RedMagic Nova Gaming tablet – Review

I have recently gone a bit tablet-focused here at Coolsmartphones Towers, reviewing two tablets from OnePlus, the OnePlus Pad Go and the more recent OnePlus Pad 2. Well, it is time for another one. This time around we are looking at the RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet. This is a flagship tablet that emphasises gaming as per the name and as such they have made some decisions for the design that are focused on this market.

I have already taken some time to go through the design in my unboxing post which can be found here along with a video of the proceedings. I have been using the Nova for a few weeks as my go-to media and gaming device and I thought it was a good time to pull my thoughts into a review. In case you missed the last post, I have included the video below.

So without further ado let’s check out the specs of the tablet.

Name	RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet
Dimensions	Height: 164.6mm Width: 253.3mm Depth: 7.3mm
Weight	530g
Display	Screen Type: IPS LCD Screen Size: 10.9 Inch Screen Resolution: 2.8K: 2880 x 1800 Maximum Screen Refresh Rate: 144 Hz Brightness: 550 nits Instant touch sampling rate up to: 840 Hz Touch sampling rate: 240 Hz Eye Protection – SGS Certified Ratio: 16:10
Back Material	Metal and glass
Colors	Midnight Black
Operating System	Android 14 with Redmagic OS 9.5
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Edition CPU Big Core Boosted to 3.4 GHz GPU Frequency Increased to 1 GHz
RAM	12GB or 16GB LDDR5X
Storage	256GB or 512GB UFS 4.0
Connectivity	WIFI 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax Bluetooth: BT 5.4
Battery	Si/C 5200 mAh, non-removable
Charging	100W wired, 60% in 15 min, 100% in 41 min (advertised), 66W wireless, 64% in 30 min (advertised), 5W reverse wired, Reverse wireless
Ports	USB 3.2, Type-C, Dual nano-SIM slot
Audio	MP3,FLAC,APE,AAC,OGG,WAV,AMR,AWB
Video	mp4/3gp/3gpp/3gpp2/webm
Image	bmp/jpeg/jpg/gif/png/webp/x-ms-bmp
Unlock Options	Fingerprint reader on Power key Face Unlock
Cooling	17173.4mm High-Speed Turbine Centrifugal Fan Fan Speed: 20,000 RPM 9-Layer Cooling 29400 mm² Large Area Under-Screen Aerospace Aluminum 9268 mm² Large Area Mainboard Superconducting Copper Foil 89114 mm² Large Area Integrated Aerospace Aluminum Shell Thermal Conductivity: 6000 W/m·K 103mm x 9.3mm 3D Heat Pipe
NFC	Yes
Cameras	Front: 20MP Back: 50MP
Audio	Immersive DTS-X Ultra Sound for a full range 3D audio experience 4 symmetrical speakers Dual 0815 motors for 4D vibration 3 built-in mics to pick up every sound
In box	Nova Tablet X1 80W Adapter X1 USB C to USB C Cable X1 Quick Guide X1 REDMAGIC Sticker X1

So there are some pretty good-looking specs and very similar in some regard to the OnePlus Pad 2 I reviewed recently. There are some significant differences, which I will go into more detail about later on in this review.

Given the gaming credentials of RedMagic and the previous phones that I have used, (RedMagic 9 Pro) I am not that surprised about the specs that are being shown above. What is the real crux here is how the specs transform into the actual use of the Nova tablet. I have to say that it is are great-feeling tablet to use for gaming both in that hand and on a stand. I was unable to try the optional accessories of the REDMAGIC Nova Magnetic Keyboard or the REDMAGIC Nova Stylus which would enhance the tablet experience to a Laptop replacement style device.

The tablet has a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:10 which allows for the device to be quite wide. This means that when you are using it for gaming and video the aspect ratio of the content being displayed fits the screen very well. This is of course dependent on the gaming developer or content creator ensuring that they have used either a dynamic aspect ratio setting for games or the widescreen format for the content.

I have found that YouTube and the likes of Prime Video, Netflix and Disney Plus all playback really well with minimal “letterboxing” This creates a nice viewing experience. and I can enjoy the content without distraction. If I am being completely honest this is something I haven’t really noticed on other tablets. The difference the lack of the letterboxing makes is significant.

The sound from the four side-mounted speakers is of good quality, and while it won’t necessarily impress the audiophiles, it is more than enough to listen to music and watch media without having to resort to using headphones. If you do wish to use headphones, then you will need to use either a pair of Bluetooth ones or a USB Type C to 3,5mm adaptor, as there is no included headphone jack here, which is hardly surprising.

While talking about ports we have only one real port to speak of and that is of course the USB Type C that I have already mentioned. This will support Audio and Video out as well as fast data transfer and up to 8oW fast charging if used with the appropriately rated charger. The charger in my box was of the two-prong type which is not correct for me in the UK so I have not tested this for charging speed with the bundled charger, it is however nice that we still get a bundled charger as this is now absent from most tablets these days. The Video output does not have any fancy “desktop modes” like you see on Samsung and Honor tablets. Hopefully, this is something that will be implemented as a core Android feature in the next version of Android which I expect the Nova to get however this can be confirmed as it hasn’t been officially stated by Nubia (they own the RedMagic brand).

I did mention that the USB Type C was the only real port as we do also have the Pogo Pins on the bottom edge of the tablet to allow the connection of the Magnetic Keyboard. I am not certain what goes through this connection as I don’t have the keyboard to test. I would expect there is some sort of communication through the connection, even if it is just a way of triggering the connection to Bluetooth to activate then it is something. What I have been able to confirm is that there is no battery on board the keyboard so it is being powered by the Pogo pins connection (thanks Reddit).

Lastly, there is also a magnetic section on the top of the tablet which is presumably for mounting and charging the Nova Stylus which is also an optional accessory.

So that covers the externals but I am keen to delve into the guts of the device at least as much as I can without taking it apart, I will leave that to Zack from JerryRigEverything. There are a couple of things I want to point out that stand out to me as key points.

-: PC level Heatpipe technology

The Nova uses a combination of a 103mm x 9.3mm 3D heat pipe conductive thermal paste and the 17173.4mm High-Speed Turbine Centrifugal Fan to allow air to circulate around the tablet to create a cooling system that improves the cooling of internals by 30%. This air is internally circulated and is not subject to exhausts or intakes like we have seen before from RedMagic so I was dubious of the effectiveness of the system. I can say that from my time with the tablet I have not experienced any excessive heat build-up during gaming or media playback.

Of course, this cooling system is aided massively by the 9 layers of heat dissipation that are built into the very core of the device. It uses heat dissipating materials as heat syncs in three places, the Mainboard Superconducting Copper Foil which has a surface area of 9,268mm, an Under-Screen Aluminium plate with 29,400mm surface area and finally the aluminium body/shell which measures 89,114mm surface area.

This allows for a lot of heat to be let out of the system without the need for an exhaust port. The lack of an exit port or indeed intake port means that the chances of dust getting into the system are very low which is a bonus as this was a concern I had with the RedMagic 9 Phone

-: Snapdragon Chipset

Next, I want to talk about what is powering the Nova Tablet. We are looking at the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading edition which is the cream of the crop when it comes to the 8 Gen 3 Generation. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version is essentially an overclocked variant of the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Here’s a breakdown of the key differences:

• CPU Clock Speed: The Leading Version boosts the clock speed of the primary Cortex-X4 core from 3.3GHz in the standard version to 3.4GHz. This translates to slightly higher performance in CPU-intensive tasks.
• GPU Clock Speed: The Adreno 750 GPU in the Leading Version operates at 1.0GHz, compared to 900MHz in the standard version. This results in improved graphics performance and smoother gaming experiences.

Essentially all this means is that you will get a very slight bump in CPU and graphically intensive tasks but this will only be noticed by the most die-hard users.

I have run a comparison using 3D Mark between the Nova Tablet and the OnePlus Pad 2 to show these differences. For the purposes of the test the tablets were 11… fully charged and also had all other background apps closed (at least as much as possible), they were also running at their highest performance settings as well.

Here are the results of the Wild Life Extreme test

• OnePlus Pad 2 4576
• RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet 5374

here are the I’m ages of the test results for each device.

As you can see there is a significant difference with the Nova coming out on top. Have I noticed this is real-world use when I have been gaming, well no, but I am not the most demanding of gamers in the world so that is hardly surprising. What I can say is that gaming is smooth and pleasing. I also prefer the experience on the Nova over the Pad 2. This is probably down to the design of the tablet and its shape.

-: 10100 mAh battery

The one other area I want to cover is the battery as this is a massive battery one of the biggest I have ever seen on a tablet. It is 10,100mAh which is massive it is larger than the Pad 2. It also sports a dual-cell design allowing for faster recharging as previously mentioned. It will also support Pass through as well which will allow prolonged sessions without adding to the battery wear and tear.

All of these things create some rather compelling hardware features That means that this tablet should be up to all but the most demanding of tasks. However great hardware does not make for a great tablet a lot of the feel for that will come from the software.

Software

Fortunately apart from one big gripe the software that is on the Nova Tablet is very nice to use. It runs Android 14 at the time of writing and the skin being used is very slight without too much in the way of overzealous additions. With it being a gaming-focused tablet there are some nods to that which I will come onto in a moment. All the staples you would expect with Android 14 are present and correct and they all work well.

The biggest gripe I have is down to the way it is all scaled when you are in the UI. The grid size being used for icons and widgets cannot be changed from its default and this means that you cannot take advantage of the wider aspect ratio of the screen. This is almost criminal as the screen is as previously mentioned one of the high points of the device. When you are in some of the Google Apps they will accommodate for the widescreen aspect, Gmail will split to have your mail list on one side and the reading pane on the other for example.

But the home screen and app drawer seem to be cut down to a 4:3 aspect ratio when being held in landscape orientation which is how the design of the tablet suggests it should be used.

Don’t get me wrong RedMagic is not the only brand that is guilty of this but it just seems to be more obvious here and a shame as simply by increasing the grid size or reducing the scaling of icons etc it could be so much better. It is even more galling that the Grid size setting is absent from the display options, I have never seen this missing before.

However, once you get past this rather glaring (IMHO) issue then the rest of the tablet software is very good and clean. I counted less than 10 pre-installed bloatware apps which is really nice to see and less than from other brands. Yes, there are still some duplicate apps but nowhere near as many as you would get on a Samsung tablet. I was pleased to see that there are no additional Apps that have been shoehorned into existence only to allow RedMagic to force their own AI tool implementations down your throat.

The Nova makes use of Google’s inbuilt AI tools such as Gemini which work flawlessly and also picked up my subscription level with no issue. There is also no Gallery app relying solely on Google Photos which I am a huge fan of.

With this being a gaming tablet, you do, of course, have the de facto customisation apps, this time called Game Space. In a slight difference to the phones from RedMagic, there is no dedicated switch, and you can access this from the Quick Settings menu but not the app drawer, which is a bit strange, I thought. You can’t even get it up from the settings menu. However, once opened, you can tweak your settings to your heart’s content.

I found that using the tablet for gaming I was able to fully immerse myself into a game for a decent duration of time and there was no discomfort experienced from things like heat build-up or fatigue from holding the tablet. The screen has a as you would expect smooth feel to it which is important when using it as your main input for commands. There are two haptic motors in the lower right and left corners which allow an element of feedback in the game which are a nice touch as they add to the immersion feeling. i also found that the sound from the speakers was crisp and punchy throughout the session. I have not recorded frame rates etc as the games I have been playing were not exactly the most tasking titles but I never noticed any jarring effects. if you do want to see your metrics then you can enable a performance monitor overlay from the Game Space controls which are accessed from a swipe in from the right hand side whilst in a game environment.

All in all, I have been very pleased with this as a gaming tablet and I would be more than happy to use it as one. I have also been trying to use it for things other than gaming and I have found that it is suitable for use for light browsing and email work. However, this would be better suited to the addition of the keyboard case and pen which as I have mentioned I don’t have available to me. Where I have found that it has shone for me is the use of it as a media consumption device. I really like the widescreen aspect ratio which makes for a really nice viewing experience for movies and TV shows. Below is a comparison of the Nova against the Pad 2 from, now obviously the screen sizes are different but the actual area is taken up by the content is what I am focusing on. On the Nova, there are fewer black bars in the way which makes for a nicer viewing experience overall.

So that is the hardware and the software discussed let’s quickly go over the cameras.

There are two cameras one on the front and one on the rear. On the front we have got a 2oMP camera which is more than suitable for video calling etc, I have included a sample picture and video below for you to see what it is like.

In terms of the rear camera, we have got a 50MP unit which will support up to 10 x zoom but anything over 5x gets really messed up. There are different modes for your camera including Slow motion, Timelapse, Video(which can go up to Ultra HD 4k) Regular Photo, Panorama, Document, and Full Size (presumably a 50MP image, instead of an interpolated image with lower resolutiopn the normal photo mode will produce) Again I have taken some sample shots below for you to check out.

I also tried taking the below shot which was in difficult lighting conditions and it came out quite well, to be honest. I suspect that the camera has been lifted from the main shooter of the Redmagic 9 Pro as that was a fairly good camera sensor and the results do seem similar.

I would be happy to use this camera in pinch or if I had been given this tablet as a work tool and I had to capture some images of documents of wider landscape shots but like with all tablets you will undoubtedly have a better camera on your phone which will most likely be in your pocket already so best to use that over the tablet.

Well with that out of the way we have now got to come to some sort of a conclusion.

Conclusion

The Redmagic Nova Gaming Tablet is a powerful and well-designed device that excels in gaming and media consumption. Its impressive hardware, including the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Edition chipset and advanced cooling system, ensures smooth performance and comfortable extended use. The 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio provides an immersive viewing experience, further enhanced by the quality of the four side-mounted speakers.

While the software experience is generally positive, with minimal bloatware and a clean Android 14 implementation, the inflexible UI scaling is a notable drawback. The lack of a headphone jack and limited port selection might also be a concern for some users.

Overall, the Redmagic Nova Gaming Tablet is a strong contender in the gaming tablet market, offering excellent performance and a compelling widescreen display. However, the UI scaling issue and limited connectivity options prevent it from being a truly perfect device.

If I were in the market for a specific tablet for Android gaming and that was my main drive then I would certainly be considering the RedMagic Nova Gaming tablet however if productivity is your thing then a more square aspect ratio like the OnePlus Pad 2 may be more up your street One thing that I would certainly recommend is that whichever tablet you go for if you intend on doing any work get the keyboard case options as well.

You can buy the Redmagic Nova Gaming Tablet now from RedMagic’s website. if you are looking to get the accessories then these are also to be found on the same site. The tablet I have reviewed here was the 512GB 16GB RAM version and that can be bought for £559 once they have renewed the stock as is the case for the cheaper 256GB 12GB RAM version which sells for £439.