Indiegogo staffers are putting crowdfunded products to the test in our new series of honest reviews. In this edition, our very own payments analyst Bryan Wong tried out AOKZOE A1 Pro, which is live now on Indiegogo. Does it live up to the hype? Read on as we put it to the test!
The AOKZOE A1 Pro is a new gaming handheld on Indiegogo that so far seems to be powerful enough to handle intense gaming while also being utilized as a backup PC or tablet. We’ll take a closer look at the system and give a brief overview with some personal thoughts. Full disclosure that I am not a PC gamer (usually a Playstation kind of person), so I am not privy to all the details that make this gaming handheld great, but I will try to put it in terms of what I think as a general gamer.
Unboxing
The packaging looks very sleek with the black box and glimmers of green on the outside. On the inside we get a bigger pop of that green with the AOKZOE snug in its foam mold. Behind the AOKZOE we see the instructions included in a nice envelope and the PD Fast Charger boxed in a similar style.
Going into the system a bit more, we do see that there are several features that allow for flexibility with your PC needs and gameplay. While it has all the buttons and triggers of any console controller, the AOKZOE also includes powerful front facing speakers, a slot for your SD card, a USB port, and a headphone jack. There are two USB-C inputs for charging and additional accessories. The back also provides a sturdy kickstand allowing you to place it upright to use with a mouse and keyboard. You can find more of the technical details for the AOKZOE on their campaign page.
The unit is quite large. Compared to a Nintendo Switch, it is wider, heavier, and thicker. However, after the initial setup and testing some features, I immediately found myself more comfortable with the grip and size than with the Switch.
Setup
The setup had some bumps, especially since some of the steps seemed unnecessary. Once I treated it more as just the setup for a PC, the process felt much easier. After the initial setup, you’re free to customize how you wish, with different themes and lock screen options. Since the AOKZOE has a touchscreen a lot of it was simple clicks here and there.
The hiccups came mostly from the touchscreen keyboard. There are two available options, with the first keyboard being brought up by tapping a small icon on the taskbar that can change themes and also includes swipe capabilities. The other can be brought up with a button on the bottom right hand corner right over the “Turbo” button. This one is a bit more manual and is likely meant more for gaming chat. It took some time to get used to them and realize there were two, especially with the desktop keyboard not always working. An easy reboot always fixed this though. The touchscreen had no issues, but I think I would suggest using a stylus to make things easier.
Use
The graphics are definitely amazing after trying a few different games. I went through some different genres including some Fall Guys to Destiny to get a sense of different gameplay. The clarity is certainly crisp, but some modifications may have to be made in order for certain games to play smoothly if they require more to run. I had to make a few tweaks for more FPS games to keep up, but luckily there’s a lot of control over those functions.
After all the setup, I was able to begin installing gaming platforms and games including Steam and Epic. Epic was a bit tougher to use and get to the display I wanted, however Steam worked incredibly well since they have their Steam Deck UI.
Conclusion
Overall, the games ran well until my handheld died out. The PD Charger certainly replenishes the battery quicker, but I don’t believe it is good enough to run the AOKZOE and charge at the same time. I’m pretty excited to keep playing with it and it’s an opportunity for me to try certain games that only run on Microsoft. I’ll definitely consider getting more demanding games to test it out more.
To learn more, check out the campaign for AOKZOE A1 Pro, now live on Indiegogo.
