Steam Deck, Rog Ally, And More: All The News About The Handheld Pc Gaming Revolution

I stopped buying astir games for my Nintendo Switch nan clip I bought a Steam Deck. My Switch has been a Mario and Zelda instrumentality ever since. It’s simple: nan Steam Deck took nan Switch’s champion instrumentality — pick-up-and-play portability — while offering overmuch games that tally better. I tin easy resume nan ones I started connected my desktop PC, aliases proceed to play portable titles connected my desktop and marvel astatine improved graphics.

But nan Nintendo Switch 2, coming later this year, whitethorn alteration that worthy proposition. Not only will it proceed to beryllium nan console that attracts families and kids pinch inventive, surprising, must-try exclusive Nintendo games that usage its detachable Joy-Cons’ galore tricks, but it too has a existent chance astatine convincing nan enthusiasts who mightiness different bargain a handheld gaming PC — aliases who were waiting for handheld PCs to spell small of a chaotic west.

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Ayaneo builds nan best-looking handheld PCs successful nan business, but they’ve ever been boutique. The 2023 Ayaneo 2, for example, costs $1,300 for an arguably worse acquisition than nan $400 Steam Deck. But that acquisition isn’t dampening my excitement for nan caller 7-inch Ayaneo 3.

Not only does this 1 commencement astatine $900, incorrect striking region of nan highest-end handhelds you’ll find astatine retail, it’s nan astir feature-packed portable I’ve seen — pinch 2 USB4 ports and OcuLink and RGB-ringed Hall effect joysticks and your premier of 2 seemingly slayer screens. Perhaps astir exciting: a measurement to yet spread a handheld’s joystick and fastener layout to lucifer your ergonomic preferences!

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If you thought nan Steam Deck was big, fto unsocial Acer’s Nitro Blaze 11, get a load of this Frankenstein’s monster of a PC gaming handheld I’ve cobbled together. This is simply a pre-production type of Asus’s upcoming ROG Flow Z13 tablet mixed pinch a GameSir G8 Plus clamp-on mobile controller; nan Z13’s AMD Strix Halo processor makes it astir apt nan astir powerful handheld gaming instrumentality you tin play. That is, of course, until your hands cramp nether its weight.

It’s utterly ridiculous, I emotion it, and I’m opening to deliberation ample screens are nan future.

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Xbox main Phil Spencer has been dropping hints astir an Xbox handheld for months, but what astir Windows handheld gaming PCs? Jason Ronald, Microsoft’s VP of “Next Generation,” tells The Verge that we should expect to spot nan Windows handheld gaming acquisition alteration incorrect this almanac year.

Ronald was a roundtable panelist this evening astatine an AMD and Lenovo arena titled “The Future of Gaming Handhelds,” which was mostly a coming-out connection for Lenovo’s caller Legion Go S. But he did hint onstage that Microsoft plans to bring nan Xbox acquisition to Windows PCs, alternatively than nan different measurement astir — and expanded connected that considerably aft we caught up pinch him later.

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SteamOS was ever expected to beryllium bigger than Valve’s ain Steam Deck, and 2025 is nan twelvemonth it yet expands. Not only will Lenovo alloy nan first third-party SteamOS handheld this May, Valve has now revealed it will fto you instal a moving transcript of SteamOS connected different handhelds moreover sooner than that.

Pierre-Loup Griffais, 1 of nan lead designers connected nan Steam Deck and SteamOS, tells maine a beta for different handhelds “is slated to alloy aft March sometime,” and that you mightiness observe nan OS conscionable starts moving decently aft that happens!

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Lenovo is trying an experiment. In May, it will officially spell nan very first institution extracurricular of Valve to alloy a handheld gaming PC pinch nan Steam Deck’s wonderfully pick-up-and-play SteamOS alternatively of Microsoft Windows. And astatine $499, it’ll beryllium a existent Steam Deck rival, joining it arsenic 1 of nan lower-priced PC handhelds you tin buy.

That handheld will beryllium nan 1.6-pound Lenovo Legion Go S, a caller and improved type of nan company’s eight-inch handheld that ditches nan Nintendo Switch-like detachable gamepads and kickstand for a lighter and overmuch accepted design, pinch a sculpted grip that felt supremely comfortable successful my hands.

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This steaming achromatic translucent instrumentality isn’t a gaming PC — instead, it mightiness beryllium nan astir powerful single-cable portable docking position ever conceived. When you plug your laptop aliases handheld into nan just-announced 2025 Asus XG Mobile, it promises to adhd nan powerfulness of Nvidia’s top-flight GeForce RTX 5090 mobile chip, and up to 140 watts of electricity, and 2 monitors, and a USB and SD-card-reading hub, and 5Gbps ethernet simultaneously.

That’s because it’s nan world’s first* Thunderbolt 5 outer graphics insubstantial and 1 of nan first Thunderbolt 5 docks, utilizing nan caller 80 gigabit per 2nd bidirectional nexus to do overmuch things pinch a azygous cablegram than we’ve ever seen before.

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AMD has conscionable officially announced its afloat lineup of Ryzen Z2 chips for handheld gaming PCs for illustration nan Steam Deck, aft a little tease this autumn — but arsenic of today, it’s beautiful muddy who they’re for aliases what they’re going to do for handheld PC gaming.

First off, though AMD told journalists successful a pre-recorded briefing that Valve’s Steam Deck, Lenovo Legion Go, and Asus ROG Ally lineups would each characteristic nan caller chips, it’s not clear that’s really true.

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Acer is announcing 2 caller Nitro Blaze gaming handhelds astatine CES 2025, and 1 of them, nan Nitro Blaze 11, is genuinely elephantine pinch a monolithic 10.95-inch screen.

Seriously, it’s immense — conscionable look astatine this photograph of a personification holding it! It’s absurd!

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The first clip I installed Bazzite connected a Windows gaming handheld, I laughed. It looked for illustration specified a blatant clone of Valve’s Steam Deck interface. Its galore bugs kept maine astatine bay.

Now, an Asus ROG Ally X moving Bazzite has each but replaced nan Steam Deck successful my life. For nan moment, it whitethorn beryllium nan champion handheld your clip and money tin bargain — because it brings 90 percent of nan Deck’s easiness of usage to nan Ally’s overmuch powerful hardware, larger 80 watt-hour battery, and adaptable refresh title screen. Depending connected nan game, it tin moreover relationship amended capacity and artillery life than nan very aforesaid handheld pinch Windows. I’ve been testing it for 5 months, and I’ve seldom looked back.

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“The early of gaming handhelds is coming to CES ‘25 and you personification a beforehand connection seat!” nan email successful my inbox exclaims.

Let maine translate: it looks for illustration Lenovo conscionable tacitly confirmed it will denote its first SteamOS handheld successful Las Vegas connected aliases earlier January 7th, 2025. We’re expecting it to beryllium nan Steam fastener equipped Legion Go S that leaker Evan Blass revealed past week.

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Earlier today, Evan Blass revealed an unannounced Lenovo Legion Go S handheld gaming PC pinch an highly intriguing twist: a Steam fastener that suggests it could beryllium nan first third-party SteamOS handheld, and frankincense nan first existent competitor to nan Steam Deck.

But that handheld gaming PC apparently won’t beryllium alone: Blass conscionable provided The Verge pinch these images of a new, larger Lenovo Legion Go arsenic well.

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The Steam Deck OLED, nan champion type of Valve’s gaming handheld pinch further artillery life, a flimsy summation to performance, and an eye-popping screen, tin now beryllium purchased refurbished for $110 small than it costs brand-new.

Valve has conscionable begun trading certified refurbished Steam Deck OLED models starting astatine $439 successful nan US, UK, Canada, and EU. That buys you nan 512GB exemplary pinch a glossy screen, while nan 1TB anti-glare exemplary tin beryllium had for $519 — small than nan $549 you’d net to get moreover nan 512GB exemplary brand-new. (The 1TB exemplary usually costs $649.)

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