This gaming handheld could be the most powerful yet, with a price to match
AMD's monster Strix Halo chip comes to handheld gaming – if your wallet can handle it
Quick Summary
The ONEXPLAYER X2 Mini Pro looks set to become one of the fastest gaming handhelds ever made, packing AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 388 processor, an 8.8-inch OLED display and optional liquid cooling.
That cutting-edge hardware doesn't come cheap, though, with prices starting at around $2,399 (£1,800) and climbing to almost $2,800 (£2,100).
The handheld gaming PC market has become increasingly crowded over the past couple of years, but ONEXPLAYER is aiming well above the likes of the Steam Deck OLED, Asus ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go 2.
Its latest X2 Mini Pro is built around AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 388 processor, one of the company's powerful Strix Halo chips, pairing an 8-core, 16-thread CPU with Radeon 8050S graphics. That's desktop-class silicon squeezed into an 8.8-inch handheld, backed by up to 64GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 2TB of SSD storage.
There's a 144Hz OLED touchscreen with a 2.5K resolution, detachable controllers inspired by the Nintendo Switch, an optional magnetic keyboard cover that turns it into a compact Windows tablet. Plus there's support for an external liquid cooling dock for those wanting to squeeze every last frame from demanding games.
The entry-level model starts at around $2,399 with 48GB of memory and a 1TB SSD, while the fully loaded version with 64GB and 2TB storage reaches roughly $2,799. That's several times the cost of a Steam Deck OLED, and enough to buy multiple Nintendo Switch 2 consoles instead.
For most gamers, that's likely to be a step too far. But ONEXPLAYER clearly isn't chasing the mainstream. Instead, it's targeting enthusiasts who want the fastest handheld PC currently available and are prepared to pay desktop-PC money to get it.
Whether the X2 Mini Pro can justify that price in real-world gaming remains to be seen, but on paper it's shaping up to be one of the most powerful handhelds we've ever seen.
