This Gigantic Handheld Fails at ‘3D’ PC Gaming

There comes a degree in each client tech author’s profession the place they must lie down on the railroad tracks and take the warmth for a tech class no person else believes in. For me, it’s stereoscopic, glasses-less 3D screens. So once I agreed to check the Abxylute 3D One, a tablet-sized handheld PC, it solely made my lust for stereoscopic screens develop ever extra heated.

The 3D One is a kitchen sink handheld that throws a lot stuff on the wall that one thing is sure to stay. Certain, it’s huge and heavy—particularly at 2.45 kilos with the controllers connected—but it surely additionally homes an enormous display, detachable gamepads akin to the Switch 2, a keyboard that attaches to the underside like a Microsoft Surface Pro 12, and the horsepower of an Intel cellular chip used within the strong MSI Claw 8 handheld. It misses out on something resembling good battery life for its measurement, regardless of its good efficiency. Past all else, the 3D One fails to ship on its foremost promise. Based mostly on my checks with a pre-production unit Abxylute despatched me for evaluate, you may get a 3D impact in all of your video games, however they weren’t playable by any stretch of the creativeness.

Might the 3D One ever be my one handheld I take in every single place? In fact not. Take a look at the dimensions of that factor. In its plus-sized case, it could take up a lot of the room in my backpack, whereas a laptop computer and a controller would eat half that house. The “handheld” is up on Kickstarter now for an early-bird value of $1,500, however it is going to promote for extra later. That is very cool tech, even when it’s costly. For principally egocentric causes, I’m hoping some updates will see the 3D One decide up steam. I don’t need the dream of 3D screens to die.

Handheld PCs hold getting larger, not essentially higher

I first spied the 3D One at CES 2025 on a forlorn shelf inside Intel’s demo room. Again then, Intel solely described it as an effort with Chinese language video games writer Tencent on a 3D handheld. The 3D One sports activities an Intel Core Extremely 7 258V “Lunar Lake” CPU, which has proved a strong contender even with the latest AMD handheld APUs (accelerated processing items). The Lunar Lake chip contained in the 3D One affords simply sufficient juice to sport on the machine’s max decision in some titles.

I’m not an enormous individual. I hardly ever maintain tech that makes me really feel small. Whereas different individuals suppose near-9-inch gaming handhelds just like the Lenovo Legion Go 2 are too mammoth for his or her miniature digits, you don’t know what an enormous handheld appears like till you familiarize yourself with the Abxylute 3D One. It consists of an 11-inch IPS LCD show that runs at 2,560 x 1,600 decision with a 120Hz refresh charge, which is equal to many 14- and even 16-inch laptop computer screens. For comparability, the Legion Go 2 can go to 1200p, whereas most 7-inch gadgets just like the $1,000 Asus ROG Xbox Ally X max out at 1080p and 120Hz refresh charge.

The show is first rate for a handheld of this measurement, although it is probably not as vivid as different LCD screens at its peak of 480 nits. The show can also be a bit too reflective for taking part in beneath any vivid lights, however video games find yourself seeming additional stunning when pushed to the system’s max decision, even ignoring the 3D impact. Audio-wise, there’s not a lot right here to set it aside from some other handheld, huge or small. Even when pushing the quantity to its restrict, it received’t fill a room with sound.

The case additionally comes with a controller attachment level for the 2 Legion Go-like detachable controllers. I might play from a cushty sitting place even once I didn’t wish to prop the machine up with my arms on my lap. You simply must hunker near the 3D One to make use of it, or else hook it as much as a monitor. Regardless of the dimensions of the 2 detachable controllers, I discovered the face buttons to be clicky and responsive. I didn’t must reposition my hand that a lot to inch a finger round for the bumpers and triggers. The again ridges aren’t ergonomic sufficient to really feel form-fitted for my hand. In any other case, I might nonetheless use them as separate controllers or alongside the display. There are additionally two touchpads, one on every controller, although solely the appropriate one appears to supply any mouse controls.

The keyboard does numerous the heavy lifting to make Home windows 11 usable on a tool that will usually must depend on the touchscreen or trackpads to get something executed. The keys on the machine really feel significantly good and hit with a small although satisfying clacking sound. The keyboard’s touchpad isn’t my cup of tea and feels too tough and sticky regardless of its minuscule measurement. Hell, you would deal with this as an overlarge, considerably janky laptop computer. I did get some work executed on the 3D One whereas on trip. Was it definitely worth the problem of dragging it round? In all probability not.

Whereas I might really feel protected in my efforts to make use of the 3D One like some other gaming handheld—albeit one which provides extra muscle on my shoulders holding it aloft—my determined makes an attempt to show it into a contemporary Nintendo 3DS went awry.

What’s up with the stereoscopic display?

Abxylute advised me it went with such a big show as a result of, of their checks, that is the display measurement wanted to indicate off the 3D impact correctly. The 3D One isn’t providing clients what many consider after they hear the phrase “3D display.” You received’t see photos come out at you want an annoying jack-in-the-box at a horror-themed carnival. As an alternative, the screens are primarily displaying an offset picture to your left and proper eyes individually. Your mind combines them right into a singular picture with the impact that makes some components on the display pop. Cool, proper? Effectively, it will get much more fascinating. The 3D One makes use of the built-in front-facing digital camera to trace your eyes. Even if you happen to’re off-center, you need to nonetheless have the ability to see the 3D picture. It’s the identical kind of know-how employed by the Samsung Odyssey 3D I examined earlier this yr. That show was able to 4K decision with 165Hz, although it required a beefy pc to run video games with the 3D impact.

This display works for essentially the most half, however if you happen to swim too quick out and in of view, the hand-held’s eye monitoring will battle to maintain up. It’s worthwhile to keep place when enjoying with the 3D impact, although you’re punished much less for shifting round. A single swap close to the highest of the machine (you may also allow it via the system’s fast menu) enables you to swap between 2D and 3D modes. There are specific video games that Abxylute says help the stereoscopic display natively. In any other case, the hand-held will make use of an “AI 3D Mode” that takes a picture in 2D and transforms it into 3D. The corporate mentioned it hopes to ultimately help greater than 50 video games with native 3D rendering via Steam.

In my checks, the 3D impact instantly made video games run sluggishly, to the purpose they had been virtually unplayable. After days of going forwards and backwards with Abxylute, the corporate advised me I must play video games at particular settings, with out V-Sync and AMD’s FSR (FidelityFX Tremendous Decision) upscaling, and on the max decision to get the total 3D impact. These restrictions already hamper efficiency, however the 3D impact doesn’t appear to be impacting body charges particularly. In supported video games like Baldur’s Gate III, the body charge would stay above 30 regardless of it feeling prefer it was working at 15. This might be on account of latency or another issue from the system primarily duplicating the display for the sake of your eyeballs.

Efficiency was a constant challenge when attempting it out with video games like Hogwarts Legacy with native 3D help. Abxylute urged I strive a a lot much less intensive sport, Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy. That sport runs significantly better on a handheld, and but I skilled comparable lag points that pressured me to show off the 3D each time. Even once I dropped the graphics settings as little as they might go, lighter video games struggled to carry out. I additionally tried quite a few video games supported with a particular 2D to 3D mod. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Injustice 2 each grew to become fully unplayable with the 2D to 3D impact.

How about motion pictures and 3DS emulation?

If I wasn’t simply inquisitive about enjoying fashionable titles with 3D results, what else is there? I placed on Netflix to look at a number of exhibits with the 3D impact on, and thru streaming, I discovered there was little or no lag. Animated exhibits like Avatar: The Final Airbender might add a small, although noticeable, impact to come out photos within the foreground, although it might probably make different pictures look extra blurry than they need to be. You received’t get a lot of an impact in different media, nevertheless.

There are a number of different 3D programs on the market not made by Abxylute. Sadly, Samsung’s Actuality Hub software program created for the Odyssey 3D monitor isn’t suitable with something however a Samsung machine. Russ Crandall from the Retro Recreation Corps YouTube channel described utilizing the ReShade plugin to allow a local stereoscopic impact in unsupported video games. It’s worthwhile to power it to put in on particular video games and modify different sport settings to create the double picture wanted for the 3D impact. I attempted forcing this on video games like Metaphor: Refantazio and Hades II. Sadly, the end result nonetheless generated an excessive amount of enter lag to be playable.

Emulators for the Nintendo 3DS, like Azahar, additionally help a 3D impact to be used in video games.  Crandall reported in his video that 3DS emulation is very good on the 3D One, so rating one level for Abxylute. Though, spending upwards of $1,500 on a handheld appears excessive when you may merely purchase an previous 3DS and authentic sport playing cards for a lot much less.

A powerful performer with weak battery life

Just like the MSI Claw 8, the Intel chip housed inside can match as much as and even beat the most recent AMD Ryzen Z2 Excessive chip present in handhelds just like the Xbox Ally X—not less than in some 3DMark benchmarks. That, mixed with the extra-large display buoyed with bountiful decision choices, means you may get a shocking variety of latest titles to run effectively.

The Intel chip makes use of the corporate’s Arc 140V GPU, which is a robust contender greater than a yr after the chip was first introduced. When testing the 3D One at its highest 30W TDP, or thermal design energy, the hand-held beat the Xbox Ally X in 3D Mark’s Metal Nomad take a look at by round 100 factors and within the Time Spy take a look at by 200 factors. The 3D One carried out just below par within the Metal Nomad Gentle checks. In Cyberpunk 2077, it could hit round 45 fps with Steam Deck graphics settings at 1080p, whereas the Xbox Ally X might do 52 fps at 35W TDP. That’s not an enormous gulf contemplating AMD’s newest handheld chips squeaked into place on the tail finish of this yr.

When testing out our ordinary stack of benchmarking video games, I discovered I might obtain playable body charges on the max 2,560 x 1,600 with out a lot fuss, as long as I restricted graphics settings and relied on AMD’s FSR upscaling to push the needle a number of extra factors in the appropriate path. That was the case with Cyberpunk 2077 on Steam Deck settings and Shadow of the Tomb Raider on Medium.

Within the cautious balancing act between decision and efficiency, you might ultimately want to regulate down. For instance, if I wished to get a playable body charge in Horizon Zero Daybreak: Remastered at Very Excessive settings, I wanted to drop the decision right down to 1080p.

The tradeoff with any bigger display is that you’ll discover when the graphics don’t look fairly pretty much as good as quickly as you drop your graphics settings. A smaller show does so much to scale back any apparent graphical blemishes or muddy textures. That’s why Abxylute’s mandate for max decision for native 3D video games hurts all of the extra. You need these stunning foreground colours to pop, and whereas the display is nice sufficient for it, the chip might not have sufficient energy to showcase the very best textures in Trine 5, even after they’re leaping off the display.

The opposite challenge is battery life. This 3D One has a measly 50Wh battery, which is way lower than the Xbox Ally X’s 80Wh. In most AAA video games set at max decision, I might barely squeak out greater than an hour of sport time. Much less demanding titles would perform a little higher, nearer to 2 hours.

Why can’t we’ve good issues?

The 3D One is usable, as long as you remodel your gamer life-style to suit Abxylute’s design. If you happen to had the center for it, you would flip this right into a laptop computer, although with a horrible trackpad and a battery life that received’t meet your expectations. The idea behind this machine is sensible. Based mostly on my checks, it simply doesn’t have the ability needed to satisfy these expectations.

Is it value $1,500 at minimal? Effectively, it’s a Kickstarter, in order that opening value received’t stick round for lengthy. Gaming handhelds are already manner too costly, however there could also be any person on the market who imagines they want one thing this huge of their life, and that they need a display that’s equally bigger than life.

At the very least, we lastly discovered the proper handheld for individuals with Shaq-sized palms.