OneXPlayer X1 review

There are a whole bunch of 'if only' features of the OneXPlayer X1 that could have made this interesting take on the market a genuinely great handheld gaming PC. If only the Meteor Lake silicon was efficient enough to deliver a game-changing level of handheld battery life. If only the Xe GPU architecture was more reliable in nailing consistent gaming frame rates across the board. If only those controllers weren't so hollow, confidence-sapping, and didn't get in the damned way. If only it wasn't designed to work with a magnetic keyboard.

For what it is, however, I still have genuine affection for it, though in all honesty, I don't think I'll ever use it as anything more than the chonky tablet PC it really is at its heart. Though there is no getting away from that fact it is a faintly ridiculous-looking device when you've got the keyboard and elephant-ear controllers attached.

Because OneXPlayer is presenting the X1 as a three-in-one device: a tablet PC, a laptop, and a gaming handheld. And the instant I see that in any marketing slides, I instinctively think 'jack of all trades, master of none.' And you'd almost be bang on the money.

'Almost', because not only does it fail to excel in any of those form factors, but it often isn't actually good at all. It's not even a 'jack'.  Perhaps strangely, it's at its worst as a gaming handheld PC, and that's all down to the controller peripherals, which took an age to be finalised and delivered ahead of this review. I hate to think how the original prototypes felt in hand if this is what we end up with. 

CPU: Intel Core 7 Ultra 155H
Cores: 16
Threads: 22
GPU: Intel Arc
Memory: 32GB LPDDR5x-7467
Screen size: 11-inch
Native resolution: 2560 x 1600
Refresh rate: 120 Hz
Storage: 1TB SSD
Battery: 65 Wh
I/O: 1x Oculink (PCIe 4.0 x 4), 2x USB 4 Type-C, 1x USB 3.2 Type-A, 1x 3.5mm audio, 1x TF Card 4.0
Dimensions: 252 x 163 x 13 mm
Weight: ~789 g
Price: $1,100

I've actually had the OneXPlayer X1 in my hands as a prototype device for a long while