I’ve been using Android’s iPad Mini OLED for months, and it’s the better tiny tablet

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Apple has just released a new iPad Mini with an OLED display and it looks great, but I’ve spent the past few months with Android’s equivalent in the Redmagic Astra 2, and it’s well worth your attention.

The new iPad Mini with OLED is a long-overdue upgrade. As 9to5Mac details, this new tablet delivers an 8.5-inch OLED display, a chassis that’s just 5.4mm thick, and weighs just 255g. By all means, it looks great.

Apple unveils all-new iPad mini: OLED, thinner design, more

But over the past few months, I’ve been using what has now turned out to be a close rival to that tablet. The Redmagic Astra 2 may be a gaming-focused Android tablet, but it matches or even beats the new iPad Mini in some crucial ways.

The 9.04-inch OLED display on the RedMagic Astra 2 is a bit bigger than Apple’s (it’s a slightly thicker and heavier tablet, too), but it’s still very much in that same ballpark. And it’s a gorgeous display. For everything from movies to games, it’s been an absolute pleasure to use. Colors are vivid, blacks are as deep as only OLED can do, and it beats Apple’s peak brightness at 1,600 nits too.

The biggest point in Redmagic’s favor is in that display, too. Where Apple is still refusing to give the iPad Mini a 120Hz refresh rate with this latest model – utterly insane in the year two thousand and twenty-six, if I do say so myself – Astra 2 has a 185Hz refresh rate. I’ve not found that inherently better than a standard 120Hz panel, but it’s way better than the 60Hz panel Apple’s latest will still be using. You do miss out on stylus support on the Astra, though (sadly).

As for performance, Redmagic Astra 2 is packing Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and 12GB of RAM in its base model. Over the past couple of months that performance has been absolutely stellar. Not that that’s a surprise, these are the same core specs as you’ll find in something like the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and Redmagic’s Android skin isn’t particularly heavy either.

I’ve been hooked on Metalstorm throughout the review period, and it runs brilliantly even on max settings on the Astra 2.

It also never gets warm, probably thanks in part to the liquid cooling loop and fan built into the tablet. While the whine of the fan can be heard in super-quiet rooms (like late at night in bed), it’s typically never a problem. Despite the fan, Astra 2 is still IP54 rated, too.

Battery life is also great to the point where it’s barely a thought, not surprising for an 8,300 mAh cell. Gaming sessions up to an hour barely make a dent, and the standby time is ridiculous. At one point I didn’t have a chance to use the tablet for over a week and it only drained about 25% in that time. When it came time to charge, any USB-C cable works and you’ve got the choice of two ports, so you can easily top off in the way that’s easiest for you while still being able to use USB peripherals if you want. I just found this convenient for being able to choose between the side-mounted charger on my bedside table or the bottom port when I was still actively holding the tablet.

Astra 2’s hardware, by the way, is an aluminum body that’s 6.9mm thick. It has a little glass window on the back with some RGB accents, but it’s overall subtle enough, and you can turn off the RGB entirely.

The software, as mentioned, isn’t all that heavy. It’s certainly not what you’d expect for something marketed as a gaming tablet. Outside of a gamer font (which you can change), the UI doesn’t feel that far off from a Pixel. It’s not the cleanest, but it’s far from the heavy iOS clones you’ll find elsewhere. There are even nice additions such as lockscreen widgets. A customizable switch up top defaults to a gaming mode (which has a full gamer UI and optimizes performance) can serve whatever function you like, including acting as a mute switch or to active the flashlight.

Meanwhile, there’s also the conversation around price. Apple’s starting price is lower at $699. That said, while the price on Astra 2 is higher at $749 – and that’s the result of a quiet price hike that landed quite literally within the last few days – that’s for the 12GB/256GB model. On Apple’s side, the equivalent iPad Mini lands at $799. Redmagic’s slate is actually a great deal with that in mind, even more so on the 512GB model at $849 compared to Apple’s $999.

Redmagic Astra 2 at Redmagic.tech

I certainly know which one I’d go for, but would you try Redmagic Astra 2? Drop a comment below and let me know.