Autodarts X vs our complete touchscreen setup: what the money buys

Autodarts is played from a screen. Somebody has to pick the game, add the players, fix a dart the cameras misread and move to the next leg, and with Autodarts X that happens on a device you already own. If the board is in a garage, a shed or a games room with no TV on the wall, the honest price of an X setup is the X plus a screen beside the board.

Price that screen at the 18-inch touchscreen we sell on its own, £179.99, and Autodarts X comes to £628.99. Our complete setup has that same touchscreen in the box, with the HDMI and USB leads, for £448.99 — about what X costs on its own.

Most Autodarts setups split the work across devices. A home-built or PC-based setup needs a keyboard, mouse and monitor plugged into the computer to install the software, connect the cameras and sign in; after that, day-to-day games are started and managed from a phone, tablet or laptop in a web browser. Autodarts X has no computer to plug a keyboard into, so it is set up and run from your phone or tablet instead.

Ours is run from the touchscreen beside the board, start to finish. You tap your way around — choosing a game, adding players, correcting a dart, moving to the next leg — and when you need to type, you swipe up from the bottom of the screen and an on-screen keyboard appears: for signing in to your Autodarts account the first time, or adding a friend’s name for a local match. Swipe again and it is gone. There is no keyboard or mouse in the box because there is nothing that needs one.

Between throws you are standing at the oche with darts in your hand. A phone in your pocket or a remote on the sofa works, but every correction means putting the darts down and finding it. A touchscreen at the board turns that into a tap, which is the difference between a setup the whole household uses and one that only its owner can drive.

A wall TV can show the scoreboard beautifully, but most TVs are not touchscreens, so you still need something to drive the game. That is the gap the screen in our box fills.

It would be dishonest to stop at the price. Autodarts X is one designed object: cameras and diffused 360° lighting engineered together, clamped on with no drilling and no tools, removable in four clicks, and with the processing inside the unit, so there is no computer to find a home for. Ours is a light ring with camera arms and a small mini PC on a shelf. Nobody will call ours more elegant.

X also comes from Winmau, the biggest name in darts, working with Autodarts. It carries a two-year warranty on electronic components and includes 3 months of Autodarts Plus. We are an independent UK reseller, not Winmau and not an authorised Autodarts retailer.

And we have not bench-tested an Autodarts X, so we make no claim that our detection matches or beats theirs. Both run the same free Autodarts software, the same account and the same online matchmaking.

If your board already has a screen beside it — a TV you can reach, an old tablet on a bracket, a laptop on a shelf — then the touchscreen is not a cost you will pay, and the comparison is between the X on its own and our complete kit without the screen.

That kit, mini PC plus light ring bundle, is £299.98, which is £149 less than X. If you own a compatible light ring already, the mount kit alone is £139.99.

Buy Autodarts X if you want the tidiest installation money can buy, one manufacturer to call, and you already have a screen you are happy to run the game from. It is a well-made product and its price is fair for what is in it.

Buy our complete setup if the board is somewhere with no screen, you want to run the game by touch at the oche, and you would rather be throwing in 3–5 working days than wait for a dispatch date of 20 October 2026. It is the only one of the two we can be accused of bias about, so weigh that accordingly.