Starting from the past two years, the popularity of small-size performance tablets has gradually risen, and we have also seen more manufacturers entering this niche track. Perhaps because the entire market is not too large, while some manufacturers are still repeatedly flip-flopping between creating new folders and deleting folders, RedMagic, as a manufacturer that has been deeply engaged in gaming and esports for many years, has given the latest answer for small-size performance tablets — the REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2).

RedMagic has always taken an aggressive route in product definition, and this REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) is no exception. In the field of small-size performance tablets, it can be said to have piled on components to the utmost. Compared to the previous generation product, the REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) has introduced the liquid cooling technology carried on RedMagic phones, and has further raised the OLED screen refresh rate to 185Hz, making it currently the only one of its kind among small-size performance tablets.

In terms of appearance design, the REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) continues the family color scheme tradition of the RedMagic family, offering two options: Deuterium Front Transparent Silver Wing and Deuterium Front Transparent Night. What we received is the Transparent Silver Wing version, which has a stronger visual contrast with the black portion used by the transparent window, and compared to the previous generation, it has added liquid cooling lighting effect components, which we will discuss in detail later. The middle frame of the body still adopts the familiar integrated metal design, paired with a 3D micro-arc border, making the grip feel more rounded. The back panel is also RedMagic's signature flat design, without any protrusions. The whole machine has a thickness of 6.9mm and a weight of 363g, which is somewhat reduced compared to the previous generation, but honestly speaking, among similar products, its weight is indeed more noticeably perceptible.

In terms of the screen, the REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) adopts a 9.06-inch OLED screen, with the size consistent with the previous generation, a resolution of 2400 × 1504 pixels, a PPI of 313, and relying on a 4.9mm four-equal-side design to achieve a screen-to-body ratio of 90.1%. Different from the previous generation, it is the first to adopt X10 luminescent material, with a local peak brightness of 1600nit, a global peak brightness of 1100nit, and a response delay of less than 1ms. At this level, OLED indeed has physical-level advantages compared to LCD.

The most exaggerated aspect of this screen is still the refresh rate. The refresh rate of the REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) has been directly raised to 185Hz, which is currently the highest refresh rate among all tablet products. The official side has also given a list of cooperating and adapted game manufacturers, which can be said to be a case of "fighting for the future." Other specifications of the screen have also not been neglected, equipped with Star Shield Eye Protection Technology 2.0, and passed the SGS low blue light no-flicker eye protection certification, with the screen's blue light reduced by 68%.

As the first tablet equipped with active liquid cooling, the cooling part of the REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) is worth discussing separately, after all this is also one of RedMagic's quite notable design highlights. Through the transparent window, users can directly see the working state of the liquid cooling module, inside which 11 customized RGB light beads have also been packed in. Through customized light-guiding material, the official side states that the uniformity of the liquid cooling lighting effect has improved by 200% compared to the previous generation.

Netizens familiar with RedMagic will certainly not be unfamiliar with this liquid cooling system. The core drive unit is a liquid-cooled micropump built based on the MEMS micro-nano packaging architecture, paired with a piezoelectric ceramic micropump and micro-nano capillary structure, allowing the coolant to circulate actively within the system to achieve the effect of heat dissipation. The coolant itself uses the same fluorinated liquid as used in AI servers, with a liquid range from -65°C to 125°C, which ensures it does not solidify in low-temperature winter environments, while also having excellent insulation and thermal conductivity efficiency, avoiding the possibility of short circuits. Not only that, this cooling system of the REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) has also adopted liquid metal 3.0 as well as an oversized VC vapor chamber. The official side states that under this combination, chip heat dissipation efficiency is improved by up to 28%, and the core temperature is reduced by up to 8°C.

The REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) is unsurprisingly equipped with the fifth-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. Everyone is already very familiar with this chip, so I will not repeat the specifications again. It is additionally equipped with a Red Core R4 self-developed esports chip, which together with Qualcomm has jointly created independent high-speed video memory, and through subsequent OTA updates, will support 2K+144Hz super-resolution super-frame concurrency for multiple games.

We used Perfdog to conduct actual measurement tests on two mainstream competitive mobile games, "Delta Force" and "League of Legends: Wild Rift."

"Delta Force" Full-Scale Battlefield Mode

In "Delta Force" under the Full-Scale Battlefield mode, the image quality setting was set to HD +165 frames, with all screen configurations at default options. From the start of the match to finally achieving victory, in a complete match lasting 23 minutes throughout, the average frame rate recorded by Perfdog was 162 FPS, with a 1% Low frame rate of 47.4 FPS. Although the data does not look impressive, users who have played this mode know that if you die and are not rescued, and choose to redeploy, during this period the frame rate will directly drop to around 30, so this frame rate variance figure is not of reference value. Setting this part aside, throughout the game process from the start, the frame rate remained within the range of 164-166, without large fluctuations, and moreover the temperature performance of the tablet's handheld portion was very good.

"League of Legends: Wild Rift" Frame Rate Record

In "League of Legends: Wild Rift" Summoner's Rift 5v5 regular mode, both image quality and resolution were set to high, with the 165 high frame rate mode enabled. In one complete match lasting 23 minutes, the average frame rate recorded by Perfdog was 166.8 FPS, with a 1% Low frame rate of 159.4 FPS, and a frame rate variance of 1.1. In this game there was no interference item appearing, and one could see the entire frame rate curve was almost a straight line, with almost no visible fluctuation. In actual gameplay, whether during team fights or frantically casting skills, there was no phenomenon of frame drops, and most importantly, the temperature of the handheld portion barely showed any noticeable change.

Aside from the data, the REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) also performs excellently in subjective gaming experience. It exclusively features the Synaptics S3930 touch chip, with a multi-finger native touch sampling rate of 300Hz, and an instantaneous reporting rate of up to 2000Hz, which has a clear advantage compared to the Himax touch IC used by LCD screens. Paired with the ultra-high refresh rate and 1ms response delay, in scenarios with extremely high touch requirements such as FPS and rhythm games, the experience is very responsive to the hand.

Under the premise of improved chip performance, the REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) has built in a PC emulator based on RedMagic Lab's self-developed translation engine, and is the first to launch a Steam direct connection mode. Through the built-in PC emulator + Steam direct connection mode, we conducted an actual test of the domestic AAA masterpiece "Black Myth: Wukong." The entire process was quite simple — flip the esports switch to enter the gaming space, click on the PC emulator, scan the code to log into your Steam account, and "Black Myth: Wukong" in the game library directly shows "download and play," with no complicated translation configuration or manual parameter adjustment steps throughout the entire process. The official side even offers suitable cloud startup configurations for users to choose from, which is quite friendly to beginners.

Currently, games translated on the PC platform all require a relatively long waiting time to enter. After entering the game, the frame rate throughout the entire scene fluctuates around 20, and in scenes with dense vegetation and lighting changes, this performance is already worth recognizing. Perhaps because it is still under testing, in terms of performance release, even if Awaken Mode is selected, the SoC power is still locked at 6W. Under an aggressive thermal control strategy, in fact this fifth-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite chip can easily exceed 10W of power, which is to say, for this game, stably maintaining 30 frames should not be a problem.

The REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) is equipped with RedMagicOS 11.5, with the built-in RedMagic Ji Mora intelligent agent, providing gaming AI capabilities based on the Deepseek large model such as combat power review, tactical coaching, and Ji Mora's voice-over commentary; it supports communication fusion technology to share the phone's 5G signal, and other peripheral configurations are also top-tier specifications, with dual USB-C ports supporting bypass charging, an 8300mAh battery ensuring battery life, 1227 stereo dual speakers, dual X-axis linear motors, and a power button fingerprint sensor — everything you can think of, it has.

Overall, the REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) is a product with "extremely clear target users." It has not made the mediocre choice found in small tablets of "needing to balance everything," but instead has maxed out the dimensions that gaming players care about most — performance, heat dissipation, screen, touch, and cross-device use — and then directly written this aggressive orientation on its face using the family-style design of transparent liquid cooling + RGB lighting effects. For hardcore gaming users, FPS players, streamers, and cross-device players who hope for "one device covering handheld/console/PC," it is a highly recognizable option in the current small tablet market.