The image above doesn’t include two completely different gaming handhelds. As a substitute, this halo gadget for Qualcomm’s just-announced Snapdragon G3 Gen 3 gaming chips — which I’ll inform you about in a sec — is a single reworking gadget with swing out gamepads and screens. It’s known as the OneXPlayer OneXSugar, and it’s some of the delightfully gadgety gaming devices I’ve seen.
Maintain it horizontally like a Nintendo Change or Steam Deck, flip out its secondary display, then rotate its twin hinged gamepads for a extra squared-off Nintendo DS-like expertise:
In case you hear intently, you may virtually hear the emulation group leaping for pleasure on the thought of two completely different side ratio screens joined on the hip. Me, I’m busy imagining the satisfying and/or horrifying sounds it’d make as its triple joints swing into motion!
We all know little greater than what you may glean from the images and animations, however listed here are the important thing bits:
Earlier than you get your hopes up, the OneXPlayer OneXSugar is unlikely to grow to be a machine aimed toward Home windows video games too. For one factor, we’re good however modest beneficial properties of 30 % extra CPU efficiency and 28 % extra GPU efficiency than the Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 introduced in 2023. It doesn’t include the Oryon CPU core that powers each Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite for telephones or its Snapdragon X Elite for laptops, nor the Adreno X1 or Adreno 830 GPUs that respectively characteristic in these chips.
And whereas Qualcomm Snapdragon gaming lead Micah Knapp informed journalists that the corporate would possibly launch assist for different working programs “over time,” it’s “actually centered on the Android aspect” as of right this moment. That’s as a result of China is such an enormous marketplace for Android gaming, the corporate hints. “The angle that Android gaming isn’t common is a really region-centric perspective,” Qualcomm spokesperson Sascha Segan says after I ask.
That China curiosity is definitely serving to produce some unimaginable wanting gadgets. When Qualcomm first introduced its final handheld gaming chips, one of the best it might exhibit was a boring batarang-shaped reference design. At present, along with the OneXSugar, it’s bought the smooth metal-bodied Ayaneo Pocket S2, an Ayaneo Gaming Pad, and moreover two new Retroid Pocket gadgets on its new lower-tier chips, the Snapdragon G2 Gen 2 and G1 Gen 2.
Knapp tells me that his firm doesn’t have to subsidize the event of Qualcomm handhelds, both. “To be blunt, most of them are coming to us to construct platforms on their very own,” he says. “Folks have accepted that is the place issues are going to occur, and now they’re simply aggressively transferring into the house,” he says.
Of the 2 lower-tier chips, the G2 Gen 2 claims vital beneficial properties of two.3x the CPU efficiency and three.8x the GPU efficiency of a Snapdragon G2 Gen 1, although I’m not conscious of any explicit handhelds transport with that earlier chip, and neither Qualcomm nor Retroid have launched photos of its subsequent horizontal handheld. The G1 Gen 2 boasts 80 % better CPU efficiency than G1 Gen 1, and a 25 % sooner GPU.
The Ayaneo Pocket S2 needs to be coming this month, the Retroid Pocket PR Basic needs to be up for preorder this month, and the Ayaneo Gaming Pad needs to be coming this Could.
