The RedMagic Nova is one of the best Android tablets I used in 2024

I precocious had a little acquisition pinch Samsung’s latest tablet. Starting astatine a cool $1,000, nan first sentiment that the Galaxy Tab S10+ elicited from maine was “Meh.” It isn’t precisely a sloth, but it lacks oomph. For that price, you tin bargain nan M4-powered iPad Pro, a overmuch amended woody for aggregate reasons.

So, are Android tablets doomed? No, and nan RedMagic Nova is simply a premier illustration of that. It costs half of what nan large boys retired location inquire for their high-end tablets, and yet, nan Nova still serves a specially-tuned type of Qualcomm’s yesteryear flagship silicon. It’s nan fastest tablet I’ve ever used, and paired pinch awesome artillery life, fantabulous gaming features, and a slayer price, it whitethorn conscionable beryllium 1 of 2024’s champion tablet choices.

RedMagic Nova specs

You’ve ne'er seen a tablet rather for illustration this

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The RedMagic Nova tablet captivates your attraction from nan get-go. The surprises statesman correct from nan unboxing experience. The institution ships an 80W charging ceramic wrong nan unit package, and based connected your location, you will get either nan EU aliases NA version.

In a world wherever brands (cough, Samsung and Apple, cough) person nan audacity of trading tablets that costs arsenic overmuch arsenic $1,200 but still load buyers pinch nan added costs of spending connected a charging brick, RedMagic is opinionated tall. To make matters better, nan RedMagic Nova starts astatine conscionable $499.

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But that’s conscionable nan start, arsenic nan Nubia-owned marque isn’t pulling immoderate punches successful immoderate halfway department. Let’s commencement pinch nan chassis, which is made wholly retired of aerospace-grade aluminum. The acheronian grey aluminum has an anodized finish, which feels really bully to touch.

It’s not astir arsenic slim arsenic nan M4 iPad Pro (7.3mm versus 5.3mm) and astir 17% heavier, tipping nan scales astatine 530 grams. The craftsmanship is really awesome here, particularly erstwhile you facet successful nan asking price. There are nary creaking parts, nan cuts are sharp, and nan subtle polish crossed nan corners adds to nan in-hand feel.

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The thickness tin besides beryllium attributed to nan thermal hardware, including a existent beingness instrumentality and a nine-layer cooling system. This full contraption works, but much connected that later successful nan capacity section.

Over nan years, I’ve grown rather wary of crisp edges, particularly connected ample and dense tablets, but nan inclination remains a mainstay. It’s beautiful refreshing to spot a mini subordinate for illustration RedMagic daring to deviate and past execute its imagination well.

The craftsmanship is really awesome here, particularly erstwhile you facet successful nan asking price.

The RedMagic Nova has subtly brushed edges angled astatine 45 degrees to connection a much cozy in-hand experience. At nan top, nan fingerprint sensor is integrated into nan powerfulness button.

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The standout constituent is nan transparent portion moving crossed nan camera lens, offering a glimpse of nan RedMagic Nova’s innards. This portion is not simply decorative, moreover though it looks stunning, successful nan aforesaid vein arsenic nan transparent aesthetics of nan Nothing smartphones.

The apical furniture is made retired of lens-grade aluminosilicate glass, which, truthful far, has managed to support scuff marks astatine bay contempt my unsmooth usage patterns. Underneath nan camera land is nan instrumentality cavity, lit by an RGB array that extends each nan measurement to nan RedMagic branding astatine nan bottom.

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Also, isolated from RedMagic and Asus, you won’t find immoderate mainstream marque that offers a tablet pinch each those snazzy light-up effects to waste nan “gamer” vibes. So, there’s that RGB cred, arsenic well.

Overall, nan RedMagic Nova will astonishment you pinch its coagulated engineering and unmistakably bold design. That’s thing I can’t opportunity for tablets hawked by mainstream brands, and this successful itself is rather a triumph for an upstart for illustration RedMagic.

A value display, pinch immoderate catches

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The Nova tablet offers a 10.9-inch show pinch a 2.8K (2880 x 1800 pixels) resolution, eclipsing nan iPad Air and nan Samsung Galaxy S10+ successful pixel density and sharpness. The facet ratio is your accustomed 16:10 format.

It’s an LCD sheet that delivers a highest brightness of 550 nits, higher than that of nan aforementioned Apple tablet. Where nan RedMagic tablet races acold up is nan refresh complaint figures, which guidelines astatine 144Hz.

To support up with gamers’ speedy reflex demands, nan touch sampling complaint has climbed to 840Hz. For comparison, nan touch sampling complaint of Asus’ ROG Phone 8 Pro only reaches 720Hz.

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The surface is sharp, and acknowledgment to nan precocious refresh rate, each UI relationship feels snappy. Compared broadside by side, moreover nan mighty M4 iPad Pro feels somewhat slow. Or possibly nan Apple tablet is normal, and nan RedMagic Nova is people faster.

It’s nan aforesaid benignant of fluidity that I usually get connected a telephone aliases tablet aft adjusting model animation, modulation animation, and animator long scales wrong nan developer options. Or possibly it’s nan lightweight package interface that is weaving its magic.

The show has a mates of oddities going on. To anyone who has knowledgeable nan deeper blacks of an OLED surface and nan vibrant colors, nan Nova’s surface will instantly guidelines out, but not successful a bully way.

Notice nan colour disparity and nan crushed protector details Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends

The blacks are not, well, black, and nan colour subject is besides somewhat off. The surface calibration present is beautiful cold, and to specified an grade that it takes a terrible deed connected nan contented colour reproduction.

Take, for example, this side-by-side comparison pinch nan iPad mini. Notice nan quality betwixt nan colour output, particularly nan highlights and saturation levels. That’s interesting, arsenic some nan tablets usage an LCD surface pinch akin highest brightness levels.

The show has a mates of oddities going on.

The chroma specifications are crushed aggressively successful nan protector regions. Third-party apps and Netflix database nan DRM support level astatine L1, pinch a catch. The DRM Info app mentions support for HDR and HLG, while nan Netflix app intelligibly says “None” for HDR capabilities.

iPad mini (left) and RedMagic Nova Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends

Another rumor is glare. The surface is rather reflective, and it could person been a tad brighter to equilibrium things out. However, you tin still publication contented connected it nether daylight without excessively overmuch squinting, though perspective adjustments would beryllium required from clip to time.

Indoors, this surface gets nan occupation done for its intended task. A mostly of mobile games retired there, and moreover those accessible done emulation platforms, don’t usually connection a ton of settings to specifically tie nan benefits of OLED aliases HDR compliance.

Touch consequence rates are impressive. Of nan astir half a twelve gaming enthusiasts who tried nan RedMagic Nova, they loved nan mobility clarity and silky soft interactions. For shooter games for illustration Call of Duty: Mobile, that operation tin make a existent difference.

Feature-rich package package

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The RedMagic Nova runs a mostly banal Android experience, and prevention for nan inferior apps, location isn’t overmuch third-party motto installed connected nan machine. There are a mates of clusters named Hot Apps and Hot Games, but these are simply pre-download shortcuts that tin beryllium easy removed.

The institution has only done a minimal occupation pinch reskinning Android 14 and now calls it RedMagic OS. However, nan OS offers galore devices baked astatine nan strategy level, successful summation to theming material, light, and sound effects. You perceive nan vroom of a sports car erstwhile you motorboat nan Game Space. And nan instrumentality besides triggers its ain motor sound. Call it dedication to nan craft!

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On nan connectivity front, we person Z Smart Cast, a wireless lane for casting nan tablet’s surface connected a TV aliases monitor. The larger surface becomes nan hub of activity, while nan tablet’s surface tin beryllium turned into a touchpad aliases power point.

It’s a operation and lucifer of Samsung’s DeX and nan iPad’s ain surface mirroring and hold systems. In wireless mode, location is immoderate expected lag, truthful it’s not perfect for fast-paced gaming. Thankfully, you tin besides spell pinch an HDMI aliases USB surface casting option.

Remember that RedMagic isn’t chasing a full-fledged desktop situation for work, truthful it lacks nan devices you would different get pinch DeX. This is simply a gaming tablet, and successful wired relationship mode, it does its intended occupation without immoderate hiccups.

This is simply a beautiful cool experience, 1 that comes without immoderate method hassles. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends

I hooked it up pinch my 24-inch gaming show and played my adjacent stock of Diablo Immortal and emulated games specified arsenic God of War. The acquisition was fantastic, and I didn’t tally into immoderate issues pinch framework complaint dissonance aliases random stutters.

The theming strategy offers a dedicated dashboard for nan ray portion astatine nan back. You tin alteration it for games, media playback, notifications, and different activities. You tin besides prime nan colors and effects to group nan full temper for each activity.

Similar to Samsung and OnePlus devices, a hidden floating sidebar offers speedy entree to inferior devices and often utilized apps. Additionally, a speedy shot strategy inspired by iPhones combines navigation and a fewer different strategy devices into a neat small cluster.

Wireless casting nan Red Magic OS connected a 144Hz monitor Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends

Moving complete to nan notifications shade, nan RedMagic Nova offers a fistful of speedy entree buttons for casting, instrumentality control, and ray portion switch, successful summation to nan accustomed group of shortcuts.

The prima of nan show is nan Game Space. It’s a neat small crippled launcher, but this is besides wherever you spot nan activity RedMagic has done for its gaming audience. At nan apical is RedMagic Time, a unified dashboard to entree each your in-game seizure files, neatly arranged successful a descent format for each game.

RedMagic has done a commendable occupation pinch nan software.

In nan Settings section, you tin separately power nan CPU and GPU capacity profiles, set instrumentality and signaling behavior, and customize surface attributes specified arsenic touch sampling rate, sensitivity, and stabilization, among others.

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Within nan Game Space, you tin customize keyboard/mouse and controller interactions for each game, some of which are accessible correct by nan commencement button. Casting controls are besides disposable successful nan aforesaid draw-out paper bundle for seamless launch.

Switching distant from nan crippled Game Lobby, there’s Super Base. Here, you get entree to Gravity X, wherever you tin create and prevention presets for beingness input devices. The mapping controls are besides accessible wrong a crippled by swiping to entree nan crippled assistant.

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Finally, there’s nan plug-in library, wherever you tin play pinch complete a twelve civilization devices that tin springiness you an separator successful games. For example, location is somatosensory manipulation, which lets you flick nan tablet successful your hands to execute an on-screen click. For games pinch crowded on-screen buttons, this 1 comes successful handy.

In shooter games, you tin alteration nan Audio and Visual Probes, which connection a guided item of nan action acold away, by circling nan audio and mobility activity. You don’t needfully person to whip retired nan scope to find nan action.

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There’s a dedicated sound equalizer, positive a Free Display plug-in that lets you set a game’s facet ratio. What I loved nan astir was nan easy cardinal remapping system, which saved maine nan hassle of dealing pinch dedicated controller apps.

Overall, RedMagic has done a commendable occupation pinch nan software, which is cleanable and loaded pinch meaningful gaming-first features. I wish nan desktop casting mode offered a fewer much tricks, but that’s not why personification is buying a tablet for illustration nan Nova, truthful nan omission makes sense.

Fast and basking performance

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Unhinged silicon throughput is what you bargain nan RedMagic Nova for, and it does present connected that front. You tin prime betwixt variants pinch 12GB and 16GB RAM and up to 512GB storage. The keyboard and stylus are sold separately.

Leading nan complaint present is nan Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version. Compared to nan regular version, this typical silicon is an overclocked trim that speeds up nan GPU to 1GHz, while nan premier Cortex X4 CPU halfway touches a highest wave of 3.4 GHz.

The champion portion is that you tin pat into each that firepower — if you are consenting to carnivore nan power tax. The tablet offers 3 capacity profiles by default: Rise, Eco, and Balance.

Diablo mode successful action. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends

But there’s a hidden Diablo mode, too. Compared to Rise mode (the apical system-level capacity preset), Diablo mode takes nan GPU wave from 500MHz to 1GHz, while nan CPU velocity goes from 2.3GHz to 3.4GHz.

Starting pinch AnTuTu benchmarks, nan RedMagic Nova topped nan GPU leaderboard pinch 876,442 points, eclipsing nan MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ and different Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 devices.

The wide people of complete 2 cardinal points put it up of mainstream options specified arsenic nan Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, and it only lags down a fewer different gaming-centric phones pinch nan Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 silicon.

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However, it still can’t rather drawback up pinch nan M4 silicon wrong nan iPad Pro. The Apple tablet had a lead of astir 21%, while nan GPU tally was besides up by a akin margin. Running nan 3DMark Wildlife Extreme Stress test, nan Nova raced past nan Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro and sat astatine nan apical of nan list. However, thing really absorbing happened here.

The nett tally was higher, and nan stableness was little erstwhile moving nan trial successful modular mode, but erstwhile overclocked successful Diablo preset, nan wide people fell slightly. Still, nan stableness went from 27.7% to 86%, which is intriguing.

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That’s a monolithic leap, though it comes astatine a cost. When nan CPU and GPU are moving astatine their highest frequencies, nan framework complaint change is minimal and beautiful uniform.

Even aft 20 successive loops, nan capacity stableness only drops by astir 8%. In Rise mode, aft nan 17th loop, nan tally takes a crisp plunge, and you onshore astatine astir one-third of nan maximum strategy output.

So, really do nan fans fresh into nan picture? Well, wrong 5 minutes of enabling nan fan, nan artillery somesthesia dropped from 44 degrees to 36 degrees Celsius. But successful overclock mode, things get toasty beautiful quickly.

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After a accent test, I measured nan outer somesthesia astatine 48 degrees and nan artillery somesthesia astatine 46 degrees. The solid portion runs really hot, and connected 1 occasion, it reached 51 degrees.

But those figures were recorded aft moving nan afloat suite of tests successful GFXBench. While playing games for illustration Zenless Zone Zero aliases Call of Duty: Warzone, nan mean temperatures didn’t climb supra 42 degrees range.

Realistically, you will consciousness nan warmth.

Realistically, you will consciousness nan warmth, but not capable to ditch nan tablet. Plus, nan cooldown effect is nan quickest I person seen connected a performance-oriented tablet, truthful there’s that.

Synthetic benchmarks are only 1 broadside of nan equation. At gaming, nan RedMagic Nova crushes it. I cherry-picked nan astir demanding titles retired there, and each azygous 1 of them performed admirably.

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For titles that tin touch 60 fps, nan mean scope ever hovered betwixt nan 56-60 fps mark. Running emulators, you tin easy get betwixt 30-45 fps, astatine slightest for nan PlayStation 2. Winlator, which is ace cranky pinch nan setup, besides delivers a playable acquisition of AAA titles.

If you’re chiefly concerned pinch mobile titles, for illustration autochthonal Android aliases emulation for PlayStation Portable (via PPSSPP) and retro platforms, nan RedMagic Nova will connection an enjoyable experience.

I mostly stuck pinch 6x-10x upscaling and had a bully clip pinch PSP games moving connected nan Vulkan graphics backend. That’s astir 4K solution equivalent, for reference. With nan Dolphin emulator, 4x is nan saccharine spot moving atop nan OpenGL model for Nintendo titles.

The instrumentality makes a quality successful quickly cooling nan chassis. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends

The acquisition translates good connected a ample surface utilizing Z Smart Cast successful wired mode, pinch controller and keyboard inputs. Feral’s Alien Isolation game, a reasonably demanding title, worked good successful a dependable 60 fps ballpark.

For cooling nan full kit, nan RedMagic Nova comes equipped pinch a nine-layer cooling system, which, speech from a 20,000 RPM fan, besides includes a power pipe, aerial duct, copper foil, insulation sheet, thermal gel, and an alloy array underneath nan screen.

The full strategy rises to nan occasion, much truthful astatine post-usage cooldown alternatively of keeping things consistently cool nether stress. Overall, if you are aft an Android tablet for gaming and emulation, nan RedMagic Nova is easy nan champion woody retired there.

Good artillery life, amended charging

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The RedMagic Nova comes equipped pinch a dual-cell 10,100mAh battery, which is bully for a tablet of its footprint. But what sets it isolated is nan charging speed, which makes consciousness fixed nan benignant of inferior you activity retired of it.

This slate supports 80W accelerated charging. The only tablet that comes adjacent to that fig is the OnePlus Pad 2, astatine 67W, while Samsung and Apple only scope adjacent to nan halfway mark.

I could get a 100% top-up from a blank slate successful astir 1 hr and 7 minutes. For a speedy run, you tin reliably spell from an quiet vessel to astir 40% level successful astir 20 minutes. For this tablet, it’s much of a necessity than a perk.

Depending connected nan benignant of crippled and what levels of graphics output you are expecting, nan artillery levels driblet alternatively haphazardly. Take, for example, nan mobile type of PUBG, which tin eat up to 12%-15% successful conscionable astir 30 minutes astatine highest framework complaint and ocular settings.

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In Diablo Immortal, nan driblet was somewhat little astatine astir 10%-11%. Now, those figures will alteration dramatically. For example, astir games play astir arsenic good successful Balanced mode arsenic they do successful nan overclocked Diablo mode, but nan artillery uptake varies by a patient margin.

Conversely, you whitethorn not needfully spot nan benignant of fps gains you are expecting by doubling nan GPU wave and expanding nan CPU timepiece velocity to its maximum limit. The business pinch nan Nova is alternatively unsocial successful much ways than one.

Compared to Android autochthonal games, emulated games return a heavier toll connected nan battery. But moreover while sticking pinch Android games, it depends wholly connected nan game’s ocular architecture connected conscionable really overmuch artillery it will suck up per session.

While playing PUBG Mobile, Diablo Mode consumed 13% of artillery astatine nan champion graphics presets successful 30 minutes, while Rise Mode utilized only 10% pinch soft graphics and delivered a reasonably bully 60fps experience.

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Interestingly, if you return things up a notch to 90 fps, nan artillery tie is adjacent crossed nan Rise and Diablo strategy profiles. If you scheme to chiefly prosecute successful gaming, you tin expect anyplace betwixt 3 and 5 hours of artillery life.

For days wherever you only activity casual gaming for short spells, nan tablet tin past a full day, but effort to reside down nan surface refresh complaint and brightness levels to execute that.

There are a mates of cool charging features successful nan discourse of heating. The first 1 is Turbo mode, which increases nan gait of charging but astatine nan costs of nan artillery moving hotter than usual.

Then, location is complaint separation. This 1 cuts disconnected entree to nan artillery erstwhile a charger is plugged. The full strategy is driven wholly by nan powerfulness delivered done nan USB-C port, which intends nan artillery doesn’t power up. This mode is perfect for agelong gaming sessions and should besides bode good for artillery wellness successful nan agelong run.

Should you bargain nan RedMagic Nova?

Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends

The RedMagic Nova is rather an easy recommendation, chiefly because it’s nan only merchandise of its benignant successful nan segment. For conscionable $499, you tin pat into nan afloat imaginable of a top-tier Qualcomm silicon, which is half nan competition’s existent inquire for specified a facility.

The build is great, and gaming enthusiasts will admit a patient bunch of innovative features. It acts much for illustration a mobile gaming console if you besides person a larger surface astatine your disposal and emotion emulation gaming.

The RedMagic Nova is rather an easy recommendation.

The RedMagic Nova is besides nan fastest-charging tablet, and nan power dissipation kit is reliable. The UI is besides clean. The only downsides are crushed colour output connected nan screen, garish package design, and power procreation courtesy of its capacity profiles.

Overall, nan RedMagic Nova ticks disconnected much boxes than almost immoderate slate successful its value bracket, and it does truthful successful style. For its target audience, it delivers connected nan aspects wherever it matters, and that’s a triumph astatine nan extremity of nan day.