It’s getting harder to deny the fact that gaming tablets are on the rise. These aren’t the best tablets ever, but they offer lots of processing power in a portable form, without all the bells and whistles of a standard slate. Think a gaming phone, but bigger. And I’ve just found a new love.
I’m on the ground at MWC 2026, a mobile tech conference which has seen a few gaming gadgets exhibited. I’ve seen the pint-sized Lenovo Legion Tab (Gen 5), and Nubia Neo 5 GT gaming phone, and both seemed great. I’ve also seen plenty of other powerful devices like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and the understated Honor Magic 8 Pro. But what’s really drawn my eyes is the Red Magic Astra.
This isn’t even a new device; the gaming tab, from Nubia’s gaming-focused sub-brand, has been on sale for at least half a year. But when I got to see all these new mobile gaming powerhouses back-to-back, I understood why this slate isn’t one gaming fans should be sleeping on.
Astra? I barely know ‘er!
The Red Magic Astra is the gaming brand’s second gaming tab, after the Nova, and was released in 2025. A ‘Golden Saga Limited Edition Bundle’ was recently unveiled, with some extra protection and cooling perks, but deep down it’s the same thing.
If you need a refresher on this brand, Red Magic is the gaming arm of Nubia, which is a ZTE-owned phone brand. It mostly puts out chunky but powerful handsets like the Red Magic 11 Pro, though I’m a big fan of Nubia’s wider releases thanks to how wacky they can be. Another of its MWC releases was a Van Gogh Starry Night-inspired model of its flagship Z80 Ultra.
One of the big draws to me on the Red Magic Astra has got to be the display: it’s a 9.06-inch OLED panel with a 1504 x 2400 resolution and 165Hz refresh rate. Nice. Your entertainment is complete with dual speakers that support DTS:X Ultra, which creates 3D surround sound (up and down, as well as left and right).
As a gaming device, it’s naturally pretty powerful: it packs 2025’s top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, as well as between 12GB and 24GB RAM, depending on which version you opt for. That’s right: more RAM than your average PC, on a budget handheld.
When I say ‘budget’, I’m talking $499 / £439 (about AU$900) for the base model, up to $849 / £739 (roughly AU$1,400) for the 24GB RAM and 1TB storage model. At the budget end, that’s really affordable.
Something else I liked about the phone is that it has a switch, and toggling it sends you straight into the gaming mode, making it much quicker to silence other apps and boot up a title.
It cuts straight to the point: this is a slate for gaming. No, Red Magic’s not trying to sell you a tie-in stylus or keyboard case or weird AI feature. The only accessories are protective folios and screen protectors
Nubia has game
Gaming phones aren’t in vogue now; a couple of years ago, Lenovo was making feature-packed Legion mobiles, Xiaomi’s Black Magic was pumping out budget blasters that could offer stunning performance, and Asus was trying to make a ROG Phone happen. Now they’re all gone, and Red Magic is one of the few gaming device brands on the market.
I respect the dedication to the bit, but I respect more what Astra’s going for. Red Magic clearly understands the point of a gaming tablet: people want something substantially bigger than their smartphone (I don’t think the Legion Tab is big enough), but not so big that it dwarfs their iPad Pro. When I played around with the Astra at MWC, I found it the perfect middle size. Goldilocks would love it.
More than that, a gaming slate needs lots of performance but, crucially, a big battery and solid cooling tech. These are all, thankfully, part of Astra’s sales pitch. The device has, according to Red Magic, 13-layer ICE-X cooling; while that name could mean anything, the fact that it’s a selling feature of the slate shows that cooling is important to the brand. In the MWC show room, nothing was cool, so I couldn’t test this out.
As someone who games on their tablet more than their phone, I see these devices being fantastic alternatives to gaming mobiles for buyers. They give you a portable powerhouse for your chosen title, for a low price, and one that won’t stop you from calling or making texts once it runs out of battery. I can see budget-conscious buyers save money by picking up the best cheap phone and a gaming tablet, rather than one expensive powerful smartphone.
So the Astra was a real gaming highlight from MWC, despite some hot competition, and that rivalry is only going to continue. Not only did Legion offer its own newest tablet, but it showed a folding gaming tablet concept, which could bend down to become more portable. I wasn’t too impressed by this, as it seemed incredibly fragile, but that’s par for the course for a concept device so I can’t dock points.
Black Shark is also coming back with a gaming tablet, and Lenovo’s Legion apparently has more on the way, so the gaming tablet niche is in a good place right now. But that’s all the better for Red Magic and whatever it does after the Astra; competition like this always makes devices better.
TechRadar is on the show floor for this year’s MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona, Spain, and we’ll be covering the latest news from some of the biggest names in mobile, computing, fitness and more.
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tom.bedford@hotmail.co.uk (Tom Bedford)
