The image above doesn’t include two totally different gaming handhelds. As a substitute, this halo machine for Qualcomm’s just-announced Snapdragon G3 Gen 3 gaming chips — which I’ll let you know about in a sec — is a single remodeling machine with swing out gamepads and screens. It’s known as the OneXPlayer OneXSugar, and it’s one of the crucial 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:
Should you pay attention carefully, you possibly can virtually hear the emulation group leaping for pleasure on the concept of two totally different facet ratio screens joined on the hip. Me, I’m busy imagining the satisfying and/or horrifying sounds it would make as its triple joints swing into motion!
We all know little greater than what you possibly can glean from the images and animations, however listed below are the important thing bits:
Earlier than you get your hopes up, the OneXPlayer OneXSugar is unlikely to develop into a Home windows gaming machine. For one factor, we’re taking a look at good however modest features 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 targeted on the Android facet” as of as we speak. 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 widespread 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 units. When Qualcomm first introduced its final handheld gaming chips, the most effective it might exhibit was a boring batarang-shaped reference design. At this time, along with the OneXSugar, it’s obtained the modern metal-bodied Ayaneo Pocket S2, an Ayaneo Gaming Pad, and moreover two new Retroid Pocket units 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. “Individuals 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 important features 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 pictures of its subsequent horizontal handheld. The G1 Gen 2 boasts 80 % larger 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 Traditional needs to be up for preorder this month, and the Ayaneo Gaming Pad needs to be coming this Might.