mention the more powerful APU in the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. It’s a pretty competitive package.

Coming in at nine inches diagonally, the Astra 2 manages to walk that balance of giving you enough screen real estate, while still being pretty portable. A touch bigger than Apple’s iPad Mini line, but not too big as to throw it into a different product category. They’re very much occupying the same corner of the market. The 16:10 aspect ratio on show here is also pretty similar to the 3:2 seen in the iPad Mini, and again walks a really great line, especially for those interested in both modern 16:9 content and the older 4:3 stuff. With either choice you’ll get black bars, but they’re minimal and blend seamlessly into the black bezels. Your more cinematic 21:9 content might look slightly out of place, but it’s still very much watchable. 

With the Astra 2 featuring two USB C ports, you might be wondering if there’s any advantage of using one over the other. And it turns out there is. Though both support audio adapters and fast charging up to 75W, only the USB C port on the short side will give you Gen 3.2 speeds and DisplayPort output. The one on the long side will limit you to USB 2.0 speeds, with no option of display out. I do think they got this the wrong way around, especially with the short-side USB C being offset from the centre. If they had at least prioritised display out on the long end, the Astra 2 would’ve had a great time slipping into existing docks and similar setups. As it stands now, it’s just kind of awkward. Of course if you view the long-side USB C as just an extra that’s been added onto the original design, it is still nice to have. 

That offset USB C on the short side also has the same shortcoming as its predecessor in its lack of compatibility with telescopic USB C controller grips. The Razer Kishi Ultra is my mobile controller of choice, and it’s just not possible to get a good experience with it here. It’s not to say there’s no telescopic controllers that will work though. What you’ll need to look out for is a decent Bluetooth option. Conveniently, REDMAGIC do sell one themselves, though I’ve no experience with it to tell you whether it’s worth buying. 

On the note of buying though, I’ll take a moment to walk you through the different flavours of Astra 2 that are on offer. Similar to its predecessor, we get the choice of black and silver, with two different SKUs available for each. You can see these below:

• 12GB RAM + 256GB Storage (Black or Silver) - £599
• 16GB RAM + 512GB Storage (Black or Silver) - £679

Notable here are the increased starting price and the lack of a high-end model. With the original Astra, a further 24GB RAM model with 1TB of storage was available. These cause of these changes will be pretty clear for most reading this, with the current prices of both RAM modules and storage being astronomical, even for manufacturers like REDMAGIC. I can see the lack of a 1TB variant being a disappointment for some all the same though, especially when considering the lack of expandable storage options. Regardless, it does manage to remain competitive when stacking it against Apple’s latest iPad Mini. For that same £599 starting price, you’d be looking at a far weaker APU and only 128GB of storage. The iPad Mini does have a few more options that we don’t see here if you’re willing to put the money down, including 5G capabilities, but does cap out at that same 512GB of internal storage. You will be paying through the nose if wanting these things from Apple though. 

A Multimedia Titan

I did already touch on this while describing the tablet, but its form factor makes it ideal for more than just gaming. If you’re after one relatively portable device that can do it all, this very much could be it. To throw some numbers at you, that 16:10 display comes in at 2400 by 1504, with a respectable pixel density of 313 PPI. It’ll go all the way up to 1600 nits peak, and 1100 nits full-screen brightness. I can’t tell you how competitive those brightness numbers are, but I can say that I’ve had no issues leaving the thing at 50% when using it indoors. It does also run at up to 185 Hz, but I am somewhat in the camp of thinking that such things aren’t entirely necessary for most people. When a screen still looks great at 60 Hz, I’d much rather take the battery savings. There is at least an automatic option in the system settings for this, bringing it down from that 185 peak when it’s not needed. 

Manga seriously pops on an OLED screen.

In terms of actual day to day usage, it’s not one you’re likely to have a problem with. The Astra 2 comes with Google Play Services, meaning the Play Store is right there for you to grab your streaming apps of choice. And whatever else you fancy. Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Disney+ all performed without issue, with each looking great on the OLED display. I also found the nine inch screen ideal for manga reading, with the Shonen Jump app still being a favourite of mine. The only thing that really takes away from the tablet in this department is the lack of a headphone jack. With a second USB C port in play, you do at least have some room to manoeuvre though, and it’s hard to complain about the quality of the speakers. At least if you manage to avoid covering them with your hands as you hold it. 

Supporting all of this is a genuinely fantastic 8300mAh battery, and it really ties together the larger package well. It’s a touch bigger than the original Astra, though not to any notable degree. Even so it’s more than enough to give you a full day of mixed use. At least what I would consider to be a full day. In reality you’re looking at around ten hours of screen on time, going between YouTube, manga reading, and a bit of light gaming. It’ll be more than enough for most people, with the fast 75W charging getting you back to full pretty fast. Naturally heavier gaming will have more of an impact here, with that 10 hour mark being cut in half when actually being pushed. But what does pushing the Astra 2 actually look like?

Wild Performance

The Astra 2 houses the best of what Android is capable of at the moment in the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, a single generation bump from the original Astra’s 8 Elite. Don’t let that put you off though. The 8 Elite was already an absolute powerhouse, adding more on top of that is no small feat. Especially in such a thin form factor. You can see the usual benchmarks below:

To summarise the above, this is a very powerful device. And it’ll have no problem playing any existing Android title out there. I’m of the mind that Android gaming isn’t all that interesting though; the real final frontier for gaming on Android lies in the various x86 translation layers that are in development at the moment. The problem with using them as a baseline for performance in a review like this is that a lot of the time, the problems aren’t necessarily to do with power. Sure you can brute-force some titles into working by just throwing a powerful chipset at the problem, but a lot of the time the real fight lies in configuration and drivers. Regardless, it’s something that is really cool, and the Astra 2 is about as ideal a platform as you can get. Between the 8 Elite Gen 5 under the hood and its incredible nine inch display, you should on paper be in for a good time. 

It certainly tried its best.

What’s probably not a surprise is that I had the fewest issues when trying the easier to run indie games. Bloons TD 6 worked without any problems at all, and in GameNative even supports direct touch input. Sure it’s available on Android, but if you don’t want to be spending the extra money, it’s nice to just run what you have. I got similarly perfect performance out of Hollow Knight and the 2021 release of Corpse Party, again both smaller and easier to run indie titles. Fantasy Life i, Dark Souls Remastered, Atelier Marie, Blue Prince, Ace Combat 7 and the first Danganronpa game all performed well with quirks that I imagine could be solved through configuration. Small stutters in Dark Souls, texture weirdness in Fantasy Life and Blue Prince, a lack of audio in Danganronpa. The CPU and GPU weren’t being overly taxed here, so there’s a lot of hope for them running well in the future. Ace Combat 7 surprised me in that the actual flying part ran pretty much flawlessly. If you can put up with some flashy graphics during mission briefings you probably could play that one. 

I also have hope for Disgaea 7 on Android, with it too running flawlessly until it unceremoniously crashed. There’s a lot to be excited about here as the software continues to mature, making Android more and more enticing in this age of incredibly expensive x86 hardware. Some games are still very much out of reach though. The two that I found that fit into this category are Elden Ring and Armored Core 6. To give some credit here, both games do in fact run. That in itself is a feat worthy of praise. You couldn’t in any way call them playable though, with the GPU being pushed to its breaking point with Elden Ring. It’s possible there’ll be a breakthrough in the software that does get these playable in time, but they’re not games I’d count on being able to play. 

It is worth throwing a note here to say that almost every game I tested here does have a Switch port. Though it’s a bit more hassle to setup, requiring you to dump both you games and the keys from your console instead of seamlessly pulling your Steam cloud saves, Switch emulation is significantly more mature. You will still face an issue with finding the right drivers for the right games, but it’s much less hit and miss. 

Regardless of what type of game you’re choosing to play though, you should be aware that this tablet gets warm. Uncomfortably so if you’re holding it while you play. To some extent this is expected on any device with an aluminium body; the shell is a kind of heat sync, and though the water cooling the tablet boasts does try its best, it can only do so much. My general advice if you are eyeing the Astra 2 is to buy a case with it at checkout. Having some kind of buffer will undoubtedly help with comfort, and with these tablets not quite having the third party support of something like the iPad Mini, your options will probably be limited to the official offering either way. You may as well get it with the tablet to save on shipping costs. If you’re primary aim is to do these kinds of intensive tasks with the tablet propped up on a desk though, you might be able to get away with it. 

A Strong Showing

If you’re in the market for the most powerful tablet that won’t fill a bag, this might just be it. With a sleek body and some serious strength under the hood, the Astra 2 is something I really have few reasons not to recommend. As long as you’re aware of its heat when running at full tilt, and don’t need any kind of mobile data on the go, you’ll be looking at something that is genuinely fantastic. It’s priced well and can handle pretty much anything you can think to throw at it; if you’re in the market for a smaller tablet sometime soon, it’s one worth considering.