Latest news with #TheAstra
Irish Examiner
31-07-2025
- Irish Examiner
RedMagic Astra gaming tablet review: A compact powerhouse for mobile gamers
If you're serious about mobile gaming and want something ultra-portable without compromising on raw power, the RedMagic Astra gaming tablet might just be what you've been waiting for. With its compact design, flagship-grade internals, and gamer-focused software, this is a tablet made for those who want more than just casual entertainment. I've spent the last few weeks testing it thoroughly across everyday use, gaming, and emulation. Design and build The Astra is a premium metal-bodied tablet that feels sleek and solid in the hand. At only 6.9mm thick and weighing 370g, it's lightweight enough for long gaming sessions without wrist fatigue. The silver finish I tested doesn't scream like many gaming devices. I love the 9-inch form factor because I find it perfect for handheld gaming as it's large enough to display detail, yet small enough to remain portable. Just like RedMagic gaming phones, there's no annoying camera bump to disrupt your grip, and the corners are nicely rounded for comfort. The power button doubles as a fingerprint reader, while the signature RedMagic gaming red switch on top gives you instant access to the gaming UI. However, there's no SIM support or microSD card slot, which might disappoint those hoping for cellular data or expandable storage. Display The Astra packs a 9.06-inch OLED panel with a resolution of 2,400 x 1,504 pixels and a super-smooth 165Hz refresh rate. Colours are rich, contrast is deep, and brightness levels (1,600 nits peak) are strong enough for both indoor and outdoor use. You can choose between dynamic refresh rate adjustment and locking it to 60Hz or 165Hz, depending on your needs. It's a joy to game or stream video on, and although it lacks HDR support for platforms like Netflix, the Widevine L1 certification ensures full HD playback across most major apps. Performance Under the hood, the Astra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Elite Edition, paired with up to 24GB of LPDDR5T RAM (plus virtual RAM support), and UFS 4.1 Pro storage. This tablet is seriously fast. My 16GB + 512GB model never once felt slow, whether I was multitasking, gaming, or running emulators. Games like Call of Duty Mobile and Wreckfest ran smoothly at the highest settings, and even PS2 emulation, which scaled up to 8x resolution, didn't stutter. The thermals were impressive too. Even after long sessions, the device never got hot, and I didn't notice any throttling. There's also full support for RedMagic's gaming overlays and performance modes, including 'Diablo Mode' and real-time CPU/GPU monitors. Software features The RedMagic gaming switch launches a dedicated game space UI where you can tweak performance, access shortcuts, and control notifications. You also get screen recording, floating windows, CPU boosting, and more. The software is slick and streamlined into an interface that feels made for gamers first. The stereo speakers tuned with DTS:X Ultra provide punchy audio, and while the physics of a smaller device limits the bass and audio fidelity, the audio quality is excellent. While the 13MP rear and 5MP front cameras are nothing special, they're perfectly fine for video calls, scanning documents, or casual snaps. RedMagic haven't skimped on connectivity with the latest bells and whistles onboard, including dual-band Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and USB-C with DisplayPort out, which is a great feature if you want to connect the tablet to a larger display for docked gaming or media use. The Astra comes with Android 15 and the RedMagic OS 10.5. The UI feels fluid, gaming features are neatly integrated, and it comes with full Google Play support. Graphical features The Astra supports frame interpolation technology, which RedMagic calls Frame Rate Boost. This enhances fluidity by intelligently inserting extra frames between existing ones, much like what you'd expect from high-end gaming monitors or smart TVs. The result is a smoother, more immersive visual experience, especially during fast-paced gameplay where split-second reactions matter. The tablet also features the ability to upscale mobile games to 2K resolution at up to 120 frames per second, delivering a level of visual fidelity and responsiveness which RedMagic claims rivals many console or even mid-range PC setups. A growing number of popular titles are already taking advantage of Astra's high refresh rate display. Call of Duty: Mobile currently supports 120Hz gameplay, while Minecraft takes it a step further with full 165Hz optimisation. Arena Breakout and Delta Force both run at 144Hz, with full support for Delta Force arriving in July 2025. League of Legends: Wild Rift is also due to receive 144Hz support in the same timeframe. Even PUBG Mobile is joining the high refresh club, with 120Hz gameplay expected to land by mid-2025. Having tested several of these games on the Astra, the difference is striking. Animations appear smoother, touch response feels more immediate, and the entire gaming experience is excellent. Battery life and charging The 8200mAh cell comfortably lasts through a day of mixed usage, and even with sustained gaming, it managed well over six hours of screen-on time. For media streaming, you can expect up to 33 hours of playback, which is remarkable for a tablet of this size. The Astra supports up to 80W fast charging (though no charger is included), with a full charge taking a little over an hour. Verdict The RedMagic Astra has a premium build, class-leading performance, and dedicated gaming features all packed into a highly portable package. Highly recommended. From €499
TimesLIVE
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- TimesLIVE
The Sun King of Sin City
There's never been a comprehensive biography of Sol Kerzner, and this one is long overdue. After journalist Allan Greenblo's book Kerzner Unauthorized was banned outright in 1997, writers and, of course, publishers, have been leery of the subject, even after he died in 2020. He picked a fine time to die, did Kerzner, just as the pandemic got its hands around the world. It muffled the news of his death and the flamboyant genius quietly passed on with few obituaries. Kerzner's longtime associate, confidant, and sometime enemy Peter Venison spins out his life story. It goes like the clappers, just like Kerzner's life did, from his childhood in Durban to the heights of private jets, mansions around the globe and marriage to a Miss World. Venison doesn't shy away from the depths, too, the heavy drinking and womanising, the profanity, boardroom coups and the taint of corruption that stubbornly clung to him. Solomon Kerzner's parents were poor Jews who fled Lithuania and first gained a foothold in Bez Valley, Johannesburg, selling fruit and vegetables, before moving to Durban, where they ran a kosher boarding house. Kerzner was beaten up so often at school as a 'bloody Jew' that he learned to box and eventually became a welterweight champion at varsity. The ingrained pugilism would drive him all his life. With hospitality in his veins, he worked for a few short years as an accountant before diving into the hotel trade. He bought his first hotel, a rundown establishment called The Astra, and turned it around by introducing a dinner club and dances. But Kerzner, in his early 20s, had bigger ideas. After visiting the US, he ripped off the shape and style of a famous Miami hotel and built not on Durban's popular Golden Mile beach but in a village up the coast called uMhlanga Rocks. The Beverly Hills was the first five-star hotel in SA, the first with every room facing the sea, the first with a nightclub downstairs. 'Who needs a f**king view in a nightclub?' he said. The bedrooms were relatively small because Kerzner wanted guests out and about in the hotel, lazing by the vast swimming pool and dancing the night away at the Copacabana Club. It quickly became the place to be seen and was a magnet for celebrities. With the heady success of the Beverly Hills, he rolled on down the coast to build the Elangeni and Maharani in Durban, and that was when the world sat up and started taking notice of the brazen, foul-mouthed hotelier. It's these early chapters that are the most interesting in the book, compared to the later ones that curdle into deal after deal, manager after manager and paradise after paradise, all blurring in the reader's mind. We've become so used to lavish resorts — many that were built by him — that it is interesting to read how he imagined them in the first place, how daring and innovative he was. Kerzner believed staying at a hotel should be an experience, rather than it only being a place to lay your head. Guests were to be blown away, he insisted, and staff had to go many an extra mile to satisfy his standard of service. For instance, since most guests ate breakfast in-house, he instructed his head chef to make it memorable. And, so, the interactive, laden buffet breakfast was born, with chefs cooking eggs the way you like it. It's a style that's become ubiquitous the world over. He was renowned for using the word 'f**k' as a noun, a verb and an adjective, all in the same sentence Ever the Vegas acolyte, Kerzner believed entertainment and celebrities were vital to the recipe. He understood what an influencer was before there were influencers. Though he'd never had any architectural or construction training, he had an instinct for it, choosing the best sites for the best viewpoints, such as Beacon Island in Plett and Le Saint Géran in Mauritius. Of course, no telling of Kerzner's story would be complete without Sun City and the Lost City, described by one commentator as a 'gaudy honeypot of fake beaches, fake jungles, fake everything' that ran on 'a high-octane fuel of gambling, alcohol, porn and girlie shows'. Despite the international cultural boycott of SA, with his deep pockets Kerzner signed up musical acts such as Queen and Rod Stewart. He was riding high, the sultan of Sin City, and soon he was looking across the sea to new opportunities, to Mauritius, Comoros, Morocco, Dubai and the Bahamas. Difficult, foul-mouthed and a workaholic — 'He was renowned for using the word 'f**k' as a noun, a verb and an adjective, all in the same sentence' — he was nevertheless a devoted father. The greatest tragedy of Kerzner's life was the death of his son Butch in a helicopter accident. This is a terrific book by someone in the inner circle, who witnessed the chaos and the triumphs of the man said to have been one of the greatest visionaries and entrepreneurs the world has ever seen. The Sun King.
