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AOKZOE A1 Might Be the Most Powerful Handheld PC

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

The upcoming AOKZOE A1 is seemingly on track to beating the Steam Deck performance-wise, as it's supposed to be the very first handheld gaming PC to come equipped with the powerful AMD 6800U APU. Much has already been revealed about the device at this point, and it seems like AOKZOE is intent on making a name for itself on its first try.

Featuring an impressive 8-inch 1920x1200 screen with a 283 PPI pixel density, the manufacturer claims that AOKZOE A1 will be able to run Forza Horizon 5 at over 100 FPS thanks to its Radeon 680M graphics chip. If correct, these claims would put AOKZOE A1 squarely above the Steam Deck's hardware specifications, the screen of which also renders the image at a substantially lower resolution. It's worth pointing out, however, that it hasn't yet been stated if A1's display will be able to render the game at anything higher than 60 Hz.

AOKZOE is yet to announce A1's price range, though it's worth pointing out that the device will come in at least two different SKUs. A1 Ultimate will have a 65Wh battery compared to the baseline's 48Wh, and it will be heavier. Some versions of the A1 will also have 16 GB of RAM, while others will come with 32 GB, and it's not clear yet if the distinction refers to spec differences between A1 and A1 Ultimate, or if buyers will be able to choose how much RAM they want and perhaps even upgrade it later on, as users can mod the Steam Deck already.

AOKZOE A1 is going to feature all the usual amenities that handheld PC gamers have come to appreciate by now. Gyroscopic aiming and linear triggers are a key example, though the manufacturer also makes notes of quick charging, which should warrant minimum downtime between playing sessions. While the Steam Deck now supports Windows properly, AOKZOE made it clear that A1 would feature full Windows and SteamOS support on day one.

AOKZOE A1 is coming in July 2022.

pqWKkRzT_4x.jpg
baCuPvqc_4x.jpg
 

Crayon

Member
That's a nice thing but I'd like to whine about apu's.

Console APU:
[----CPU----][-----------GPU----------]

Desktop APU:
[-----------CPU----------][----GPU----]

Let me buy the console one. The rumors say they are working on it. I hope so.
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
Looks pretty beefy. Probably runs in something like this 680M 25W profile? Guessing ~$1400 for the 16GB and ~$1600 for the 32GB.
R9h7Apb.jpg

Steam Deck:
Time Spy Graphics = 1589
Fire Strike Graphics = 4910
Night Raid Graphics = 21934
 
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Looks good so far standard universal ABXY button layout & Off Set Sticks
The Steam Deck Layout feels kinda weird to me much prefer this layout
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Such as?

There's no reason to get a Steam Deck once 6800U devices are out
There are many many reasons.
-Steam Deck controls, customizability
-Steam deck hardware build might be better or more comfortable
-system level integration CANNOT be omitted.
-Valve prepares shader cache for games
-Optimized controls and settings for games preprared by either valve or community
-Refresh rate is customizable
-Price
You dont get the same by running big screen on other handhelds.
 

Ogbert

Member
Such as?

There's no reason to get a Steam Deck once 6800U devices are out
Do you have a Steam Deck? It’s probably the most immediately impressive piece of kit I’ve ever owned.

As stated above; choice of refresh rate to make 40fps a smooth experience, custom controls, access to steam library (obviously), power options, gyro on all games, FSR.

The thing is amazing.
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
Looks pretty beefy. Probably runs in something like this 680M 25W profile? Guessing ~$1400 for the 16GB and ~$1600 for the 32GB.
R9h7Apb.jpg

Steam Deck:
Time Spy Graphics = 1589
Fire Strike Graphics = 4910
Night Raid Graphics = 21934
Signed up for their email updates. Just got an email saying default mode is 15W, and there's also a 28W 'Turbo' button for high-performance gameplay.
Kbzjmby.jpg

Some FH5 on the 28W profile...


Looks like it can play 1280x800, Low Settings, ~100fps in the open world. 1920x1200, Low Settings, at ~70fps in the open world.
---
RDR2 on 28W profile...


Benchmark result at 1280x800, High Settings = 56fps. Benchmark at 1920x1200, Low Settings = 36fps
 
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Tunned

Member
I'm really happy with my Steam Deck, and all this does is make me more exited for Steam Deck's next iteration..
 

Denton

Member
And people say Steam Deck is a bad name.

Also, 1080p on a handheld is a worthless waste of performance and battery life. Just worthless. Games look amazing in 800p at that handheld screensize.
 

Bullet Club

Banned



Finally! The First Ryzen 6800U Hand-Held Is Here! and is The Fastest handheld We've Tested so far! It Can Run Everything! The new AOKZOE is powered by the Ryzen 7 6800U RDNA2 APU and blows the steam deck out of the water when it comes to raw performance! 1080P AAA Gaming on a handheld is now possible. Packing a powerful Zen 3+ RDNA2 APU and backed by LPDDR5X ram this handheld should give us some amazing performance on the go! The AOKZOE 6800U also has an 8” 1920x1200 Screen and a 45Wh battery with 100 Watt PD charging, dual stereo speakers, built-in gyro, and RGB lighting!
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Such as?

There's no reason to get a Steam Deck once 6800U devices are out

Price is a huge reason to get a Steam Deck over these no name machines.

The number of people dropping money on these will be minuscule. And if you have a problem, who are you contacting? Bejing?
 
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ToTTenTranz

Banned
It's nice to see lots of 6800U handhelds being announced. I suspect the most premium model will be the AYA Next 2, which also has the same dual touchpads as the Steam Deck for full input compatibility. I wonder if they'll put an OLED screen with variable refresh rate, as that would be pure bliss.


Looks pretty beefy. Probably runs in something like this 680M 25W profile? Guessing ~$1400 for the 16GB and ~$1600 for the 32GB.
R9h7Apb.jpg

Steam Deck:
Time Spy Graphics = 1589
Fire Strike Graphics = 4910
Night Raid Graphics = 21934
AFAIK the Zephirus G14 uses DDR5 4800. Handheld Rembrandt APUs will use LPDDR5 6400. That's 33% higher memory bandwidth, and it'll definitely make a difference in games.
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
AFAIK the Zephirus G14 uses DDR5 4800. Handheld Rembrandt APUs will use LPDDR5 6400. That's 33% higher memory bandwidth, and it'll definitely make a difference in games.
It's likely that's the case. The 3DMark Graphics scores came in 10-20% higher than the 25W Zephyrus. I posted that before I found out it uses a 28W profile. I didn't realize there were videos on their Youtube showing TDP and performance, so it was just speculation.
---
AOKZOE A1 vs Steam in 3DMark...

AOKZOE A1:
15W:
Fire Strike -> Graphics = 3284 | CPU = 12052 | Overall = 3078
Time Spy -> Graphics = 986 | CPU = 4703 | Overall = 1118
Night Raid -> Graphics = 15939 | CPU = 7002 | Overall = 13377

28W:
Fire Strike -> Graphics = 6822 | CPU = 21352 | Overall = 6299
Time Spy -> Graphics = 2454 | CPU = 7585 | Overall = 2731
Night Raid -> Graphics = 29743 | CPU = 10359 | Overall = 23224

Steam Deck:
Fire Strike -> Graphics = 4898 | CPU = 10947 | Overall = 4386
Time Spy -> Graphics = 1592 | CPU = 3633 | Overall = 1738
Night Raid -> Graphics = 21974 | CPU = 6144 | Overall = 15848
---
As for game performance, in FH5 the AOKZOE A1 in 15W profile runs at roughly the same frame rate at 1080p/Low as Steam Deck does at 800p/Low. In the 28W profile it can run at that same 60-70fps frame rate at 1080p/Medium settings.

I really like the hardware and performance, but the d-pad does look like crap. It's cool that it has 2xUSB-C and a standard USB port. Another plus is that it uses 2280 M.2 form-factor as opposed to Deck's annoying 2230. I didn't see any mention of VRR, so it would be nice if they added software support for changing the screen refresh and capping frame rate like Steam Deck does. Although, this thing is pretty beastly so it won't need that as much as the Steam Deck does.

I think aside from the great hardware, the main things that have to be considered versus the Steam Deck are Price and Customer Support. I'm guessing that this comes in around $1400-1800 depending on the model. We'll see.
 
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ToTTenTranz

Banned
AOKZOE A1:
15W:
Fire Strike -> Graphics = 3284 | CPU = 12052 | Overall = 3078
Time Spy -> Graphics = 986 | CPU = 4703 | Overall = 1118
Night Raid -> Graphics = 15939 | CPU = 7002 | Overall = 13377

28W:
Fire Strike -> Graphics = 6822 | CPU = 21352 | Overall = 6299
Time Spy -> Graphics = 2454 | CPU = 7585 | Overall = 2731
Night Raid -> Graphics = 29743 | CPU = 10359 | Overall = 23224

These differences don't make much sense. The performance is scaling well above the TDP increase and that should be almost impossible because the clock/power curves tend to be close to exponential.

In Monster Hunter World @1280*800 Low, they're getting ~70 FPS @15W and ~85FPS @28W. At High settings, it's ~43 FPS @15W vs ~54 FPS @28W.






In Cyberpunk the difference is even smaller:

 
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CrustyBritches

Gold Member
These differences don't make much sense. The performance is scaling well above the TDP increase and that should be almost impossible because the clock/power curves tend to be close to exponential.

In Monster Hunter World @1280*800 Low, they're getting ~70 FPS @15W and ~85FPS @28W. At High settings, it's ~43 FPS @15W vs ~54 FPS @28W.






In Cyberpunk the difference is even smaller:


I believe those are accurate. That’s just synthetics for ya, and it would be hard to say what’s going on without a full-suite performance overlay/monitor going to see how it’s handling power, clocks, and memory usage.
 
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CrustyBritches

Gold Member
I got an email that advertises the chance to win half-off the purchase of the AOKZOE A1. I signed up, and when it sent me through to the next page where you can get more entries by sharing and subscribing on different platforms it said "$650 value", so that means msrp is going to be $1,300. That's probably for the base model. On the Facebook group the said that the $1,300 price point is for the top model.
N7n9L3s.jpg


Don't get me wrong, I would take one of these at $650 in a heartbeat, so I'll be doing some of these extra tasks to get more entries.
 
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Bullet Club

Banned



Faster than a Speeding Steam Deck, Can Handle High-end Emulation in a Single Bound! this is the work's first Ryzen 7 6800U Handheld gaming PC and is Crazy Powerful! Known as the AOKZOE A1 6800U. This is a game-changer for sure! a true next-gen handheld gaming experience. It runs Orginal Xbox, WiiU, PS3, Switch, PSP, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, N64, PS2, and many many more at full speed!
 
There is no way this thing is anywhere close to $399.
No but performance per dollar of the $900 model is comparable to the $650 steam deck. It runs steam OS and has a much better screen. Considering this over my Q3 $650 steam deck for sure. Need some reviews before the Kickstarter goes live. Otherwise that's pretty sus

Edit: uses Xbox sticks which wouldn't be a problem but the company hasnt answered any questions about replaceability, making me think it won't be easy (i.e. requires soldering). Steam deck has a huge advantage here because you can just buy swappable parts for it online. There are other options out there but will undoubtedly cost more.
 
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CrustyBritches

Gold Member
I'm really interested in this system, and if by some chance I happened to win the 50% contest It would be really hard to resist. The only thing that gives me concern is how the customer service would be in a RMA situation. Steam Support was awesome when I was dealing with my Deck RMA. They were understanding of my situation and offered a replacement. It took 2 weeks from the time they received it to the time I got my new Deck(3 weeks total from when I dropped it off at FedEx). Would AOKZOE be so understanding? How would the RMA process go? I don't really know with them being a new startup compared to Valve being a long-established company.

This is kind of a situation where you need to just have throwaway money where you don't have to worry about any issues. I already have the Deck, so I'm not dying to spend $900-1300 on the A1. Even at $650 I'd really have to think about, since it would require me selling my Deck. Not sure that would be a wise trade.
 
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I already have the Deck, so I'm not dying to spend $900-1300 on the A1.
Deck is the ship to support right now if we want this market to be established, tbh. If the market gets fragmented this early it'll be impossible to muster how big it is and at best it'll create several semi-successful models making it be perceived as a novelty.
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
Deck is the ship to support right now if we want this market to be established, tbh. If the market gets fragmented this early it'll be impossible to muster how big it is and at best it'll create several semi-successful models making it be perceived as a novelty.
Yeah, even though I'm excited by the power the A1 brings to the table, I'm wary of paying up front on Kickstarter now for something coming out 2-3 months later. Then on top of that, I don't know what kind of support I'd receive in case it was damaged, stolen, or lost during shipping, or if I have problems in the future. I'm really happy with the Deck, and there's very few games it can't handle, so I'll just stick with it.
 
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ReBurn

Gold Member
Deck is the ship to support right now if we want this market to be established, tbh. If the market gets fragmented this early it'll be impossible to muster how big it is and at best it'll create several semi-successful models making it be perceived as a novelty.
Handheld gaming PC's were a thing before Steam Deck. They're not establishing a market. They're making it more mainstream maybe. But there are already a bunch of handheld gaming PC's in the market and have been for a few years. China's been at it for a while.

This thing can play games at higher framerates and resolutions under Windows than Steam Deck. The manufacturer says thing can run SteamOS. It's probably going to cost a thousand bucks. But it's also probably going to deliver a better in-game experience than Steam Deck. The PC market is a fragmented by design and people go with what's best for them. The last thing PC gamers want is a single company telling them what they need.

So I don't really see a reason to back Valve. They're already revising the Steam Deck with worse components. People who preordered the advertised spec months ago are getting slower SSD's than they thought they were. Steam Deck doesn't suck, but it is now budget to mid-range when bumped up against the chipset in the AOKZOE. I say let them fight it out.
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Thought I'd share my impressions with the device here now that it's actually shipped (most of these are advertised months - sometimes longer - in advance, and A1 is still the only one of it's kind actually shipping to customers right now - ie. it IS the most powerful handheld on the market as of this moment), and didn't want to start another thread - there's enough of these already.

Background, I'd pre-ordered SteamDeck back in February, and by the time this kickstarter was live, my Deck was still slated to ship in late Q4. With original date for A1 being 'end of Sep' that was potentially months ahead of being able to get a Deck so I gambled. In the end - I received the device about 1.5 months later than og. date - but given I'd already waited 9 months on a Deck by then that hasn't really felt like significant delay in comparison.

Opted for quantum-blue, which turns out to be a darker hue than advertisement would suggest but the look/design is actually really nice.
Directly comparing with a Deck - 'build quality' of the outer shell feels more solid (Deck has a bit of flimsiness to it that I actually expected from this device, but it isn't the case), and surprisingly comfortable to hold (especially after years of Nintendo/Sony handhelds that were always - a bit of a pain to hold for extended periods of time).
The A1 is a bit smaller than Deck (2cm less on the width), which to me felt like the right balance (I found Deck just a touch long) and houses a much larger 8" screen which really ups the experience (the only thing I'd wish now is for a revision with an Oled screen some-day).

Performance/thermals are great. For a very direct comparison on the former - this is as close to a handheld Series S (especially with GamePass on it) as you're likely to get, and it easily trades blows with the console in most games, and even outperforms it in select ones (eg. it breezes through Scorn at 60fps @ 28W with settings maxed out and FSR @ Quality, and it can get 60 hz in the Ascent, and decent 30 with Raytracing on***). It also scales really well to older games or more 2d fare, with some stuff running maxed out as low as 5-6Watts (eg. Carto or Hades), and getting maxed out 60 from most PS3/PS4 era titles with ease (NFS titles are really nice to revisit on this, P5 Royale outperforms all consoles except PS5/XSX etc.). The fact this comes with an 8-core Zen3 really shows in older console games, where even more powerful GPUs in consoles are still held back in what they can do framerate wise, and indeed many PS4 or older titles I've tested so far, tend to run maxed out at 15W or less.
RT is a mixed bag - some games surprise positively (like the Ascent, or Quake 1 path-traced) others are kind of stretching the realm of 'playable' (Lego Builder is doable, but you have to use really aggressive FSR and ghosting/temporal IQ is a bit out of control). Still - getting playable realtime raytracing on a handheld, is something of a nice surprise.
For another angle (and where thermals also come into play) it does really well against a GF1060 (which is on paper TF match), and I have one of those with Surface Book 2. Generally performance is at least a match, most cases it will outperform the SB2, but the big difference is that in all of them, it barely gets warm to hold, where as the laptop really heats up during play and - when using its own screen, will often throttle the CPU (which is in the screen part of the chasis).
Another thing that surprised me was how - generally well - things do out of the box, it's been a less fiddly ride than what I usually experience on my desktop/laptop setups, particularly since controller is natively integrated into Windows build installed, and hw-control widget (for Wattage/fan speeds etc.) is easy to use. There's no out of the box support for changing screen refresh (though that seems to be in the works) but manually configuring custom refresh-rate resolutions works well, and having native 40/45/50hz options actually does wonders for some harder to run games (or just to save on battery usage).
Minor gripe is that preinstalled controller driver shows up as Xbox controller, meaning that you don't get access to Gyro controls out of the box. Custom software (like Handheld companion) fixes this, and gyros work really well for all the usual use cases (personally I like Gyro aim when scoping, or mouse controls on some titles) but just an FYI.

*** Not everything is a positive and the usual PC caveats apply. The Ascent's DX12 mode, while performing well with/without RT(and even giving access to FSR2.X) is hopelessly broken as it stutters so bad it's borderline nausea inducing - DX11 mode is solid, but you lose out on the RT and temporal-upscaling :( The same kind of things can be seen throughout PC software stack - including older games (eg. Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a very bumpy ride, and even some much older games will have I/O stalls creep up, just like I remember them). There's a chance some of this might be better if running a SteamOS install, but I haven't had the time to try that out yet.
I also run into oddities (very PC like ones at that) - eg: Forza Horizon 5 natively supports FSR2 but toggling it on actually drops performance when set to 'Quality' compared to native res. In that title- even just temporal AA runs 5-10% worse than native which is unusually expensive, and I've not quite decided yet, but native res + no AA may actually be preferable way to play FH5 for results you get.
In the Klonoa collection, the first game performs about 3-4x worse than the 2nd. In practical terms that means that it needs 28W, lowered resolution, turning off depth of field(very expensive for no discernible reason) and use 50hz refresh, to get stable performance without constant random drops in Klonoa 1.
Meanwhile - Klonoa 2 breezes through at constant 60, all settings maxed, native-resolution, and using only 12-15Watts.
Some games will boot in wrong aspect-ratio or completely broken view due to these devices using Portrait screen (1200x1920), which Windows drivers still struggle with to this day. As I understand this is a non-issue in SteamOS (SteamDeck also uses Portrait screen afaik) but something to be aware when running in Windows in any of these handheld PCs - it's a universal problem. Usually it's relatively easy to fix (go to settings, or even just toggle in/out of desktop for game to re-detect resolution) but in at least one game, I've yet to find a way to run it correctly (Broken Age will flip the screen upside down on start (literally rotating it 180) and it refuses to run any other way so far).
Another thing that Windows does worse than SteamOS is system-wide FSR, it's a real mess to use (especially with the whole exclusive vs. borderless/windowed modes), and sometimes it's hard to tell if you've even enabled it correctly. But for what's worth - it does work, it's just - well, more work than it should be, and SteamOS addresses that nicely.

Battery life is manageable - I got a 65Wh model which lasts quite a bit longer than Deck at 15W, but can also do passable at 28 (1.5-2hrs).
Anyway - in summary, I'm A1 does quite well for what it aims to do, and typical PC/windows issues aside, it impresses with what can be packed into portable form factor today. It also raises some questions for me about how modern consoles are designed with respect to power-envelope/efficiency, but that's a topic for another day.
 
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Unless they plan on releasing a handheld Mac themselves, Macbook touch. I'm surprised they haven't released a beefed up Apple TV as a console.

They will need more than just an M2 chip to compete in the console space, and will also have to add significant investment in production, marketing, and getting retailers to stock their hardware and software while having a lot of industry deals and "incentivizing" partners, which would run many companies into bankruptcy without a lot of spare cash. Apple hasn't "yet" seen any reason to enter the low margin home gaming console market. yet.
 
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