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State of the PC gaming handheld market

maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Broadwell
Original poster
May 3, 2009
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I stumbled upon this video by D2D where he previews the Legion Go 2. Fantastic handheld for playing Pc games except that its
Bigger, thicker, heavier, louder and more expensive. D2D offers the pricing at 1,500 but googling it, seems to be cheaper.

Dave touches upon the issues that windows machines face against the Steam deck. I can get a mid tier Steam deck for 550 and play all of my games, why would the typical game playing consumer want to spend 2x?

I can see offering better features and pricing it in the 700 dollar range (the Go 1 and Asus Ally price point) but pricing it north of 1,000 may make it unrealistic for many people interested in the handheld market.

I didn't even mention the Switch 2 at what 500, mostly because its a different platform, your steam or windows games won't play on it (unless you buy the switch 2 version).

 
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maflynn said:
I stumbled upon this video by D2D where he previews the Legion Go 2. Fantastic handheld for playing Pc games except that its
Bigger, thicker, heavier, louder and more expensive. D2D offers the pricing at 1,500 but googling it, seems to be cheaper.

Dave touches upon the issues that windows machines face against the Steam deck. I can get a mid tier Steam deck for 550 and play all of my games, why would the typical game playing consumer want to spend 2x?

I can see offering better features and pricing it in the 700 dollar range (the Go 1 and Asus Ally price point) but pricing it north of 1,000 may make it unrealistic for many people interested in the handheld market.

I didn't even mention the Switch 2 at what 500, mostly because its a different platform, your steam or windows games won't play on it (unless you buy the switch 2 version).

Click to expand...

I may be wrong but I think that most people who want pc gaming, will get the Steam Deck.
 
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maflynn said:
I stumbled upon this video by D2D where he previews the Legion Go 2. Fantastic handheld for playing Pc games except that its
Bigger, thicker, heavier, louder and more expensive. D2D offers the pricing at 1,500 but googling it, seems to be cheaper.

Dave touches upon the issues that windows machines face against the Steam deck. I can get a mid tier Steam deck for 550 and play all of my games, why would the typical game playing consumer want to spend 2x?

I can see offering better features and pricing it in the 700 dollar range (the Go 1 and Asus Ally price point) but pricing it north of 1,000 may make it unrealistic for many people interested in the handheld market.

I didn't even mention the Switch 2 at what 500, mostly because its a different platform, your steam or windows games won't play on it (unless you buy the switch 2 version).

Click to expand...
Expensive components. Not enough economy of scale.
 
Comparing the steam deck with the Legion Go 2 is like comparing Apples to Oranges. The Steam Deck used an outdated 3+ year old Zen 2 SoC which can not run any modern title at 60 fps, unless your running at below 720p. The Legion Go 2 and ROG Ally X are for gamers who want to play 1080p/60 gaming at high/ultra settings.

Handhelds will level at the same price of laptops but more portable.
 
hovscorpion12 said:
Comparing the steam deck with the Legion Go 2 is like comparing Apples to Oranges. The Steam Deck used an outdated 3+ year old Zen 2 SoC which can not run any modern title at 60 fps, unless your running at below 720p. The Legion Go 2 and ROG Ally X are for gamers who want to play 1080p/60 gaming at high/ultra settings.

Handhelds will level at the same price of laptops but more portable.
Click to expand...
The Go 2 and Ally X are faster than the Steam Deck but not that much faster. There's still a number of games the Z1 Extreme and Z2 Extreme will struggle to play even at 720p (e.g. FFXVI). A similarly priced gaming laptop will be faster because they generally have better discrete GPUs, but it'll also be way bigger and no good for playing in your lap. The upcoming GPD Win 5 will be pretty comparable to a RTX 4060/5060 laptop but it also ditches the internal battery to do so.

Steam Deck is easily the best priced, very flexible because of the dual trackpads and very efficient at low TDPs. You pick one of the others if you really want the bit of extra power or some other feature/form factor. It's all tradeoffs and very quickly enters diminishing returns territory.

I think the Legion Go 2/ROG Ally are some of the least interesting PC handhelds out there. They are faster than the Steam Deck, but they also lack interesting things like dual screen Aya Neo Flip 1S DS, the keyboard of the GPD Win 4, etc.
 
I picked up my ROG Ally on sale at Best Buy for around $400 several months ago. Now that Steam has builds of Steam OS for both the Ally/Ally X and Legion Go, I'm tempted to ditch Windows entirely and try running Steam OS on my device. I doubt it would run any worse than Windows 11 does now.
 
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Queen6 said:
Rather use a notebook, the handhelds are too expensive for what they offer. That and if travelling always have a notebook with me which always has a selection of games.

Q-6
Click to expand...
Why not both?



Notebooks are the worst of both worlds IMO (exceptions above ;) ). You can't really play a lot of games in an economy airline seat for example. You need room for a mouse or an external controller. Not really great on the couch or bed either.

Steam Deck is an exceptional value, even years on. Very good for older titles. Controls offer lots flexibility, good at emulation too. Runs Doom 3 very well ;)
 
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Queen6 said:
Rather use a notebook, the handhelds are too expensive for what they offer. That and if travelling always have a notebook with me which always has a selection of games.

Q-6
Click to expand...
I think handhelds has distinct advantages over laptops.
Portability
Optimized for gaming
Cost, especially compared to gaming laptops
Easier to game on while sitting down, i.e., don't need a desk and a mouse

My thinking which is not based on any scientific knowledge or hard evidence, is that the steam deck will provide superior performance, usability and compatibility over the majority of laptops (that is non-gaming laptops). For gaming laptops, the issue is cost, the huge power brick, fans/noise.

Secondary issue, those who travel regularly, typically do so with a laptop provided by their employer so that impacts one's ability to install games, never mind these sort of laptops are generally in no way capable of running AAA games. If this is. a BYOD situation, then you're free to bring a gaming laptop, but the negatives, of larger, power bricks, and much more expensive comes into play.

I used use my personal laptop when traveling, it was a razer and capable of handling most games, but the power brick was virtually the size of a steam deck, and with the fat power chord barely fit my laptop bag. I can see the steam deck and its competitors being more useful in this, and if you're on a plane or hotel, easier to fire up a game, i.e., not needing desk space.
 
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salamanderjuice said:
Why not both?



Notebooks are the worst of both worlds IMO (exceptions above ;) ). You can't really play a lot of games in an economy airline seat for example. You need room for a mouse or an external controller. Not really great on the couch or bed either.

Steam Deck is an exceptional value, even years on. Very good for older titles. Controls offer lots flexibility, good at emulation too. Runs Doom 3 very well ;)
Click to expand...

maflynn said:
I think handhelds has distinct advantages over laptops.
Portability
Optimized for gaming
Cost, especially compared to gaming laptops
Easier to game on while sitting down, i.e., don't need a desk and a mouse

My thinking which is not based on any scientific knowledge or hard evidence, is that the steam deck will provide superior performance, usability and compatibility over the majority of laptops (that is non-gaming laptops). For gaming laptops, the issue is cost, the huge power brick, fans/noise.

Secondary issue, those who travel regularly, typically do so with a laptop provided by their employer so that impacts one's ability to install games, never mind these sort of laptops are generally in no way capable of running AAA games. If this is. a BYOD situation, then you're free to bring a gaming laptop, but the negatives, of larger, power bricks, and much more expensive comes into play.

I used use my personal laptop when traveling, it was a razer and capable of handling most games, but the power brick was virtually the size of a steam deck, and with the fat power chord barely fit my laptop bag. I can see the steam deck and its competitors being more useful in this, and if you're on a plane or hotel, easier to fire up a game, i.e., not needing desk space.
Click to expand...
Would just be an additional cost and more importantly to me another device to carry. Have a M1 13" MBP & Windows tablet which both manage to play enough games when on the go. If on a project will take a 17" W11 & M1 so not worried. Something like Huawei's MateBook Fold would be of more interest to me, replacing the Windows tablet.
1758713217229.png


Q-6
 
Queen6 said:
Would just be an additional cost and more importantly to me another device to carry.
Click to expand...
No question that you're buying something and adding an additional device to pack and carry. I think my point is for the majority of travel warriors they are using company provided equipment incapable of playing games or the cost and bulk of gaming laptops exceed what they generally want to bring
 
My Steam Deck is my favorite piece of tech, but I also don't have to carry a laptop with me anytime I travel. As others have said, I never bother to carry both. I also have a lightweight BT keyboard, and switching to desktop mode on the Deck gives me an easy way to get some light computing done if needed.

On the odd times I bring my MBA with me, the M4 and Crossover have gotten good enough that pretty much anything that'll work on the Deck will play just fine on my MBA if I don't get stupid with the settings. One thing I've noticed about gaming on the road with my Deck or MBA - while I obviously notice the downgrade in quality from my 5800X3D/4070 desktop at home, it doesn't noticeably change my enjoyment of the game. My desktop still has a lot of life left in it, but I'll bet it's the last build I do.
 
Cutting edge HW has its purpose, gaming maybe not so much. lazy studios & greedy publishers, piss poor optimisation, not paying or playing their AAA games. Chasing specs is a fool's errand, more so these days as is worse than ever...:(

I don't automatically discount hand held's, equally If I can be entertained without the need for an additional device am good with that. Bubble will burst as the cost of gaming is escalating due to corporate greed. Thing being I'm a customer not a consumer...

Q-6
 
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