REDMAGIC Astra 2 Arrives in Malaysia with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, Debuting as the First Tablet with Liquid Cooling

REDMAGIC just officially announced the Astra 2 Gaming Tablet in Malaysia.
I have to ask…are we looking at the ultimate portable gaming monster for 2026?

Here is what caught my attention:

• Actual Liquid Cooling in a Tablet?
You read that right. REDMAGIC is debuting the AquaCore Cooling System 2.0, making this the first tablet on the market to feature flowing liquid cooling alongside Liquid Metal 3.0 and a massive Vapor Chamber. You can even see the cooling system through the transparent glass back panel! If you’re like me and hate when a tablet gets scorching hot and throttles performance after 30 minutes of heavy gaming, this might be a total game-changer.

• Pure Raw Power
Under the hood, it’s packing the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 combined with a dedicated RedCore R4 gaming chip and up to 16GB RAM / 512GB storage. REDMAGIC claims it’s built less for short benchmark flexes and more for sustained, ultra-stable frame rates over long gaming marathons.

• A 185Hz OLED Screen on a 9-Inch Frame
This might be the sweet spot. At 9.06 inches with super slim 4.9mm bezels, it looks incredibly easy to hold compared to those massive 12-inch slabs. Plus, it’s a 2.4K OLED panel with a 185Hz refresh rate, the highest ever put on a tablet. Paired with a Synaptics touch chip pushing up to 2,000Hz instant touch sampling, the responsiveness on paper sounds insane.

• Smart Battery & Dual USB-C Ports
It carries a big 8,300mAh battery with 75W fast charging (0 to 100% in about 60 minutes). But what’s super neat is the dual Type-C port setup. You can charge it from the side while playing without a wire awkwardly pushing into your wrist, or use one port for audio/display output and the other for charging!

It’s set to go on sale in Malaysia starting September 8, 2026, at 8:00 PM on Shopee and the official REDMAGIC site

-12GB + 256GB: RM 3,599
-16GB + 512GB: RM 4,399
Available in Black Eclipse and Starfrost

If you buy between Sept 8 and Sept 30, they’re throwing in a screen protector, a magnetic cooling case, and CMF Buds 2a as free gifts. What do you think? Does a compact, liquid-cooled 185Hz tablet sound like the ideal setup for your mobile gaming, or do you prefer gaming on a phone or laptop? Let me know if you’re planning to pick one up!