Remember way back when handheld consoles were just so simple. Pop a cartridge in and just play your game to your heart’s content. No need for a lot of paraphernalia unless you’re one of those who bought every single accessory for the Gameboy. These days, yes, you still have simple handheld consoles such as a Switch wherein you still just buy a cartridge and play, but with the advent of Windows-powered handheld devices, lines just got a bit blurrier.
Enter the Onexplayer Mini, a Windows handheld gaming device that shouldn’t exist but it does. The power of a PC in the palm of your hand, literally. Disguised as a portable handheld device, it pretty much can also be a replacement for a laptop if you have the right set of accessories attached to it.
Table of Contents
Design
The Onexplayer Mini is a premium-looking device, nothing is loose, and everything is built solidly. It has that large 7-inch screen up front that reproduces colors impressively (more on that later) and a body that will definitely push that meaning of being a portable handheld device. It’s more or less twice as thick as a Nintendo Switch, although the weight and the heft do add a bit to the grip of the device. The buttons, triggers, and joystick are all up to par, everything used seems premium to the touch.
Display
Let’s start off with that display, you’re looking at a 7-inch screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1200. It’s very sharp, especially for a screen this size. It’s a glossy screen and even pixel peepers won’t be too bothered by what they see on screen. Media looks great if you’re looking at the device to consume your usual YouTube or Netflix. No high refresh rate here, only your standard 60Hz, but I wouldn’t complain too much about this.
Performance
Gaming performance though is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to the Onexplayer Mini. Can you game on the device? The easy answer is yes, but with some, okay, maybe a lot of compromises. Let’s break it down one at a time.
First, you have an Intel Core i7-1195G7 powering the handheld device with an integrated Iris Xe GPU. For tech-heads out there, that’s just 96 Execution Units with a max graphics clock of 1.4GHz, which really does not compare even to the cheapest of modern graphic cards out there. That’s your first compromise right there, if you don’t have any plans to play graphically demanding games then you could make do with this device. Second, if you do want to play games that are graphically demanding, then you have to settle for low settings in almost all the games that you will play and at low frame rates. Don’t expect to push 60fps with this game at native resolution.
For example, playing a game that isn’t too demanding like Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, playing at 1920 x 1200 was just a bit too demanding for the console and stutters were very frequent that the game was not playable. Pushing the settings down to the lowest at 1280 x 720 gave me a better playing experience. Everything was smooth for the most part and the game ran very well. Despite that lower graphical fidelity, I found myself enjoying the game. The great part about this is that with a screen this small, playing games at lower resolutions is more than okay, the reduced sharpness isn’t too obvious.
Third, to pack that processor inside this device, there are compromises when it comes to heat and sound. The device gets hot, not too hot (or maybe I didn’t push it enough) that it would burn you, but enough to be a nuisance when playing long sessions. The one thing that really bothered me though was the sound of the fans when I was playing games. The fans would really crank it up and would create this tinny sound that was really annoying. The only way for me to go around this is to use a dedicated pair of headphones so that I could just ignore the sound of the fans whirring away while I was playing.
The battery life of this device isn’t that bad. While using it for just browsing and watching media, it gave me a bit over 2 hours before it conked out. Gaming though was a bit disappointing. Dedicated handheld devices such as the Switch could last me a few hours before I would need to find an outlet. The Onexplayer Mini though just gave me around an hour to an hour and a half of battery life. This was disappointing for me as I was always aware in the back of my mind that I needed to be near an outlet to be able to continuously play.
OS
Despite the performance issues I mentioned earlier, the one thing this console can do that other handheld devices can’t is run full-fledged Windows. Yes, the processor isn’t the best for gaming, but if you’re looking at a device to run Windows and all the apps that come along with it then this device just chugs along.
You get full access to Steam and all the games available on that platform, and with thousands of games not needing a powerful graphic card then you could easily run them on this device. It even comes with its own foldable keyboard that you can use in order to do your usual office work on this device. The USB-C port will also allow you to connect this to a dedicated monitor so that you can turn it into a full-fledged portable computer.
Other competitors, like the Nintendo Switch and Valve’s Steam Deck may offer better battery life and gaming performance but the versatility of the Onexplayer Mini can not be stated enough. Valve can run Windows but is not native to the device and comes with its own set of bugs while the Switch locks you in the Nintendo ecosystem.
Conclusion
So, is the Onexplayer Mini a worthy buy? It really depends. If you really want a handheld console for gaming on the go with the library that Windows has then go for it. It’s not cheap at PHP 49,995 but the versatility can be a pro for you. It comes with a great screen and premium hardware so there are no compromises on that end.
But for the same price, you might want to take a look at similar or cheaper-priced gaming laptops that have more processing and graphic power. Spending a bit extra for a dedicated controller can offer you almost the same level of portability with a bit more power to enjoy your games. You might even want to consider a Switch which is way cheaper now, especially in second-hand markets, plus a few games would still be cheaper than the Onexplayer Mini.
Again, this gives you a decent gaming experience in such a compact package. A device like this wouldn’t have even been possible a few years ago, but yet here we are, the power of a PC in the palm of your hands. The handheld console market has gotten a bit more complicated and the Onexplayer definitely makes that decision a little bit harder.
