OneXSugar: Enjoying with the primary dual-screen reworking handheld

I can’t imagine they’re really making these, was my very first thought, as I powered on a working prototype of the OneXSugar Sugar 1.

This week, One-Netbook is crowdfunding a gaming handheld on Indiegogo like none I’ve ever touched earlier than. It’s bought two OLED touchscreens, two energy buttons, two units of quantity controls, and two hinged rotating gamepads that allow it remodel into solely completely different modes.

Folded down, it’s like a Nintendo Change, with a single 6-inch display screen flanked by half-gamepads. Pop open the three.92-inch secondary display screen and rotate the gamepads, and it’s like a Nintendo DS with one display screen on high of the opposite! Whichever mode you choose, the principle controls immediately and robotically remap themselves to their new orientation.

And that’s simply the beginning. Try my video beneath for an prolonged look:

It is a handheld that may emulate Wii, GameCube, and play essentially the most demanding Android video games like Genshin Influence on excessive settings — and, according to RetroGameCorps, its flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon G3 Gen 3 and 16GB of RAM may even play unique Nintendo Change video games easily with the right drivers.

However there’s solely a lot I can present you in a two-minute video, so I anticipate you’re questioning: simply how competent is that this handheld? How does it really really feel? Do you suppose it’ll be a worthy product by its deliberate September ship date? Will or not it’s definitely worth the $599 early chook value, not to mention its now-revealed $799 MSRP?

I can’t say for positive — it’s a prototype, in any case — however to date, the enjoyable is outweighing the frustrations.

First, as a result of I do know you’ll ask: sure, the multitasking is actual. I’ve performed with dual-screen telephones the place the producer artificially limits what you are able to do with the second display screen, however that’s not occurring right here. You possibly can ship any app to both display screen, even press a digital button to swap which display screen is “main” so far as Android is worried. You possibly can flip off both display screen to avoid wasting battery, too, and use whichever you want. As I present in my video, there are all kinds of enjoyable prospects!

Second, I didn’t need to child this prototype’s hinges, regardless of some worrying flex. I simply flip them round and benefit from the loud thock because the pads magnetically snap into place. OneXSugar tells me the ultimate hinges are SK7 software metal and screwed straight into the aluminum alloy underframe, and can have extra screws than the prototype. Nonetheless, I’m stunned the ultimate hinge pins will nonetheless solely connect to 1 half of the hand held’s body relatively than being sandwiched between high and backside for extra power.

I’m regularly stunned at how nice the Sugar 1 is to carry. The drift-resistant Corridor impact joysticks and the microswitch buttons each really feel clean and responsive, and the grips really feel fairly adequate in DS mode — with the secondary display screen flipped out of the principle physique, it leaves a cushty hole to position my fingers. The one notable caveat is there’s no actual D-pad. OneXSugar features a robust magnetic one which floats atop 4 face buttons of your selection, however I’m having bother with unintentional further button presses that approach; the buttons are higher by themselves.

It’s not the mechanics that fear me most, regardless of many feedback I’ve examine how unnecessarily fragile a multi-hinge system might be. What offers me pause is the software program, which feels fairly unfinished simply over a month earlier than it’s presupposed to ship.

One-Netbook has been constructing miniature Home windows laptops, tablets and handhelds for years now, however its first Android system will ship with the last-gen Android 14, with no promise of future upgrades for future recreation compatibility, and solely a single “Sugar Console” app to make the OS gaming-handheld pleasant.

Usually, it really works fantastic! However whereas I can usually simply flip the controllers up or down and largely have gaming buttons immediately work the way in which my muscle reminiscence expects, that’s not true of each button: the Begin button, Android’s again button and the button that summons OneXSugar’s overlay are hard-coded for now, and I’ve had fairly just a few apps by accident open or pause as a result of I pressed the flawed button on the flawed time.

And since you possibly can solely swipe out of apps from the designated “main” display screen, I typically attempt to shut apps solely to search out it’s not working as a result of I’m doing it the flawed approach.

I’ve additionally had occasional points charging the Sugar 1 reliably, or stretching some Android apps throughout each screens on the identical time. Each are getting fastened in software program, in line with the corporate.

Although the Sugar 1’s main promoting level is the flexibleness of its twin OLED screens, I used to be stunned to search out OneXSugar doesn’t but have a technique to resize your video games to make use of these screens optimally — it solely affords the equal of picture frame matting to reduce the black borders you see. In an effort to play Nintendo DS and SNES video games at their correct side ratios on the Sugar 1, I used to be on the mercy of the resizing, window dragging, and arranging instruments every emulator affords.

A number of the Android video games I used to be capable of obtain didn’t run correctly fairly but, as they apparently haven’t but whitelisted Qualcomm’s new handheld chip; Fortnite refused to run solely, and Genshin Influence complained about overloading the processor as I ramped up the settings, at the same time as the sport appeared to run easily.

I wasn’t capable of obtain a number of native Android titles to start with: prototypes went out to reviewers with none Google apps or the Google Play Retailer. That drastically restricted what I used to be capable of take a look at, as many high English-language Android video games require Google elements, and lots of high Chinese language-language video games require Chinese language logins. The corporate confirms to The Verge that closing items will ship with Google Play, although.

Lastly, I believe you’re curious in regards to the battery life from its 21.5Wh pack, I gained’t be capable to provide you with a good suggestion but as a result of my software was clearly misreporting the battery drain. Over at Retro Game Corps, Russ appears to be seeing anyplace from 1 to 12 hours relying on the title.

I’ve seen a number of zany and droolworthy gaming prototypes in my 15-plus years masking devices, however reworking ones like this usually by no means ship as a result of they’re too difficult and too area of interest to be value a producer’s bother. However One-Netbook, a model that’s constructed a popularity for modular portable computers, sees this as a chance to make a splash within the crowded Android market, VP Jason Zeng tells The Verge.

He says the aim was to “create one thing completely different,” and that his firm really needs to launch extra such splashy merchandise sooner or later. For now, its gaming handheld efforts are certainly area of interest: the 200-person firm has solely offered round 100,000 items, Zeng estimates on a name, with 60 p.c of these gross sales in China. However he says the US is One Netbook’s quickest rising market, and the corporate sees Android gadgets as a extra inexpensive technique to entry a bigger inhabitants of shoppers than it’s finished with Home windows handhelds to date.

One-Netbook has no plans for Home windows on ARM but, Zeng tells us, however wish to join with Valve. He says the corporate would discover it “very fascinating” to debate a possible SteamOS handheld.