The dream of taking part in PC video games in mattress has been the long-held need of the hand held gaming PC crew. “I am unable to wait to play [insert relevant indie game here] in mattress on the Steam Deck!’ was the cry from massive swathes of the PC Gamer workforce when Valve launched its assault on the considerably stagnant market.
However 18 months, some common wrist cramps, and a few black eyes later and the overall consensus is that the Steam Deck is not the gadget you wish to be gaming on in mattress. The load and girth of the Deck simply make it an uncomfortable bedfellow, and your different boudoir companions are unlikely to understand it both given the god-awful racket the over-enthusiastic followers make even while you’re simply zipping round in Olli Olli World, both.
However your bed room—and actually most different locations—will probably be blissful houses for the brand new OneXPlayer OneXFly handheld. It has been designed to be smaller than each the Steam Deck and the ROG Ally, and lighter, too. And it truly is a stunning little piece of {hardware}.
And, mendacity again in mattress, the OneXFly is fulfilling the promise of that unique handheld PC dream.
Purchase if…
✅ You need a smaller handheld however with an honest display screen: The OneXFly’s 7-inch panel has a skinny bezel which has allowed it to chop the general footprint down.
✅ You hate the noise of the Steam Deck: The fan sound of the OneXFly is quiet, even at excessive speeds. It is also easy to regulate the fan curve from the OneXConsole software program.
Do not buy if…
❌ You are on the lookout for an inexpensive second PC: The $739 spec might be nonetheless the one I would select—that $1,299 64GB RAM/4TB SSD model is foolish—nevertheless it’s nonetheless excess of a low-end Steam Deck.
I used to be impressed with the Steam Deck, a giant fan of the ROG Ally—when it wasn’t melting SD playing cards—and have beloved the massive display screen capabilities of the AOKZOE A1 Professional. This newest gadget is a stablemate of the A1 Professional, sharing the identical software program, and a variety of the identical {hardware}, too. And that is no dangerous factor as an entire.
I had some language and OS points with our prototype evaluation unit initially, however as soon as I would reinstalled a recent model of Home windows and added the complete driver and utility suite, these issues evaporated.
Whereas I do not love the OneXConsole utility, it is efficient sufficient at supplying you with straightforward management over the system, from TDP to CPU clock velocity and whether or not you enable it to Turbo, too. It’s also possible to management the RGB, as a result of that is now a factor handheld gaming PCs want. Y’know, identical to common gaming PCs.
In equity, the OneXFly’s lighting is fairly candy, with delicate, multicoloured illumination across the twin sticks and even customized RGB lighting round every palm relaxation. Although, actually, I’ve spent most of my time with the LEDs disabled to be able to squeeze each final drop of energy out of the 48Wh battery inside it.
For a handheld, it is all about that longevity away from the plug socket, in any case. And the OneXFly can comfortably outlast the ROG Ally, even operating the superior Ryzen 7 7840U on the full 30W TDP. With each at max, together with the Home windows energy settings, the OneXFly delivers 69 minutes of gaming uptime measured by the PCMark 10 gaming battery take a look at.
The a lot bigger A1 Professional has a commensurately bigger battery, therefore its larger efficiency within the battery life testing of a full hour and a half.
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However you are not going to be taking part in at these ranges, until you might be related to an influence supply, wherein case these time measures are irrelevant. You may be doing precisely what we have been doing with the Steam Deck because it launched, determining simply how far we are able to drop the system settings earlier than it stops being enjoyable to play a given recreation.
That is the place the good thing about that AMD Ryzen APU is available in, as a result of the CPU aspect is ludicrously good, whereas the Radeon 780M RDNA 3 built-in GPU is surprisingly adept at 1080p gaming, usually on medium recreation settings. The identical even rings true once I’ve been chopping TDP all the way down to 15W to play Baldur’s Gate 3.
And it is a superb BG3 machine, too. The display screen is vibrant, at 450cd/m2 although our engineering pattern unit is not able to the 120Hz refresh fee the retail items will supply. However it’s nonetheless tremendous sharp, responsive, and clear. That is vital when making an attempt to pick the subsequent goal for the Crown of Insanity on a 7-inch show.
The remainder of the bottom spec is fairly commonplace for the present crop of gaming handhelds—16GB RAM, 512GB SSD—nevertheless it’s utilizing a speedier model of reminiscence in its LPDDR5X-7500 equipment. And that makes it a brilliant responsive Home windows-based gaming machine.
Sure, Home windows. We’re nonetheless speaking about Home windows 11 because the OS of selection for each handheld exterior of Valve, as a result of it nonetheless hasn’t launched a correct model of its Linux-based OS to make use of away from the Steam Deck. And I am truly okay with that now. Microsoft’s working system does not have any optimisations for handheld machines as but, and can nonetheless throw the occasional challenge your means.
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Fortunately, it is Home windows so there’s usually an simply discovered resolution. And infrequently it is purely a query of hitting the clear display screen button, ignoring it, or going the nuclear choice and rebooting. And you’ll all the time boot instantly into Steam’s Huge Image mode and forgo any Home windows tiny touchscreen issues.
However, as a result of it’s Home windows, it makes a incredible docked gaming PC, particularly with the quick RAM and excellent CPU element. And the OneXFly is much better specced out than the ROG Ally, too, making it a greater match for exterior GPU bins.
I have been operating it plumbed right into a Razer Core X field with an RTX 3070 inside and it was a doddle to stand up and operating with the newest commonplace desktop Nvidia drivers. It does not must be rebooted if you wish to swap; simply plug the Thunderbolt/USB4 cable in and it’ll spin up the GPU and join.
My solely drawback is that, whereas the OneXFly does have two full USB4 Kind-C ports on the highest and backside of the chassis, they aren’t the identical. They’ve completely different housing and I discovered the highest supplied by cable an excessive amount of journey, leading to it dropping the connection to the eGPU far too usually. The underslung Kind-C port, nevertheless, is far more strong.
That is not it for connections both, as there is a full USB 3.2 Kind-A port on the highest, too. Even if you happen to’re jamming it right into a USB dock there are nonetheless ports free on the gadget itself. That is not one thing you may say for the resolutely single port ROG Ally and its dedication that you just solely use Asus’ eGPU.
That is one strategy to up the efficiency of the OneXFly, however then you definately’ve additionally bought GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud Gaming as streaming providers. The expertise on an excellent Wi-Fi community is excellent, and means you’ll exponentially enhance your battery life; it is successfully simply taking part in a video at that time. And each are straightforward to get operating on a Home windows system.
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I’ll say, it isn’t low cost. And that is the place the Steam Deck nonetheless holds sway over any handheld being launched in the meanwhile.
So, the specs are good, the slim bezel display screen is neat, and the efficiency proper up there. I am additionally liking the bodily design of the factor. It is actually thick, however the general footprint is much smaller than both Deck or Ally, and that makes it one thing I am way more more likely to simply drop right into a bag once I head out the door.
It additionally feels good within the hand. The rubberised coating feels grippy with out feeling sticky—it is kinda like how I think about Batman’s cowl would really feel—and even this black model is not the fingerprint magnet I used to be anticipating it to be.
I’ll say, it isn’t low cost. And that is the place the Steam Deck nonetheless holds sway over any handheld being launched in the meanwhile. They could have larger specs, however when you may choose up a low-end Deck, swap in an inexpensive high-capacity 2230 SSD for round $400, that places it way more in second-machine territory than the $739 price ticket of the bottom spec model of the OneXFly.
At that worth, it is a main machine. It is the one one you utilize. Can it change your laptop computer? That is a toughie. If we’re simply speaking gaming, then 100%. You have bought a wee factor to take round with you to play virtually any PC recreation on, after which while you get residence it has the ability to make an efficient desktop PC while you dock it right into a display screen, mouse, and keyboard.
However it’s not such as you’re going to have the ability to take notes in your OneXFly at school, or rock as much as a enterprise assembly and simply run a PowerPoint presentation with out trying like a correct device.
It is a terrific little gadget, although. I nonetheless love the massive 8-inch display screen of the A1 Professional, and its beefy battery, nevertheless it’s huge. The OneXFly is a genuinely transportable, genuinely highly effective handheld, with an entire lot of versatility baked into it. I do not love the software program, not in the best way I’ve not too long ago grow to be reasonably enamoured with the AYASpace, and Home windows actually has its quirks. However I could not return to the Steam Deck now, and the ROG Ally, SD card points apart, feels too restricted for me.
So, it seems to be prefer it’ll be the OneXFly that accompanies me on my travels any longer.
