This Gigantic Handheld Fails at ‘3D’ PC Gaming

There comes some extent in each client tech author’s profession the place they should lie down on the railroad tracks and take the warmth for a tech class no one 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 certain to stay. Sure, it’s large and heavy—particularly at 2.45 kilos with the controllers connected—however it 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 stable MSI Claw 8 handheld. It misses out on something resembling good battery life for its measurement, regardless of its good efficiency. Beyond all else, the 3D One fails to ship on its most important promise. Based on my exams with a pre-production unit Abxylute despatched me for evaluation, you will get a 3D impact in all of your video games, however they weren’t playable by any stretch of the creativeness.

Could the 3D One ever be my one handheld I take in every single place? Of course not. Look on the measurement of that factor. In its plus-sized case, it could take up many 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 worth of $1,500, however it’s going to promote for extra later. This could be very cool tech, even when it’s costly. For largely 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 preserve getting larger, not essentially higher

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

I’m not an enormous particular person. I hardly ever maintain tech that makes me really feel small. While different folks 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 a giant handheld looks like till you familiarize yourself with the Abxylute 3D One. It contains an 11-inch IPS LCD show that runs at 2,560 x 1,600 decision with a 120Hz refresh fee, 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 fee.

The show is first rate for a handheld of this measurement, although it will not be as vibrant as different LCD screens at its peak of 480 nits. The show can be a bit of too reflective for taking part in beneath any vibrant lights, however video games find yourself seeming further 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 other than some other handheld, large or small. Even when pushing the amount 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 may play from a cushty sitting place even once I didn’t need to prop the gadget up with my arms on my lap. You simply should hunker near the 3D One to make use of it, or else hook it as much as a monitor. Despite the dimensions of the 2 detachable controllers, I discovered the face buttons to be clicky and responsive. I didn’t should 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. Otherwise, I may nonetheless use them as separate controllers or alongside the display. There are additionally two touchpads, one on every controller, although solely the fitting one appears to supply any mouse controls.

The keyboard does plenty of the heavy lifting to make Windows 11 usable on a tool that will usually should depend on the touchscreen or trackpads to get something executed. The keys on the gadget really feel notably good and hit with a small although satisfying clacking sound. The keyboard’s touchpad is just not my cup of tea and feels too tough and sticky regardless of its minuscule measurement. Hell, you possibly can 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 well worth the problem of dragging it round? Probably not.

While I may 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 informed me it went with such a big show as a result of, of their exams, that is the display measurement wanted to point out off the 3D impact correctly. The 3D One isn’t providing clients what many consider once they hear the phrase “3D screen.” You received’t see pictures come out at you want an annoying jack-in-the-box at a horror-themed carnival. Instead, the screens are primarily exhibiting 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 parts on the display pop. Cool, proper? Well, it will get much more fascinating. The 3D One makes use of the built-in front-facing digicam to trace your eyes. Even in case you’re off-center, it is best to nonetheless be capable of see the 3D picture. It’s the identical kind of know-how employed by the Samsung Odyssey 3D I examined earlier this 12 months. 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 in case you swim too quick out and in of view, the hand-held’s eye monitoring will battle to maintain up. You want to keep up 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 gadget (it’s also possible to allow it by the system’s fast menu) permits you to swap between 2D and 3D modes. There are sure video games that Abxylute says assist the stereoscopic display natively. Otherwise, the hand-held will make use of an “AI 3D Mode” that takes a picture in 2D and transforms it into 3D. The firm stated it hopes to finally assist greater than 50 video games with native 3D rendering by Steam.

In my exams, the 3D impact instantly made video games run sluggishly, to the purpose they have been virtually unplayable. After days of going forwards and backwards with Abxylute, the corporate informed me I have to play video games at particular settings, with out V-Sync and AMD’s FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) 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 fee would stay above 30 regardless of it feeling prefer it was operating at 15. This could possibly be as a consequence of latency or another issue from the system primarily duplicating the display for the sake of your eyeballs.

Performance was a constant difficulty when attempting it out with video games like Hogwarts Legacy with native 3D assist. Abxylute urged I attempt a a lot much less intensive recreation, Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy. That recreation runs a lot better on a handheld, and but I skilled related lag points that compelled 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 utterly unplayable with the 2D to 3D impact.

How about films and 3DS emulation?

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

There are just a few different 3D techniques on the market not made by Abxylute. Unfortunately, Samsung’s Reality Hub software program created for the Odyssey 3D monitor isn’t appropriate with something however a Samsung gadget. Russ Crandall from the Retro Game Corps YouTube channel described utilizing the ReShade plugin to allow a local stereoscopic impact in unsupported video games. You have to power it to put in on particular video games and modify different recreation settings to create the double picture wanted for the 3D impact. I attempted forcing this on video games like Metaphor: Refantazio and Hades II. Unfortunately, the end result nonetheless generated an excessive amount of enter lag to be playable.

Emulators for the Nintendo 3DS, like Azahar, additionally assist 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. Although, spending upwards of $1,500 on a handheld appears excessive when you’ll be able to merely purchase an outdated 3DS and authentic recreation playing cards for a lot much less.

A powerful performer with weak battery life

Like the MSI Claw 8, the Intel chip housed inside can match as much as and even beat the most recent AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip present in handhelds just like the Xbox Ally X—at the very least in some 3DMark benchmarks. That, mixed with the extra-large display buoyed with bountiful decision choices, means you will get a stunning variety of current titles to run nicely.

The Intel chip makes use of the corporate’s Arc 140V GPU, which is a powerful contender greater than a 12 months 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 Steel 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 Steel Nomad Light exams. In Cyberpunk 2077, it could hit round 45 fps with Steam Deck graphics settings at 1080p, whereas the Xbox Ally X may do 52 fps at 35W TDP. That’s not a giant gulf contemplating AMD’s newest handheld chips squeaked into place on the tail finish of this 12 months.

When testing out our regular stack of benchmarking video games, I discovered I may 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 just a few extra factors in the fitting path. That was the case with Cyberpunk 2077 on Steam Deck settings and Shadow of the Tomb Raider on Medium.

In the cautious balancing act between decision and efficiency, you might finally want to regulate down. For instance, if I wished to get a playable body fee in Horizon Zero Dawn: Remastered at Very High 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 nearly as good as quickly as you drop your graphics settings. A smaller show does loads 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 sweet sufficient for it, the chip might not have sufficient energy to showcase the very best textures in Trine 5, even once they’re leaping off the display.

The different difficulty 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 may barely squeak out greater than an hour of recreation time. Less demanding titles would do some higher, nearer to 2 hours.

Why can’t we’ve good issues?

The 3D One is usable, as long as you rework your gamer life-style to suit Abxylute’s design. If you had the center for it, you possibly can 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 gadget is sensible. Based on my exams, it simply doesn’t have the facility essential to fulfill these expectations.

Is it price $1,500 at minimal? Well, it’s a Kickstarter, in order that opening worth received’t stick round for lengthy. Gaming handhelds are already means 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 least, we lastly discovered the proper handheld for folks with Shaq-sized palms.