The Onexplayer Mini is the latest handheld PC that is not Valve's Steam Deck; it does not have the Steam Deck's modest 1,280 x 800 screen resolution in favor of a more impressive 1,920 x 1,200. Nor does it have the attractive pricing of Valve's handhelds. The cheapest Onexplayer Mini costs $1,259, much higher than the cheapest Steam Deck at $399. However, it comes with Windows 11 installed as standard, a rugged Intel 11th generation Core i7 processor and a 512GB SSD.

The original 8.4-inch Onexplayer (now called the 1S) was released in May 2021 and used a slightly weaker processor, but otherwise had similar specs to this machine. This new 7-inch version is still bulky and about twice as thick as the Nintendos, but it feels a bit more manageable in the hand and is comfortable to hold for extended periods of time. The buttons, triggers, and analog joystick feel good, and the overall impression is of a high-quality portable gaming device.

Of course, it is the gaming aspect that will determine the fate of this machine, and this is where things start to go a bit off kilter. Despite the incredible price, this is the land of integrated graphics, which means that not all games will run perfectly. In fact, many games won't run at all, and those that do will be hampered by the Iris Xe silicon on Intel's Core i7 1195G7. [The maximum graphics clock is 1.4 GHz, with 96 execution units, which is poor compared to the cheapest discrete graphics cards. This means that the idea of running the latest games at the highest settings can be dismissed, and even native resolution can be a bit of a headache; to get the most out of the Onexplayer Mini, a balance must be struck between resolution and settings.

Metro Exodus, for example, works surprisingly well on this device. While not perfect, 30 fps at a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 using the "low" preset is not a bad starting point. Dropping the resolution to 1,280 x 720 and raising the setting to Medium produced similar frame rates, but since the game does not run in full-screen mode and appears as a window in the upper left corner of the screen, this is not really an option.

For the sake of comparison with other machines, it won't come as much of a surprise to learn that running the game at its normal ultra setting of 1080p resulted in a thoroughly miserable 10 fps experience. Don't let that happen.

Unfortunately, the list of failed games grew the more we used it; "Cyberpunk 2077" was never going to be an easy test for this portable console, but it didn't even load. On the other hand, "Horizon Zero Dawn" was able to load, but crashed the moment I tried to play it. The recently released "God of War" worked, but it had only 128 MB of VRAM and looked absolutely terrible. To be fair, this was a problem with the game and affected an AMD Ryzen 5700G before the amount of VRAM was hard-set in the BIOS.

Older games have a better time. The Witcher 3, for example, ran well at native resolution using low settings, averaging 29 fps, which is still quite impressive nearly seven years after its release. Nevertheless, it was not a screaming success, as it faltered at times. Both "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" and "Control" are under 30 fps, which is a nearly playable frame rate. In other words, it is possible to play these on this machine, but perfection would be impossible.

Less demanding games like Spellunky, Limbo, Dirt Showdown, and Hearthstone were a much better experience. These games are a joy to use, not to win hardware battles. If you have a back catalog you've been wanting to do, a portable gaming console (either this or the Steam Deck) offers a decent way to clear it. But if you plan to use this as your main gaming console, you're in for a frustrating time.

Using the Onexplayer Mini for a bit highlights a few things about this handheld, and about the market in general: First, Windows plays an important role in this handheld's versatility. There is an old emulator that I would like to try. You can see the results in seconds; "Nvidia Frameview" Rest assured, you can use it right out of the box with GoG Galaxy, Epic Games, or whatever.

Sure, you can install Windows on the Steam Deck, but it's not the same as running it straight out of the box, and hopefully SteamOS 3.0 will make it easier to connect a keyboard and mouse. You may think that this is not important for pure game enjoyment, but the need to connect peripherals and devices is surprisingly common.

Windows is not without its frustrations, and many times we had to reach for the keyboard and mouse to operate the settings screens. The software keyboard is difficult to use at this resolution, and it is all too easy to type in the wrong password or code. Clicking on items is also very frustrating, with many false clicks and unintended drags; Windows is both a strength and a frustration of this machine.

The main problem, however, is the inherent lack of power in the integrated graphics. There is no doubt that the graphics have improved considerably recently and many games can at least run, but they seldom look pretty. Problems are to be expected not only with frame rates, but also with more demanding games. Navigating these interfaces can be very frustrating, and even a wider range of resolutions would be welcome, and the Steam deck, with a strong push from Valve, is urging developers to at least make it easier to make it work.

Now, the $1,000 question: should I buy the Onexplayer Mini?" For the majority of PC gamers, the answer is probably "no." It is too limited, too unwieldy, and now appears too expensive. Like its predecessor, it feels like a niche product. A gaming laptop for this amount of money would be a better machine for gaming, and the fact that Valve is trying to dominate the PC handheld market doesn't help the Onexplayer one bit.