It is no secret that the massive weak spot of Home windows gaming handhelds is, paradoxically, the working system itself. It is this quirk that has helped the Steam Deck and its Linux-based SteamOS keep its place as a pacesetter out there, however that might now be beneath risk from opposition that comes fully out of left subject, the AOKZOE A1X.
The AOKZOE A1X is a really new handheld to the market in that it was revealed in April 2025, and is at the moment solely accessible to order through Kickstarter. I’ve a pre-production mannequin, nevertheless, and my early impressions are that it is lastly a Home windows handheld that will not be held again by its working system. Time will inform whether or not the A1X goes on to be probably the greatest handheld gaming PCs, however it’s off to a flying begin for my part.
Once I first unboxed the AOKZOE A1X, I’ve to confess I used to be a little bit underwhelmed, however that is largely as a result of I’ve come straight from testing the Ayaneo 3, the primary modular Home windows handheld. Shifting from this to testing a handheld with a relatively plain design felt like a step again, however it solely took just a few hours for this sense to dissipate, and it was changed with a way of awe.
As soon as I received the A1X up and working, it grew to become very clear that Home windows isn’t the identical downside on this machine that it has been on numerous different handhelds, such because the ROG Ally X, Legion Go, MSI Claw, and aforementioned Ayaneo 3.
However why? Effectively, it is easy. Within the shut to 10 hours of gaming on this handheld thus far, not as soon as has a sport crashed and even stuttered when utilizing the A1X’s fast entry menu, known as the OneXConsole.
Altering the system’s VRAM allocation did not trigger an on the spot full system reset, leaving me frightened I had bricked the hand-held. Hell, even the easy act of controlling video games and the fast entry menu all simply work. No quirks, no delays, no freezes. I’ve merely had no points in any respect with Home windows on the A1X.
The entire points I’ve simply talked about are so frequent on different Home windows handhelds that my expectations for the AOKZOE A1X had been lowered in anticipation. I anticipated to battle to navigate the working system, particularly with no trackpads and solely the touchscreen on which to rely. As an alternative, because of a responsive 120Hz VRR show in a local panorama setup, together with a devoted keyboard button that, once more, simply works, all the things I’ve executed thus far on the A1X has been laughably easy.
On condition that Home windows works simply as nicely on the A1X because it does on any desktop gaming PC, it feels just like the one actual barrier stopping the Steam Deck from being knocked off the highest spot is gone, and the A1X additionally has the Steam Deck eclipsed with regards to gaming efficiency.
The AOKZOE A1X makes use of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, similar to the Ayaneo 3, however I am a little bit stunned to see improved efficiency popping out of the A1X in preliminary testing.
When shortly working the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark at 30W, the A1X achieved a median body fee of 55.94fps on the excessive graphical preset whereas utilizing AMD FSR 3 on high quality and with body era enabled. That is in comparison with the Ayaneo 3 hitting 52fps beneath the identical situations, however at a local 1080p decision moderately than the 1200p of the A1X. Will probably be attention-grabbing to see if the A1X can outperform the Ayaeno 3 on another gaming assessments in my full overview.
Whereas I am impressed by the A1X thus far, although, its $1,499 price ticket is worrying. Whereas it may be bought for $1,159 in the course of the Kickstarter, it is steered that the total retail worth will probably be a lot greater, and even given what I’ve seen thus far, that is an extremely laborious promote.
Are you planning on shopping for an AOKZOE A1X or one other gaming handheld quickly? In that case, you may take a look at the most effective Steam Deck video games for a have a look at the video games that run extremely nicely on handheld gaming PCs.
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