Mind xPlay display and keyboard review using Khadas Mind and Mind 2 mini PCs

In this review, I’ll report my experience with the Khadas Mind xPlay display and keyboard using the Mind and Mind 2 mini PCs, as well as a CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 laptop to test it as a standard external display.

Using Mind xPlay with the Mind 2 mini PC

I received the Mind xPlay with the Mind 2 Meteor Lake mini PC, and I already showed how to connect it and get started in the first part of the review. So I’ll continue the review with it initially. I used the EIZO monitor test website to evaluate the display panel itself.

I went through all 13 tests, including dead pixel and gradients tests. The pattern above looks fine too, so I compare the Mind xPlay monitor to the 16-inch display of the ASUS Vivobook 16 to find differences. Both were set to maximum brightness.

The xPlay delivers noticeably more vibrant colors than my laptop screen. The biggest difference comes from its glossy panel against my laptop’s matte display, as it boosts perceived contrast and saturation, although it also introduces some reflections, which can be distracting. Resolution is quite higher too at 2880 x 1920. As a side note, regular reader Tkaiser noted that a color gamut of 100% sRGB is “pretty small/limited color space”. The latter depends on what you do with the display; it’s fine for office tasks, web browsing, and YouTube video playback, but photo/video editing and HDR gaming would benefit from a wider color space.

The Mind xPlay comes with a 2MP webcam, which I tested with webcamtest.com…

… and used the microphone test there as well.

I also played an allegedly copyright-free YouTube video to test the built-in speakers.

The recording does not really do justice to the speakers, as they sound better in real-life than in this video. When going to Windows Sound settings, I also noticed “Mono audio” was enabled, and disabling it further improves sound quality.

I also followed up by playing a stereo test YouTube video to confirm left and right speakers are independently controlled.

The handle on the back can be opened up to 120 degrees, as shown in the photo below.

However, in this position it lifts the keyboard a bit, and it’s easy to unintentionally disconnect the keyboard from the display when you are typing, unless you are really gentle with the keys…

As a reminder, the Mind xPlay does not include a touchscreen, so you need another input device, either the xPlay keyboard or your own keyboard and mouse.

While the Mind 2 comes with a built-in battery, it’s quite small and only designed to allow the user to carry the mini PC between rooms or switch accessories. The xPlay features a much higher capacity 4,150 mAh battery for the display itself and the Mind 2 mini PC. So I tested battery life with the brightness set to maximum.

I started at 12:40 with a 100% charge. A few minutes later, at a 98% charge, we were told it should last 3h48.

I changed the settings to make sure the display is always on, and let the mini PC idle for one hour. The charge level was 75%, at which point I started playing a YouTube video. At the two-hour mark, the charge was at 38%, and at 15:16, it dropped to 20%, and a pop-up showed up telling us the battery was running low. The battery lasted about 2h40 to this point, which means you can expect about 2 to 3 hours of battery life per full charge.

The Khadas xPlay display comes with two USB-C ports. a USB-C input port (top) for power and video data when connecting it as a standard display, and a USB-C output (bottom) to connect peripherals. With the Mind 2, the xPlay’s battery can be charged through the USB-C input port on the xPlay or the mini PC itself. I mention that because the first-generation Mind Play can’t charge the xPlay, so users need to use the USB-C input on the display itself.

The first time I connected a 14-inch Crowview portable display to the USB-C output port, it was powered for a short time, and then showed “no cable”. So I decided to upgrade the BIOS of the Mind 2 as Khadas recommends it, even though my device is brand new. After that, the Crowview worked normally, connected through the xPlay.

You can also add additional displays using the USB-C and HDMI ports of the Mind 2. The USB-C output port is not only for external display, and you can connect other peripherals, for example, a USB NVMe SSD enclosure. I also moved the white power cable from the Mind 2 to the xPlay to show another way to power the combo.

Mind xPlay with Mind mini PC in Windows 11 and Ubuntu 24.04

Let’s now switch from the Mind 2 to the Mind mini PC. We can do that as the computers are running and the display is powered. No need to turn off anything since all three devices are battery-powered for this purpose.

One of the first tests I did was connecting the Crowview monitor, since I initially had an issue with the Mind 2. This worked out of the box with the Mind without even updating the EC (Embedded Controller) firmware.

I still update the latter following the instructions on the Khadas website. Basically, I had to download the zip file, extract it to a USB flash drive formatted with FAT32. Then select it in the BIOS (press Esc to enter the BIOS), and type the following commands to start the ITE Flash Utility:

I’m not sure what Khadas did with the firmware version, but I successfully upgraded from the old version 2.7 to the new version 1.2 of the firmware…

That step went relatively smoothly compared to the BIOS update on the Mind 2.

From there, I tested all other features such as the touchpad, webcam, microphone, speakers, USB-C output port, and battery charging. Everything works just as well as with the Mind 2, except the new mini PC is faster, and the Mind can’t charge the xPlay, so the charger should be connected to the USB-C input port of the xPlay, instead of the power port of the Mind.

Since Ubuntu 24.04 is also installed on the Mind mini PC, I rebooted into the Linux OS.

Again, everything worked, although I had some troubles with the microphone at first, but I’m not sure what happened, as it started working without me doing anything.

If we run inxi, we can see a few features from the xPlay display:

The webcam is detected as “SunplusIT USB Camera”, while the “Khadas Mind xPlay Audio” shows up as a USB audio device.

Using the Mind xPlay as an external USB-C display

For the final test, I decided to connect the Khadas xPlay to the CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 laptop since it supports USB-C DisplayPort Alt mode. However, it didn’t quite work as expected. While the external display was detected, the xPlay and laptop were stuck in a connection/disconnection loop, as shown in the video below.

 

Since neither had power above, I connected the laptop to its power adapter, and after seeing that it didn’t help, I added power to the second USB-C port on the xPlay. But still no luck. I finally rebooted into Ubuntu 24.04. The display didn’t work either, but I noticed I could adjust the volume using the buttons on the xPlay, and I could also connect to the webcam on the xPlay, at least for a little while, until the xPlay appeared to reboot (the Khadas boot logo appeared).

So to demonstrate it can indeed be used as an external USB-C display, I connected it to the Mind mini PC through a USB-C cable instead of the Mind Link connector.

Everything still works through USB-C, including the volume buttons, webcam, microphone, speakers, and obviously the keyboard and touchpad if the xPlay keyboard is also connected. Running inxi shows the same SunplusIT USB webcam and xPlay audio USB device as when connected through the Mind Link:

What’s not super user-friendly is that the power button needs to be pressed. The xPlay display won’t just wake up when connected through USB-C like other external displays. In this mode, you’d also need to press the power button on the mini PC, while when the Mind 2 is connected behind the display, you can just press the power button on the xPlay to turn everything on.

Conclusion

If you already own a Khadas Mind or Mind 2/2s mini PC, the Khadas xPlay is a nice addition to convert it into a laptop with a QWERTY keyboard, a touch pad, a 2MP webcam, a microphone, and stereo speakers. It also adds an extra USB-C port to connect peripherals like external storage or a USB-C display, and a battery allowing for 2 to 3 hours of usage with the Mind 2 connected at the back.

The display panel itself also looks good to me with high resolution (2880×1920) and vibrant colors, but the glossy coating may be distracting due to reflections, especially outdoors. Some people may also wish it had a wider color gamut than 100% sRGB.  The custom Mind Link connector allows users to install or remove the Mind (2) mini PC from the xPlay without turning it off, either to use it as a mini PC in another location or connect it to the Mind Graphics 2 dock for gaming or the earlier Mind dock.

While I was overall satisfied with the Khadas xPlay, I encountered some limitations and interoperability issues. First, while the Mind 2 can both be powered by and provide power to the xPlay, the Mind can’t charge the xPlay, so you have to make sure to connect the power to the xPlay and not the Mind. This is already documented on the Khadas website. The xPlay also lacks touchscreen support, so you can’t use it as a tablet. Maybe it will be implemented in future versions (xPlay 2?).

The Khadas xPlay also appears to be unusable as an external display with the CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 laptop due to firmware or hardware-level interoperability issues, as the xPlay enters a boot loop of sorts in both Windows and Ubuntu. The Khadas xPlay can certainly be used with an external USB-C display, as we demonstrated in this review, but compatibility must be tested with the target hardware.

I’d like to thank Khadas for sending the xPlay display and keyboard for review, along with a Mind 2 mini PC. The Khadas Mind xPlay kit goes for $399 on AliExpress and the Khadas store. If you only need the display, the price is $349, while the keyboard is $99. The Mind 2 mini PC sells for $1099 in 32GB/1TB configuration.

Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress. We also use affiliate links in articles to earn commissions if you make a purchase after clicking on those links.