This Cheap iPad Mini Alternative Might Be 2025's Best Tablet (According To Reviews)

The Android tablet market is in a strange place, most of all when it comes to small form factors. Samsung's best tablets have vibrant displays and great software, but its most recent Galaxy S10 Ultra flagship uses a last-generation chip, backing away from direct competition with the most powerful tablet processor of all time in the M4 iPad Pro. Meanwhile, the budget Android market is awash in low-end hardware with lackluster specs, and that's where small tablets abound. If there's a reason why Apple has yet to put an M-series processor in the iPad Mini, it's probably because the A17 Pro mobile processor it currently runs on is leagues faster than the lackluster chips found in even the best small Android tablets.

All of that makes a new tablet from RedMagic quite the eyebrow-raiser. The company has until now been known for its smartphones. Year on year, RedMagic has managed to deliver flagship Android gaming phones with some of the most impressive spec sheets on the market. They're odd devices in many ways  — no other brand ships phones with a built-in AI anime waifu companion  — but there's no arguing with the value proposition.

The RedMagic Astra continues that trend, this time in tablet form. Pairing a flagship processor with a frankly astonishing amount of memory and an impressive display, it's tough to find a better tablet at this size and price point, at least on paper. But to see whether it holds up in the real world, we looked at professional reviews. What they had to say was surprisingly consistent. Let's dive in.

The RedMagic Astra looks simple on the outside. Get past the RGB logo and tiny cooling fan on the back  — aesthetic reminders that this is a gaming-focused device  — and it's a metal and glass slab like any other. Inside, things get a lot more interesting. The Astra runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, the same chip powering the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and other 2025 flagships. It's a considerably more powerful chip than the Apple A17 Pro in the iPad Mini, or the older, MediaTek processor found in the far more expensive Galaxy Tab S10 Plus. The Astra can be configured with 12 to 24 gigabytes of RAM, another flex compared to the 8 GB in the iPad Mini and 12 GB in the Tab S10 Ultra. In other words, it's both more powerful on paper than competing small tablets or any other Android tablet, period.

RedMagic has paired that horsepower with a 9.06-inch, 2.4K, OLED display running at 165Hz. If the pattern isn't yet clear, yes, those specs are variously more impressive than what Apple or Samsung offer, even at the high end of their lineups. For instance, neither competitor offers any device with a refresh rate higher than 120Hz. Rounding things out is an 8,200 milliamp-hour battery with 80-watt fast charging.

You'd be forgiven for calling it overkill, but the price certainly isn't. At $549 for the base model and $899 for the maxed-out RAM and storage configuration, the RedMagic Astra isn't a cheap Android tablet, but it undercuts its direct competition. But does the lower price reflect a hidden compromise? We looked at reviews to find out.

Reviewers who got their hands on the RedMagic Astra gaming tablet formed a surprising consensus. After scouring reviews from reputable sources, the consensus is sweepingly positive. With that said, some nitpicks were picked.

Speaking of nits, the display was a highlight across the board. Tom's Guide called it "jaw-dropping." "Pretty impressive," said Phone Arena. And 9to5Google considered it "way better ... than many other tablets on the market."

Performance was another easy win for the Astra. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is the most powerful mobile processor for Android at the moment, and RedMagic gives it as much headroom as possible by adding an actual cooling fan in addition to an almost comical amount of RAM. The result? Nary a stutter or dropped frame, even during sweaty gaming sessions.

Many Android devices fall short in the software department. However, reviewers were pleasantly surprised by the Astra's lightweight Android 15 skin. One gripe came from 9to5Google, which disliked the built-in games launcher since it looks like gaming-oriented software in a very cliche way, though ZDNet found that the CPU tuning it offers provided a boost in performance for the most demanding games. Android Central was justifiably displeased with the Astra's meager two years of promised software updates, which lag behind commitments from other brands.

Even if this isn't the tablet for you, it's good to see a company like RedMagic carrying the torch for powerful, smaller tablets that don't compromise on specs. If the Astra can spur market leaders like Apple and Samsung to bolster their own lineups, tablet lovers everywhere will be better off.