HOW TO SUM UP 2023’s hardware highlights? It definitely wasn’t the year of the GPU. Every graphics card this year has either been a bit disappointing or a lot overpriced. Storage tech hasn’t exactly blown us away in 2023, either. Sure, you can now buy a PCIe Gen 5 drive, but while the peak numbers look amazing, more nuanced metrics of storage performance, like random access, aren’t all that. And what’s with the Gen 5 drives needing active cooling?
The CPU side of the equation has been a bit better, especially thanks to AMD’s nifty X3D chips with gaming-friendly 3D V-cache. However, we’ll have to wait for late next year for something really compelling from Intel. Screen technology took a huge step forward, too, and not just with the arrival of a critical mass of OLED options. Samsung also moved the game on—for those who can afford it—with the first dual-4K gaming panel. It’s stunning.
We’ve seen some very nice new peripherals too, with the best gaming keyboard for years, an outstanding mouse, and a fantastic set of cans. But if you demand true novelty in 2023, it has to be the new breed of handheld gaming PCs powered by AMD’s amazing Phoenix APU. Even a few years ago, devices like the OneXPlayer OneXFly simply would not have seemed possible.
SPECIAL MENTION
ONEXPLAYER ONEXFLY
2023 has undoubtedly been the year of the handheld gaming PC. Sure, Valve got there first with the Steam Deck last year, but AMD’s Phoenix APU moved the game on massively and literally in terms of performance, giving birth to an army of new devices. Our favorite of the bunch is the OneXPlayer OneXFly. It’s smaller than most, but its 7-inch screen is still a 1080p beauty. It even has a slimmer bezel than the competition, only increasing its size advantage, and it achieves that with absolutely no performance disadvantage. The downside? It’s not cheap.
• $739-1,299, www.onexplayerstore.com
• Reviewed: Maximum PC, November
