THE ONEXPLAYER X1 is definitely one of those ‘if only’ devices. 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 way. If only it wasn’t designed to work with a magnetic keyboard.
In fact, this gaming tablet is a faintly ridiculous-looking device when you’ve got the keyboard and elephant-ear controllers attached. OneXPlayer is presenting the X1 as a three-in-one device: a tablet PC, a laptop, and a gaming handheld. Inevitably, it fails to excel in any of those form factors. Worse, it often isn’t actually good at all.
Strangely, it’s at its worst as a gaming handheld PC, and that’s all down to the controller peripherals. For starters, the keyboard will happily flip up, but nothing is holding it in place, so it’ll flap down again with enough force to disconnect, sending it flying. That action of flapping about will also wake up a sleeping X1, which is going to do nothing good for its battery life.