OneXPlayer this week began sales of its OneXPlayer Mini portable game console based on AMD's Ryzen 7 5800U in China, less than two months after releasing the same handheld based on Intel's 11th Gen Core 'Tiger Lake' processor. The news, which reaches us via Liliputing, sees a lower cost AMD Edition of the console, designed to improve availability of the system as demand increases for x86-based consoles in light of Valve's Steam Deck release.
Just like many other Windows-based portable game consoles these days, OneXPlayer Mini is equipped with a 7-inch IPS display featuring a 1920 x 1200 or a 1280 x 800 resolution (the latter option is only available with and AMD's chip). The original OneXPlayer Mini uses Intel's Core i7-1195G7 processor with four cores as well as an Iris Xe GPU with 96 execution units (which is comparable to 768 stream processors) clocked at up to 1.40 GHz. By contrast, the new OneXPlayer Mini AMD Edition is powered by AMD's eight-core Zen 3-based Ryzen 7 5800U processor with AMD Radeon Vega 8 GPU with 512 stream processors operating at up to 2.0 GHz, reports Liliputing. Both systems are equipped with 16GB of LPDDR4X-4266 memory as well as 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB NVMe storage.
AMD-based OneXPlayer Mini with a 1280 x 800 screen and 512GB drive starts at ¥5,299 ($840), which is considerably lower when compared to the cheapest Intel-based OneXPlayer Mini that carries a $1,259 MSRP in the USA. Meanwhile, the most advanced OneXPlayer Mini AMD Edition (1920 x 1200, 2TB) costs ¥6,899 ($1091), which is dramatically lower when compared to the top-of-the-range Intel Inside Mini console priced at $1,599. Still, even the cheapest OneXPlayer Mini is more expensive than even the most expensive Steam Deck option. Steam Deck carries a price tag between $399 and $649 in the U.S., but only has up to 512GB of storage, unless you fancy tearing it down and adding your own.
Evidently, OneXPlayer Mini with AMD's Ryzen 5800U offers more general-purpose cores and higher CPU performance than the original Mini (and Steam Deck), though it is hard to determine which of the two OneXPlayer Minis — with AMD's Radeon Vega 8 or Intel's Iris Xe Graphics G7 96 EU — has higher graphical performance. Meanwhile, the lower resolution display (which matches the resolution of Valve's Steam Deck) of the AMD variant will certainly assist in improving framerates.
In any case, both OneXPlayer Mini consoles are expected to be slower in terms of graphics performance when compared to Valve's Steam Deck that is equipped with a custom AMD system-on-chip featuring an RDNA 2-based GPU with 512 SPs operating at 1.60 GHz and which works with LPDDR5-5500 memory.
At this point, AMD Edition of the OneXPlayer Mini is available only in China and we do not know whether the company has plans to bring these units to other markets. At the end of the day, consistent quality (i.e., resolution) and performance (i.e., usage of the same hardware) is a must for game consoles, so offering two versions of the same system may not be optimal from game quality point of view.
Yet, it is a good way to improve availability of the system as well as drive its price down. The latter could be the main motivator to bring the AMD Edition OneXPlayer Mini to the U.S. and Europe as Intel-based variant is too costly when compared to Valve's Steam Deck.
