Redmagic are making a name for itself with tech focused towards gamers. First there was the 9S Pro gaming smartphone – which we said “completely changed the mobile gaming market” – and now there’s the RedMagic Nova Gaming Tablet.
We were, quite simply, massively impressed with our time with the Nova – and in our mind it is the device of choice if you’re serious about your tablet gaming. Here’s why…
Out of the box
Out of the box the Nova stunned us instantly. Boasting a sleek futuristic look, it has a semi-transparent panel running the width of the rear and is weighty – without feeling like it’s too heavy so you can’t easily pop it in your bag.
There’s even a RGB-illuminated RedMagic logo and an RGB fan, along with the moniker “win more games” across the top. And that is no idle boast…but we’ll get to that later.
Basically this is a sleek looking device that doesn’t feel cheap and nasty like many Android tablets, and is also rugged enough to survive some small falls and knocks.
What are the key specs
We could throw lots of stats about how impressive the Nova is from a technical level, but let’s face it – that would only bore you. So when we say it’s powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen. 3 processor and boasts DTS-X audio with a four speaker setup all you really need to know is – this is a tablet that can handle almost any game you throw at it, and sounds fantastic while doing it.
There’s also a 10,100 mAh battery, which we found lasted an impressively long time considering the games we put it through. We estimated it lasted for nearly 8-9 hours playing a variety of titles. It does lose a little power when left on standby however, which is mildly disappointing.
How is it for gaming?
As touched upon earlier, we threw a fair few games at the Nova – and it handled them all with ease. Even the more graphically intensive titles there was no slowdown or lag.
More impressively though was that the tablet downloaded titles so quickly we’d barely tapped ‘install’ before they were on the tablet. The tablet itself is solid enough to feel like a good fit for gaming too, with touchscreen controls working perfectly on every title we played.
From fast paced casual fare that only involved a few gestures to larger scale strategy titles, we never felt like the Nova wasn’t the perfect place to be playing such a game. No mean feat.
When it comes to competitive and PvP gaming the Nova also steps up, with that “win more games” line being no idle boast.
We found in every competitive title we played we had a distinct edge over gamers using smartphones due to the Nova’s higher power and impressive screen. Even the superior sound output often made the difference in experiences where hearing every gunshot and explosion was essential.
Anything else?
There’s a lot to talk about with the Nova, so we do want to mention a few extra little bonus features it includes over more budget tablets.
Redmagic itself has added a range of features to elevate your gaming experience, accessed by swiping from either side of the screen.
You get access to overclocked performance modes, network prioritization, notification blocking, quick messaging and brightness locking. However there are even features like resize your game screen, and even automatic triggers for actions in games.
So, is it worth it?
The Nova is one of the most impressive tablets we’ve used for gaming, bar none.
Although some might find the gamer focused nature of the design off-putting don’t be fooled – there’s so much power under the hood here that is certainly not a device to be taken lightly. You can check it out for yourself by clicking here.
The good
- Superb for a range of games
- Huge number of gamer friendly extra features
- Superb design and feel
The bad
- Battery fading in standby is disappointing