Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: a rapid but somewhat unrefined gaming tablet

Why you tin spot TechRadar We walk hours testing each merchandise aliases work we review, truthful you tin beryllium judge you’re buying nan best. Find retired much astir really we test.

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: Two-minute review

Not contented pinch each but cornering nan marketplace successful affordable gaming phones, Nubia has now turned its attraction to addressing an moreover much niche market: that of nan gaming tablet.

Following nan constricted motorboat of nan Red Magic Tablet successful 2023, nan Red Magic Nova Tablet stands arsenic Nubia’s first globally disposable gaming tablet, and is positioned arsenic a full-sized tablet pinch top-level gaming capacity astatine a mid-market price.

The Nova mostly delivers connected that promise, offering a level of gaming capacity that punches good supra its weight. This instrumentality flies done high-end games connected apical settings, and though its 10.9-inch 144Hz IPS LCD isn’t nan champion surface connected nan market, it is capable to support up pinch nan tablet’s monstrous Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version processor. That’s bully news for immoderate games that tin deed 120fps aliases higher.

There is nan flimsy consciousness that Nubia hasn’t rather thought this full gaming tablet point through, though. For example, you person to fishy that committed gamers will beryllium pairing up a Bluetooth controller, truthful a kickstand aliases a bundled-in lawsuit pinch a guidelines would person been useful.

Elsewhere, while capacity is highly impressive, our gaming benchmarks propose that nan Nova Tablet isn’t rather arsenic unchangeable crossed extended intensive sessions arsenic you mightiness hope. It’s thing to interest astir pinch today’s astir precocious games, though, wherever everything flies.

Meanwhile, Nubia’s civilization UI continues to request work, though Game Space remains a coagulated measurement to tweak and optimize your gaming experience.

All successful all, nan Red Magic Nova Tablet comes crossed arsenic an highly capable, keenly priced tablet that possibly hasn’t yet reached its last form. Those looking for nan champion tablet capacity for little than $500/ £500 should decidedly see it, and we’re excited to spot really Nubia’s Red Magic sub-brand refines and develops its gaming tablet imagination successful early products.

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: value and availability

• From $499/ £439
• Open readiness from October 16, 2024

The Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet went connected waste connected October 16, 2024, though astatine nan clip of writing, banal has tally retired owed to precocious demand, and nan instrumentality is listed arsenic being disposable to pre-order connected Red Magic's charismatic website. Red Magic has, however, told TechRadar that banal will beryllium replenished successful November.

Nubia’s Red Magic sub-brand has ever supplied outstanding worth for money, and that continues to beryllium nan lawsuit pinch its first world gaming tablet. Pricing starts from conscionable $499/£439 for nan exemplary pinch 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

There’s besides a second, much premium exemplary pinch 16GB of RAM and 512GB of retention disposable for $649 / £559.

You won’t find different Android-based tablet pinch this level of capacity for specified a debased price. The OnePlus Pad 2 gets closest, offering nan aforesaid Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset and a likewise swift 144Hz show astatine a value of £499.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE gets person to nan Red Magic connected price, starting from £449. However, it doesn’t moreover attack nan Nova Tablet connected earthy performance.

It’s imaginable to bargain a tablet that outstrips nan Red Magic Nova Tablet for earthy performance, but you’ll request to move complete to squad Apple to do so. Even then, nan mighty M2-powered iPad Air, which starts from $599 / £599, sports a puny 60Hz display, and lacks nan Red Magic’s meaty cooling strategy for sustained gaming.

• Value score: 5/5

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: specs

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: design

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

• Standard tablet style and size pinch mostly metallic body
• Signature semi-transparent model and RGB
• No 3.5mm headphone jack
• Would use from a bundled lawsuit aliases an integrated kickstand

Nubia’s Red Magic gaming phones are beautiful chunky and angular, but nan Nova’s creation is much successful statement pinch what you’d expect from a regular tablet. It’s sewage that acquainted flat-edged shape factor, pinch an all-metal assemblage and tightly rounded corners.

At 7.3mm, this isn’t nan thinnest tablet connected nan market, but nor is it distractingly thick. By nan aforesaid token, a weight of 530g is only a small heavier than nan Samsung Galaxy S23 FE – though Nubia’s usage of nan connection ‘dainty’ connected its website is simply a spot of a stretch.

It’s only erstwhile you move nan Nova Tablet complete and look astatine nan backmost that it makes its gaming aspirations known. Nubia has applied its acquainted semi-transparent decorativeness to nan bladed set moving betwixt nan camera module and nan other separator of nan tablet.

Those aren’t existent components you tin spot done nan transparent material, conscionable a fancy spot of circuitry accented by a golden color. You besides get a small sketch sketching retired nan soul power pipe, pinch nan words ‘Cooling System’ helpfully printed connected it. Nubia has besides advertised nan Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version spot successful a akin manner.

One genuine constituent connected show is nan cooling fan, which tin beryllium seen alongside nan rear camera. This lights up successful afloat RGB erstwhile successful use, arsenic do nan words ‘Red Magic’ successful nan other corner. It’s not precisely subtle by normal standards, but comparative to nan wider gamer aesthetic, it’s each rather low-key.

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

The tablet feels bully to handle, pinch a powerfulness cardinal partially recessed connected nan near edge. This doubles arsenic a fingerprint sensor, and it performs quickly and reliably. As always, it’s ne'er rather arsenic intuitive an acquisition arsenic nan aforesaid strategy connected a smartphone, but location is besides a basal facial nickname strategy successful place.

I’m a small puzzled by nan omission of a 3.5mm headphone jack connected nan Red Magic. Given nan size and thickness of nan tablet and its gaming focus, providing nan intends for latency-free individual audio would look for illustration an evident step.

Indeed, it feels arsenic if Nubia hasn’t rather deed upon nan last shape of nan gaming tablet conscionable yet. It makes consciousness that nan Nova lacks nan capacitive aerial trigger buttons of, say, nan Red Magic 9S Pro, arsenic gamers are going to beryllium pairing it up pinch a Bluetooth controller alternatively than holding it for illustration a telephone (though nan thought of immoderate rear-mounted capacitive controls is an intriguing one).

With this successful mind, I’d reason that having a lawsuit pinch a decent kickstand would beryllium much than a bully other here, entering into ‘must-have’ territory. The institution assures maine that an optional screen should beryllium disposable for nan Nova Tablet’s world motorboat (alongside a stylus), but I wonderment if specified a point should travel arsenic standard, moreover if that meant a somewhat higher asking price. This feels for illustration nan benignant of tablet that would really use from one. There’s moreover a lawsuit to beryllium made for nan instrumentality itself having a built-in kickstand, alternatively for illustration nan Nintendo Switch.

• Design score: 3.5/5

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: display

• 10.9-inch IPS LCD pinch 2.8K resolution
• Rapid 144Hz refresh rate
• 550 nits highest brightness

The Red Magic Nova Tablet employs a 10.9-inch display, which doesn’t consciousness arsenic ample arsenic it erstwhile did. Not pinch nan likes of nan OnePlus Pad 2 and nan Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus bursting past nan 12-inch mark.

It’s bully and crisp astatine 1800 x 2880 (Nubia calls this solution ‘2.8K’), but nan stand-out spec is simply a 144Hz refresh rate. The OnePlus Pad 2 besides hits this mark, but it’s not what you’d telephone a emblematic refresh complaint for a tablet. True, astir mobile games won’t moreover deed nan heady heights of 120Hz, but it’s bully to spot a small headroom present nonetheless.

This refresh complaint is paired pinch an 840Hz touch sampling rate, which intends that it’s bully and responsive for those speedy multiplayer action games, should you not beryllium utilizing a paired Bluetooth controller.

Image value is coagulated alternatively than spectacular. What pinch this being an IPS LCD, it lacks nan popular and punch of an OLED, but that’s still not nan benignant of constituent you’ll typically find successful a mid-priced tablet.

I would person liked nan Nova to get a small brighter, though. Nubia cites a apical brightness of 550 nits, which is fine. In applicable terms, I often recovered myself cranking it up to nan apical brightness moreover erstwhile viewing nan tablet indoors. This yielded a comfortable viewing experience, but a small much would person been invited to thief flooded those instances of glare aliases reflectiveness.

The surface is flanked by 4 symmetrically arranged speakers, pinch assistance from DTS-X Ultra Sound for a alleged “3D audio experience”. The resulting output is clear and loud, though we’re not talking astir thing approaching iPad value present which, fixed that value tag, is wholly understandable.

• Display score: 3.5/5

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: performance

• Slightly faster Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 ‘Leading Version’ chip
• 12GB aliases 16GB RAM of LPDDR5X RAM
• 256GB aliases 512GB UFS 4.0 storage

Nubia has utilized nan aforesaid Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version spot present that powers its latest gaming smartphone, nan Red Magic 9S Pro. This is simply a somewhat overclocked type of nan spot that runs astir of nan best Android phones successful 2024. In different words, it’s 1 of nan very champion mobile chips connected nan market. In benchmarking terms, it’ll apical aliases astatine slightest lucifer thing moving connected Android, and you’ll request to put successful an Apple M2-powered iPad Air aliases an M4-powered iPad Pro to flat-out hit it.

General capacity is unimpeachable, particularly pinch either 12 aliases 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM backing it up. I’m testing nan apical spec, and I couldn’t make it sweat astatine each successful wide usage.

Of course, it’s not successful regular scenarios that this tablet needs to beryllium judged. This is simply a instrumentality that’s built for gaming performance, and location isn’t overmuch to interest astir connected that beforehand either.

It’ll tally some Genshin Impact and Wreckfest on maxed-out graphical settings pinch much aliases little cleanable fluidity. That’s to beryllium expected, because some of those games are a fewer years aged now.

This speaks to a wider rumor pinch dedicated mobile gaming devices. Mobile games themselves haven’t really pushed immoderate method boundaries for rather immoderate clip – astatine slightest not connected Android – while mobile processors proceed to get much and much powerful. The extremity consequence is that moreover a half-decent mid-range smartphone tin play these much visually opulent games beautiful well.

Where these gaming devices can set themselves isolated is pinch sustained performance. Those top-notch off-the-shelf chips, erstwhile paired pinch bespoke cooling systems, tin tally faster for longer. To that end, Nubia has equipped nan Red Magic Nova Tablet pinch a 20,000 RPM cooling fan.

Interestingly, you don’t get nan accompanying unfastened vent of nan Red Magic smartphone series. This instrumentality alternatively uses nan other soul measurement to create an extended but closed loop for cooling. Allied to that is simply a nine-layer cooling system, together pinch a 103mm-long 3D power pipe.

It each sounds very impressive, but I was a small concerned astir nan capacity stableness of nan Red Magic Nova Tablet. I ran a mates of 3D Mark Stress Tests, which simulate extended gaming capacity done 20 consecutive minute-long graphical tests, pinch nan tablet group to maximum gaming capacity via nan Game Space UI.

The results were mixed. The high-end Solar Bay Stress Test, successful particular, ranged from 72% (fairly stable) to 26.5% (downright unstable), indicating that astatine slightest immoderate grade of throttling is taking spot complete time. Switching betwixt Rising and Balanced capacity modes didn’t look to make immoderate quality here, either.

Even that apical people of 72% is acold from blistering. It’s astir what I sewage pinch nan caller Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus – a tin performer for sure, but besides not a gaming master pinch a peculiarly extended cooling system. True, nan Red Magic scored higher marks successful general, but it was nary much accordant pinch it. I should besides statement that nan tablet would occasionally tally uncomfortably basking by nan extremity of these tests.

Interestingly, I recovered likewise less-than-stellar results successful these tests connected nan Red Magic 9S Pro smartphone. No different tablet aliases telephone bid has specified a meaty cooling system, truthful could this bespeak immoderate inherent thermal limitations pinch nan overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version?

We should ever bring it backmost to nan games regardless, and successful real-world use, I didn’t tally into immoderate throttling issues erstwhile gaming for extended spells. After an hr of Wreckfest moving connected maximum graphical settings, I didn’t announcement immoderate large driblet successful framework rate.

Nubia has included a azygous 50MP camera connected nan rear of nan phone. Suffice it to say, if nary tablet is peculiarly awesome for taking pictures, past a mid-priced gaming tablet decidedly shouldn’t beryllium relied upon. It’s an appropriately bare-bones offering pinch nary OIS, though it does astatine slightest support 4K video astatine 30fps.

The 20MP selfie camera is likewise limited, though astatine slightest Nubia hasn’t resorted to utilizing a unspeakable under-display example, for illustration pinch its smartphones. It’ll do good for video calls.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: software

• Red Magic OS 9.5 connected Android 14
• Ugly but functional UI
• Game Space UI lets you fine-tune your gaming setup

Software has ever been a spot of a weakness pinch Red Magic devices, and that hasn’t changed pinch nan modulation to a larger tablet shape factor. You’re getting nan aforesaid Red Magic OS 9.5 that ran connected nan Red Magic 9S Pro smartphone, layered complete nan aforesaid Android 14 OS.

It’s not an charismatic UI, contempt Nubia having corrected a batch of its worst aspects specified arsenic clumsy screen-filling widgets and poorly translated text. It still feels a small unfinished, arsenic evidenced by nan overseas syntax-mangling Game Space notification.

I’d alternatively not person to woody pinch Nubia’s civilization provender to nan near of nan main location screen, which pulls successful randomly chosen news stories, arsenic good arsenic nan benignant of crippled recommendations nary self-respecting gamer would entertain.

On a akin point, location are 2 folders dedicated to Hot Apps and Hot Games connected nan location screen. Needless to say, nary of nan applications contained wrong look remotely ‘hot’.

With each that said, Red Magic OS 9.5 is perfectly soft and functional. It runs astatine a consistently speedy lick, and doesn’t flood nan location surface pinch third-party apps. Yes, there’s an extraneous web browser, and yes, Booking.com sneaks its measurement successful again. But some are astatine slightest stashed distant successful nan app tray.

There’s nary beingness move to activate Nubia’s Game Space app here, dissimilar pinch nan brand’s gaming phones. It’s still there, though, moving on successful nan inheritance while playing games, arsenic good arsenic being accessible from nan drop-down notification menu.

You tin usage this app to tweak fan, CPU, and GPU settings, and to group up surface recording. You tin besides tweak surface sensitivity settings here, arsenic good arsenic play astir pinch surface ratios, among different things. It’s a powerful instrumentality for gamers looking to group their favored crippled up conscionable so.

Ultimately, Red Magic OS 9.5 is simply a perfectly functional UI that’s easy capable to activity with, if reliable to genuinely love.

• Software score: 3.5/5

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet review: artillery life

• 10,100mAh battery
• 10 hours of ray gaming is possible
• 80W charging gets it from 0 to 100% successful an hour

Nubia has equipped nan Red Magic Nova Tablet pinch a monstrous 10,100mAh battery. That’s bigger moreover than that of nan OnePlus Pad 2, which is simply a bigger device.

The charismatic estimate for artillery life present is up to 10 hours of uninterrupted gaming connected a azygous charge. However, this would presumably beryllium pinch nan show refresh complaint group to 60Hz, nan brightness kept comparatively low, and a reasonably undemanding crippled being played. I fishy that this isn’t a peculiarly typical script for your mean committed gamer.

For my ain usage, pinch nan brightness and refresh complaint cranked up to maximum, I couldn’t get anyplace adjacent that figure, sloppy of nan game. After 30 minutes of Warzone Mobile, nan artillery life had dropped by 17%, which maps retired to astir 3 hours of gaming.

Even pinch lighter fare, I couldn’t get adjacent to that stated figure. After 30 minutes of Slay nan Spire, that percent had dropped by 12%, suggesting it would person lasted 4 hours.

In much normal usage, pinch a small ray gaming, immoderate web browsing, and ray app usage, you could very good get done a afloat moving time connected a azygous charge.

With specified a ample cell, there’s ever nan interest astir charging times. Nubia has mitigated this pinch 80W charging support, and it moreover includes nan ceramic successful nan box.

I couldn’t rather lucifer Nubia’s estimate of a afloat complaint successful 55 minutes, but it still only took a smidgen complete an hr successful my testing. A speedy 15-minute scatter sewage it to 36%.

• Battery score: 4/5

Should I bargain nan Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet?

Buy it if...

Don't bargain it if...

Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet: besides consider

How I tested nan Nubia Red Magic Nova Tablet

• Review trial play = 1 week
• Testing included = Everyday usage, including web browsing, societal media, photography, video calling, gaming, streaming video, euphony playback
• Tools utilized = Geekbench 6, GFXBench, 3DMark, autochthonal Android stats, bundled Nubia 80W powerfulness adapter

First reviewed: October 2024