RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet review: One of the most powerful Android gaming tablets

RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet review: Design

Tablets have a design problem. Where smartphones and laptops bend, fold, and roll, tablets sit there, like a straight sheet of glass and perhaps plastic or metal. RedMagic tries to shake things up with some embellishments on the dark gray anodized aluminum back panel.

At the top of the panel (or side, depending on the orientation of the panel), your eye is immediately drawn to the glowing RGB RedMagic logo. While the company speaks in a multi-colored love language, the most compelling aspect is the clear panel that showcases some of the tablet’s internals, including a pair of heat pipes and a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. According to RedMagic, the Peekaboo window makes the Nova the world’s first transparent gaming tablet. It’s a nice design feature, but now I want a full glass back panel despite it being impractical.

Next to the window is a housing for the 50-megapixel rear camera. Unlike the window, which is flush with the metal back, the sensor housing protrudes slightly. This means that the board will never be flat, which is annoying. The RedMagic logo is located in the center of the board, looking like a late 90s hobo stamp, and is equal parts fun and sad regret.

The front of the tablet is made of glass, with a 10.9-inch display surrounded by some fairly thick bezels. The 20-megapixel camera is located in the middle of the top (or right) frame. Like the back panel, the sides of the tablet are made of anodized aluminum, with the power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader located at the top left with the volume rocker located near the corner. There’s a USB-C charging port in the middle on the right side of the Nova, and you get a pair of speakers on either side of the upright. Finally, at the bottom you’ll find a set of Pogo connectors for the optional magnetic keyboard ($109). Surprisingly, the tablet lacks an audio jack.

The Nova weighs 18.7 ounces (530 grams) and measures 11 x 7.4 x 1.89 inches (279 x 188 x 48 mm). For comparison, this is larger than the current one iPad mini modelwhich weighs 10.3 ounces (293 grams) and measures 7.7 x 5.3 x 0.25 inches (195.4 x 134.8 x 6.3 mm). Remember, the iPad is a smaller tablet overall than the RedMagic.

RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet review: Display and sound

It’s not OLED, but I’ll keep using it. It was hard to take my eyes off the Nova’s 10.9-inch, 2880 x 1800 LCD screen. Colors almost pop off the screen with crisp, clear details. In fact, the detail was so sharp during the trailer for “Exhibiting Forgiveness” that I could see the pattern of fibers on a blank canvas and the brush cracks left in the paint as it came into contact with said canvas. The show did a great job with actors Andre Holland, Andra Day, and John Earl Jelks. However, the colors were the best part, whether it was the vibrant blues and purples in the panels or the yellows and reds worn by some of the characters.

Although you can watch movies, read comics, and check your social media accounts, this tablet is meant for gaming. As such, Nova games look great on its screen, especially with the 144Hz refresh rate. The screen also features a touch sampling rate of 840Hz if you’re using the touchscreen to play a fast-paced FPS game instead of a Bluetooth controller. I had a lot of fun running around and defeating the fantastical creatures in Wuthering Waves.

The tablet’s quad speakers are surprisingly loud—so loud that they might put two of these ultra-portable systems to shame. Even at maximum volume, the Nova delivered warm, balanced sound whether I was streaming music from Spotify or Tidal. Dialogue and explosions from the mobile games looked good, too. My only issue is the lack of bass, but considering it’s a tablet, that’s not a huge shock.

RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet review: UI and software

Even though Nova is running Android 14RedMagic has RedMagic OS 9.5. Design won’t set the world on fire. The default skin is a series of gray and light blue colors meant to give off a futuristic aesthetic. However, the lock and home screens are customizable, and RedMagic offers many themes. That’s fine, except for Hot Apps and Hot Games, which is a collection of 20 app suggestions for bloatware rather than anything useful.

Since the Nova is a gaming tablet, it makes sense that there would be software to support this gamer-focused path. Game Space is the main app for this, as it collects all the games you have installed and lets you play them from within the app. In Game Lobby, you can adjust touch sampling rate, smoothness, accidental edge touch protection, CPU and GPU performance profiles, and display settings.

Go to Game Base, and you can check out the plugins pre-installed on the tablet and the games that can use it, including the key remapping feature or Free View, which lets you customize the game’s screen ratio and create landscape and portrait modes. This is also where you can customize Mora, RedMagic’s AI assistant. In addition to changing her clothes, you can see her different actions. When enabled, Mora acts as a guide in Game Space but can also be used via phone to react to notifications and system alerts such as low battery. Although Game Space is easy to navigate, it can be difficult to find. I searched high and low for the app but found it in the Quick Settings menu in the Notification Center.

RedMagic has committed to at least one Android update, so the Nova should be upgraded to Android 15. The company will also support up to two years of security updates. This isn’t as much as Samsung or Apple offer for their devices, but it’s better than nothing.

RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet review: Performance

The Nova draws its power from the flagship 3.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8th Gen 3 processor, which is just an overclocked version of the original SoC. This extra oomph and 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM allowed the Nova to easily handle 50 tabs open in Google Chrome, light image edits in Adobe Photoshop Express, and several open Google Docs. But more importantly, combined with the Adreno 750 GPU, the tablet consistently delivers fast, smooth gameplay in every grueling game I play, including Dead Cells, Zenless Zone Zero, and Alien Isolation.

I ran some benchmarks to see how well Nova worked. I have to say, I’m very impressed. In Geekbench 6, the list achieved a single-core score of 2,208 and a multi-core score of 6,422. When I ran the 3DMark Steel Nomad Light test, which tests the GPU, the tablet returned a respectable score of 1,743.

When the Nova is hard at work, it turns on its 20,000 RPM internal fan to keep things cool. According to RedMagic, the Nova is the world’s first gaming tablet with a built-in turbo fan and 3D heat pipe. I spent two hours slicing my way through dead cells. At the start of play, the average temperature in the middle of the backboard was 78°F (26.5°C) with the fan running. Two hours later, the temperature rose to 91 degrees (32.7 degrees). It was warm but not uncomfortably so.

RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet review: Cameras

The Nova has two cameras: a 50-megapixel rear camera and a 20-megapixel front camera. Both cameras take still photos and can handle any video conference or live streaming you want to do. They also have modes similar to what you’d find on a smartphone (time-lapse, panorama, and slow motion). No matter which camera I used, I was really impressed with the color reproduction and detail.

The myriad colors on my spots looked great in selfie shots, and didn’t wash out my skin tone. The camera captured the subtle mustard yellow color of the box in the background. In the shot of my friend holding the Astro Bot stuffed toy, the green wall, as well as his shirt, look cute and vibrant. Details were clear enough to make out some of the words on the sign when zoomed in with minimal distortion.

Speaking of details, look at these pictures of my puppies on my couch. Not only can you see the beautiful shine of their fur, along with the individual hairs. You can also see the intricate details in my sectional canvas.

RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet Battery Life

I squeezed 12 hours and 18 minutes from the Nova’s 10,100 mAh battery while the tablet played 24 hours of video at 50% brightness. That time was much shorter when I started playing. I only spent 3 hours and 29 minutes playing Wuthering Waves before it was time to reach for the charger.

Speaking of the charger, it’s rare to see a charger shipped with a smartphone these days, let alone a tablet. RedMagic bundles an 80W charger with the pad, and the company estimates that it takes 55 minutes to charge the tablet from 0 to 100%.

RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet review: Verdict

I’m not a fan of tablets. More specifically, I don’t believe in it, not when smartphones are launching or rocking out with nearly 8-inch screens. But after my usual usual avoidance, I have to admit that the RedMagic Nova left a positive impression. Logo stamp aside, I like the design, especially the clear window and RGB. Even after a few hours of play, I experienced minimal lag. Although the screen is not OLED, the color is beautiful and vivid; Paired with impressive quad speakers, you’re ready to enjoy sound and video. And depending on what you’re doing, expect solid battery life.

The UI will take some getting used to, and I wish the accessories came with the tablet. Overall, the RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet is a great choice for gamers or people looking for a tablet that isn’t made by Apple or Samsung.