I tested the Abxylute One Pro, and it nails game streaming (with a catch)

If you had asked me six years ago, I would have told you that game streaming was the future of gaming. Now that Stadia is dead and Xbox Cloud Gaming hasn’t made any significant improvements in years, the world seems to have shifted focus to gaming handhelds.

But there’s a unique category that straddles the line between both. These handhelds are designed for game streaming rather than native play, which has advantages and disadvantages. The Abxylute One Pro is the latest entry in this category, and after testing it for a few weeks, I can confidently say it’s the best so far.

That said, it’s not a perfect handheld, and it faces much stiffer competition than streaming handhelds did a few years ago. The market has evolved, but has the Abxylute One Pro evolved with it?

Without a doubt, the main selling point of the Abxylute One Pro is the screen. The massive 7-inch FHD IPS panel is one of the largest you can buy on an Android gaming handheld, and certainly the largest in this price bracket. It’s not an OLED panel, and it’s limited to 60Hz, but those feel like reasonable trade-offs for a handheld like this.

Playing games on this screen feels very immersive, but only if they are 16:9. This isn’t a screen that’s meant for retro gaming, so you’ll be dealing with huge black bars on older systems. More on that later.

The other advantage of such a large handheld is full-size controls, and the One Pro mostly nails the landing. The sticks are big and have a great range of motion, but I wasn’t a fan of the hard finish on the caps. It’s easy enough to pop on a new set of caps, and Abxylute actually sells a pack on its website.

The rest of the controls are great. The D-pad is a little mushy, but the inputs are solid, and the buttons are nice and quiet. The combination of asymmetrical sticks and well-placed, stacked triggers makes this design ideal for first-person shooters and action-oriented titles.

That being said, the ergonomics aren’t perfect. There are grips on the back, but they don’t quite land where my hands want them to. They’re either too small or too close to the edges, with a fairly sharp edge. It isn’t the least comfortable handheld I’ve ever held (especially considering the size), but it would definitely benefit from an aftermarket grip.

The device is super light, though, which is a welcome change. They’re not really in the same price category, but other large handhelds like the Steam Deck (669g), ROG Ally (608g), or even the AYANEO Pocket EVO (478g) are significantly heavier than the 420g Abxylute One Pro. It’s about the same weight and size as the Odin 2 Portal, but for significantly less money.

While most gaming handhelds live or die by their performance, the Abxylute One Pro’s streaming focus means it’s all about the software. And there, Abxylute nails it.

You have the option to use it like a normal Android device at setup, but I went with the company’s proprietary frontend. It’s still Android, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at it. It uses rows of tiles to navigate the apps installed on your device, plus some game recommendations from Xbox Cloud Gaming.

The result is a very console-like experience. It reminds me of the Nintendo Switch, but with more rows of icons. The most apt comparison is the Backbone app, which has a very similar layout. However, I found that one to be filled with junk recommendations and features locked behind a paywall, so the Abxylute One Pro offers a better overall experience.

Of course, you can still access the Android settings menu, but it’s hidden behind a few layers of menus. This will be an advantage for anyone who isn’t intimately familiar with Android, although it did take a while to get used to.

For example, there’s no notification shade to adjust the brightness, and instead, you have to long-press the home button to open the quick menu. The system also prompts you to close the current app before you can open another, just like the Nintendo Switch.

For the tinkerers out there, you can also disable this frontend and use Android AOSP. You can also install a separate frontend, like ES DE or Beacon, and launch that from the menu for your emulation needs while still taking advantage of the Abxylute software for streaming.

As for the streaming experience, it was great. You don’t get the absolute best speeds with the Wi-Fi 5 connection, but it was more than good enough for me. It’s not like I can make my parries in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 without the latency, anyway.

There were a few minor hitches, as there always are when streaming, but they didn’t detract too much from the action. I also love how quiet the Abxylute is, which can’t always be said about more powerful devices with loud active fans. The front-facing speakers get plenty loud, but there’s also a headphone jack on the bottom for an even more immersive experience.

The large 7-inch screen really shines while streaming, and the FHD 16:9 resolution makes it easier to stream to than a phone. I tested a bit of Xbox Cloud Gaming, and it eliminated the black bars you see on most phones, which are typically wider than 16:9. It’s easy to make local streaming match your device’s resolution, but for cloud gaming, that’s usually not an option.

After having a great time failing at Expedition 33, I decided to pop in a microSD card with my ROM library to test out some emulation. The results were mixed, to say the least.

Most retro games can be emulated on a potato, so it’s no surprise that the Abxylute One Pro is capable of light emulation. However, the MediaTek Genio 510 is significantly weaker than other handhelds around this price point, and even weaker than the aging Snapdragon 865 found on the Retroid Pocket 5 or Flip 2.

I tried to run the device through our standard tests, but the truth is many of our benchmarking tools weren’t compatible with this chipset. Still, I was able to get enough results to paint a clear picture of what you can expect in terms of performance.

As you can see, the Genio 510 isn’t a match for the Snapdragon 865, an already outdated chipset. The Snapdragon 865 roughly doubled CPU scores, and GPU scores showed an even greater delta. The only positive thing to take away from these tests is that the Abxylute One Pro shows excellent thermal performance, which is great because it doesn’t have any active cooling.

Of course, benchmarks aren’t always indicative of emulation performance. I tried out a few of my favorite retro games, and while everything up to GameCube and Dreamcast ran well enough, I still wouldn’t recommend this as a native emulation machine.

The problem is that this big, beautiful screen would benefit greatly from heavy shaders on retro titles, and this chipset simply isn’t powerful enough for most of them. The 16:9 aspect ratio also doesn’t lend itself to retro gaming, so you’ll want to either stick to PSP or rely on widescreen hacks to fill up the screen.

The handheld also struggled with upscaled games, particularly for 3DS and PS2 emulation. This isn’t typically an issue on smaller screens, but I couldn’t help but feel that I wasn’t getting the most out of the 7-inch panel. Smaller devices around this price point, like the Pocket Flip 2 compared above, can emulate far, far more systems locally.

In other words, treat this like a streaming console first, and an emulation handheld a far second.

Overall, I think the Abxylute One Pro more than delivers on its promise to provide fantastic game streaming on a massive screen. It’s a clear upgrade from the company’s first handheld, and a better buy than 2023’s Logitech G Cloud ($299 at Amazon). If you want to stream, this is a great machine.

But if you want to tinker, there are far better options around this price point. None of them will have the same massive 7-inch screen, but they will have the same great streaming performance, plus local emulation.

The most obvious examples are the Retroid Pocket 5 and Pocket Flip 2 ($229 at Manufacturer site), both of which have the same 5.5-inch AMOLED panel. This is significantly smaller, but you’re getting much better performance. These two can emulate everything up to lightweight Switch games, in addition to providing solid game streaming. You could also wait a few weeks and pick up the 5.5-inch MANGMI Air X for less than $100.

If you can spend more, the AYN Odin 2 Portal ($329 at Manufacturer site) is a great premium pick. It also has a 7-inch HD display, but this time it’s a 120Hz OLED panel. If you can spend even more, the AYANEO Pocket EVO ($459 at Manufacturer site) is easily the most comfortable handheld I’ve ever used, with an even better 7-inch HD 165Hz OLED screen, which is among the best you can buy. Both of these are very expensive, but they also offer some of the best emulation performance on the market. If you get 12GB of RAM or more, that includes Windows emulation, so you can skip streaming entirely.

But there’s one thing none of those options offer that the One Pro does, and that’s convenience. If you want a console-like experience, where you turn it on and start streaming without the fuss, the Abxylute One Pro is still the device to beat.