Handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck, Lenovo Legion GO, and ASUS ROG Ally have proven to be popular designs in a somewhat niche market. Despite their small sizes, at least relative to laptops, these computers are quite capable of driving even graphics-heavy triple-A games, at least with reasonable settings. And as with any gaming-worthy computer, these handheld PCs are also capable of doing just about anything, including office productivity or even content creation.
That said, their designs are hardly conducive to use cases outside of gaming, especially for tasks that require at least a keyboard. There are alternative designs from the likes of AYANEO and GPD that do add a tiny keyboard, but those are meant more for chatting than actual work. This upcoming newcomer, however, wants you to have your cake and eat it too, and it’s using a rather ingenious design that supports both games and productivity without compromising too much.
Designer: ONE-NETBOOK
We’ve seen handheld gaming PCs that look like laptops, but these usually compress the keyboard in order to make room for gaming controls like joysticks and buttons. This creates a usable but not ideal experience, where typing is doable but uncomfortable and gaming is bearable but not always enjoyable. And that’s not even considering issues with ergonomics for both sides of the coin. Short of having a shape-shifting computer or a modular design (that has actually been ), there’s really no easy way to bridge these two together, at least until now.
Unlike its predecessor that attempted to create a hybrid between a Nintendo Switch handheld and a Microsoft Surface tablet, the ONEXPLAYER G1 embraces the form factor of a small 8.8-inch laptop. Opening it up reveals what looks like a regular physical keyboard, complete with a tiny touchpad, so you might not even consider it as a gaming computer until you remove that keyboard. Yes, that keyboard is actually wireless and connected to the computer using magnets only, and lifting it up reveals the handheld’s gaming chops.
Underneath this removable keyboard are analog joysticks, a D-Pad, and face buttons, the essential parts of a game controller. Because there isn’t a critical need to have a keyboard, the design is able to accommodate a more comfortable arrangement of buttons similar to an Xbox-compatible controller. Of course, there are also triggers and shoulder buttons at the back of the laptop, as well as a number of extra buttons.
What’s interesting about this design is that even this gaming “mode” still has a split keyboard below the controls. It’s not immediately clear whether these are capacitive keys on a glass surface or if they’re just very low-travel keys for basic chat needs. Either way, it’s definitely an interesting twist on the handheld gaming PC design, though the price for such a multi-functional beast will probably cost as much as a laptop as well.
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