Our Verdict
Proving once again the tablet-as-a-handheld device doesn't work, the X1 Air suffers from a level of jank that is far from endearing despite impressive performance from the Intel chip and a lovely screen.
For
- Lunar Lake performance is sweet
- Bright, crisp 11-inch display
- Quiet
Against
- Flaky
- Doesn't excel in any of its three forms
18WENKU's got your back Our experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you. Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware.
And this pain is all before the bugs hit. Granted, I've not had the visual artefacts I experienced with the Meteor Lake device and its immature driver stack, but that doesn't mean it's been plain sailing by any means. The first major issue I had came around my battery life testing, where I necessarily drained the juice from the X1 Air while gaming. After that the damned thing refused to boot even after being plugged in for a while.
It kinda did, though nothing appeared on the screen, and I ended up having to go through some arcane ritual of hard resetting, charging, starting the device so its power light came on (though nothing else did), and then swapping to another laptop charger to get some different juice into it. And then just ignoring it for a few days before finally starting it up again while ringed in bee's wax candles and centred within a pentagram.
It's now mostly working again, though it does require a drop of virgin blood each time I plug it into the mains. I am still getting the occasional issue where the power button needs to be pressed a few times before it will actually boot, and standby mode is typically flaky as with any Windows-based device.
But even bug-free the overall package doesn't do enough to justify its price. The version I've been testing is theoretically $1,499, but is currently discounted down to $1,280. That's RTX 5070 gaming laptop money, people, and not the sort of money I'd be willing to spend on something that doesn't really excel in any of its three modes, laptop, tablet, or handheld.
Which all means it's an almost impossible recommendation from me. I've been using the OneXPlayer X1 Air, in different ways, for a long while now, and while there are improvements over the original X1, and some parts of it I do like (that screen…), I cannot in good conscience suggest that anyone spending $1,200+ would have a good time with it.
Especially not when you can spend half that and get the outright best gaming handheld, or the same amount and get a genuine Lunar Lake laptop. Sure, you're maybe losing that versatility, but the compromises the X1 Air asks you to make are simply not worth it.
1. Best overall:
Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS
2. Best budget:
Steam Deck
3. Best Windows:
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X
4. Best big screen:
Lenovo Legion Go
5. Best compact:
Ayaneo Flip DS
Proving once again the tablet-as-a-handheld device doesn't work, the X1 Air suffers from a level of jank that is far from endearing despite impressive performance from the Intel chip and a lovely screen.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.