The RedMagic Nova (beginning at $499) provides a top-flight Android gaming expertise at an inexpensive value. With a strong Snapdragon processor, loads of reminiscence, and an environment friendly cooling system, you may focus in your sport with the boldness that the pill will not allow you to down mid-action. We like its hearty audio system and devoted gaming instruments, although its display screen could possibly be brighter and its battery life longer. Should you’re on the lookout for a devoted Android gaming pill, the RedMagic Nova will provide help to degree up in your favourite titles. If you would like an Android pill that gives a extra balanced expertise, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ (beginning at $599.99) is our Editors’ Alternative because of its productiveness instruments and longer battery life.Design: A Excessive-Finish FeelThe RedMagic Nova is available in black and appears easy from the entrance however not from the rear. Whereas the display screen and uniform bezel dominate the entrance, the again panel and body are constituted of an anodized aluminum unibody shell, which provides the pill a refined feel and appear. Unusually, the rear floor incorporates a clear part fabricated from lens-grade glass that gives a window to its inside fan. Like many gaming merchandise, the Nova has a glowing, light-up emblem centered on the rear panel. The RGB gentle shines via the RedMagic emblem, the place it might serve notifications or dance together with a music. It additionally illuminates the fan above. You may customise when and the way the lights seem.
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(Credit score: Iyaz Akhtar)
Measuring 6.48 by 9.97 by 0.29 inches (HWD) and weighing 1.17 kilos, the Nova is a compact pill with a dense really feel. For comparability, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ is bigger and heavier (11.24 by 7.30 by 0.26 inches, 1.4 kilos).
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When held in panorama orientation, a mixed energy button/fingerprint sensor is on the left brief aspect of the Nova inside a small divot within the body. The divot guides your finger to the right place for studying your fingerprint, which works constantly no matter orientation. A quantity rocker is on the high left of the lengthy aspect, and the user-facing digital camera is centered above the display screen. The underside edge options pogo-pins and two attachment factors for non-compulsory equipment. All buttons had good journey and satisfying clicks. There are 4 audio system, with two on every brief aspect. The USB-C port (3.1 Gen 2) for charging and information switch is on the fitting brief edge.
(Credit score: Iyaz Akhtar)
The Nova doesn’t have an IP score and isn’t mud or waterproof. The Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ options an IP68 score, making it absolutely dustproof and waterproof. Show: Sharp and FastThe RedMagic pill incorporates a 10.9-inch IPS LCD at a decision of two,880 by 1,800 pixels in a 16:10 facet ratio with a refresh price of as much as 144Hz. This makes it sharp and quick, which is significant for gaming. The colours look vibrant and the animations are easy, although the blacks are barely washed out as a result of LCD tech. An OLED would generate deeper blacks.
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The show’s most brightness is 550 nits. It seems to be good indoors, however the cowl glass is very reflective and never vibrant sufficient to beat direct daylight. The LCD has an 840Hz contact sampling price, which suggests contact enter is registered kind of immediately—one other key characteristic for gaming. In testing, the display screen responded lightning-quick to each finger press, which made it really feel speedy. For comparability, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ incorporates a 12.4-inch LCD with a decrease decision (2,560 by 1,600 pixels) and a decrease refresh price (90Hz), although it’s barely brighter at 600 nits. Efficiency: Sport OnThe RedMagic Nova is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Main Model. This variant of Qualcomm’s flagship processor has a barely sooner clock pace than the off-the-shelf chip, working at a max of three.4GHz reasonably than 3.3GHz. There are two configurations out there: 12GB of RAM with 256GB of storage ($499) or 16GB of RAM with 512GB of storage ($649). I examined the latter mannequin. The Nova makes use of LPDDR5x reminiscence and options UFS 4.0 flash storage, each of which make for sooner efficiency. There is not any microSD card slot, so storage can’t be elevated.
(Credit score: Iyaz Akhtar)
The pill’s inside cooling system actually helps the processor push its limits. Based on RedMagic, the Nova packs a 20,000 RPM fan and an inside cooling system that reduces core temperatures by 77 levels Fahrenheit. Whereas the fan did rev up throughout benchmarks and gaming, it’s close to silent and the pill by no means obtained sizzling in testing. It reached a lukewarm temperature at most.
(Credit score: Geekbench/GFXBench/PCMag)
On Geekbench 6, a set of exams that quantifies uncooked computing energy, the RedMagic Nova carried out fairly nicely with a single-core rating of two,214 and a multi-core rating of 6,989. That is greater than double the scores of the Exynos 1380-powered Galaxy Tab S9 FE+’s scores (1,011 and a pair of,987). PCMark Work 3.0 helps consider efficiency throughout normal cellular duties. Right here, the Nova reached a rating of 21,106, much better than the Tab S9 FE+’s rating of 12,223.
Discover shade for outside gaming (Credit score: Iyaz Akhtar)
The GFXBench Aztec Ruins take a look at measures gaming efficiency, and the Nova managed to render 58 frames per second (fps) on the pill’s full decision. The Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ pushed out simply 12fps. Larger body charges result in smoother-looking video games.Actual-world gaming efficiency on the Nova is great. The resource-intensive Genshin Influence produced sharp visuals with easy animations even at its highest settings; there have been no slowdowns or body drops in any respect. The Nova’s again panel remained cool to the contact even after a 20-minute gaming session, which is kind of spectacular. There is not any query the Nova outguns the Tab S9 FE+ in the case of efficiency.Battery: Quick Charging, Quick Depleting The Nova packs a ten,100mAh battery that may be charged at as much as 80W with the included charger. Contemplating how few pill makers provide any charger in any respect, the Nova’s speedy charger is a deal with. On our battery take a look at, during which we streamed a 1080p video at full brightness over Wi-Fi, the Nova survived simply 5 hours and 55 minutes, which is on the low aspect. Comparatively, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ lasted 7 hours and 23 minutes. Charging the Nova from 0% to 100% takes much less time than most telephones. The pill wanted only one hour to energy up when utilizing the included charger. To perform this, we set it to Turbo Cost, which permits for a sooner cost price on the expense of producing warmth. A 15-minute cost introduced the Nova as much as 36%, whereas a 30-minute session yielded a 65% cost. The Nova additionally helps a characteristic referred to as Cost Separation. This lets you plug the pill into the wall and use AC energy to maintain the pill working—with out charging the battery. This helps scale back warmth, which permits for higher efficiency whereas gaming. You may toggle Cost Separation on or off or set it to activate robotically.Connectivity: Speedy and StrongThe RedMagic Nova helps Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4, however there isn’t any cellular-enabled mannequin out there. Samsung provides a 5G variant of Tab S9 FE+.
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When close to a Wi-Fi 6 entry level, the Nova reached a peak obtain pace of 491Mbps and a most add pace of 11.0Mbps. For comparability, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ reached 458Mbps down and 10.4Mbps up when examined in the identical spot. On the Wi-Fi community’s edge, the Nova posted sturdy numbers with 487Mbps down and 16.6Mbps up, whereas the S9 FE+ reached 165Mbps down and 13.5Mbps up. Audio: Surprisingly RichAs for sound, the quad-speaker array options DTS-X Extremely Sound with 3D audio, which is turned on by default however could be deactivated should you choose. I counsel leaving it as is as a result of the out-of-the-box sound is surprisingly good for a pill: with DTS turned off, the audio sounded skinny and virtually tinny. The bottom bass notes of our take a look at music, The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” weren’t fairly audible, however standard-frequency bass tones sounded good. Once I performed Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” the Nova reached a most quantity of 89.4dB. That is loud sufficient to fill a small room. Chances are you’ll choose a very good pair of gaming headphones. The dearth of a 3.5mm headphone jack is a bummer.Cameras: Good EnoughTablet cameras are often not a excessive level, however the Nova produces first rate photographs. It incorporates a 50MP most important shooter on the again and a 20MP selfie digital camera on the entrance.
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The primary digital camera takes 12.5MP photographs by default utilizing pixel-binning however can take full-resolution photos by choosing Full Dimension within the Digicam app. The 12.5MP photographs increase brightness, making blacks pop, whereas 50MP photographs are overly brightened however not fairly to the diploma of the 12.5MP photographs. Neither precisely captures colours, however photographs look nice given that they are coming from a pill.
Most important digital camera, 12.5MP (Credit score: Iyaz Akhtar)
Most important digital camera, 50MP (Credit score: Iyaz Akhtar )
The front-facing digital camera takes 20MP photographs which are typically too vibrant and have delicate particulars. Because the digital camera app is pretty naked bones, you can’t take portrait photographs with bokeh. Once more, for a pill, picture high quality is satisfactory.
Entrance-facing digital camera (Credit score: Iyaz Akhtar)
The rear video digital camera tops out at 4K60 and struggles to seize colours precisely indoors, however works higher outside. The front-facing digital camera can file as much as 1080p at 30fps and is ok for video conferencing. Software program: Gaming Enhancements GaloreThe RedMagic Nova ships with Android 14 and the RedMagic House 9.5 consumer interface atop it. RedMagic House applies adjustments to the general look of Android in contrast with the inventory model and contains RedMagic’s devoted Sport House software program. RedMagic will present the Nova with common updates each one to 2 months for not less than two years, along with not less than one full Android OS replace. This help window pales compared with Samsung’s 4 years of OS updates and 5 years of safety patches for the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+.
Sport House (Credit score: RedMagic/PCMag)
Sport House, which has similarities to what you see on RedMagic’s gaming telephones, permits you to customise sport settings in a central spot on the pill. It may robotically discover all of the video games put in in your pill, although you can too select so as to add them manually. Within the Sport Foyer, you may alter the CPU and GPU settings, handle the fan, change the contact sensitivity settings, and set unintentional contact safety zones on a per-game degree. Sport House additionally homes Tremendous Base, which exhibits the put in plug-ins and which video games can use them. For instance, you may overlay a crosshair on the display screen for first-person shooters.
(Credit score: RedMagic/PCMag)
Throughout gameplay, you may swipe from the left or proper edge to convey up a thumb-friendly menu to shortly entry game-specific settings and data. The interface prominently shows CPU and GPU speeds, with simply accessible sliders for brightness and quantity, in addition to panels for plugins. You may even name up apps like Gmail, Messages, and Spotify that can hover in a small window atop your sport.
(Credit score: RedMagic/PCMag)
Aside from Sport House and the usual Android options, there may be not a lot right here to assist with productiveness. You may tile two apps on display screen on the similar time, and RedMagic contains the flexibility to save lots of app pairs and name up a 3rd app in a pop-over window. For comparability, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ can show a mess of apps without delay and options an non-compulsory desktop-like consumer interface referred to as DeX for much more energy.Verdict: A Prime Android Gaming MachineThe RedMagic Nova is constructed for players. Its highly effective Qualcomm chip, ample reminiscence, responsive display screen, and efficient cooling system make for a easy gaming expertise, whereas RedMagic’s useful software program places highly effective gaming instruments at your fingertips. That mentioned, its display screen could possibly be brighter and its battery may last more. If you would like a devoted gaming pill, the RedMagic Nova outperforms most equally priced Android slates, making it your best option. These in search of an Android pill extra for on a regular basis use can be higher served by the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+, which has longer battery life and comes with a productivity-enhancing S Pen stylus for $100 extra.
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About Iyaz Akhtar
Cellular Analyst
I’m certainly one of PCMag’s cellular analysts. Which means I take a look at telephones, hotspots, and cellular networks. Expertise has been my ardour and interest since I used to be a toddler. I’ve coated tech professionally for over 15 years at shops together with The Apple Weblog, This Week in Tech, and CNET.
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