Posted by The OneMix 3S is the bigger brother of the OneMix2S at 8.9″ (compared to the 7″ size of the little brother).
This tiny laptop comes in various flavours such as OneMix 3, OneMix 3S, and OneMix 3S+ and configurations therein but typically you can expect:
CPU: M3-8100Y 1.1Ghz-3.4Ghz (also available in an i7-8500y variation)
GPU: Integrated 300 Mhz to 800 Mhz Intel HD Graphics 615
Screen: 8.4″ IPS 2560×1600 358 PPI Display Ratio 16:10
RAM: 16GB DDR3
Hard Drive: 512GB PCI-E SSD
Weight: 5.3 Ounces
Battery Capacity: 8600 mAh
Battery Life: c. 12 hours
Wifi: 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n Wlan 2.4 / 5 GHz
Ports: 1xUSB-C, 1xUSB-A, Mini HDMI D Type, 3 3.5mm Headphone Jack
Stylus: 4096 sensitivity
Other: Fingerprint sensor
OK, so let’s get to it. There are likely to be a couple of reasons you will want to buy this, the small form factor for portable working, and perhaps the stylus for remote sketching / drawing.
So firstly the Keyboard which is actually half decent apart from:
- The Punctuation key is a little small and therefore difficult to use
- The Tab key is in a weird place above the numeric key making it a little difficult to use but no doubt muscle memory will cope with this over time
The keyboard is also backlit, one of the first UMPC style devices to offer this (the Chuwi Minibook is also backlit) and it makes a huge difference to the use of the device.
In my opinion this is probably the best keyboard of the UMPC’s that I have used, its not perfect but it’s eminently usable.
On the keyboard under the space key, there is a pointer reminiscent of the old Blackberry. I really would have preferred a Thinkpad style pointer. I found it just awkward and ended up using the touchscreen in most cases. Also when you pick the device up the way you place your hands you end up wanting this further up the screen, as it is on the GPD Pocket 2 devices.
The OneMix 3 also has a fingerprint sensor next to the power button at the top right of the keyboard. This works well with Windows Hello and is a nice touch.
The OneMix 3 supports USB-C and USB-A but as with most of these UMPC’s you probably should invest in a hub.
The built in speaker is OK but seems to only come out from the right hand side of the device which makes it a little mono sounding.
Now to the screen. To be honest I was really disappointed with the screen. The brightness seemed ‘off’ and the whites did not seem really white. I have seen other complaints like this on the Reddit GPD forum. Below is a picture of the One Mix 3 next to the (inferior and much cheaper) Topjoy Falcon on the right. The One Mix has its brightness set to max, the Topjoy Falcon does not.
One advantage the One Mix does have compared to the GPD Pocket Max, which you may be considering as an alternative, is that the screen can be rotated fully to be turned into a tablet style device (albeit even if it is a little weighty).
As with the OneMix 2s the fan is BIOS controlled and can be switched between low and high using a Fn-Esc key combination (oh that the Chuwi Minibook had something like this !)
From a battery perspective you should expect 5-6 of continuous use (obviously depending how you are using it). I found that it took approximately 4 hours, from it being near empty, to charge it back to full.
The One Mix is surface pen compatible and it works reasonably well so no complaints, I just found I did not use the pen as much as I expected probably because the surface area is still a little small compared, for example to the iPad 12″ and Surface Go devices I have that support a stylus.
The One Mix comes with Windows 10 home but it is easy enough to upgrade and as with the GPD devices you can choose to use Ubuntu Mate.
So in summary there is much to like about this little device, but it’s not cheap, and whereas its competition looks to be something like the GPD Max, it could also be the Surface Go which gives a much more polished experience at a cheaper price.
You can buy the OneMix 3S on Amazon, or on GeekBuying.
MadBadGadgets 