Nothing has spent years building hype around transparent design language, teasing everything from phones to eventual tablets with their signature see-through aesthetic. But while Carl Pei’s company was busy perfecting LED dot matrices and translucent cases, RedMagic quietly dropped the Astra with a full transparent strip down its back panel, complete with faux circuit board details that scream “look at my internals.” The visual trickery works surprisingly well, creating an impression of technological prowess that feels perfectly aligned with a gaming tablet’s purpose. Those faux components tap into the same tech enthusiast psychology that made transparent Game Boys and iMacs cultural phenomena in the late 90s. Sometimes being first to market matters more than being authentic, and RedMagic has effectively claimed the transparent tablet territory before Nothing could plant their flag.
The transparent strip serves as eye candy on what might be the most compelling compact gaming tablet of 2025. RedMagic has packed the Astra with hardware that puts most full-sized tablets to shame, wrapped it in a 9-inch form factor that actually feels manageable for handheld gaming, and priced it aggressively enough to make the iPad Mini look overpriced and underpowered. The Astra doesn’t pretend to be for everyone; it knows exactly what it wants to be: a gaming powerhouse that happens to work as a tablet, rather than a tablet that kinda sorta plays games. This focused approach pays dividends across every aspect of the device, from the display technology to the thermal management system. The result feels like a cohesive product rather than a collection of specs thrown together to hit marketing checkboxes.
Designer: RedMagic
Snapdragon 8 Elite sits at the heart of this thing, backed by configuration options that border on excessive. The base model starts with 12GB of LPDDR5T RAM, but you can spec it all the way up to 24GB if you’re the type who keeps forty browser tabs open while streaming gameplay. Storage options run from 256GB to 1TB, all using UFS 4.1 Pro for the kind of read/write speeds that make app launches feel instantaneous. These numbers matter for gaming in ways they simply don’t for scrolling Instagram or watching YouTube. The difference between 8GB and 16GB of RAM becomes immediately apparent when switching between demanding games without losing your place. RedMagic’s custom RedCore R3 Pro coprocessor handles gaming-specific optimizations separately from the main CPU, similar to how Apple’s Neural Engine offloads AI tasks. This architectural decision keeps the main processor free to focus on rendering frames rather than juggling background tasks.
The 9.06-inch OLED panel hits that sweet spot where text remains readable but the screen doesn’t become unwieldy during extended gaming sessions. The 165Hz refresh rate actually matters for competitive mobile gaming, providing the kind of smooth motion that can mean the difference between landing shots and watching respawn timers. Peak brightness reaches 1,600 nits, with typical brightness around 1,100 nits, making this one of the brightest tablet displays you can buy. Outdoor gaming becomes genuinely viable, even in direct sunlight. Color accuracy appears solid based on early impressions, though RedMagic isn’t targeting creative professionals who need perfect color calibration. The touch sampling rate of 240Hz ensures that your inputs register immediately, crucial for twitch-based games where milliseconds matter.
RedMagic has implemented a 13-layer thermal system that keeps the Astra comfortable even during marathon gaming sessions. The combination of vapor chambers, graphite sheets, and strategic heat dissipation means you’re not dealing with uncomfortable hot spots along the back panel where your hands rest. Early testing suggests the cooling system prevents the kind of thermal throttling that kills performance on other compact tablets. Frame rates stay consistent, touch response remains snappy, and the device doesn’t turn into a hand warmer after an hour of intensive gaming. The cooling system maintains surface temperatures below 38°C even under sustained load, compared to competitors that regularly hit 43-45°C. For a tablet this thin (8.3mm), that’s genuinely impressive engineering that required rethinking component placement rather than just slapping on bigger heat sinks.
An 8,200 mAh battery might sound excessive for a 9-inch tablet, but it makes perfect sense when you consider the power draw of that Snapdragon 8 Elite running at full tilt. Real-world usage suggests around 8-10 hours of gaming, depending on brightness levels and network activity, with media consumption pushing closer to 30+ hours. Fast charging support at 65W means downtime stays minimal even when you do drain the battery. A full charge takes about 70 minutes, with 50% capacity reached in roughly 25 minutes. The charging speeds aren’t groundbreaking by 2025 standards, but they’re adequate for getting back into games quickly during short breaks. RedMagic also implemented bypass charging, allowing the tablet to run directly off wall power during extended gaming sessions, preserving battery health by reducing charge cycles. The battery management system includes temperature monitoring that adjusts charging rates based on internal conditions, preventing the kind of heat-related degradation that plagues many gaming devices.
RedMagic’s Game Space enables performance modes that let you prioritize frame rate over battery life, or dial things back for longer sessions. Fan controls, when connected to external cooling accessories, give you manual control over thermal management. Do Not Disturb modes block notifications during gameplay without affecting background processes. The console mode deserves mention for anyone interested in living room gaming. Connect a controller, hook up to an external display, and the Astra transforms into something that feels more like a portable console than a tablet. The software automatically adjusts UI elements for larger screens, and supports multiple controller profiles for different games. Game Space also includes frame rate monitoring, network latency tracking, and GPU/CPU usage stats for the performance-obsessed.
Strip away the transparent panel and you’re left with a tablet that feels premium without the typical gaming device aggression. Port placement makes sense for gaming, with USB-C positioned where charging cables won’t interfere with hand placement. The quad speaker system delivers surprisingly rich audio with actual stereo separation, crucial for positional audio cues in competitive games. The overall aesthetic walks a fine line between gaming credibility and mainstream appeal. The Astra clearly identifies as a gaming device, but it won’t embarrass you in a business meeting the way some RGB-laden gaming gear might. The matte finish on the back panel resists fingerprints admirably, maintaining its clean look even after hours of handling. The subtle RedMagic logo and minimal branding show restraint unusual for gaming hardware, which typically screams its gamer credentials through aggressive styling and excessive logos.
Pricing puts the Astra in direct competition with premium compact tablets while offering significantly more performance for gaming workloads. The iPad Mini costs more while delivering inferior gaming performance, and most Android alternatives lack the combination of display quality, cooling, and battery life that RedMagic has achieved here. The question becomes whether RedMagic can overcome the ecosystem advantages that Apple enjoys. Android gaming has improved dramatically in recent years, with many console-quality titles making their way to the platform, but it still lacks some of the polish and exclusives found in Apple’s walled garden. The base model starts at $499 for 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, while the maxed-out 24GB/1TB variant hits $699.
The post RedMagic Astra Just Beat Nothing to the ‘Transparent’ Android Tablet (And That’s Not Even Its Best Feature) first appeared on Yanko Design.