REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) VS Legion Y700 : 5G Tablet or 185Hz Esports

The Legion Y700 and the REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) represent two extremes of small-size gaming tablets: the former uses 5G dual-SIM dual-standby and 6.5mm thinness to build an all-around portable terminal, while the latter uses a 185Hz refresh rate and liquid cooling to define a professional esports tool. This is not a battle of performance, but a divergence in usage scenarios—do you want mobile all-around capability or fixed-scenario extremity?

The small-size gaming tablet track is no longer as simple as just "who is faster." Placing the Legion Y700 and the REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) together is like seeing two completely different answers: the former maxes out 5G dual-SIM dual-standby and 6.5mm thinness, while the latter pushes 185Hz refresh rate and liquid cooling to the extreme.

If you only look at the spec sheet, it's easy to feel that both sides are very fierce. But if you really break it down, you'll find that what they are competing for is fundamentally not the same thing.

The Legion Y700 is equipped with the fifth-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite Leading Edition, with a maximum CPU frequency of 4.74GHz, paired with LPDDR5T and UFS 4.1 Pro. The REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2), on the other hand, uses the fifth-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite, plus the self-developed RedCore R4 esports chip, with LPDDR5X memory paired with UFS 4.1.

The most interesting point in this set of differences is not "who is stronger," but that the approach is different. The Legion is more like stuffing Android flagship performance into thin, light, and communication scenarios, while RedMagic continues to dig deeper into esports gameplay, and even adds an extra chip dedicated to super-resolution and frame interpolation.

In other words, the Legion is trying as much as possible to make this small tablet feel like a portable large-screen terminal, while RedMagic is trying as much as possible to make it feel like a device that serves gaming alone.

The screen is the place where the divergence is easiest to see at a glance. The Legion Y700 is an 8.4-inch OLED, 2560×1600 resolution, 165Hz refresh rate, 4000-nit local peak brightness, 3400Hz instantaneous touch sampling rate. The REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) goes up to a 9.06-inch OLED, 2400×1504 resolution, 185Hz refresh rate, 1600-nit local peak brightness, 2000Hz instantaneous touch sampling rate.

The Legion side is more like grasping both display quality and touch precision together, pushing both brightness and sampling rate very high. RedMagic, on the other hand, pushes the refresh rate to a very aggressive position within the tablet field, and the visual smoothness leans more toward esports.

The body is also very intuitive. The Legion Y700 is 6.5mm, 298 grams; the REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) is 6.9mm, 363 grams. Don't underestimate this gap—if you really hold it in your hand and play for half an hour, the fatigue feeling between a thin light body and a heavier esports machine will be quite different.

The most special thing about the Legion Y700 is its 5G dual-SIM dual-standby solution. It has a physical SIM card slot and a built-in data card, and also supports the N79 band and a multi-antenna distributed design. This approach is very clear: it doesn't just want to be a tablet that can play games, it also wants to let you stay stably online when out and about.

The REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2), on the other hand, puts its weight on the gaming experience. It has a fluorinated liquid cooling system, and according to the official statement, chip heat dissipation efficiency is increased by 28%, and core temperature drops by up to 8°C. Combined with bypass charging PRO and dual Type-C port expansion, it is clearly more geared toward heavy players in fixed scenarios.

Both of these routes are reasonable, but the applicable targets are completely different. If you often commute, travel for business, or use a tablet outdoors, the Legion's 5G approach will be more practical. If you spend most of your time in a WiFi environment and pursue extreme frame rates and sustained high-load performance, RedMagic's cooling and esports support are more suitable.

The thing this type of comparison fears most is forcibly twisting the two machines into the same answer. In fact, they are fundamentally not the same category of product.

The Legion Y700 is more like an "all-around small tablet," wanting to balance performance, screen, network, and thinness all at once, suitable for people who want both entertainment and mobile use. The REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2) is more like a "pure esports tool," with the core goal of pushing gaming to a more extreme level—185Hz and liquid cooling are its attitude.

So the final question is not who is stronger, but who is more suitable for you. If what you want is to be online anytime, easy to hold, and full-featured, the Legion is more convenient; if what you want is gaming experience first, heavy play in fixed scenarios, RedMagic is more like the right answer. Both are very targeted, just their directions are quite far apart.

Small-size gaming tablets have already been pushed to a very clear stage: specs are no longer just piled on, but are competing over "what exactly you use it for." The Legion Y700 and the REDMAGIC Gaming Tablet 5 PRO (REDMAGIC Astra 2)—one heads toward all-around communication, the other toward extreme esports—and what they compete on next is instead whether each route can continue to make up for its own shortcomings.