Loads of challengers have tried to take down Valve’s Steam Deck since its launch in 2022, however few have even come shut. The OneXPlayer OneXFly F1 Professional, although, has an excellent shot at dethroning the Steam Deck, when you ignore the worth, and it is all due to its management software program, which works so nicely with Home windows that I nearly forgot I used to be utilizing Home windows within the first place.
I am going to have a full evaluation of the OneXPlayer OneXFly F1 Professional prepared quickly, nevertheless it’s the effectivity and efficiency of the OneXConsole software program that has fully turned my head to pondering this might problem the picks on our best handheld information, even with fairly a excessive worth.
The OneXFly F1 Professional I have been enjoying round with comprises an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, 32GB of LPDDR5x-7500MHz RAM, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. Throw in a 7-inch 144Hz OLED show with a 1,920 x 1,080 decision, and you have a handheld that, on paper, has the Steam Deck beat in nearly each division, besides one… the working system.
SteamOS has all the time been and continues to be one of many greatest explanation why the Steam Deck is so fashionable. It runs so seamlessly on Valve’s transportable that, for avid gamers who’re joyful simply utilizing the Steam ecosystem, it is bought all the things you possibly can have to play your favourite video games, together with a recreation ranking system.
Maybe OneXPlayer is aware of this too, as a result of it has created a management software program that works higher with the Home windows working system than some other program I’ve tried. Whether or not it is Armoury Crate, MSI Middle, AyaSpace, and even the present Xbox full-screen mode, none compares to the effectivity of the OneXConsole software program.
I additionally highlighted related optimistic steps in my AOKZOE A1X review, main me to model it a “Home windows handheld completed proper.” A lot of the identical applies to the OneXFly F1 Professional, solely this software program now works even higher.
With a single press of the fast entry menu button, you may have full entry to customise the efficiency, show, reminiscence, sound, and vibration settings, on prime of a wealth of different choices. It is so usually the catch which you could solely change choose settings by way of a fast entry menu, with larger modifications pulling you into the full-screen expertise, the place it’s a must to wade by cumbersome menu screens earlier than then tracing your steps again to the desktop or utility you had been working.
OneXConsole permits for all key settings that I’ve discovered myself looking for when utilizing gaming handhelds to be modified from the fast entry menu, and it makes working video games on a Home windows handheld a a lot smoother expertise. The one motive you may ever have to open the complete model of OneXConsole is to replace it or to alter the VRAM allocation, a course of that requires a system restart.
Probably the most spectacular a part of OneXConsole is not even the sheer quantity of choices out there by way of the fast entry menu, however the truth that it permits such modifications to be made with out disrupting the move of Home windows or any energetic utility. I’ve but to expertise any lag, stutter, crashes, or situations of packages coming into a state of non-response.
In earlier variations of OneXConsole, there was additionally a difficulty the place, when citing the fast entry menu, the controls would work on each the menu and the sport working within the background. That is now resolved, and the controls are remoted to both the menu or the sport.
With this repair, and with all settings modifications being persistent while you reboot the OneXFly F1 Professional handheld, this implies you may get into video games faster each time you employ the gadget. I discover myself booting the F1 Professional, double-tapping Steam to open up my video games library, and enjoying any of my put in video games simply as rapidly as I can when chilly booting the Steam Deck. That is the closest any handheld has come to matching the effectivity of SteamOS, even when it is nonetheless lacking a number of the bells and whistles that make SteamOS nice, reminiscent of a superior sleep-and-wake course of, a recreation ranking system, and a refined full-screen expertise. These, nevertheless, are nice-to-haves somewhat than important to the core of a gaming handheld, particularly the sport ranking system, contemplating the identical Linux-based limitations do not apply to a Home windows-based handheld.
In the case of the OneXFly F1 Professional, the elephant within the room is its worth. The configuration that I have been testing has an MSRP of $1,499. You may purchase three Steam Deck LCD fashions for this worth and nonetheless have a number of hundred bucks left to purchase video games, which could possibly be seen as one other instance of gaming handheld prices being uncontrolled. This realistically means it most likely will not wrestle the general crown from the Steam Deck as a suggestion for many consumers. Nonetheless, for any avid gamers who worth peak efficiency and do not thoughts nonetheless having to navigate some Home windows idiosyncrasies, it will put up one hell of a struggle.
Would you spend this a lot on a gaming handheld given the facility you get in return? Or is the Steam Deck nonetheless your go-to transportable it doesn’t matter what? Tell us over on our Discord server.
