A little over a week ago, the MagicX Retro 45 was announced, complete with pre-production images being revealed. Now, we’re learning more about another upcoming handheld as the “final color scheme for the MagicX One 35 has been confirmed, along with an upgraded SoC.”
The announcement was made over on the MagicX Discord server, with a few more renders of the One 35 being shared. And as for the upgraded SoC, MagicX confirmed the One 35 will now feature the MediaTek Helio G85, whereas it was originally set to make use of the MediaTek Helio P65.
As such, this means a boost in performance, which is always welcome with even the best retro handhelds. However, whenever there’s an upgrade, we have to wonder if that means a higher price. Based on comments made by the MagicX team, I believe the goal is still to come under the $100 price point; it’s just a matter of by how much.
With the Mangmi Air X expected to launch any minute now, we might have a true sub-$100 battle on our hands between it and the One 35. Looking at benchmark results, the Helio G85 scores better on AnTuTu, 3DMark Wild Life, and Geekbench, thanks in part to a higher GPU frequency. Surprisingly, the Helio G85 scores almost twice as well as the 662, which is only fueling our curiosity even further.
While these changes are definitely welcome, and it’s great to hear about the progress, we’re still a bit bummed. Not because we aren’t a fan of what MagicX is doing, but because we still have no clue when the One 35 will actually be released.
Up to this point, it’s just been a bunch of Discord messages across multiple servers and a few teaser videos. Originally, the One 35 was expected to be available as early as the end of July. Obviously, that hasn’t come to fruition, but it seems that the delay was for good reason.
Even still, I’m hoping that MagicX will surprise us with some kind of release timeline in the near future. But until then, I’ll just be keeping an eye on the various conversations and will share more information once it’s made available.
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