Skip to main content

Steam Deck rival Onexplayer Mini launches in January

While PC gaming fans avidly await the arrival of the Steam Deck, the original December arrival date of which was pushed back by supply chain delays, another portable PC gaming handheld has entered the picture. (No, it’s not the Nintendo Switch.) Chinese technology company One-Netbook has announced the Onexplayer Mini, a smaller, even more portable version of its Onexplayer gaming device.

The Onexplayer Mini runs Windows 11, which allows users to play games that they would normally experience on a PC. It also has a touchscreen, as well as the usual controller-based inputs, and promises high-end graphical capabilities. The Onexplayer Mini doesn’t have a price yet, but its release is planned for January 15, 2022.

The original ONEXPLAYER handheld.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The original Onexplayer raised over $2 million on Indiegogo, which gave One-Netbook the basis to expand the product line. The Onexplayer Mini is aimed at players who want to bring their PC libraries on the go, but don’t want to lug around a bulky handheld. It has a 7-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1200, which is just above HD. The power comes from its Intel Tiger Lake i7-1195G7 quad-core processor, which works hand in hand with PC-style cooling fans to keep the system running at its best.

Its gaming battery life is a fairly paltry two hours, but that’s likely the cost of the power it promises. Besides running games, the system can also handle regular PC tasks like making documents and watching videos.

One-Netbook is putting a lot of stock into the Onexplayer Mini’s ergonomic design. The company claims its design was inspired by Xbox controllers and that its physical inputs are “distributed evenly” across both controllers, making for a more comfortable gaming experience. It’s designed to fit in players’ pockets like a phone, enabling them to game wherever they go.

There is no word on how much storage space the system will have, so it’s unclear whether it will allow users to put their entire Steam or Epic library on the device. However, it does feature several USB ports that will presumably allow players to attach external hard drives.

The Onexplayer Mini launches on January 15, 2022.

Emily Morrow
Emily Morrow is a games journalist and narrative designer who has written for a variety of online publications. If she’s…
The Steam Deck OLED needs burn-in protection
The Steam Deck OLED sitting in a case.

The Steam Deck OLED is starting to show burn-in issues.

YouTuber Wulff Den released a report on the Steam Deck OLED, showing it suffered from OLED burn-in after 1,500 hours of screen time. This isn't the first time we've seen a torture test on the Steam Deck OLED, but Wulff Den's experiment is particularly potent. The YouTuber was among the only people to put the Nintendo Switch OLED to the test on the burn-in front, and the consistent updates over the course of two years remain some of the most-viewed videos on the channel.

Read more
I turned my Steam Deck into the ultimate cross-platform gaming machine
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth running on the Steam Deck.

I've been playing a lot of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which, as a self-proclaimed PC gaming snob, would have presented a problem for me in the past. After all, a console exclusive like Rebirth just doesn't fit into my typical pattern of gaming, which oscillates between desktop at home and Steam Deck on the go.

But I've found a solution, opening up the world of third-party apps and breaking the mold for the Steam Deck. It's allowed me to game far beyond my Steam library, revealing the immense versatility that is latent in the Steam Deck's design.
Streaming your PS5

Read more
The most common Steam Deck problems and how to fix them
A Steam Deck sitting on top of a PC.

The Steam Deck is packed with excellent features, has solid performance, and has decent battery life. But as our review noted, it does still need some work. Fortunately, Valve has been regularly posting important software updates to fix issues and add new features that gamers have wanted, and it's slowly becoming a more stable, versatile device for it.

But if you’re still running into problems or bugs that make you want to throw your Steam Deck across the room, hold on for a minute. We’ve collected the issues that people are running into, and the solutions that we’ve found can make things much better. Let’s do a little troubleshooting.

Read more