In 2014, we tried our hands on a USD150 8" Windows tablet. Our watercolor flows on such a device, but the Atom-based CPU is rather weak to give a very smooth run. In recent years, more and more handheld gaming devices emerged including quite some running Windows. Among them is the OneXPlayer 2 - one that supports stylus input, touch and its game controllers are detachable, making it possible to be used as an 8" tablet PC!
A few years back, many of those handheld PC's from GPD or OneNetbook use Intel CPU's. They are not bad for every-day tasks, but when it comes to integrated GPU performance, those Intel chips were not as good as those from AMD. Since the last couple of years, thanks to the booming mobile gaming industry, there's a wave of AMD-based gaming handheld coming out, the most recent one being the Lenovo's Legion Go. Today we got hold of a OneXPlayer 2 with AMD 6800u and 32GB RAM to test Expresii on. This is last-year's model, and they have a refresh called the OneXPlayer 2 Pro using the AMD 7840U.
In our tests, the 6800u OneXPlayer 2 can run Expresii smoothly even at 15W max. The device is not primarily designed for painting, or using the pen in general, and we would suggest a few improvements to the design of the system if OneNetbook, the company behind OneXPlayer, wish to cater for pen usage more: 1. when the machine is used like a laptop with the official keyboard attached, the pen stroking on the upper corners of the screen would make the device wobble. 2. device cannot be used like a tablet lying flat on the table, since the air intake grille is on the back. To fix 1, the kickstand can be made wider like the Surface Pro or the latest Lenovo Legion Go. To fix 2, rubber feet could be added, just like for a normal laptop. For the current users, a makeshift could be mobile phone kickstands that stick to the back of the device. Use ones that adds 4 mm or more, so that they double as feet for lying the device flat.
The OneXPlayer 2 is a bit heavy at 719g and clunky to hold single-handed. The heat it produces along with fan noise can also be annoying. The model we have has an APU 6800u produced on 6nm process. With the latest models with APU 7840u or 7640u, which are made on 4nm, the heat is reduced and battery life prolonged.
Once again, the gaming industry has brought about hardware trend that also benefits us as artists. BTW, It's interesting that OneNetbook recently announced the OneMix 5, one that looks like a mini Surface Laptop Studio that ues a "Z-fold" design, and the first video on this device on their official Bilibili channel is on painting. Looks like they are also interesting in the digital artist market.
Once again, the gaming industry has brought about hardware trend that also benefits us as artists. BTW, It's interesting that OneNetbook recently announced the OneMix 5, one that looks like a mini Surface Laptop Studio that ues a "Z-fold" design, and the first video on this device on their official Bilibili channel is on painting. Looks like they are also interesting in the digital artist market.
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