OneXPlayer Mini VS Steam Deck: Which one you should buy?
Can it keep up with Deck?
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It’s been a pretty crazy week for higher-end handheld PC gaming systems, with Valve’s Steam Deck launching just a week ago, with our lord and savior Gabe Newell hand-delivering consoles to the public like some kind of wandering demigod. Anyway, into the fold comes the OneXPlayer Mini AMD, which features a brand-new AMD CPU, in a smaller form factor than the likes of Valve’s long sold-out handheld console. But, is it going to be any good, and is it going to be worth jumping at this device, instead of getting yourself a Steam Deck? We’ll go through everything that you possibly need to know about getting one of these devices.
OneXPlayer Mini VS Steam Deck Specs
| SKU | OneXPlayer Mini AMD | Steam Deck |
| CPU | AMD Zen 3, 8 core, 16-thread | AMD Zen 2, 4 core, 8-thread |
| GPU | AMD Vega 8, 2.0 GHz | AMD RDNA 2, 8 Compute Units, 1.6GHz |
| SoC | Ryzen 7 5800U | AMD Van Gogh |
| Memory | 16GB LPDDR4X-4266 | 16GB LPDDR5-5500 |
| Storage | Up to 2TB NVMe | Up to 512GB NVMe (stock) |
| Display Size | 7-inch IPS panel | 7-inch IPS panel |
| Display Resolution | Up to 1920 x 1200 | 1200 x 800 |
| Connectivity | WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, 2x USB 4.0 | WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5 |
| Weight | 589g | 669g |
| OS | Windows 11 | Arch Linux, SteamOS 3.0 |
| Base Price | $840 | $399 |
| Release Date | March 2022 | February 25 2022 |
Once again, in a similar story to the Ayaneo Next VS the Steam Deck, Valve’s plucky portable seems to pull ahead in a couple of different scenarios, including where it counts for any handheld geared to gaming. The GPU on the OneXPlayer Mini AMD just can’t keep up with the Steam Deck’s RDNA 2-based GPU, which could be troublesome for running modern games, as the Steam Deck is now proven to steamroll through even modern AAA titles with ease such as Elden Ring. The Steam Deck also has an additional advantage in the sense that it’s running faster memory. With a more powerful CPU on the OneXPlayer, some concerns can be raised about the device’s battery life, as it doesn’t dynamically scale quite as well as the Steam Deck does.
However, that doesn’t mean that the OneXPlayer is bad on paper, it certainly boasts a couple of other handy upgrades, like the option for a full-HD panel, in addition to being able to run Windows 11 straight out of the box, giving you a more straightforward way to tinker with the system than the Steam Deck does at stock settings, which instead can dual-boot into Arch Linux if you wanted to do any significant tinkering outside of SteamOS. Regardless, there is no clear cut winner on the spec sheet, but it’s likely that you’re just going to get a better experience while using Valve’s Steam Deck while in-game.
Should I buy a OneXPlayer Mini or Steam Deck?
The OneXPlayer Mini is a fantastic little device and will be capable of running modern titles through Windows in a smaller form factor and weight than Valve’s Steam Deck, but unfortunately due to the pricing edge that the Steam Deck has over all other consoles in its class, in addition to coming equipped with a custom chip that sports greater graphical performance in the way of RDNA2, it’s easy to see how the OneXPlayer Mini just seems totally inferior by comparison, your dollars just don’t go as far, and that’s a part of Valve’s strategy in getting a Steam Deck into your hands.
There is no way that OneXPlayer could manage to compete against a device such as the Steam Deck, while still maintaining profits on selling the device itself, whereas Valve is subsidising the cost of the hardware with the fact that they’re planning on getting you to continue to use Steam as a platform to purchase PC games, a marketplace wherein they currently take a 30% cut of all digital sales, which ensures Valve’s dominance.
The only thing in the string of the OneXPlayer’s bow here is going to be the fact that you could probably purchase one and receive it fairly soon. Valve on the other hand is struggling with understanding demand and production on the Steam Deck. If you were to reserve one now, the date that you would get for delivery would instead simply be an incredibly ominous ‘After Q2 2022’ message.
When taking into consideration the additional fact that the Steam Deck is sure to have a cottage industry and community of support, versus the OneXPlayer probably not having it to the same scale, by virtue of being a product where the company will barely manufacture tens of thousands of units. The Steam Deck is almost assured to have a longer life, and thanks to the fact that it’s based on open-source software, have an inherently longer lifespan.
That’s why we think you should hold off on the OneXPlayer for now, and choose a Steam Deck instead, unless you’re completely desperate to grab yourself a new piece of hardware.
