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Thanks to RedMagic for sponsoring this video. This is the Astra 2, and it might just be the ultimate gaming tablet. It's got an OLED display on here with a crazy 185 Hz refresh rate. It's powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 with up to 16 GB of RAM, and it's the first tablet I've ever seen with actual liquid cooling. I mean, you can literally see it pumping coolant as it pulls heat away from that chipset. Inside the box, you don't get a whole lot. There's just the device, a couple of RedMagic stickers, and a USB-C cable. So, no power brick included this time, but it does technically support up to 75 W of fast charging. Now, taking a look at the device itself, you can tell that this
thing was just built for gaming. You get this all-metal body that comes in either silver or black, and it's in this compact form factor that I feel like it's just perfect for gaming. Where the 9-in screen is obviously bigger than your phone, while still not being so big that it's uncomfortable to reach stuff like it would be on a bigger tablet. But, it's not just the size. It's also the little things. So, instead of having a single USB-C port on here, you get two, with the second one being higher up so that way you can actually play while charging without the cable getting in your way. And the same thing applies to the speakers, where they're positioned just ever so slightly higher than usual,
where your hands won't block them while you're holding it. And then, up top, RedMagic even added this dedicated gaming switch that can launch you straight into Game Space, which to me makes the whole thing feel more like you have a handheld console. In fact, the only things I would say are missing from like a hardware standpoint is a headphone jack, which surprisingly RedMagic didn't include even though they included on their phones, and there are also no shoulder triggers on here. Although, you know, not having those on here does kind of make sense since, you know, most people wouldn't be able to reach them anyway. But, easily, the coolest part about this whole thing is
that liquid cooling system on the back. And the way it works is actually really interesting. So, a small pump continuously circulates this coolant, which pulls heat away from that Snapdragon chip and moves it toward the rest of the cooling system, like the vapor chamber. But, unlike Red Magic's phones, there is no actual fan or exhaust on here. So, everything is completely sealed, with Red Magic instead dissipating that heat across the larger surface you get on a tablet. And, you know, the end result is you get an active cooling system that is nearly silent. Although, you know, if you put it up right to your ear, you can just barely make it out.
Red Magic even added a turbo mode in the settings that will kick the whole system into high gear for like 30 seconds, which is supposed to help accelerate dropping the temps down. But, you know, either way, together with the lighting on here, it just looks so cool. Of course, looking cool is one thing, and actually performing, well, that's another. And, at least when we ran a 3DMark Wild Life Extreme benchmark, the Astro 2 was able to score higher than any Snapdragon 8 Elite device we've ever tested. Not just in that first loop, but also in sustained performance. With it being able to hold that performance all the way through, beating the overclocked Galaxy by nearly 2,000 points by the
time they got to that 20th loop. And, that performance actually carries over into the gaming experience. In Call of Duty, we were able to play the game at the highest settings the game would allow, while still maxing out the frame rate, where the Astro 2 had pretty much no problem maintaining 165 FPS. But, you know, it's not just about the frame rate, right? You need a display that can also match it. And, at 185 Hz, you can actually see all those frames on the Astro 2, or at least you can feel them. Since, obviously, consciously seeing them requires us to film in slow-mo here, where, you know, even compared to 120, there is a noticeable improvement in smoothness. And, combined with the
super fast touch sampling rate on here, everything just feels so much more fluid, right? Like, playing a game like Call of Duty on here versus something like an iPhone just feels like a totally different experience. In Genshin Impact, the game is still, unfortunately, capped to 60 FPS natively on Android. But, luckily, the Astro 2 does have a trick up its sleeve, where, in part thanks to its custom Redcore R4 chip, you can actually enable both upscaling and frame interpolation at the same time. Meaning, not only can you take that 60 FPS and interpolate it up to 120 for just a significantly smoother experience, but you can also make it just look better overall. In Fortnite, we push it up to
the maximum and we were still getting around 90 to 100 FPS. Even after playing several games in a row, which just goes to show you how well the Astro 2 holds up over time. And when you combine that with the crisp haptics you get on here from the dual X-axis linear motors, it just adds up to the best gaming experience I've ever had on an Android device. But mobile games are actually just the beginning for this thing. Since with this much power, you can actually do a lot more, like emulation. Where using an app called Game Hub, you're able to log into your Steam account and play some of your PC games directly on the tablet. So, not streaming, but running them locally on device. And I was able to play my favorite game of all time in Halo 1 at
over 60 FPS. Even higher when I enabled the Diablo mode, which to me immediately sold me on this thing. Since, you know, Halo 1's pretty much the only game that I play. But it's not just Halo, right? The Astro 2 is able to run other games from our Steam library, like Tomb Raider, and it was even able to run Crisis. And the fact that you can connect it to a TV or monitor with a keyboard and mouse with the help of Red Magic's key mapping, it really does make this thing feel like a full-on console. Now, that said, the emulation layer on here isn't perfect, right? Compatibility going to be hit or miss depending on the game that you're trying to play. Playing online is also not really an option since it triggers
anti-cheat. And of course, once you get into heavier and more modern AAA titles like Cyberpunk, well, that's where you start to see the limits. With us only getting around 30 FPS. Which, you know, honestly, is pretty impressive considering we are emulating on a mobile chip. But at the same time, it's not exactly the most playable either. But for a lot of games out there, including pretty much all the games currently available on Android, the Astro 2 is going to be able to give you rock solid performance. And let's not forget that when you're not gaming, it's still a full-on tablet where the stuff that makes it good for gaming also makes it good for everyday stuff. Like with the
display on here, obviously you get that 185 Hz refresh rate, but it's also an OLED panel, which is not just good for dark gaming scenes, but it also makes things pop when you're watching movies. Plus, the screen itself also gets pretty bright. We measured it at just over 600 nits and it was actually able to maintain that throughout our entire 20-minute test. So, whether you're gaming, you're watching a movie, or you're browsing the web, you'll actually be able to see what's on the screen even if you're in a brighter environment. And you'll also be able to hear what's on screen as well with the dual speakers on here getting crazy loud. Just take a
listen for yourself with an iPhone for reference. Now, how much of that you were able to hear obviously depends on what you're watching this on. So, to help visualize it, we also did a spectrum analysis. And you can see how, at least compared to the iPhone, the Asher 2 is producing fuller sound, especially at the low end, giving you significantly more bass. As for the battery life on here, you don't get the biggest cell in the world. It's 8,300 mA hours, which, you know, it's not the biggest that you can get on a tablet this size, but also it's enough to get you through a full day of use. And, you know, when it is time to charge, you still get that 75 watts of charging with those two USB-C ports. The cameras, on the other hand,
they're not the best. You get a single shooter on both the front and the back, and you know, they're fine for taking the occasional video call, maybe scanning a QR code, but honestly I would just stick to taking photos on your phone. But one of the plus sides with this camera system, though, is it does sit completely flush with the body. So, if you lay it flat on the table, it won't like rock annoyingly like a phone can. In terms of software, Red Magic has come a long way over the years. They're consistently adding new gaming features, and you know, the UI itself has also gotten a bit cleaner. But, you know, there's still occasional bloatware that you have to uninstall. With, you know,
the only real knock I have on this is the software support, where historically Red Magic only offers around 2 years of major OS updates, which is a lot shorter than what you would get from something like an iPad. Maybe that doesn't matter to people on a tablet compared to a phone, but you know, I do think it's something worth noting. But, overall, I'm a fan of this thing. The more I use it, the more I end up liking it. Since, you know, when you combine all the specs, like the display, the speakers, the haptics, plus the ability to play everything from Android games to even some PC titles, it just makes for a really compelling option in the world of handheld gaming devices. And with the price starting at $699,
it doesn't feel outrageously overpriced, at least by today's standards, especially when you consider that on top of all the gaming stuff, it's also just a good tablet. Anyways, that is it for me in this video. Big thanks to Red Magic for sponsoring the showcase. Thank you guys for watching, and as always, I'll see you in the very next episode.
