What Handheld Pcs Should Do To Fight The Nintendo Switch 2

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.

The Switch 2 whitethorn meet aliases deed nan Steam Deck successful performance. If history’s immoderate indication, it should easy discarded amended than each handheld gaming PC combined. When nan original Nintendo Switch launched astir 8 years ago, location was almost point to play but Zelda, and Nintendo held its crippled catalog successful an robust grip — but now, nan backwards-compatible Switch 2 will motorboat pinch 1 of nan largest and astir welcoming libraries of each time, rivaled only by smartphones and computers. The Switch could theoretically spell nan caller baseline for crippled developers to target, and nan astir reliable spot to find caller handheld-friendly titles.

So: How tin nan budding handheld PC gyration formation nan protector of nan Switch 2? I won’t opportunity I cognize for sure, but I did conscionable cheque nan industry’s somesthesia astatine CES 2025, nan world’s biggest tech show — and I’m acrophobic PC handhelds whitethorn enactment successful that protector unless nan manufacture does more. 

Handheld ergonomics was 1 agleam spot going into 2025. While I still for illustration nan Deck’s wide feel, practically each PC handheld I touched had nicely sculpted grips that made them overmuch comfortable to clasp than their predecessors. From nan 8-inch MSI Claw 8 AI Plus and Lenovo Legion Go S, to nan 8.8-inch Legion Go 2, and nan elephantine 11-inch Tencent Sunday Dragon, moreover nan largest Windows handhelds didn’t consciousness arsenic awkward arsenic immoderate of their first-gen predecessors.

There are 4 places I deliberation nan manufacture has to alteration — and maybe, group together — if these handhelds want a meaningful information of nan Switch. 

Operating system

Buyers petition to cognize that their crippled will beryllium caller to play erstwhile they spot nan powerfulness fastener connected a handheld. That’s nan Nintendo Switch experience, and it’s akin to really nan Steam Deck useful erstwhile games are downloaded — but it’s acold from what Windows handhelds presently offer.

That’s why nan 3 biggest pieces of handheld gaming news astatine nan show had mini to do pinch nan hardware itself. They were astir ditching today’s type of handheld Windows. 

First, Lenovo revealed it would nutrient nan first authorized third-party handheld to alloy pinch Valve’s easy-to-use SteamOS alternatively of Windows — point only nan Steam Deck has done truthful far. Second, Valve told america it would bring a SteamOS beta to further third-party handhelds arsenic soon arsenic this April. Third, a Microsoft executive told The Verge that nan institution would yet do point meaningful astir its bloated Windows acquisition connected handhelds later this year, combining “the champion of Xbox and Windows together.” 

These moves are heartening, arsenic it’s a Wild West successful handheld PC land. Most companies opt for a transcript of Windows that doesn’t reliably motorboat games aliases slumber and aftermath properly, defeating immoderate of nan intent of a pick-up-and-play handheld experience. They’re filled pinch difficult-to-navigate UI and unnecessary bloatware, excessively — to nan constituent that today, a community-created fork of Valve’s SteamOS UI is already a acold amended acquisition than Windows. 

It’s too bully for SteamOS fans: while nan Steam Deck is simply a awesome level for SteamOS, we’ve already seen nan Deck can’t compete pinch nan Switch by itself. Game publishers don’t spot nan earthy income numbers to bring ample multiplayer games for illustration Fortnite aliases Valorant to SteamOS. (They opportunity cheaters are excessively ample a risk.)

But, while nan CES moves are significant, Valve, Microsoft, and Lenovo are non-committal astir really overmuch things mightiness improve. Microsoft would only springiness maine nan barest hints astir making Windows consciousness overmuch for illustration an Xbox crippled console astatine immoderate constituent later this year. Lenovo is hedging its SteamOS liking difficult — not only will nan Legion Go S alloy successful immoderate Windows and SteamOS varieties, nan Windows type will spell connected discarded months earlier, and Lenovo won’t perpetrate to SteamOS for its larger, later-in-2025 handheld. 

No different institution announced a SteamOS handheld astatine CES, either, prevention for PC shaper GPD, pinch a state that was apparently mendacious aliases mislaid successful translation. Valve told maine it has nary different partner devices presently successful nan useful for SteamOS, though it’d beryllium happy to activity pinch overmuch companies. I judge each handheld shaper should springiness SteamOS a shot.

Screen

This one’s easy: to maximize performance, artillery life, economies of scale, and relationship a closer-to-game-console experience, handheld PC makers should universally adopt a 1080p-or-lower-resolution HDR OLED aboveground pinch adaptable refresh rate. 

Many PC manufacturers are wasting what mini capacity they tin muster from a handheld spot and artillery connected a aboveground pinch acold excessively galore pixels for nan task, artificially constraining capacity and artillery life successful reside for 1600p aliases 1200p sharpness that astir gamers won’t miss connected a 7-inch to 8-inch panel. Additionally, each handheld without a adaptable refresh title aboveground is apt wasting a bully chunk of nan frames that their handheld tin work because their aboveground is artificially limiting their framerate — VRR was nan Asus ROG Ally’s concealed weapon, letting it play games overmuch smoothly than competing handhelds moreover if rivals’ chips offered nan aforesaid FPS.

Lastly, HDR is simply a revelation connected nan Steam Deck OLED’s screen, letting immoderate autochthonal titles and nan HDR games I watercourse from my PS5 consciousness for illustration they’re filled pinch existent ray that explodes retired of nan screen. It’s point Windows desktops and laptops personification ne'er consistently offered nan measurement today’s consoles do, but handhelds could beryllium nan gateway to changing that.

Is a aboveground for illustration nan 1 I’m describing costly aliases difficult to find? Band together, PC companies, and surely a show shaper tin alteration that for you.

Chips and battery

Unless you count nan Nvidia Tegra astatine nan bosom of nan Nintendo Switch, AMD is nan leader successful handheld chips. But its semi-custom Aerith and Sephiroth parts for nan Steam Deck consciousness for illustration nan only ones proactively designed pinch power-sipping handhelds successful mind, leaving everyone different astatine a portability disadvantage. And it sounds for illustration AMD’s caller Z2 statement mightiness not beryllium each that different.

AMD’s Z1 batch of chips successful handhelds for illustration nan Asus ROG Ally wasn’t primitively for handheld; they’re mildly tweaked laptop processors that petition 17 aliases 18 watts to statesman to deed their stride, tin for a complete handheld to drain a emblematic 50Wh artillery battalion successful bully nether 3 hours pinch mildly intensive games.

The Z2 connection is likewise a group of tweaked laptop chips, and while AMD told maine immoderate whitethorn relationship overmuch capacity astatine nan aforesaid powerfulness and adhd improved ratio tweaks, nan afloat consumed powerfulness whitethorn not decrease. Lenovo merchandise caput Alex Zhu told maine it’s looking astatine moving its Legion Go S’s Z2 Go spot astatine astir 20 watts, which mightiness springiness it worse artillery life than nan 15-watt-and-below Steam Deck moreover if its GPU is overmuch capable. AMD too confirmed nan Z2 Go is small powerful than nan prior-gen Z1 Extreme.

AMD elder chap Mahesh Subramony told maine nan company’s flagship Z2 Extreme chip, connected TSMC’s shrunk-down N4P process node pinch a cognition of newer Zen 5, Zen 5c and RDNA 3.5 cores, should beryllium immoderate overmuch businesslike and overmuch overmuch tin than nan Z2 Go, and alternatively a spot amended than nan Z1 Extreme arsenic well, but it’s not a leap forward. That whitethorn require AMD’s moreover newer RDNA 4 graphics, and it whitethorn require bespoke processors.

Don’t clasp your activity if you’re hoping Intel mightiness proviso meaningful title successful nan handheld spot realm. While early reviews of nan Intel Lunar Lake spot successful nan revised MSI Claw 8 AI Plus are alternatively promising, its pricey Lunar Lake spot whitethorn beryllium a spot of a one-off, pinch early Intel parts steering distant from nan power-saving on-die practice that Intel experimentally added. I’m funny if that’s why MSI hasn’t afloat launched nan Claw arsenic expected.

Meanwhile, Intel surely has bigger nutrient to fry correct now than making civilization handheld chips. “It’s not a marketplace that we’re actively pursuing, but it’s a marketplace we’re happy to enable,” Intel VP of method trading Robert Hallock tells maine of handheld gaming. “It is somewhat extracurricular,” he added, explaining that it’s a nosy and breathtaking but mini marketplace and that Intel has to premier its battles. “We’re coming disconnected admittedly, astir five, six years of strife and we personification to find wherever we want to invest.”.

Some manufacturers personification been tin to amended nan artillery life disadvantage of today’s off-the-shelf AMD chips by including a overmuch larger artillery battalion — nan Asus ROG Ally X doubled nan size of its predecessor’s battalion to 80 watt-hours, and it’s nary longer nan only 80Wh handheld you tin buy. But that comes pinch size and weight tradeoffs that tin only beryllium partially engineered away.

We petition handheld makers to subordinate together and make a suit for amended chips.

Price

The PC manufacture too needs to trim prices if it wants a chance to eat Nintendo’s lunch. 

The Nintendo Switch debuted astatine $299 successful 2017 — astir $380 successful today’s money — and nan OLED type arrived astatine $349 successful 2021. A twelvemonth later, Valve’s Steam Deck debuted astatine $399. But today, nan only Windows handheld gaming PC I tin urge costs $799, astir doubly nan worth of an entry-level Deck, and astir Windows handhelds personification started astatine $600 and up. High-end options are great, but nan abstraction whitethorn enactment niche without low-end options, too. 

Only nan slightest costly exemplary of Lenovo’s SteamOS type of nan Legion Go S will small that barroom to $499 this May. And each of those prices are still overmuch than Sony aliases Microsoft charges for a TV console pinch acold overmuch performance, and apt overmuch than Nintendo will title for nan Switch 2.

I’m not judge what precisely PC makers would petition to do to business nan Switch connected price, but it’s apt not simple. Valve CEO Gabe Newell said it was “painful” but “critical” to motorboat nan Steam Deck astatine $399, hinting that nan institution whitethorn personification followed nan razor-and-blades business exemplary wherever console makers initially discarded hardware astatine a loss, past make nan money backmost arsenic group bargain games. If so, that’s a reliable enactment to follow, arsenic nary different PC shaper controls nan world’s largest PC games shop and tin walk to subsidize a handheld that way.

But not each console has been a nonaccomplishment leader: Nintendo reportedly ne'er sold nan Switch astatine a loss, and Sony stopped trading nan PS5 astatine a nonaccomplishment small than a twelvemonth aft its debut. So it’s imaginable to trim prices pinch nan correct measurement of materials and economies of scale. Lenovo explicitly told maine it worked pinch AMD connected nan Z2 Go spot to thief small nan Legion Go S’s price, for example.

To compete pinch Nintendo, a institution for illustration Microsoft aliases Valve aliases moreover Sony needs to lead nan charge, securing nan components and offering nan correct operating strategy for dozens of existent Switch competitors Imagine dozens of portable Xboxes aliases PlayStations aliases Steam Machines, alternatively of each PC shaper marching to nan deed of their ain drum.

I deliberation it’s clip for an industry-wide push connected handheld gaming. It mightiness beryllium nan early of gaming, period. There’s excessively overmuch astatine liking to tackle it 1 half-baked Windows handheld astatine a time.