RedMagic Astra 2 Packs Liquid Cooling Into a Gaming Tablet

RedMagic is putting a liquid cooling system into the 9.06-inch Astra 2 gaming tablet, pairing it with a custom vapor chamber and liquid-metal hardware. The approach is unusual for a tablet, but the company says it is designed to deliver stronger sustained performance without making the device excessively heavy.

Liquid cooling transfers heat away from components through a liquid medium, typically moving it toward fans that exhaust it from the system. RedMagic previously miniaturized the technology for its RedMagic 11 Pro gaming phone. In the Astra 2, the company calls the setup “AquaCore Cooling System 2.0” and says it should help the tablet maintain higher performance during extended gaming sessions.

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Credit: RedMagic

The tablet has relatively slim 4.9mm bezels and an OLED display, a panel type that generally produces more heat than a conventional LCD. Its screen supports a 2,400 × 1,504-pixel resolution, a maximum 185Hz refresh rate, and up to 1,100 nits of global brightness.

Astra 2 gaming hardware and cooling

RedMagic is also using Qualcomm’s current flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor. The company has added its RedCore R4 gaming chip, which is intended to help the Astra 2 sustain higher frame rates during play.

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That hardware puts additional pressure on the cooling system. Other gaming devices, including the Asus ROG Phone, have addressed the problem with bulky external fans. RedMagic’s approach keeps the cooling hardware inside the tablet’s thin frame instead.

The Astra 2 has already been sold in China under the name RedMagic Gaming Tablet 5. It is now headed to the U.S. with two configurations:

• $750: 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage
• $850: 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD

Global sales begin August 26, although RedMagic says customers can claim early-bird vouchers before the wider launch.

Apple may release a new 8.4-inch iPad mini later this year with an OLED display, but there is no indication that it will use a comparable cooling system. Bloomberg has previously reported that a next-generation iPad Pro, slated for 2027, will feature a vapor chamber for improved cooling.

Liquid cooling is unlikely to become standard in tablets from Apple or Samsung soon. For compact devices built around increasingly powerful processors, however, RedMagic’s hardware shows why conventional passive cooling may not be enough.