OneXPlayer X1 Air evaluation | PC Gamer

It is a gaming pill that makes itself arduous to like, and but there are positively issues I like about OneXPlayer’s newest Intel-based gaming pill. Lunar Lake in pill type does very, very effectively, and its Arc 140V GPU is critically spectacular with regards to gaming efficiency. After which there’s that beautiful, vivid 11-inch show.

However it’s additionally flaky as all hell with unusual bugs and, regardless of the entire purpose for its existence being that it is supposedly a flexible 3-in-1 gadget, it resolutely fails to persuade in just about any of these codecs.

Just like the older, Meteor Lake-powered OneXPlayer X1, it is a gadget designed to function as a normal (though very thick) PC pill, with a laptop-esque type because of its magnetically attaching keyboard and touchpad, and as a handheld gaming PC with a pair of clip-on controllers. And, inevitably, that need for flexibility hobbles every choice in several methods.

I used to be genuinely hoping that issues can be completely different this time round, however it appears like OneXPlayer has not realized the teachings from the unique gadget and is set to make the identical errors. Although possibly that quest for versatility means avoiding these errors is simply not potential. Both approach, I do not like it.

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The OneXPlayer X1 Air might be at its greatest when used as an 11-inch laptop computer with its connected keyboard. Although the shape issue inevitably makes it barely much less helpful than an precise 11-inch laptop computer can be. As ever with such issues—suppose Microsoft’s Floor tablets—the problem is the actual fact they resolutely suck when used in your lap. Seems like an actual miss for a laptop computer, eh?

That is right down to the dearth of a hinge as all of the elements are essentially behind the display and the keyboard part quantities to little greater than some inputs on a leatherette flap. Any ergonomic rigidity then has to return from the little stand on the again of the pill part, and that is by no means going to work comfortably, or for an honest period of time when used away from a desk.

Really on a desk, nonetheless, it is surprisingly efficient. The flappy keyboard, as with the earlier model, is prone to bending, which could be a little distracting, however there may be extra journey on the keyboard’s switches than you will discover on many an precise laptop computer keyboard. It is very comfy to sort on, there’s loads of distance between the keys, that means you do not get an abundance of mistrikes, and the trackpad is impressively responsive.

In all, it makes for a superb facsimile of a pocket book as long as you are not attempting to make use of it anyplace the stand is not going to work. Although that stand is way improved over the last-gen X1, as a result of it is really built-in into the chassis this time round. Earlier than it was one other magnetically connected accent—once more completed in leatherette—and made the gadget really feel even thicker than it already was.

Now it is a full-width metallic sheet of a stand engineered into the pill itself. It is each versatile in the way you place it and has a powerful quantity of structural rigidity, too. It could possibly’t actually be utilized in portrait mode, nonetheless, except you need the X1 Air to face bolt upright at 90° to the desk prime.

However then, you are in all probability not going to be utilizing it in portrait mode a lot as a result of it appears to lack the flexibility to auto-rotate. The truth is, the newest Home windows 11 replace appears to have eliminated the rotate choice solely from the short settings. I can, in fact, nonetheless go into Home windows Settings and alter the panel show orientation every time I need to swap between modes—if I need to learn a comic book or a selected web site, for instance—however that isn’t a user-friendly choice, particularly when the earlier OneXPlayer pill has no such issues.

So, it isn’t that nice as a pill then? What about as a handheld gaming PC? Nicely, frustratingly the efficiency is absolutely good however the expertise most positively will not be. The Arc 140V iGPU contained in the Lunar Lake Core Extremely 7 258V chip is superb, and can ship gaming efficiency typically proper up there with the very best Strix Level chips, and really often past.

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I am going to admit hoped the battery life was going to be higher, however at full velocity I solely noticed 103 minutes out of the X1 Air within the PC Mark gaming battery life check. I am acquainted with the OneXConsole software program now, and I do admire its granular method to providing you with management over the efficiency and energy draw of your gadget. Although there are nonetheless segments (notably the software program replace part) which might be resolutely in Chinese language characters, and Home windows itself doesn’t just like the replace packages both, flagging and disposing of them through Defender.

However the management you will have with the OneXConsole software program does imply you possibly can actually dial into the Intel chip’s baked-in effectivity. The place Lunar Lake does effectively is within the low energy modes. I have been fortunately working it at 15 W (basically half-power) and that makes an enormous distinction to its gaming up-time whereas nonetheless delivering first rate efficiency.

Sounds fairly good up to now. And it will be, have been the precise expertise not an train in gaming and technical frustration. For one factor these removable controllers are nonetheless horrible. They have been unhealthy on the unique X1 and so they’re no higher with the X1 Air. They’re oddly hole, the button really feel will not be good, and so they flex unpleasantly once they’re slotted into the gadget. They’re safe, however it’s arduous to shake the sensation you are going to find yourself with a face stuffed with thick Lunar Lake pill once you’re mendacity down in mattress attempting to recreation on it.

Although you are not going to be doing that given the heft of the factor as an entire. The place devoted gaming handhelds—such because the Steam Deck, ROG XBox Ally X, and OneXFly F1 Professional—are balanced to assist distribute the load of the elements, there’s nothing taking place on that entrance with a thick 11-inch pill and a few elephant-ear controllers. There isn’t any strategy to comfortably recreation with this gadget in handheld type for any size of time past fashioning some form of intricate bungee twine setup.

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And this ache is all earlier than the bugs hit. Granted, I’ve not had the visible artefacts I skilled with the Meteor Lake gadget and its immature driver stack, however that does not imply it has been plain crusing by any means. The primary main subject I had got here round my battery life testing, the place I essentially drained the juice from the X1 Air whereas gaming. After that the damned factor refused in addition even after being plugged in for some time.

It kinda did, although nothing appeared on the display, and I ended up having to undergo some arcane ritual of arduous resetting, charging, beginning the gadget so its energy mild got here on (although nothing else did), after which swapping to a different laptop computer charger to get some completely different juice into it. After which simply ignoring it for just a few days earlier than lastly beginning it up once more whereas ringed in bee’s wax candles and centred inside a pentagram.

It is now largely working once more, although it does require a drop of virgin blood every time I plug it into the mains. I’m nonetheless getting the occasional subject the place the ability button must be pressed just a few occasions earlier than it would really boot, and standby mode is often flaky as with every Home windows-based gadget.

However even bug-free the general bundle does not do sufficient to justify its value. The model I have been testing is theoretically $1,499, however is at the moment discounted right down to $1,280. That is RTX 5070 gaming laptop computer cash, folks, and never the form of cash I might be keen to spend on one thing that does not actually excel in any of its three modes, laptop computer, pill, or handheld.

Which all means it is an nearly unattainable advice from me. I have been utilizing the OneXPlayer X1 Air, in several methods, for a protracted whereas now, and whereas there are enhancements over the unique X1, and a few components of it I do like (that display…), I can not in good conscience counsel that anybody spending $1,200+ would have a superb time with it.

Particularly not when you possibly can spend half that and get the outright greatest gaming handheld, or the identical quantity and get a real Lunar Lake laptop computer. Positive, you are possibly dropping that versatility, however the compromises the X1 Air asks you to make are merely not value it.

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