---
title: 'The Coolest Gaming Tablet I''ve ever held - (Not Clickbait)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=F_A9UqXvLnE'
video_id: 'F_A9UqXvLnE'
date: 2026-08-01
duration_sec: 634
---

# The Coolest Gaming Tablet I've ever held - (Not Clickbait)

> Source: [The Coolest Gaming Tablet I've ever held - (Not Clickbait)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=F_A9UqXvLnE)

## Summary

The Red Magic Astro 2 is presented as the world's first mass-produced liquid-cooled gaming tablet, and this video combines a durability test with a full teardown to verify the claims. The teardown reveals a copper vapor chamber, a piezoelectric pump, and fluorinated coolant engineered into a thin tablet, while the device survives scratch, burn, and bend tests. The video offers an inside look at how PC-level cooling technology has been miniaturized for mobile gaming.

### Key Points

- **World's first liquid-cooled gaming tablet** [00:02] — The Red Magic Astro 2 is introduced as the first mass-produced tablet with liquid cooling, featuring a blue liquid loop visible through the back glass and powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
- **Liquid cooling visuals** [00:28] — When the screen is on, the liquid flows through internal ducting below the rear window, moving heat to the back panel. Two color variants exist: Starfrost (silver) and Eclipse.
- **Screen scratch test and specifications** [01:05] — The 9-inch screen scratches at level 6, with deeper grooves at level 7 on the Mohs scale. Screen-to-body ratio is 90%, compared to 77% for the iPad Mini.
- **Chassis and ports** [02:01] — Aluminum sides, a USB-C 3.2 port (75W charging), a second USB-C port for simultaneous screen share and charging, IP54 water resistance, and a dedicated gaming mode switch.
- **Touch sampling and OLED flame test** [03:16] — The high touch sampling rate provides responsive gaming controls, and the OLED pixels survive 20 seconds of a lighter flame without damage.
- **Bend test passed** [04:16] — The tablet flexes slightly when bent from both the back and screen sides but locks out without permanent cracks, surviving the durability test.
- **Aquacore Cooling System 2.0** [05:20] — The teardown reveals a large dimpled copper vapor chamber that pulls heat from the processor and distributes it across the screen. A vacuum inside prevents the chamber from collapsing.
- **Battery removal** [06:02] — The dual-cell 8300 mAh battery is held by magic pull tabs. BYD, the EV manufacturer, is revealed to be the battery's maker at 07:02.
- **Motherboard and thermal design** [08:11] — Cameras lack OIS. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 is covered with thermal paste, copper, and liquid metal 3.0. Heat spreads to the front screen or the blue liquid loop.
- **Liquid cooling loop revealed** [08:38] — A piezoelectric pump circulates liquid; liquid cooling is about 1000 times more effective than air cooling. The coolant is fluorinated liquid, operating from -40°C to 70°C.

### Conclusion

The Red Magic Astro 2 successfully integrates a complete liquid cooling system into a tablet form factor, backed by durable construction and a thorough teardown that showcases the engineering. It's a genuine innovation that could shape the future of mobile cooling.

## Transcript

same. This is quite literally the coolest gaming tablet on the planet, both metaphorically and physically. The Red Magic Astro 2 is the world's first mass-produced liquid-cooled gaming tablet. With the catchphrase "Icy veins,
infinite frames", hardware that's normally reserved for hardcore gaming computers is now small enough to fit inside of a tablet.
loop with blue liquid is completely visible through the back glass. And today we're going to see how it all works from the inside. Inside the box we stickers. Remember when Apple used to
give out stickers? As we can see, once the Astro 2 screen is turned on, the liquid starts flowing through the internal ducting below that rear window, theoretically pulling heat from the high-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and
dissipating it out through the thin back panel. And it looks like the liquid is even flowing behind the backlit Red Magic logo, which is fascinating. The silver color we have here is called Starfrost, and the second color variant
is called Eclipse. Red Magic has confidently sent me over also said they'd like to give three more of them away to you guys, regardless of whether or not it survives my durability test. So after we're done seeing how the
liquid cooling works from the inside, make sure to check out that Gleam link Eclipse off to the side for safekeeping, since Starfrost is about to go through some things. Like the screen. You might think that the only purpose of a screen
on your smartphone is to pleasantly produce pleasing pictures, but in reality, on phones and in this tablet, the glass is also acting like a giant a second, but what's important to know right now though is that the large 9-in
screen scratches at a level six with deeper grooves at a level seven. There is a small 9-megapixel front-facing camera tucked into the bezel. This Red Magic Astro 2 has an impressive 90% screen-to-body ratio. For reference, the
Apple iPad Mini is just 77% screen-to-body, which is straight out of the Stone Age. The sides [clears throat] of the gaming tablet are made from aluminum with one USB-C 3.2 port on the right side when
you're holding it horizontally. This can charge at 75 W. There's a metal volume come out on its own. And a dedicated gaming mode switch on the top right. The left side has our power button and second stereo
power button and second stereo loudspeaker opening. two USB-C ports. You can charge from either one, and one of the reasons to
have two is so that the tablet can screen share to a gaming monitor or TV while charging up at the same time, kind of like the Nintendo Switch does, which is a pretty fun feature. There is a single 13-megapixel rear camera sitting
inside the completely flush and flat glass camera lens housing. The same slab of glass is also what houses the flash, and the liquid cooling loop that we'll and the liquid cooling loop that we'll expose more of in just a second.
And of course, since the Astro 2 is designed with gaming in mind, highest-grossing gaming media franchise of all time was in order.
aluminum frame, let me know down in the comments. A little hint to you, do got to catch them all. Turning her back over to the screen, RedMagic is using a
Hz touch sampling rate, meaning the tablet can sense your fingers touch faster than your finger can sense touching the tablet, which provides for some super responsive control over video games. And after 20 seconds from the
heat of my lighter, the OLED pixels remain undamaged and unaffected by the flame. Not too shabby. However, there does come a point in every device's life where it must journey through the layer of the final boss, which is me and my
bend test. We've never had a Redmagic phone or tablet fail, but there's always a first time for everything. When bent from the back, there is a subtle flex, but the Astra 2 locks out, and there are no permanent cracks or kinks. When bent
from the screen side, we get the same result. A slight flex, but nothing even remotely dangerous to functionality. The Redmagic Astra 2 survives my durability test, which means if we want to check out the liquid cooling system from the
inside, it's time to pull out the tools and enter it manually. The hardest and most dangerous part of taking apart a tablet is the glass screen. Since the the outer edges of the glass, it is extremely difficult to get the screen
off in one piece. Any slight tap of those pixels with whatever point of the tool you're using kind of kills the whole line of pixels running up through Now, I'm not going to lose a whole lot of sleep if a few pixels die, though.
It'll just even out the playing field, you know? Now, when I play on this tablet, it'll give the other guys a fair chance against my superior gaming skills. Normally, I just play with one hand tied behind my back to keep things
we still don't see any of the liquid cooling system. We do, however, see one of the largest copper vapor chambers of all time. Redmagic has multiple levels of cooling going on, and they call it the Aquacore Cooling System 2.0. And
while it does include the liquid cooling on the back, this large dimpled vapor lifting, pulling heat from the processor and distributing it up through the front radiator that is the glass screen. The
chamber doesn't collapse in on itself due to the vacuum that's pulled on the inside. The dimples turn into little structural pillars. The vapor inside of the vapor chamber can thermally navigate around inside the vacuum weaving through
system appears to be below the motherboard, so we got to keep on digging. I'll remove the screws holding down the battery brackets and unplug the battery connectors like little Legos. Then we can pull the magic pull tabs
holding down the dual cell 8,300 mA battery.
I think every smartphone needs some of these. So much easier than alcohol or electricity.
for that. What's crazy is that Red Magic somehow got BYD to build their batteries. Yeah, the same BYD that makes the jumping supercar that's faster than any Tesla also manufactures the batteries for the Red Magic Astro 2. I'm
impressed. I'll remove six more screws around the right side loudspeaker and it speaker's got plenty of balls inside. We also have our USB 3.2 port with the red rubber ring. The Astro 2 has an IP54 water resistance rating, meaning it can
the waterproofing mesh over the loudspeaker openings. The iPad Mini, of resistance ratings, but who's keeping track? If my calculations are correct, down here at the bottom two corners, we should have identical haptic vibrators,
controllers. The haptics provide essential feedback for winning video games. I'll pull out the USB-C 2.0 charger next. This guy is on his own ribbon and has his own red rubber gasket. There's also
a large ribbed plastic substructure in here, which probably helps increase the overall structural rigidity of the tablet. Makes sense now why it doesn't flex as much as other tablets do and why Redmagic was so confident that it
protective layers over the motherboard and pull the second loudspeaker out so we can finally get access to the brains of the Astra 2. This is where the two cameras attach. The 9-megapixel front-facing camera, which does not have
OIS. It also says over here not to touch. My bad. We also have the rear-facing 13-megapixel camera, again without any optical image stabilization. Now that the motherboard is out, we can see where the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 lives.
copious amounts of thermal paste and copper, which help move the heat from the chip out to the thermal pads, like this little square of liquid metal 3.0. And eventually, the heat goes out either the front screen or to the blue liquid
cooling loop on the back glass panel. The goal is to take a concentrated heat source and spread the heat out over as much surface area as possible so that it can dissipate. The more surface area you have to spread the heat, the quicker the
heat will disappear. And with that glass finally gone, we get our first look at the complete loop with all of the liquid still inside and it looks phenomenal. Liquid cooling is the most common form of cooling for high-end gaming PCs and
even data centers. Love them or hate them, that is where the technology's at. So it's wild to see it miniaturized for such a small form factor as a gaming tablet. It looks like the single section of loop that was not visible from the
back glass is where the liquid has contact with the heat source. Then, there's a super small piezoelectric pump which pushes the liquid through the rest heat out across the surface of the tablet. Liquid cooling is about a
thousand times more effective than air cooling since water has a higher heat capacity and conductivity than air does. And you might be like, "Hey Jerry, but what if I leave my gaming tablet out in an icy cold car overnight? Will the
pipes freeze?" And no, no they won't. Red Magic is one step ahead of us and has designed the plumbing system to run on fluorinated liquid, the same stuff found in server-grade AI data centers. And it can safely operate from -40° C
all the way up to 70° C. So, you could be gaming all the way up at the North Pole, which is fantastic since I imagine Santa is going to get asked for a lot of these tablets this year. And it looks especially cool in
the dark since the logo and liquid is backlit. Red Magic always makes the link down in the description. We're giving away three of these. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.