ONEXPLAYER is no stranger to making a lot of gaming handhelds (arguably more than necessary). The latest addition is the ONEXPLAYER X1 Mini, a smaller version of the X1 I reviewed a few months back.

Overall, the ONEXPLAYER X1 Mini is an improvements over the larger sibling. The design has been refined, the smaller size is much more wieldy, and performance is still pretty good. I still had the usual issues, both because of Windows and some ONEXPLAYER features, so I can't fully recommend it, but I'd say this is better in many ways.

About this review: ONEXPLAYER sent us a prototype unit of the X1 Mini for the purposes of this review. The company had no input in the content of the review.

ONEXPLAYER X1 Mini: Pricing and availability

ONEXPLAYER launched the X1 Mini as part of an Indiegogo campaign on June 6th, 2024, and it's now available directly from the company's website.

Pricing starts at $1,049 for the configuration with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, but you can spend up to $1,399 for the top-tier model with 64GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD.

Design and controls

This is much better than the regular X1

Design-wise, the ONEXPLAYER X1 Mini is an improvement across the board compared to the non-mini version I reviewed before. ONEXPLAYER has clearly refined the design with some smoother edges and a proper built-in kickstand. It's a much smaller kickstand compared to the previous model, and it's more akin to the original Nintendo Switch, but now centered and much more sturdy. I quite like it compared to the larger X1, where the kickstand was part of a removable cover that was less flexible and more cumbersome to use. This is a huge improvement.

I also like the feel of the materials a lot more on this device. Both of these units are prototypes, but I'm treating them as finalized units since ONEXPLAYER considers them ready for review. And with that context, the coating on the X1 Mini is far better, with a smoother touch that makes the hardware much more pleasant to hold.

ONEXPLAYER has clearly refined the design

On that note, the smaller size of the device is also a big help here. The big screen on the original X1 even prompted me to write an article about how gaming handhelds are getting too big, so this change is definitely an improvement in my book.

The controllers are basically the same

The ONEXPLAYER X1 Mini uses the exact same controllers as its larger sibling, and in that regard, it's still good. The controllers are comfortable to use and all the buttons and sticks feel fairly satisfying to use. The analog sticks have hall effect sensors for extra precision and improved durability, and there's some RGB lighting to add some flair. The tablet also has gyro controls, which can be mapped to aiming in some games, though whether it works well or not will depend on the game.

I did have an issue where the controllers simply stopped working, which seemed to be a problem with the right-hand controller, since swapping it with the controller I had from the original X1 review fixed it. However, this issue fixed itself after some time.

It's a gaming handheld, a tablet, and a laptop.

The controllers are detachable, but to use them wirelessly, you have to buy the controller connector separately. It may seem pointless to have detachable controllers in that case, but the idea is that the X1 Mini can be used as a "3-in-1" device. It's a gaming handheld, a tablet, and a laptop. So if you want to use it as a Windows tablet, you can still remove the controller and use it the screen by itself.

That may sound like a cool idea, but then you remember that is a sub-9-inch tablet that's 20mm thick and weighs nearly 800 grams. You're never going to use it as a tablet. In fact, the whole 3-in-1 concept falls flat on its face in most ways, because an 8.8-inch display also makes for a terrible laptop. Oh, and the keyboard to make it a laptop is also sold separately, so there's that. I wasn't sent the keyboard this time, but again, I wouldn't want to use it in the first place.

Display

Another pretty good panel

With OLED displays starting to become more common in gaming handhelds like the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch, companies have to step up their game in order to have a good product. And thankfully, ONEXPLAYER has done pretty well here. This is an 8.8-inch display, similar to what's found in the Lenovo Legion Go. It's also the same resolution (2560x1600) and refresh rate (144Hz) as that handheld.

In my experience with it, the screen on the ONEXPLAYER X1 Mini is very good. It's bright, colorful, and very smooth, making for a great experience overall, whether it's gaming or even just using Windows.

ONEXPLAYER claims the X1 covers 133% of sRGB, which is just a silly way of saying it exceeds that color space by 33%. Measuring the display with my SpyderX Pro colorimeter, the actual results are 100% of sRGB, 91% of Adobe RGB, 96% of DCI-P3, and 89% of NTSC. That's a very strong score overall.

As for brightness, ONEXPLAYER touts up to 500 nits, and here, my tests show that the X1 Mini actually exceeds that claim significantly, going up to nearly 550 nits. While sunlight may still be a problem, outdoor visibility should be pretty good overall.

Contrast is near 1000:1, which is about what you'd expect from an IPS panel. I've seen better, but this is still very good.

There's a webcam

Despite the smaller size, ONEXPLAYER has still kept a webcam on the X1 Mini, but now, it's been moved to the right side of the display. It feels a bit odd, but if you're holding the tablet by the controllers, the camera should be unobstructed, and even Windows Hello works pretty well this way.

However, the webcam is a problem in some apps. It's a 1080p sensor, but there's a lot of noise, and the sensor being sideways means you'll always appear sideways in some video calling software, including Google Meet.

Performance and battery life

It's about what you'd expect

Talking about performance on gaming handhelds has quickly become boring considering the vast majority of these devices have similar chips. In this case, we have an AMD Ryzen 7 8840U, which was the latest generation of AMD processors when this device launched (AMD has since introduced its new Ryzen AI 300 chips, though they're still not on any gaming handhelds). The thing about the Ryzen 8000 series, however, is that while it sounds like a whole new generation, this chip is really the same as the Ryzen 7040 series, aside from the addition of a more powerful NPU.

This is a good handheld for gaming.

As such, for gaming, this chip isn't significantly different from the Ryzen 7 7840U or even a Ryzen Z1 Extreme which you'll find in most of the rivals, such as the ROG Ally X or the Lenovo Legion Go. Of course, I tried to play some games here, and the results were about what I would have expected, which is not a bad thing. I tried gaming with the power setting at 15W and 30W to see how much of a difference it made. Here are the measurements I got:

Overall, performance is pretty solid in most games, and even at 15W, you can get a good experience. In the case of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, I will mention that even though the average FPS is similar in both power modes, it definitely felt a lot less playable at 15W. Of course, you have the option to scale back the settings to get more smoothness, but I wanted to get measurements for the same settings across power modes. The main takeaway here is that this is a good handheld for gaming.

But what might seem really weird to you is how Elden Ring, a pretty demanding modern title, somehow runs perfectly fine at max settings in both 15W and 30W modes. Something is obviously wrong here, but I can't tell what. The game may be cutting back some processing in some areas of the screen that I can't notice, but it did run fairly smoothly on both settings. This is something I hate about PC gaming, though, because it's very hard to tell what's actually happening behind the scenes. There's no way this game should be able to run at these settings, and it shouldn't run the same at both power settings, but it seems to. I haven't been able to figure it out.

Of course, I also ran the usual benchmarks. Here's what I got:

As you can see here, performance is pretty solid. It's obviously better than a Core Ultra 5, except in 3DMark, which suggests an Intel-powered model may actually be a better choice for gaming. But the CPU is significantly faster on the AMD processor.

As for battery life, things are about what you'd expect. For my tests, I set the power level to 15W and played Shadow of the Tomb Raider continuously until it died. I got about 2 hours and 15 minutes of battery life this way. Another test had more mixed usage between 15W and 30W while testing the gaming performance above, and that came in at about one hour and 55 minutes. As per usual with a lot of these handhelds, for more demanding games, you're looking at around two hours of battery life, which isn't amazing.

Should you buy the ONEXPLAYER X1 Mini?

No matter how good these devices get, it's always going to be near impossible to really recommend the ONEXPLAYER X1 Mini when you have other great options from other more reputable companies, most of them being cheaper. ONEXPLAYER doesn't have the brand recognition or the market presence of Lenovo, Asus, or the Steam Deck, yet this handheld starts at $1,049, more than any of its competitors from those companies. And while it does have more storage and RAM, its custom software isn't as easy to navigate as what those rivals offer, which is further hindered by poor translations.

If you really have to buy a ONEXPLAYER gaming handheld, or you want one with OCuLink support, this may be a good option for you. It's much better than the larger X1, and since OCuLink support is still very uncommon, this is one of the few solutions out there for that market. But if you don't need it, you can get a better experience with a Steam Deck or even competing handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally X.

You should buy the ONEXPLAYER if:

• You need a PC gaming handheld with an OCuLink port
• You want a large screen on a gaming laptop
• You want to avoid the more popular brands for whatever reason

You should NOT buy the ONEXPLAYER if:

• You can get a Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, or Lenovo Legion Go
• You expect software to be properly treansted to English
• You think the "3-in-1" concept is worth anything