One XPlayer X1 review: The largest gaming handheld you've ever seen

We've seen a few handheld gaming PCs over the past few years in response to the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck, and while the sizes have varied a bit, most devices stick somewhere between 7- and 9-inch displays. Chinese company One XPlayer decided to buck this trend and aim for a massive 11-inch (10.95-inch, to be precise) display while also making something that's a little more versatile.

The One XPlayer X1 is a "3-in-1" device since it can be used as a gaming handheld, a tablet, or a laptop, with the optional keyboard cover. It's powered by Intel Core Ultra processors, so its gaming capabilities are pretty solid, and day-to-day use is fine, though the experience falls short in terms of polish, making this a handheld I wouldn't recommend unless you have a lot of patience.

About this review: One XPlayer sent us a prototype unit of the One XPlayer X1, which the company insisted could be used for a full review. However, the specs in our prototype don't match the final version fully, so performance claims may not be the same in the final product. The company had no input in the content of this review.

Pricing and availability

The One XPlayer X1 launched via an Indiegogo campaign on January 24th, 2024, and it became fully available through the One XPlayer website after the campaign ended.

The versions available on the official website start at $1,099 with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. The model we received for this review features an Intel Core Ultra 5 135H, which doesn't seem to be available to buy.

Design

This isn't your average tablet

At its core, the One XPlayer X1 is a Windows tablet, so let's take a look at what it's like without the extras. In terms of size, it's not exactly small, certainly not compared to other more mainstream Windows tablets. It is smaller than the Surface Pro 9 (thanks to the smaller screen), but it's very thick, at 13mm. Microsoft's tablet is just 9.3mm thick, for example, so this is a pretty big difference. You can use it as a tablet, but it's not very comfortable to hold or use. That's before you even consider the back plate that serves as a kickstand, which adds even more thickness.

It also weighs 769 grams. For its size, that's not impressive, but it is lighter than the aforementioned Surface Pro 9, so it's still somewhat manageable as a tablet. As a console, though, it's pretty heavy, and longer gaming sessions tend to get a bit uncomfortable holding something so heavy for so long.

What also doesn't help with the comfort is the very angular, flat design of the edges. On a thinner device, it might not be a problem, but when it's also so thick, some rounded edges would go a long way in providing more comfort.

You can use it as a tablet, but it's not really very comfortable to hold or use.

As for the overall looks of the tablet, it's at least fairly unique. The all-black chassis combined with the red trim around the edges make it stand out from other tablets, and so does the pair of RGB lights on the back on the tablet. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like you can customize these lights at all, but they do add a bit of personality to the design. Overall, One Xplayer went for a gamer-y aesthetic here, with lots of angular patterns around the device, including for the fan intake and exhaust, speaker grills, and more.

Ports let you expand your possibilities

The One XPlayer X1 also has plenty of ports for something so small, and they're a big part of why it's so versatile. Of course, you have connectors on the sides for the detachable controllers, and on the bottom, Pogo pins used for the optional keyboard attachment that turns this into a laptop.

Aside from those, the left side has two fully-features USB4 ports, which allow you to use an external GPU or a docking station if you need more ports for one reason or another. On the right side, you'll find the USB Type-A port and a microSD card reader, so you can expand the storage available for your games and other files.

A noteworthy addition can be found along the top edge, though. In addition to the headphone jack, a plastic cover hides an OCuLink port. OCuLink is a relatively recent technology in consumer devices and it's sort of a competitor to Intel's Thunderbolt. The reason it's here is that it allows for a lot more bandwidth than Thunderbolt, which in turns gives external GPUs a lot more room to breathe when connected to this machine. Unfortunately, OCuLink is not very common in external GPUs, so you have to get the company's OneXGPU or look around for an alternative.

Controllers and software

The controllers are good, once you get them working

I'm still looking at the One XPlayer X1 as a gaming handheld firs and foremost, so let's talk about the controllers. These are included with the device, but out of the box, they only work when attached directly to the X1. If you want to use them wirelessly, you have to buy the controller connector separately, which makes them feel more like a typical controller. Unfortunately, I was not sent the wireless connector, so my experience is limited to using them attached to the console.

Overall, the controllers feel good to use. They're very lightweight, but that's kind of a good thing when the tablet is already so big and heavy. The shape is also fairly comfortable, and they fit right into my hands, so the experience is pretty good overall. The buttons all feel good to press, and I particularly like the micro-switches on the D-pad that make it clicky and responsive. You can also swap the D-pad for an eight-directional pad similar to the Xbox Elite controllers. Interestingly, it seems like One XPlayer decided to skip out on Hall effect analog sticks, but these still feel good, and something akin to a larger version of Nintendo's Joy-Con, but smoother and more comfortable.

I particularly like the micro-switches on the D-pad that make it clicky and responsive

In addition to all the buttons you'd expect, the controllers include a "home" button, which launches Steam and can also switch to Big Picture mode, which works really well with this kind of device. The other is the keyboard button, which can launch the on-screen keyboard, but also switch the input to mouse mode, so you can use the analog sticks to navigate Windows. The are also two customizable buttons on the back, which you can assign to other buttons, macros, or even keyboard keys, which makes them quite useful.

The problem is, when my controllers arrived, they were unusable. After reaching out to One XPlayer, I was told I had to calibrate the controllers in order for them to work, but there's no indication of this on the package. It's possible this was an issue exclusive to early reviewers dealing with pre-production hardware, but if this is the experience for consumers, it's horrible.

Software is still a problem, but it's better

One XPlayer, like many smaller Chinese companies, suffers on the software side with these devices, with some pretty poor translations and an unclear UI overall. Things are definitely better this time, though. The fact that the Home button launches Steam is brilliant, and it actually makes this device very nice to use as a console. But any software One XPlayer developed itself is a bit hit or miss.

The One Xplayer overlay has some confusing translations that make it hard to know what everything does, and overall, the interface just doesn't feel intuitive. For example, the "fan mode" slider has an "Automatic" option that's on by default and then Preset 1 and Preset 2. Except I have no idea what these presets do. The settings panel has a bunch of options that I did;t touch since I'm not sure what they'll actually do. Some things are also just unnecessary, like the links to install performance overlays like RTSS or a "Game Trainer" feature that seems to be some kind of cheating mechanism to make some games easier. It relies on a third-party app you need to install, so why even put it here?

Any software One XPlayer developed itself is a bit hit or miss

One XPlayer then has a full-screen interface that seems like it was supposed to be your game launcher, but it doesn't launch by default, and I'm glad it doesn't. Steam is just so much better. However, this software is useful for updating your controllers or BIOS, as well as remapping buttons on the controllers and setting up macros. You can remap just about every button to anything else, so that's very nice. This software has been polished up a bit since I initially got my unit, since it was borderline unusable at first. I actually had to get an update through my PR contact at one point because the app failed to update itself.

Also, I'm not sure if this can be considered a software issue, but the power button on this device does a weird thing where if you press it quickly, the power indicator light will turn on, but the actual device won't. The screens remains black until eventually, the power light goes away after a few seconds. You always have to press the power button a split-second longer than you'd expect for it to actually work, which always frustrated me.

Keyboard and touchpad

Since this is advertised as a 3-in-1 device, I do want to touch on the keyboard and touchpad, though the keyboard accessory isn't included in the box. You need to buy it separately, which sets you back $79 (though it's discounted to $59 at writing time).

Overall, the keyboard is alright, but not great. While most of the body feels pretty sturdy, the flap near the connector is a little flimsy and allows the keyboard to rock a bit while typing, which will probably get distracting. The keyboard doesn't lie completely flat but it's also not really raised, so it's not an ideal experience.

The touchpad is also not very good. The surface is smooth, and it's decently big considering the space we have here, so it gets points for that. Clicking it is a pain, though. It's very stiff and you can only click it if your finger is in the lower eighth of the touchpad, which, for something this small, means you have to be very precise if you want to actually be able to click things. It got annoying very quickly.

Display and sound

It actually looks great

One area of the One XPlayer X1 I have to commend is the display, which is actually really solid. Of course, at 10.95 inches, it's huge, even compared to the already large Lenovo Legion Go. It comes in a very sharp 2560x1600 resolution, and it has a 120Hz refresh rate, so it's plenty sharp and it can provide smooth gaming, assuming you're playing something relatively lightweight that the integrated Intel Arc GPU can handle easily. Colors look very vibrant on this screen, and the glossy coating, while a bit too reflective for outdoor use, helps everything look very vivid.

According to the spec sheet, the screen covers 100% of sRGB and DCI-P3, and it shows. But of course, I ran some real tests with the SpyderX Pro colorimeter, and indeed, that seems to be pretty close to reality. My tests show 99% coverage of DCI-P3 and 100% of sRGB, which is very close to the advertised coverage.

One XPlayer claims the X1's display can hit up to 540 nits of brightness, and in my testing, I found it to be pretty close, with the screen reaching 519 nits. It's fairly bright, though the screen is still hard to see under sunlight because it's so reflective.

Above the display, the One XPlayer X1 packs a 720p webcam, which functions. That's the best thing I can say about it, but it could be worse. The really nice part is that there's also a Windows Hello IR sensor here, so you can unlock the handheld really easily just by looking at it. Assuming the sensor manages to start on the lock screen, which I've found to be a bit hit or miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes it just fails to load and I have to enter my PIN.

The two 1W speakers are far from impressive on a technical level, but to be honest, for a handheld, I think they work pretty well. They're fairly loud and clear, so I can't really complain.

Performance

Intel Core Ultra is pretty good

As I mentioned at the top, the prototype unit One XPlayer sent me to review comes with an Intel Core Ultra 5 135H, though the final model has a more powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 155H. That means any performance testing I do has to be taken with a grain of salt. You can probably expect a good bit more performance from the final model, seeing as it has two extra performance cores for the CPU, and one extra Xe core on the GPU.

Regardless, the performance I got with this model was pretty good all things considered. I tried a few games, which had the following average results:

Average numbers only mean so much, but I will say that at these settings, Elden Ring was almost unplayable. There were a lot of dips in framerate, and while the 35W power setting delivered better results at first, it seemed to drop very quickly, resulting in an average frame rate that's pretty unimpressive. That being said, you have wiggle room to lower the settings to make it playable.

Otherwise, most games played fine. Apex Legends struggled a lot before dropping into the battlefield, but it ran fairly smoothly with a mix of high and low graphics settings and at a high resolution. It might have been better to lower the resolution and up some of the other settings, but this was playable. Shadow of the Tomb Raider also had some drops, particularly running at 15W, but it was also playable.

That's one thing worth mentioning here. These handhelds offer a pretty wide range of power options so you can tune the performance and power consumption to your needs, so I tested a more middle-of-the-road 15W and the 35W maximum to see how it fares, but you can always play around with it to tune your experience.

Of course, I also ran benchmarks, though it's worth mentioning these were mostly done with the device plugged in and set to 35W to fully test the performance:

Those are pretty much the results you'd expect. It falls behind the Core Ultra 7 in general, but you can see how boosting the power of the CPU package to 35W can make a huge difference in performance, and in terms of GPU power, that's even enough for it to get a better score than the HP Spectre x360 14. Since the final unit comes with an Intel Core Ultra 7, you can expect a nice bump in performance overall.

As for battery life, I haven't had many opportunities to fully drain the battery on this machine, but with the power slider set to 15W, I was able to play Forza Horizon 5 for 2 hours and 26 minutes before the device turned off. This was with battery saver disabled, as that feature causes Windows 11 to slow down very significantly.

Should you buy the One XPlayer X1?

I have a hard time recommending the One XPlayer X1 because it feels like a lot of what tries to do just falls flat on its face. The "3-in-1" marketing is kind of pointless when this device is uncomfortable as a tablet and has a very mediocre touchpad and keyboard, which is sold separately on top of that. I also think it's too heavy to be a comfortable gaming handheld if you want to play longer sessions. Plus, finishing this review was a nightmare due to the issues with the controllers, which may be a problem for consumers, too. The poor translations and cluttered UI in the company's software also don't help.

That being said, once things are working, I kind of enjoyed using the One XPlayer X1. The large screen is very immersive and it looks great, and the controllers are pretty comfortable. Performance is pretty solid, too, so you can use this to play a lot of games. It just feels like you have to go through a few headaches before you can just dive in and start playing. You should consider other Steam Deck alternatives before jumping on this one.

You should buy the One XPlayer X1 if:

• You want this extra-large screen to play your games on
• The detachable controllers make a difference to you (and you're willing to buy the wireless connector)

You should NOT buy the One XPlayer X1 if:

• You want a no-frills experience
• You want something that's actually portable
• You're buying it just for the 3-in-1 concept