RedMagic Astra 2 Takes on AMD’s Ryzen Z2 Extreme in a Handheld Showdown

RedMagic finally rolled out the Astra 2 to the global market, putting a sleek OLED‑filled, liquid‑cooled tablet into the ring with Lenovo’s Legion Tab Gen 5 and AMD’s ROG Xbox Ally X. The company’s brag‑sheet says the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 should give it the edge on heavy gaming sessions, but the proof is always in the benchmark.

Enter YouTuber Dame Tech, who filmed a side‑by‑side playthrough of Grand Theft Auto V on both devices. He set the resolution to 720p and cranked the graphics to the “Very High” preset. The Astra 2 managed to hold just over 70 FPS for almost the entire run, matching the Ally X’s frame‑rate stride for stride. Not a bad showing for a pure Android‑handset.

Next up was Red Dead Redemption 2, another heavyweight that normally chews up handheld GPUs. At the same 720p resolution but with graphics dialed down to “High”, the RedMagic actually nudged ahead of the AMD rig. The difference wasn’t massive – a few frames here and there – but it was noticeable enough that the overlay numbers sparked a quick comment: “Hmm, is the tablet really beating a PC‑based handheld?”

The power draw numbers tell most of the story. While the Ally X was sipping roughly 40 W, the Astra 2 was gliding along at just about 20 W. In other words, the Snapdragon tablet achieved comparable, sometimes slightly better, performance on about half the electricity. That’s a win for battery life, especially for gamers who can’t be tethered to a wall.

Of course, there’s a catch. The temperature overlay showed the Astra 2 lingering north of 100 °C for the duration of the test. That’s hotter than most people would comfortably hold in their laps. RedMagic touts a “liquid cooling” system, but the numbers suggest it’s still fighting an uphill battle. If you’re planning long sessions, you might need an external cooler – think Black Shark Cooler 6 Pro, currently hovering around $60 on Amazon.

It’s also worth remembering that the games were being run through an Android‑based PC emulator, not natively on Windows. In theory, a native port could shave a few more milliseconds off the frame times, or at least keep the heat a touch lower. As it stands, the test proves the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 can hold its own against mainstream handhelds, but it also underlines the thermal‑management challenge that still looms.

All in all, the Astra 2 feels like a solid, if slightly sweaty, competitor in the burgeoning handheld‑gaming arena. Its OLED screen dazzles, the battery consumption is impressively low, and the performance numbers are more than respectable. If RedMagic can rein in that 100 °C ceiling, we might be looking at a truly balanced device that could give AMD’s Ryzen‑based offerings a run for their money.