The RedMagic Nova (starting at $499) offers a top-flight Android gaming experience at a reasonable price. With a powerful Snapdragon processor, plenty of memory, and an efficient cooling system, you can focus on your game with the confidence that the tablet won’t let you down mid-action. We like its hearty speakers and dedicated gaming tools, though its screen could be brighter and its battery life longer. If you’re looking for a dedicated Android gaming tablet, the RedMagic Nova will help you level up in your favorite titles. If you want an Android tablet that provides a more balanced experience, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ (starting at $599.99) is our Editors’ Choice thanks to its productivity tools and longer battery life.
Design: A High-End Feel
The RedMagic Nova comes in black and looks simple from the front but not from the rear. While the screen and uniform bezel dominate the front, the back panel and frame are made from an anodized aluminum unibody shell, which gives the tablet a refined look and feel. Unusually, the rear surface features a transparent section made of lens-grade glass that provides a window to its internal fan. Like many gaming products, the Nova has a glowing, light-up logo centered on the rear panel. The RGB light shines through the RedMagic logo, where it can serve notifications or dance along with a song. It also illuminates the fan above. You can customize when and how the lights appear.
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
Measuring 6.48 by 9.97 by 0.29 inches (HWD) and weighing 1.17 pounds, the Nova is a compact tablet with a dense feel. For comparison, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ is larger and heavier (11.24 by 7.30 by 0.26 inches, 1.4 pounds).
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar )
When held in landscape orientation, a combined power button/fingerprint sensor is on the left short side of the Nova within a small divot in the frame. The divot guides your finger to the correct position for reading your fingerprint, which works consistently regardless of orientation. A volume rocker is at the top left of the long side, and the user-facing camera is centered above the screen. The bottom edge features pogo-pins and two attachment points for optional accessories. All buttons had good travel and satisfying clicks. There are four speakers, with two on each short side. The USB-C port (3.1 Gen 2) for charging and data transfer is on the right short edge.
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
The Nova does not have an IP rating and is not dust or waterproof. The Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ features an IP68 rating, making it fully dustproof and waterproof.
Display: Sharp and Fast
The RedMagic tablet features a 10.9-inch IPS LCD at a resolution of 2,880 by 1,800 pixels in a 16:10 aspect ratio with a refresh rate of up to 144Hz. This makes it sharp and fast, which is vital for gaming. The colors look vibrant and the animations are smooth, though the blacks are slightly washed out due to the LCD tech. An OLED would generate deeper blacks.
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
The display’s maximum brightness is 550 nits. It looks good indoors, but the cover glass is highly reflective and not bright enough to overcome direct sunlight. The LCD has an 840Hz touch sampling rate, which means touch input is registered more or less instantly—another key feature for gaming. In testing, the screen responded lightning-quick to every finger press, which made it feel speedy.
For comparison, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ features a 12.4-inch LCD with a lower resolution (2,560 by 1,600 pixels) and a lower refresh rate (90Hz), though it is slightly brighter at 600 nits.
Performance: Game On
The RedMagic Nova is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version. This variant of Qualcomm’s flagship processor has a slightly faster clock speed than the off-the-shelf chip, running at a max of 3.4GHz rather than 3.3GHz. There are two configurations available: 12GB of RAM with 256GB of storage ($499) or 16GB of RAM with 512GB of storage ($649). I tested the latter model. The Nova uses LPDDR5x memory and features UFS 4.0 flash storage, both of which make for faster performance. There’s no microSD card slot, so storage cannot be increased.
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
The tablet’s internal cooling system really helps the processor push its limits. According to RedMagic, the Nova packs a 20,000 RPM fan and an internal cooling system that reduces core temperatures by 77 degrees Fahrenheit. While the fan did rev up during benchmarks and gaming, it is near silent and the tablet never got hot in testing. It reached a lukewarm temperature at most.
(Credit: Geekbench/GFXBench/PCMag)
On Geekbench 6, a suite of tests that quantifies raw computing power, the RedMagic Nova performed quite well with a single-core score of 2,214 and a multi-core score of 6,989. This is more than double the scores of the Exynos 1380-powered Galaxy Tab S9 FE+’s scores (1,011 and 2,987).
PCMark Work 3.0 helps evaluate performance across general mobile tasks. Here, the Nova reached a score of 21,106, far better than the Tab S9 FE+’s score of 12,223.
Find shade for outdoor gaming (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
The GFXBench Aztec Ruins test measures gaming performance, and the Nova managed to render 58 frames per second (fps) at the tablet’s full resolution. The Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ pushed out just 12fps. Higher frame rates lead to smoother-looking games.
Real-world gaming performance on the Nova is excellent. The resource-intensive Genshin Impact produced sharp visuals with smooth animations even at its highest settings; there were no slowdowns or frame drops at all. The Nova’s back panel remained cool to the touch even after a 20-minute gaming session, which is quite impressive.
There’s no question the Nova outguns the Tab S9 FE+ when it comes to performance.
Battery: Fast Charging, Fast Depleting
The Nova packs a 10,100mAh battery that can be charged at up to 80W with the included charger. Considering how few tablet makers supply any charger at all, the Nova’s rapid charger is a treat. On our battery test, in which we streamed a 1080p video at full brightness over Wi-Fi, the Nova survived just 5 hours and 55 minutes, which is on the low side. Comparatively, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ lasted 7 hours and 23 minutes.
Charging the Nova from 0% to 100% takes less time than most phones. The tablet needed just one hour to power up when using the included charger. To accomplish this, we set it to Turbo Charge, which allows for a faster charge rate at the expense of generating heat. A 15-minute charge brought the Nova up to 36%, while a 30-minute session yielded a 65% charge.
The Nova also supports a feature called Charge Separation. This allows you to plug the tablet into the wall and use AC power to keep the tablet running—without charging the battery. This helps reduce heat, which allows for better performance while gaming. You can toggle Charge Separation on or off or set it to turn on automatically.
Connectivity: Speedy and Strong
The RedMagic Nova supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4, but there is no cellular-enabled model available. Samsung offers a 5G variant of Tab S9 FE+.
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
When near a Wi-Fi 6 access point, the Nova reached a peak download speed of 491Mbps and a maximum upload speed of 11.0Mbps. For comparison, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ reached 458Mbps down and 10.4Mbps up when tested in the same spot. At the Wi-Fi network’s edge, the Nova posted strong numbers with 487Mbps down and 16.6Mbps up, while the S9 FE+ reached 165Mbps down and 13.5Mbps up.
Audio: Surprisingly Rich
As for sound, the quad-speaker array features DTS-X Ultra Sound with 3D audio, which is turned on by default but can be deactivated if you prefer. I suggest leaving it as is because the out-of-the-box sound is surprisingly good for a tablet: with DTS turned off, the audio sounded thin and almost tinny.
The lowest bass notes of our test song, The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” were not quite audible, but standard-frequency bass tones sounded good. When I played Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” the Nova reached a maximum volume of 89.4dB. This is loud enough to fill a small room. You may prefer a good pair of gaming headphones. The lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack is a bummer.
Cameras: Good Enough
Tablet cameras are usually not a high point, but the Nova produces decent images. It features a 50MP main shooter on the back and a 20MP selfie camera on the front.
(Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
The main camera takes 12.5MP images by default using pixel-binning but can take full-resolution pictures by selecting Full Size in the Camera app. The 12.5MP images boost brightness, making blacks pop, while 50MP images are overly brightened but not quite to the degree of the 12.5MP shots. Neither accurately captures colors, but images look pleasant given that they’re coming from a tablet.
Main camera, 12.5MP (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
Main camera, 50MP (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar )
The front-facing camera takes 20MP images that are often too bright and have soft details. Since the camera app is fairly bare bones, you cannot take portrait shots with bokeh. Again, for a tablet, image quality is passable.
Front-facing camera (Credit: Iyaz Akhtar)
The rear video camera tops out at 4K60 and struggles to capture colors accurately indoors, but works better outdoors. The front-facing camera can record up to 1080p at 30fps and is fine for video conferencing.
Software: Gaming Enhancements Galore
The RedMagic Nova ships with Android 14 and the RedMagic Space 9.5 user interface atop it. RedMagic Space applies changes to the overall look of Android compared with the stock version and includes RedMagic’s dedicated Game Space software. RedMagic will provide the Nova with regular updates every one to two months for at least two years, in addition to at least one full Android OS update. This support window pales in comparison with Samsung’s four years of OS updates and five years of security patches for the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+.
Game Space (Credit: RedMagic/PCMag)
Game Space, which is similar to what you see on RedMagic’s gaming phones, lets you customize game settings in a central spot on the tablet. It can automatically find all the games installed on your tablet, though you can also choose to add them manually. In the Game Lobby, you can adjust the CPU and GPU settings, manage the fan, change the touch sensitivity settings, and set accidental touch protection zones on a per-game level. Game Space also houses Super Base, which shows the installed plug-ins and which games can use them. For example, you can overlay a crosshair on the screen for first-person shooters.
(Credit: RedMagic/PCMag)
During gameplay, you can swipe from the left or right edge to bring up a thumb-friendly menu to quickly access game-specific settings and information. The interface prominently displays CPU and GPU speeds, with easily accessible sliders for brightness and volume, as well as panels for plugins. You can even call up apps like Gmail, Messages, and Spotify that will hover in a small window atop your game.
(Credit: RedMagic/PCMag)
Apart from Game Space and the standard Android features, there is not much here to help with productivity. You can tile two apps on screen at the same time, and RedMagic includes the ability to save app pairs and call up a third app in a pop-over window.
For comparison, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ can display a multitude of apps at once and features an optional desktop-like user interface called DeX for even more power.
Verdict: A Top Android Gaming Machine
The RedMagic Nova is built for gamers. Its powerful Qualcomm chip, ample memory, responsive screen, and effective cooling system make for a smooth gaming experience, while RedMagic’s helpful software puts powerful gaming tools at your fingertips. That said, its screen could be brighter and its battery could last longer. If you want a dedicated gaming tablet, the RedMagic Nova outperforms most similarly priced Android slates, making it your best choice. Those seeking an Android tablet more for everyday use will be better served by the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+, which has longer battery life and comes with a productivity-enhancing S Pen stylus for $100 more.
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About Iyaz Akhtar
Mobile Analyst
