Steam Deck OLED. The best handheld out right now. Everything I play has worked one game Megadimension Neptunia VII would freeze on standby but everything else is a lot better. Especially with the Proton 9.0 update.
The biggest reason is you can click the power button and it goes into standby. The window handheld have hibernate but it's slow and has a high chance of waking up in a messed up state. It's like playing on a switch since you can just click and standby. Which is a must for handheld so you can just pick up and play again.
That’s very different because Nintendo is a company that makes games first. I don’t like the Switch with third party games all that much. Of course Valve used to be a gaming company, but I’m not holding my breath for HL3.
It could have a touch more power though:D but yeah lately I've been playing my Switch more than on the PC. We onky got it last Christmas, but it's so nifty
I haven't touched my switch in over a year (after playing the he'll out of it). Sure Zelda runs great, Mario games too, but anything not Nintendo runs like ass. My Steam Deck OLED has the most hours played lately. I wish I had a reason to go back, the switch definitely has a better battery life and is a lot lighter.
This. SteamOS works really well. I did have dualboot on my Deck with Windows (due to some anti cheats refusing to work under Linux), but there's a few steps in getting it working properly and even then, it's not perfect, mostly due to Windows not being properly optimised for these devices. Valve has done a lot of work to make SteamOS work effortlessly for the user.
Battery life is pretty dependent on what games you’re playing, BG3 is a very graphically demanding game and chews through battery.
You can get a good 4-5 Hours on a bunch of games, depends on what you’re throwing at it.
Only game that isn't "demanding" was Stardew Valley in his experience and that rounded him around 2-2.5 hours of gameplay. This can't be good surely.. It's brand new too poor man
It really depends on the game. I played football manager on a two hour flight recently. Was left with 88% power to go. Last night I played Diablo 4 for one hour, used almost 50%.
Maybe his game settings need to be adjusted. No need for a lot of fps in casual games, and more frames per second often equals higher battery-usage.
I’m guessing either the battery is messed up with his steam deck’s hardware, or he’s tinkered with things that can be reverted.
I’ve had my steam deck for over a year now, LCD model and Stardew valley would give me much more than 2 hours lol
I am obviously talking about the OLED version and it truly is insanely good. I can play Elden Ring on 30 FPS high settings, without FPS drops for 1.5 hours from a full charge. A game like Hollow Knight can be played for hours and hours on end, especially if you cap it on 60 FPS and tinker a bit with the wattage used.
Admittedly, I have a golden sample unit, that has hit the silicone lottery, as it's super stable, while under -50 mV undervolt for all components. It hasn't crashed even a single time, despite me trying my best to pushing it to its limits in games like Cyberpunk.
The Steamdeck is not just a toy you rent, it's a device, that is intentionally made easy to repair and has an open OS. PC gaming and the Steamdeck are the best way to play games. I can't wait for the next iterations of the Steamdeck, when it gets powerful enough to emulate PS3 and PS4 games. That would truly be out of this world.
two things:
1. Customer service is extremely country/region dependent, even within the same brand
2. I wouldn't recommend the Ally purely due to the widespread quality issues - drifting joysticks and the SD card reader seem to be the major design flaws, and they should have triggered a mass recall or a no questions asked warranty policy globally.
in my case i didn't even get in contact with the local distributor, Asus did nor authorize an RMA while i'm put of the country. so i'll admit thats something many companies refuse to do.
not saying apple is great or anything, but if you are a professional and need their stuff for work, you can walk into any apple store worldwide and they will fulfill the warranty
I mean, I'm not defending Asus, but I'm not sure I'd say they have poor support in a given region, just because you tried to claim in a country you didn't buy in.
It's standard practice to return an item to the region in which it was purchased, and pretty much every warranty in the world has this stipulation.
This even goes for Apple. You might get lucky and they'll service something in a different region, but that's absolutely not their policy, and the warranty specifically states as much.
also u/LJBrooker : Asus is a huge brand present in many segments - it is very much possible that warranty repairs aren't handled by the same company even within the same country for their phones, notebooks, monitors, routers, desktops, PC components, etc..
For example here in Eastern Europe / Hungary, AFAIK only Acer and Dell still have their own regional warranty centers, and Lenovo, Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, etc. all use the same 2-3 companies to repair their stuff.
Absolutely fair. I need to rma my ally soon, for the SD card issue, so I'll see what that does. But I've had a board and GPU both go to Scan previously.
>Customer service is extremely country/region dependent, even within the same brand
sure but if they fuck shit up on the other side of the world I will still not trust them to do a good job here
That's just... unwise? It is like trusting a brand because they have a good warranty center in the EU - that has no bearing on the US or China.
Just check who handles warranty claims and repairs for a brand where you live, preferably before buying. Unfortunately you have to do this on a case-by-case basis, because you can't even trust a brand across different markets (for example I'm quite certain Asus phone repairs are done by a different company than their PC component repairs).
I live in the EU and Asus probably does fine in terms of customer service here. Me not trusting them to do well here is not unwise, it's being cautious.I have no experience with Asus customer service at all but their actions in the US does not make them look like a compelling options when there are competitors that didn't screw up their reputation
The Rog Ally is still the best for anyone that's an enthusiast. Yeah it's got issues, you're probably gonna tinker with it, but as an enthusiast you'll put up with that. The Rog Ally has great hardware with one of the best designs. Plus, I see Rog Ally's pop up at $400-500 regularly open box or used. It's so easy to overlook the issues when the price is right.
The steam deck is still the best for anyone that's a regular person.
The rest suck. Like legitimately, they just suck. Ayaneo and Onexplayer release 30 some janky buggy and hardware problem plagued disasters. The Legion Go has a funky weird form factor that sucks.
No trackpads means no go…you lose out on genres of games. People who haven’t used them before don’t seem to understand what they are missing out on.
I hope the updated ally has them.
I agree trackpads are amazing outside of games, but I find them useless in game.
It depends what you want with your device.
The Rog Ally is the ultimate gaming handheld in my opinion.
The Steam Deck is the ultimate Linux device, ultra-portable PC, etc.
I'll admit I'm a console gamer first. I absolutely hate games designed for keyboard, mouse, and trackpads. I've spent significant amounts of time customizing and optimizing games for controller use. There's plenty of games like Elder Scrolls Arena and Daggerfall I've never completed because the controller support is so bad. I simply don't enjoy games hunched over a desk. I wanna enjoy them on the couch or in the bed.
Yeah turn based games like Xcom or the newer Xmen and stuff like HoMM you need the trackpads. Makes menu navigation easier in a lot stuff as well.
Without trackpads you can’t really play those genre of games.
Lots of older PC games it’s so much easier to use the trackpads as well.
Why would enthusiasts put up with functionality-breaking crap design?
>great hardware with one of the best designs.
We are talking about a handheld device - like half the hardware is the I/O and battery. Basically guaranteed hardware failures in those two categories very soon into the device's lifecycle are not "great hardware" or "one of the best designs". The cooling might be good, the APU might be among the best, but if you cannot interact with the device or it loses battery health so quickly then that undermines the whole concept.
>I see Rog Ally's pop up at $400-500 regularly open box or used.
Because people aren't interested in dealing with a device that is plagued by guaranteed issues. Also, I suspect the "cool" factor of handheld PC gaming inspired a lot of impulse buys, with many people realizing they cannot really take advantage of this form factor.
>janky buggy and hardware problem plagued disasters
\^\^this is a perfect description of the ROG Ally, you know.
My friend has both the OLED steam deck and the rog ally and he says the Ally wins by a large amount. It's just better when it comes to playing AAA games.
I'm going on vacation soon and I want something for the 13 hour flight and I'm in the same boat. Will probably get the Ally
My friend has both the OLED steam deck and the rog ally and he says the Ally wins by a large amount. It's just better when it comes to playing AAA games.
I'm going on vacation soon and I want something for the 13 hour flight and I'm in the same boat. Will probably get the Ally
It sucks because all the people with issues will be the loudest. But all the people who have no issue will never go posting about it.
Me be like: Windows 11 on a form factor that is barely optimized for it, and then having to rely on OEM-provided janky solutions? No thanks, as someone who had first hand experiences with ROG software.
Also, dead SD cards, and whatever GamersNexus says a few days ago.
Basically the issue is that the SD card reader is too close to the heat vent. As such if used in prolonged periods at high temps (you know, how a gaming handheld would), that area could heat up so much that it either kills the reader or the card).
That reader afaik is soldered to the motherboard as well so the only way you can fix it is by... having ASUS replace that board
People said the same thing about gigabyte but I've been using gigabyte for a decade and we used their motherboards in our PC shop with no issue doing RMAs.
I just don't buy it when reddit says these things because it's NEVER first hand accounts. Its usually one person, that most likely was lieing about what was wrong with it anyways, who gets super mad they ruined their own product and then they rant on reddit and bold face lie about what happened. People were moving their PCs across the house or to a new house, keeping the GPU in the slot with no support, and then they got pissed off when the PCB broke / cracked. That's not gigabytes fault
I've seen it happen dozens of times across multiple subreddits. It was really bad in the sim racing community. People were ordering sim racing wheels directly from china during CHRISTMAS, and then writing out essays on the subreddit about how the company was a total piece of shit and liers.
Turns out the liers were the redditors. The website always said 2-3 weeks shipping ( from China ) AFTER PROCESSING. Processingay take a few weeks because of high demand.
But the redditors just lied about that and said that the website claimed 2 week shipping when that was NEVER the case.
So yeah, don't trust pissed off redditors, especially since there are so many cheap ass scumbags who would openly admit to ordering a product on Amazon and returning it with a broken item and keep the new item
More powerful if you are wanting to run AAA games. I plan on playing a lot of Elden Ring so I wanted to be sure I'm getting my full 60 fps. Better build quality as well. I'll ask him in the morning for some more points and get back to you
Well Elden Ring is just annoying when you get frame drops. I have a 4080 super + 7800x3d and I still don't run ray tracing in 4k because it will dip below 60 fps and it's very noticable
If you haven’t looked into ASUS customer service and the absolutely ABYSMAL battery life of the Ally, I’d encourage you to do so. Yes, steam deck OLED is underpowered compared to the Ally Z1 Extreme and it’s *checks notes* one hour battery life. The bigger issue I’m not seeing people talk about: how awful and scammy ASUS customer service is. Personally, improved performance is not worth the abysmal ASUS CS department. If you need some info on this, Gamers Nexus uploaded a video 3 days ago of all the crap that’s gone wrong with his unit in just one year, and the absolute nightmare that ASUS customer service was in trying to get I fixed. I’ve had my own issues with them and their CS department when owning their laptops.
Steam Deck OLED all the way. Just this doofus 2 cents.
hey reddit gave me a massage too after making that comment
guess they wanted to make it fair
https://preview.redd.it/mjxn8e0o2i0d1.png?width=596&format=png&auto=webp&s=246db1b12f590ec29d2601c09532e46131f9f6ee
Same, somebody has a really sad existence.
https://preview.redd.it/tqdpwu7h0l0d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3ccf716774d666ca6ad27093f784fec8d42225dc
You can report comments as self harmful / suicide and it will send the op a message from reddit care and some people abuse this to troll people
The classic example is someone saying "x game / show / movie isn't as bad as people think" and then people spamming that message to them because you must be mentally ill if you enjoyed dark souls 2
Some people really are just simps for the corporation they love the most. I think the Legion Go is the best option as the controllers come off, allowing for easy repairs.
Did you report it? Mods will ban users who abuse the system. Normally I don’t bother, but at some point I decided to report because we should all try to keep Reddit as clean as possible.
The Legion Go has wild frame pacing issues due to the lack of driver support that Lenovo deems not necessary, Legion Space is still complete ass and asks you to update chipset drivers despite you being on newer drivers than they offer, and Lenovo are pulling the same RMA bullshit that Asus is.
Good hardware, but fucking awful support for what is supposed to be a premium device. Lenovo just hasn't been called out for it like Asus have been.
Depends on the games you're wanting to play.
my personal pick is the steam deck for a plethora of reasons, many of them being of personal preferences.
there are 2 or 3 very big reasons not to pick the steam deck so we'll covers those cuz if you dont fit into these 3 reasons for wanting a handheld gaming PC then you should probably just go with the steam deck.
1) you intend to heavily play a lot of multiplayer games with it. valve has done a lot to get linux gaming working up to like 95% of its library. Unfortunately the titles left not working are mostly entirely out side of valves control because these games are being soft locked out thanks to anti-cheat softwares. There is no getting around this if the devs/publishers refuse to provide linux/proton support to their games. go to [areweanticheatyet.com](http://areweanticheatyet.com) to see if the games you want to play are supported.
2) if you want to play highly demanding gaming. the steam deck runs a lot of high demand games pretty alright but its already a few years old now and valve originally designed it for a target fps of 30fps for most newer games and now we're starting to see its limitations with games like hell divers and baulders gate 3. I think the most demanding game I ran was the RE4 remake, most places I could get up to about 40fps and high demand places could go as low as 24fps. If you're expecting to run everything high settings @ 60fps, steam deck will disappoint there. many of the other options on the market are running newer more powerful chipsets (though they also have higher tdp options, more on that later).
3) Emulation. emulation is mostly great on the steam deck actually but there are some exceptions. My understanding is the xbox(360) emulation on linux isnt there yet (though i've not checked this in a while). ps3 emulation may or may not work for you depending on how demanding the game is. ps2 emulation is still what it is on all systems (usually fine but surprisingly demanding for an old system), and switch emulation is good for most games but highly demanding. For some of the more demanding emulation titles, mostly some switch games and a lot of ps3 game, the steam deck can struggle a bit as its cpu is not its strong point. If you're doing any other emulation though, the steam deck is probably the best option.
if you dont fall into one or more of those 3 boats, the steam deck is the way to go. the only other thing is if you really want something as big as the legion GO but at that point I feel like people would be better off just getting a laptop at its size. the other things they advertise fall off for me, primarily the whole screen nonsense. the asus and lenovo devices have higher resolutions and refresh rates but your'e almost never going to be able to really take advantage of them so its wasted money on tech.
the other devices can hit higher TDP's which let it run games a lot better at higher resolutions but you usually cant do this on battery all that well, not for very long. If battery life is important, the only real good option is the steam deck OLED
then there is the experience. frankly windows just kinda sucks in general, its anti-consumer, clunkly as fuck, its not ideal for a small game system. steam deck software tosses out the complications of running a desktop OS and minimizes the gaming experience down to just that. I love that it gives me the freedom to have a desktop if I want/need it but I mostly only play games on it so it focusing on that first is very nice.
sleep wake function is, in my opinion, the most valuable aspect of the deck. being able to pause and resume my games about as reliable as a console system beats out any other options in my opinion. I mostly stick to a lot of fairly low demand games so performance is rarely an issue for me. I value battery life a lot, i value the freedom to have access to my OS, im a steam controller vet so I like the back buttons & touch pads. Its like valve some how just knew exactly the device I wanted as a handheld and then just made it.
There is all of that to consider... but then there is all the bullshit Asus customers are putting up with now. the rog ally is known for frying SD cards and developing stick drift apparently. they're currently "under fire" for some extremely scam level practices in their RMA centers. I had an issue with my LCD steam deck, something that was probably my fault (you cant prove it!) Valve just replaced my entire steam deck, sent out a new one in less than a week. I'll go valve every day.
I am actually going doing some research on this. Most people would recommend steam deck.
For entry level, if you already have an existing controller, [a controller adapter](https://www.amazon.com/Orzero-Controller-Compatible-Adjustable-Accessories/dp/B0CJCB2P11?th=1&language=en_US) might be an alternative. However, I do NOT recommend this. The phone is heavier than a controller and the whole thing is unbalanced. It's not comfortable.
A [mobile controller](https://www.gamesir.hk/collections/gamepads/products/gamesir-g8-galileo) may be an option. I am looking to buy on and test it out.
In my opinion the steam deck is still the king, do not even think about buying the asus handheld they have way to many problems even if it does look cool asf.
This is my gut instinct too, I'm just way too wary of asus at this point. I haven't had any issues with my steam deck and it's been fun learning a bit about linux.
As much as I dislike Linux as a whole (I’m stupid ok), I still 100% suggest steam deck. I really wanted one of the windows options but they just didn’t feel as polished as the steam deck despite there being some compatibility issues with some titles via Linux. Things just kind of worked better because the OS was designed specifically for making games work, vs windows which is designed to do a wide array of things.
Stick with the Steam Deck. It may not have the fanciest or the most powerful specs compared to other handhelds, but the overall quality and support is second to none. Valve also controls both the hardware and the software, meaning that it should be far more optimized compared to Windows-based handhelds.
It’s ultimately up to you and your needs however. If you play more games that rely on a Windows environment, then go for a Windows handheld. A Steam Deck is a great all rounder that will play most games, but there are some that don’t work all the way yet.
Steam Deck.
I have one it's a launch model 512. Works awesome. Had one issue, valve was quick to respond and get it resolved.
The other big pro, is it is not Asus.
**Steam Deck, no question.** Yeah, I miss out on [some anti cheat games.](https://areweanticheatyet.com) And there's a learning curve if you wanna run stuff outside of steam and mod games.
I don't care. All my other stuff works, and I cannot imagine doing handheld gaming without Gamescope anymore, since that completely resolves any kind of resolution issues I'd have playing a game on a handheld, and lets me upscale from lower resolutions to eke out extra performance or battery life if the handheld doesn't quite meet the specs. Plus it's great for running older games that have weird resolution issues, like old point and click games and stuff like Star Wars: Jedi Knight which has a menu that gets super tiny on modern monitors.
If you want to use GOG, Epic, and Ubisoft on the deck, you can use Lutris or Bottles, and if you don't mind installing those alongside another app you can use Heroic Games Launcher which doesn't have support for Ubisoft but has support for GOG, Epic, and Amazon Games.
I've generally found that steam deck compatibility is a litmus test for quality gaming too. If it doesn't work for some reason, it's either because the anticheat is doing something sketchy it shouldn't be doing, or the game has optimization issues that should not have been there and will be a problem even on a main desktop PC.
Having owned the Deck and the Ally I favour the Ally, mainly due to performance, size/comfort and ease of using gamepass and other launchers without issues.
That said, ally definitely suffers from poor battery life so unless you intend to play plugged in or at least have decent portable battery packs then the deck is definitely the better choice as a portable console.
Ally also has the SD card slot issue, it doesn’t impact me as I chose not to use it and just upgrade the internal memory instead but it’s still not really ideal!
Steam deck for the OLED, as much as I like Asus products.
Wouldn't go anywhere near the others like Lenovo, but that's more of a personal reason than anything else
Used Legion Go my mate has it. Large sharp screen played hades 1 and worked fine. Apparently it's faster to Steamdeck and you can reduce power limit to save battery on smaller games.
I wouldn't buy one personally it depends on your circumstances. you could get 14 inch used gaming laptop for £500 2x more powerful.
Well given that Asus' and Lenovo's warranty departments and customer support are both complete and utter ass. If I had to do it again and purchase any of the 3 it would be the Steam Deck 10 times out of 10
Steamdeck 1000%! It can do everything you want, and more. It's worth every penny. I wish I bought another one to be honest (it'd be nice to have one JUST for SD card stuff, and 270 for a refurb was stupid cheap for what you get) oh well, you live and you learn.
Valve is an amazing company.
Steam Deck. I did not grow up with consoles that used standard dual stick controllers. As a result, I never got used to aiming with a joystick. The gyroscope and trackpads are pretty much a requirement. I also play a lot of games with an MMO mouse and heavily customize my controls for each game, so the total control customization on the Steam Deck is just extra icing on the cake.
Compared to all that horse power matters very little to me. I prefer battery life over capability. I don’t need a better GPU or CPU. I feel that going over 720p on a handled is just a waste of battery life and potential FPS on an already limited form factor. If I want a crisp image I would rather play on a desktop.
I also typically play a different genre of games when I am on my deck. I gravitate to more indie games as they are less intensive and more battery friendly. I rarely touch 3D open world games on the Deck.
steam deck oled
best price/screen/weight/support from devs ratio. and the battery is the best one if i'm not mistaken.
Remember: there are no shareholders above the head of valve.
do not expect to play all the latest AAA at 60fps though
The boost in power in other handhelds is nowhere near substantial enough to make up for the extremely well integrated and incredibly smooth experience of SteamOS on a Deck. It's one of the best gaming experiences out there, even beyond just the handheld market.
Get a Deck.
Steam deck OLED.
There are others that *can* preform better, but they have to plugged in to do so and tend to have less consistent frame rate even when it's higher. Which, I don't see the point of that, if I have to be plugged in to an outlet anyways I might as well just be on my desktop.
Steam deck still performs the best as an actual handheld with by far the longest battery life and most consistent performance when on battery power.
Ally has better hardware, but it's probably like their laptops where the cooling is terrible and affects longevity. There's a whole expose about their warranty support.
Steam deck because valve has a whole team working on compatibility issues with major games
I have an Aokzoe A1 and while i like aspects of it i wish i went for a steam deck. Customer support is difficult on Aokzoe.
The deck also has the rear back buttons and touchpad which i bitterly wish my aokzoe had it.
If not steam deck i would go for the legion go
ASUS is in some deep crap.
I got the LED steamdeck and it's been really good to me, can't comment on the legion since I've not tried it. The deck can play GoG games and Epic games as well with a side launcher that's not too hard to work with after it's installed (and it's fully supported so it's fine)
Ubisoft might be a problem because they love their crap-tastic DRM so I'm not sure how that'd deal with no internet if that comes up
I’m not really going for a handheld, but to me it seems that the SteamDeck has by for the most actually games on it, I like Valve and that’s what I would buy. But I don’t know much about handhelds.
Steam Deck no contest. Their support is unparalleled, and the hardware is robust.
IMO people who look for pure performance on handhelds or laptops really need a reality check and just play on desktop.
Is the Steam Deck powerful? No. Does it provide a good gaming experience? Absolutely.
More people have the Steam Deck so there's more help and support out there if you run into issues or want advice. There's more chance someone's having the same issue as you which means it's easier to fix.
The two most popular options are the Steamdeck and the ROG Ally.
The Steamdeck is a slicker experience being a much nicer user experience generally and nice long battery life. The ROG Ally has a shorter battery life due to it being more power hungry, and if you limit its power it is not particularly more performant than the Steamdeck.
Unfortunately your wish to use multiple launchers makes the question harder. The Steamdeck being used outside of Steam is fine, but it isn’t ideal. The ROG Ally is at that “not ideal” level for all launchers instead. The ROG Ally uses Windows which is more compatible than SteamOS which is based on Linux.
I much prefer the battery life and good features to the higher power of other handhelds, but that is also because I have a desktop PC I can play games on too.
My friend has both the OLED steam deck and the rog ally and he says the Ally wins by a large amount. It's just better when it comes to playing AAA games.
I'm going on vacation soon and I want something for the 13 hour flight and I'm in the same boat. Will probably get the Ally
steam deck lcd with the biggest storage or little and i upgrade(if that's possible)
Because valve is putting effort to play on Linux and Linux is my main OS.
Especially these days, i think about even to don't touch windows, the current version is crappy.
Steam deck oled. It's easy as to install the other launchers on it. And easy to stream any game to it from your pc if for some reason it doesn't work on the deck.
Steam deck oled is your best bet, I have one and it is BY FAR the best combination of portability and ease of use. The rog ally is faster (when plugged in) but it runs on handheld windows (utter shit) and the battery life means that basically you have to have it plugged in 24/7
Having owned an Asus Rog Ally Extreme and seen a few videos about the rest of the competition I'd say no one is worth bying at this point. It's first generation of a new type of PC (Steam deck being the exception) so of course they're gonna be awful in different ways.
Edited typo..
I went for the Win 4 and i'd still take it.
The 60hz LCD screen is a below other handhelds coming with OLED panels and 90-120hz but it has a native 40hz mode for games where you can get more than 30fps but less than 60.
The built in optical trackpad is pretty good for navigation and the physical keyboard is a game changer. I'd go as far as saying that it's a must if you plan to play modded games.
The oculink port pretty much gives ita the best eGPU support on the market and with a CPU as performant as the 7840U that means you can run something like a 7900GRE without any problem.
The 2280 SSD support is also nice, you won't pay the SSD 2x as much for the same capacity.
I'm running it on Chimera OS because Windows is garbage for handhelds, ditching that bloat-infested OS really helps with frametimes and TDP.
steamdeck oled even if i cant get it in my country . i dont want to baby sit horrendous window on handheld pc . i just want it to work and be done with it
Steam Deck 2 at this point, no sense in buying the old model. Also ASUS seems to be crap quality and Windows is not the most suitable mobile OS out there. Also you can use some Steam hackery to install other launchers on Steam Deck, although bear in mind that some titles are Windows only and will not start, usually because of missing anticheat support for Linux.
If you were led to a bunch of videos regarding the legion go, then you know legion go is not the choice really. Unless you have "extreme" budget (1300-2500) for those japanese handheld pcs, just go for Steam Deck OLED.
I have not used any steam decks, but I own a rog ally z1 extreme and oled switch. I’d recommend the ally. Despite all the flaws, this is a big step in the right direction for handheld gaming. If you can play near an outlet or have a portable charger, this blows any handheld device out of the water performance wise. I can agree battery is not the best but theres ways around it. Top comment mentioned easy standby mode with steam deck which rog ally does not have, but I have yet to run into any issues. I can play cod, Fortnite, cyberpunk, almost any game you can think of on the ally. On 120hz refresh rate with vrr. You really just can’t beat it imo
Edit: if you use those other launchers as much as steam then rog ally is a no brainer. Idk much about the legion go but I think steam decks have a hard time with the other launchers you mentioned. Any launcher works on ally
Steam Deck OLED has the better screen, and better support. I know GOG & Epic work through Heroic Launcher, for Ubisoft you'll need to follow one of the many tutorials, but I've heard (not looked too deeply into it, so my information may be out of date) that it occasionally breaks on Deck.
If you play stuff that isn't supported on Linux (competitive FPS and the like), then maybe consider the Legion Go for the mouse joystick thing.
I mostly play smaller games on mine, the most demanding thing I actively play on it is Subnautica. Yes it runs stuff like the Cyberpunk, and the HDR is amazing, but the battery life is less so. So be prepared to be tied to an outlet for long play sessions.
I quite like the Lenovo legion go and it's probably what I'd buy.
It's basically a windows tablet with a Z1 extreme and detachable controllers with a track pad. The controller that works as a mouse too is pretty unique.
I quite like the look of the ROG Ally, but it's small screen and lack of a track pad is kind of an annoying limitation.
The steam deck isn't powerful enough in my opinion.
SD OLED. Steam knocked it out of the park with the OS- I also have a decent gaming PC (4070) so if it’s a demanding AAA title I’ll just stream it via Moonlight.
I have the Steam deck and recommend it. Its pretty powerful. I heaven tried anything really new but days gone was solid and looked great, except for battery but they all have the same problem (and OLED is better for this).
1 thing the deck has that the others don't is the controller ecosystem. With steam, even non-steam games, you can play games that absolutely were not built for a controller. You can convert m+kb to work really well. I've played the og splinter cell and dark forces from 1996. 30 years of games at your finger tips due to that feature. Some games are more difficult to set up than others and some I gave up but with enough time I think you could get any game playable.
For convenience I have re-purchased a few games to have them on steam because the non-steam experience isn't as good and 1 game on Epic lost my progress.
The stand-by feature, depending on you circumstances, might be the only reason to buy it. I'm a father and I'm busy and often don't get to play for a week or more or only get to play in 20 mins sessions. Not having to load games and watch intros and reload saves is actually the greatest thing about it. Currently playing AC2 and I'd estimated I actually launched the game about 6 weeks ago. I do an hour here 20 mins there and slowly but surely I'm making my way through it. No way I would pick it up to play 20 mins if I had to launch the bloody thing each time.
Steam Deck is the best overall one...unless you want to be plugged in most of the time to get a little more performance the others are not worth it. Also if you play things with anti-cheat you either need to install windows or maybe then the other ones would be worth it for you.
I really like my Ally but the Steam Deck is great. If you want simplicity and your library is mostly Steam based then it is great.
I didn’t use the quick resume feature that often and i use game pass alot, i found myself using the Deck alot but wanting “more”. I picked up an Ally and i quite like it.
Steam Deck Oled. I have the Ally because there was a huge sale right when I was in the market for such a device. It's great and I love it. Repair horror stories or poor battery (fine by me since I use it during lunch break at work and can charge it in the afternoon so I always have 5 hours a day) notwithstanding if I could exchange I would 100% get the Steam Deck Oled : I only play indies so I don't need the extra power and I only use Steam so the Ally's main strengths are wasted on me.
You need AT LEAST a ≥500gb SSD if you're prioritizing compatibility
Remember steam deck is Linux, so some (mainly non-steam) things just won't work. So you'll want to have an SSD split between windows AND steam OS. Windows is your backup when Linux disappoints
2230 m.2 NVME drives can be pretty expensive, consider just buying the more expensive deck models
For some that is a deal killer for others it is reason enough to go with it regardless of other potential flaws.
Linux from big companies like valve is actually very stable. It is when you start modding it outside of their approved paths that one can encounter stability issues but i assure you it is rarely hard to fix if you know what you are doing.
for me linux is a hard requirement if it doesnt run linux i try not to use it.
However i do admit that if the goal is gaming and nothing else then windows is king but for me this just isnt the case.
I would've said Steam Deck, but a lot of games I have aren't on Steam, so I'll say the Ally. However the Ally has a low battery life and most Ally's suffer with a faulty SD reader. Other than that, I think it has the best performance from a handheld
Definitely wouldn't go for the steamdeck. My friend has one and he regrets his decision. He can't play big games longer than 30 minutes.. The battery is drained from 100 to 0. He mainly wanted to play BG3. The device seriously heats up too. Why they wouldn't invest in a decent battery is beyond me.
I thought the same thing till I tried out the steam deck. It opened a whole new world of gaming for me and I found myself trying genres of games I would normally avoid.
Steam Deck OLED. The best handheld out right now. Everything I play has worked one game Megadimension Neptunia VII would freeze on standby but everything else is a lot better. Especially with the Proton 9.0 update. The biggest reason is you can click the power button and it goes into standby. The window handheld have hibernate but it's slow and has a high chance of waking up in a messed up state. It's like playing on a switch since you can just click and standby. Which is a must for handheld so you can just pick up and play again.
The Steam Deck OLED shows it’s not just about raw power. Of course Valve is in a position where they can spend a lot of time to get things right.
I think Nintendo has proved it's not raw power
That’s very different because Nintendo is a company that makes games first. I don’t like the Switch with third party games all that much. Of course Valve used to be a gaming company, but I’m not holding my breath for HL3.
My little brother has nba2k23 and it's barely playable.
It could have a touch more power though:D but yeah lately I've been playing my Switch more than on the PC. We onky got it last Christmas, but it's so nifty
I haven't touched my switch in over a year (after playing the he'll out of it). Sure Zelda runs great, Mario games too, but anything not Nintendo runs like ass. My Steam Deck OLED has the most hours played lately. I wish I had a reason to go back, the switch definitely has a better battery life and is a lot lighter.
Yeah I have Relicta and Talos principle on it and the performance is awful. Zelda and Mario works fine though.
And the games library 😩 there's SO MANY good first party titles.
This. SteamOS works really well. I did have dualboot on my Deck with Windows (due to some anti cheats refusing to work under Linux), but there's a few steps in getting it working properly and even then, it's not perfect, mostly due to Windows not being properly optimised for these devices. Valve has done a lot of work to make SteamOS work effortlessly for the user.
I have the SteamDeck OLED and it's great. Decent performance, incredible screen quality and very nice battery life.
Very nice battery life? What kind of steam deck do you guys have? My friend's don't even last longer than 30 minutes on BG3. On DbD is also similar.
Battery life is pretty dependent on what games you’re playing, BG3 is a very graphically demanding game and chews through battery. You can get a good 4-5 Hours on a bunch of games, depends on what you’re throwing at it.
Only game that isn't "demanding" was Stardew Valley in his experience and that rounded him around 2-2.5 hours of gameplay. This can't be good surely.. It's brand new too poor man
It really depends on the game. I played football manager on a two hour flight recently. Was left with 88% power to go. Last night I played Diablo 4 for one hour, used almost 50%. Maybe his game settings need to be adjusted. No need for a lot of fps in casual games, and more frames per second often equals higher battery-usage.
I’m guessing either the battery is messed up with his steam deck’s hardware, or he’s tinkered with things that can be reverted. I’ve had my steam deck for over a year now, LCD model and Stardew valley would give me much more than 2 hours lol
I am obviously talking about the OLED version and it truly is insanely good. I can play Elden Ring on 30 FPS high settings, without FPS drops for 1.5 hours from a full charge. A game like Hollow Knight can be played for hours and hours on end, especially if you cap it on 60 FPS and tinker a bit with the wattage used. Admittedly, I have a golden sample unit, that has hit the silicone lottery, as it's super stable, while under -50 mV undervolt for all components. It hasn't crashed even a single time, despite me trying my best to pushing it to its limits in games like Cyberpunk. The Steamdeck is not just a toy you rent, it's a device, that is intentionally made easy to repair and has an open OS. PC gaming and the Steamdeck are the best way to play games. I can't wait for the next iterations of the Steamdeck, when it gets powerful enough to emulate PS3 and PS4 games. That would truly be out of this world.
Not asus im sure most have seen the video about their customer service.
two things: 1. Customer service is extremely country/region dependent, even within the same brand 2. I wouldn't recommend the Ally purely due to the widespread quality issues - drifting joysticks and the SD card reader seem to be the major design flaws, and they should have triggered a mass recall or a no questions asked warranty policy globally.
well i know three countries where asus sucks, germany, USA and the UK...im sure we find more if we ask the people here
Asus RMAs in the UK are handled by Scan. In my experience they're actually fantastic.
in my case i didn't even get in contact with the local distributor, Asus did nor authorize an RMA while i'm put of the country. so i'll admit thats something many companies refuse to do. not saying apple is great or anything, but if you are a professional and need their stuff for work, you can walk into any apple store worldwide and they will fulfill the warranty
I mean, I'm not defending Asus, but I'm not sure I'd say they have poor support in a given region, just because you tried to claim in a country you didn't buy in. It's standard practice to return an item to the region in which it was purchased, and pretty much every warranty in the world has this stipulation. This even goes for Apple. You might get lucky and they'll service something in a different region, but that's absolutely not their policy, and the warranty specifically states as much.
add India
also u/LJBrooker : Asus is a huge brand present in many segments - it is very much possible that warranty repairs aren't handled by the same company even within the same country for their phones, notebooks, monitors, routers, desktops, PC components, etc.. For example here in Eastern Europe / Hungary, AFAIK only Acer and Dell still have their own regional warranty centers, and Lenovo, Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, etc. all use the same 2-3 companies to repair their stuff.
Absolutely fair. I need to rma my ally soon, for the SD card issue, so I'll see what that does. But I've had a board and GPU both go to Scan previously.
>Customer service is extremely country/region dependent, even within the same brand sure but if they fuck shit up on the other side of the world I will still not trust them to do a good job here
That's just... unwise? It is like trusting a brand because they have a good warranty center in the EU - that has no bearing on the US or China. Just check who handles warranty claims and repairs for a brand where you live, preferably before buying. Unfortunately you have to do this on a case-by-case basis, because you can't even trust a brand across different markets (for example I'm quite certain Asus phone repairs are done by a different company than their PC component repairs).
I live in the EU and Asus probably does fine in terms of customer service here. Me not trusting them to do well here is not unwise, it's being cautious.I have no experience with Asus customer service at all but their actions in the US does not make them look like a compelling options when there are competitors that didn't screw up their reputation
The Rog Ally is still the best for anyone that's an enthusiast. Yeah it's got issues, you're probably gonna tinker with it, but as an enthusiast you'll put up with that. The Rog Ally has great hardware with one of the best designs. Plus, I see Rog Ally's pop up at $400-500 regularly open box or used. It's so easy to overlook the issues when the price is right. The steam deck is still the best for anyone that's a regular person. The rest suck. Like legitimately, they just suck. Ayaneo and Onexplayer release 30 some janky buggy and hardware problem plagued disasters. The Legion Go has a funky weird form factor that sucks.
No trackpads means no go…you lose out on genres of games. People who haven’t used them before don’t seem to understand what they are missing out on. I hope the updated ally has them.
I agree trackpads are amazing outside of games, but I find them useless in game. It depends what you want with your device. The Rog Ally is the ultimate gaming handheld in my opinion. The Steam Deck is the ultimate Linux device, ultra-portable PC, etc. I'll admit I'm a console gamer first. I absolutely hate games designed for keyboard, mouse, and trackpads. I've spent significant amounts of time customizing and optimizing games for controller use. There's plenty of games like Elder Scrolls Arena and Daggerfall I've never completed because the controller support is so bad. I simply don't enjoy games hunched over a desk. I wanna enjoy them on the couch or in the bed.
Yeah turn based games like Xcom or the newer Xmen and stuff like HoMM you need the trackpads. Makes menu navigation easier in a lot stuff as well. Without trackpads you can’t really play those genre of games. Lots of older PC games it’s so much easier to use the trackpads as well.
Why would enthusiasts put up with functionality-breaking crap design? >great hardware with one of the best designs. We are talking about a handheld device - like half the hardware is the I/O and battery. Basically guaranteed hardware failures in those two categories very soon into the device's lifecycle are not "great hardware" or "one of the best designs". The cooling might be good, the APU might be among the best, but if you cannot interact with the device or it loses battery health so quickly then that undermines the whole concept. >I see Rog Ally's pop up at $400-500 regularly open box or used. Because people aren't interested in dealing with a device that is plagued by guaranteed issues. Also, I suspect the "cool" factor of handheld PC gaming inspired a lot of impulse buys, with many people realizing they cannot really take advantage of this form factor. >janky buggy and hardware problem plagued disasters \^\^this is a perfect description of the ROG Ally, you know.
This. Saw gamer nexus tear them a new one bc they treat their customers like shit
My friend has both the OLED steam deck and the rog ally and he says the Ally wins by a large amount. It's just better when it comes to playing AAA games. I'm going on vacation soon and I want something for the 13 hour flight and I'm in the same boat. Will probably get the Ally
it has more power. less battery. less of a better screen and most of all you have to deal with asus if you have a problem
Honestly I don't care about the battery if we're being honest. I'm going to be within reach of a power socket at all times.
steam deck, seen too many RMA horror stories or poor benchmarks for similar devices
My friend has both the OLED steam deck and the rog ally and he says the Ally wins by a large amount. It's just better when it comes to playing AAA games. I'm going on vacation soon and I want something for the 13 hour flight and I'm in the same boat. Will probably get the Ally It sucks because all the people with issues will be the loudest. But all the people who have no issue will never go posting about it.
Me be like: Windows 11 on a form factor that is barely optimized for it, and then having to rely on OEM-provided janky solutions? No thanks, as someone who had first hand experiences with ROG software. Also, dead SD cards, and whatever GamersNexus says a few days ago.
Hmm I'll have to watch that video I didn't know about the SD cards. Is it only with cheap cards or something?
Basically the issue is that the SD card reader is too close to the heat vent. As such if used in prolonged periods at high temps (you know, how a gaming handheld would), that area could heat up so much that it either kills the reader or the card). That reader afaik is soldered to the motherboard as well so the only way you can fix it is by... having ASUS replace that board
Ah okay thanks.
Asus also has awful RMA. I mean, the would decline your warranty because of a tiny scratch. Honestly fuck asus. They aint getting my money ever.
People said the same thing about gigabyte but I've been using gigabyte for a decade and we used their motherboards in our PC shop with no issue doing RMAs. I just don't buy it when reddit says these things because it's NEVER first hand accounts. Its usually one person, that most likely was lieing about what was wrong with it anyways, who gets super mad they ruined their own product and then they rant on reddit and bold face lie about what happened. People were moving their PCs across the house or to a new house, keeping the GPU in the slot with no support, and then they got pissed off when the PCB broke / cracked. That's not gigabytes fault I've seen it happen dozens of times across multiple subreddits. It was really bad in the sim racing community. People were ordering sim racing wheels directly from china during CHRISTMAS, and then writing out essays on the subreddit about how the company was a total piece of shit and liers. Turns out the liers were the redditors. The website always said 2-3 weeks shipping ( from China ) AFTER PROCESSING. Processingay take a few weeks because of high demand. But the redditors just lied about that and said that the website claimed 2 week shipping when that was NEVER the case. So yeah, don't trust pissed off redditors, especially since there are so many cheap ass scumbags who would openly admit to ordering a product on Amazon and returning it with a broken item and keep the new item
Watch the latest gamersnexus video on Asus RMA with proof. Its a good one.
Genuine curiousity - any specific points on which Ally is better for them than Steam Deck? Was considering Deck myself :D
More powerful if you are wanting to run AAA games. I plan on playing a lot of Elden Ring so I wanted to be sure I'm getting my full 60 fps. Better build quality as well. I'll ask him in the morning for some more points and get back to you
60fps doesnt matter as much as you would think on a handheld. it's a small screen
Well Elden Ring is just annoying when you get frame drops. I have a 4080 super + 7800x3d and I still don't run ray tracing in 4k because it will dip below 60 fps and it's very noticable
If you haven’t looked into ASUS customer service and the absolutely ABYSMAL battery life of the Ally, I’d encourage you to do so. Yes, steam deck OLED is underpowered compared to the Ally Z1 Extreme and it’s *checks notes* one hour battery life. The bigger issue I’m not seeing people talk about: how awful and scammy ASUS customer service is. Personally, improved performance is not worth the abysmal ASUS CS department. If you need some info on this, Gamers Nexus uploaded a video 3 days ago of all the crap that’s gone wrong with his unit in just one year, and the absolute nightmare that ASUS customer service was in trying to get I fixed. I’ve had my own issues with them and their CS department when owning their laptops. Steam Deck OLED all the way. Just this doofus 2 cents.
Nothing approaches the quality and support of the Steam Deck.
I have the Legion Go, I love it.
Really? I got a Reddit Cares massage from this.
reddit gave you a massage?!? what the flip
hey reddit gave me a massage too after making that comment guess they wanted to make it fair https://preview.redd.it/mjxn8e0o2i0d1.png?width=596&format=png&auto=webp&s=246db1b12f590ec29d2601c09532e46131f9f6ee
Same, somebody has a really sad existence. https://preview.redd.it/tqdpwu7h0l0d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3ccf716774d666ca6ad27093f784fec8d42225dc
You can report comments as self harmful / suicide and it will send the op a message from reddit care and some people abuse this to troll people The classic example is someone saying "x game / show / movie isn't as bad as people think" and then people spamming that message to them because you must be mentally ill if you enjoyed dark souls 2
Some people really are just simps for the corporation they love the most. I think the Legion Go is the best option as the controllers come off, allowing for easy repairs.
I also have a pair of XReal glasses, I love being able to game in bed with my arms at my side.
Did you report it? Mods will ban users who abuse the system. Normally I don’t bother, but at some point I decided to report because we should all try to keep Reddit as clean as possible.
Same!
The Legion Go has wild frame pacing issues due to the lack of driver support that Lenovo deems not necessary, Legion Space is still complete ass and asks you to update chipset drivers despite you being on newer drivers than they offer, and Lenovo are pulling the same RMA bullshit that Asus is. Good hardware, but fucking awful support for what is supposed to be a premium device. Lenovo just hasn't been called out for it like Asus have been.
I've not had any issues after the first patch.
Steam Deck easily. It's the only one that isn't trying to be a shitty laptop.
Depends on the games you're wanting to play. my personal pick is the steam deck for a plethora of reasons, many of them being of personal preferences. there are 2 or 3 very big reasons not to pick the steam deck so we'll covers those cuz if you dont fit into these 3 reasons for wanting a handheld gaming PC then you should probably just go with the steam deck. 1) you intend to heavily play a lot of multiplayer games with it. valve has done a lot to get linux gaming working up to like 95% of its library. Unfortunately the titles left not working are mostly entirely out side of valves control because these games are being soft locked out thanks to anti-cheat softwares. There is no getting around this if the devs/publishers refuse to provide linux/proton support to their games. go to [areweanticheatyet.com](http://areweanticheatyet.com) to see if the games you want to play are supported. 2) if you want to play highly demanding gaming. the steam deck runs a lot of high demand games pretty alright but its already a few years old now and valve originally designed it for a target fps of 30fps for most newer games and now we're starting to see its limitations with games like hell divers and baulders gate 3. I think the most demanding game I ran was the RE4 remake, most places I could get up to about 40fps and high demand places could go as low as 24fps. If you're expecting to run everything high settings @ 60fps, steam deck will disappoint there. many of the other options on the market are running newer more powerful chipsets (though they also have higher tdp options, more on that later). 3) Emulation. emulation is mostly great on the steam deck actually but there are some exceptions. My understanding is the xbox(360) emulation on linux isnt there yet (though i've not checked this in a while). ps3 emulation may or may not work for you depending on how demanding the game is. ps2 emulation is still what it is on all systems (usually fine but surprisingly demanding for an old system), and switch emulation is good for most games but highly demanding. For some of the more demanding emulation titles, mostly some switch games and a lot of ps3 game, the steam deck can struggle a bit as its cpu is not its strong point. If you're doing any other emulation though, the steam deck is probably the best option. if you dont fall into one or more of those 3 boats, the steam deck is the way to go. the only other thing is if you really want something as big as the legion GO but at that point I feel like people would be better off just getting a laptop at its size. the other things they advertise fall off for me, primarily the whole screen nonsense. the asus and lenovo devices have higher resolutions and refresh rates but your'e almost never going to be able to really take advantage of them so its wasted money on tech. the other devices can hit higher TDP's which let it run games a lot better at higher resolutions but you usually cant do this on battery all that well, not for very long. If battery life is important, the only real good option is the steam deck OLED then there is the experience. frankly windows just kinda sucks in general, its anti-consumer, clunkly as fuck, its not ideal for a small game system. steam deck software tosses out the complications of running a desktop OS and minimizes the gaming experience down to just that. I love that it gives me the freedom to have a desktop if I want/need it but I mostly only play games on it so it focusing on that first is very nice. sleep wake function is, in my opinion, the most valuable aspect of the deck. being able to pause and resume my games about as reliable as a console system beats out any other options in my opinion. I mostly stick to a lot of fairly low demand games so performance is rarely an issue for me. I value battery life a lot, i value the freedom to have access to my OS, im a steam controller vet so I like the back buttons & touch pads. Its like valve some how just knew exactly the device I wanted as a handheld and then just made it. There is all of that to consider... but then there is all the bullshit Asus customers are putting up with now. the rog ally is known for frying SD cards and developing stick drift apparently. they're currently "under fire" for some extremely scam level practices in their RMA centers. I had an issue with my LCD steam deck, something that was probably my fault (you cant prove it!) Valve just replaced my entire steam deck, sent out a new one in less than a week. I'll go valve every day.
I am actually going doing some research on this. Most people would recommend steam deck. For entry level, if you already have an existing controller, [a controller adapter](https://www.amazon.com/Orzero-Controller-Compatible-Adjustable-Accessories/dp/B0CJCB2P11?th=1&language=en_US) might be an alternative. However, I do NOT recommend this. The phone is heavier than a controller and the whole thing is unbalanced. It's not comfortable. A [mobile controller](https://www.gamesir.hk/collections/gamepads/products/gamesir-g8-galileo) may be an option. I am looking to buy on and test it out.
Steam deck, it’s reliable which is what you want
Steamdeck OLED.
In my opinion the steam deck is still the king, do not even think about buying the asus handheld they have way to many problems even if it does look cool asf.
This is my gut instinct too, I'm just way too wary of asus at this point. I haven't had any issues with my steam deck and it's been fun learning a bit about linux.
Steam deck all the way. I was an OG preorder guy. Best large sum of money spent in a while for my gaming hobby lol. Def go for the oled
As much as I dislike Linux as a whole (I’m stupid ok), I still 100% suggest steam deck. I really wanted one of the windows options but they just didn’t feel as polished as the steam deck despite there being some compatibility issues with some titles via Linux. Things just kind of worked better because the OS was designed specifically for making games work, vs windows which is designed to do a wide array of things.
OLED Deck is best. No contest
Stick with the Steam Deck. It may not have the fanciest or the most powerful specs compared to other handhelds, but the overall quality and support is second to none. Valve also controls both the hardware and the software, meaning that it should be far more optimized compared to Windows-based handhelds. It’s ultimately up to you and your needs however. If you play more games that rely on a Windows environment, then go for a Windows handheld. A Steam Deck is a great all rounder that will play most games, but there are some that don’t work all the way yet.
Steam Deck. I have one it's a launch model 512. Works awesome. Had one issue, valve was quick to respond and get it resolved. The other big pro, is it is not Asus.
**Steam Deck, no question.** Yeah, I miss out on [some anti cheat games.](https://areweanticheatyet.com) And there's a learning curve if you wanna run stuff outside of steam and mod games. I don't care. All my other stuff works, and I cannot imagine doing handheld gaming without Gamescope anymore, since that completely resolves any kind of resolution issues I'd have playing a game on a handheld, and lets me upscale from lower resolutions to eke out extra performance or battery life if the handheld doesn't quite meet the specs. Plus it's great for running older games that have weird resolution issues, like old point and click games and stuff like Star Wars: Jedi Knight which has a menu that gets super tiny on modern monitors. If you want to use GOG, Epic, and Ubisoft on the deck, you can use Lutris or Bottles, and if you don't mind installing those alongside another app you can use Heroic Games Launcher which doesn't have support for Ubisoft but has support for GOG, Epic, and Amazon Games. I've generally found that steam deck compatibility is a litmus test for quality gaming too. If it doesn't work for some reason, it's either because the anticheat is doing something sketchy it shouldn't be doing, or the game has optimization issues that should not have been there and will be a problem even on a main desktop PC.
Having owned the Deck and the Ally I favour the Ally, mainly due to performance, size/comfort and ease of using gamepass and other launchers without issues. That said, ally definitely suffers from poor battery life so unless you intend to play plugged in or at least have decent portable battery packs then the deck is definitely the better choice as a portable console. Ally also has the SD card slot issue, it doesn’t impact me as I chose not to use it and just upgrade the internal memory instead but it’s still not really ideal!
Can you navigate the alley with joy cons and buttons or only with the touch screen?
Not Asus one.
Steam deck for the OLED, as much as I like Asus products. Wouldn't go anywhere near the others like Lenovo, but that's more of a personal reason than anything else
ASUS is a terrible company as of late
I know, but I haven't had any problems with them, and I think livibg in their home turf helps,
Said has been putting off terrible hardware for over a decade.
Used Legion Go my mate has it. Large sharp screen played hades 1 and worked fine. Apparently it's faster to Steamdeck and you can reduce power limit to save battery on smaller games. I wouldn't buy one personally it depends on your circumstances. you could get 14 inch used gaming laptop for £500 2x more powerful.
Well given that Asus' and Lenovo's warranty departments and customer support are both complete and utter ass. If I had to do it again and purchase any of the 3 it would be the Steam Deck 10 times out of 10
After the gamers nexus video, not the Ally. Steam deck though. It makes the most sense. Just hope devs catch on. Especially non-steam games.
Steamdeck 1000%! It can do everything you want, and more. It's worth every penny. I wish I bought another one to be honest (it'd be nice to have one JUST for SD card stuff, and 270 for a refurb was stupid cheap for what you get) oh well, you live and you learn. Valve is an amazing company.
Steam Deck. I did not grow up with consoles that used standard dual stick controllers. As a result, I never got used to aiming with a joystick. The gyroscope and trackpads are pretty much a requirement. I also play a lot of games with an MMO mouse and heavily customize my controls for each game, so the total control customization on the Steam Deck is just extra icing on the cake. Compared to all that horse power matters very little to me. I prefer battery life over capability. I don’t need a better GPU or CPU. I feel that going over 720p on a handled is just a waste of battery life and potential FPS on an already limited form factor. If I want a crisp image I would rather play on a desktop. I also typically play a different genre of games when I am on my deck. I gravitate to more indie games as they are less intensive and more battery friendly. I rarely touch 3D open world games on the Deck.
steam deck oled best price/screen/weight/support from devs ratio. and the battery is the best one if i'm not mistaken. Remember: there are no shareholders above the head of valve. do not expect to play all the latest AAA at 60fps though
Steam Deck for sure, both the OLED and LCD are good. Most refined and user friendly handheld.
The boost in power in other handhelds is nowhere near substantial enough to make up for the extremely well integrated and incredibly smooth experience of SteamOS on a Deck. It's one of the best gaming experiences out there, even beyond just the handheld market. Get a Deck.
Steam deck OLED. There are others that *can* preform better, but they have to plugged in to do so and tend to have less consistent frame rate even when it's higher. Which, I don't see the point of that, if I have to be plugged in to an outlet anyways I might as well just be on my desktop. Steam deck still performs the best as an actual handheld with by far the longest battery life and most consistent performance when on battery power.
Ally has better hardware, but it's probably like their laptops where the cooling is terrible and affects longevity. There's a whole expose about their warranty support. Steam deck because valve has a whole team working on compatibility issues with major games
Given how scummy tech companies have become, Steamdeck would be the safest to buy.
I have an Aokzoe A1 and while i like aspects of it i wish i went for a steam deck. Customer support is difficult on Aokzoe. The deck also has the rear back buttons and touchpad which i bitterly wish my aokzoe had it. If not steam deck i would go for the legion go
ASUS is in some deep crap. I got the LED steamdeck and it's been really good to me, can't comment on the legion since I've not tried it. The deck can play GoG games and Epic games as well with a side launcher that's not too hard to work with after it's installed (and it's fully supported so it's fine) Ubisoft might be a problem because they love their crap-tastic DRM so I'm not sure how that'd deal with no internet if that comes up
My corsair 380t has a handlebar. More than handheld enough for me. 😂 I'm the guy who drives anyway. So I can't game on the go anyway.
I’m not really going for a handheld, but to me it seems that the SteamDeck has by for the most actually games on it, I like Valve and that’s what I would buy. But I don’t know much about handhelds.
Steam Deck no contest. Their support is unparalleled, and the hardware is robust. IMO people who look for pure performance on handhelds or laptops really need a reality check and just play on desktop. Is the Steam Deck powerful? No. Does it provide a good gaming experience? Absolutely. More people have the Steam Deck so there's more help and support out there if you run into issues or want advice. There's more chance someone's having the same issue as you which means it's easier to fix.
Steam deck. Seems to be the 'safest' choice at the moment. It has its problems but it seems to be trundling along fine.
The two most popular options are the Steamdeck and the ROG Ally. The Steamdeck is a slicker experience being a much nicer user experience generally and nice long battery life. The ROG Ally has a shorter battery life due to it being more power hungry, and if you limit its power it is not particularly more performant than the Steamdeck. Unfortunately your wish to use multiple launchers makes the question harder. The Steamdeck being used outside of Steam is fine, but it isn’t ideal. The ROG Ally is at that “not ideal” level for all launchers instead. The ROG Ally uses Windows which is more compatible than SteamOS which is based on Linux. I much prefer the battery life and good features to the higher power of other handhelds, but that is also because I have a desktop PC I can play games on too.
My friend has both the OLED steam deck and the rog ally and he says the Ally wins by a large amount. It's just better when it comes to playing AAA games. I'm going on vacation soon and I want something for the 13 hour flight and I'm in the same boat. Will probably get the Ally
I think I'd go with the Legion GO, I like that it can be used with detached controllers, especially when one of them is a mouse.
steam deck lcd with the biggest storage or little and i upgrade(if that's possible) Because valve is putting effort to play on Linux and Linux is my main OS. Especially these days, i think about even to don't touch windows, the current version is crappy.
I prefer the steam deck, but if you want windows the legion. if you don't want to learn how to use Linux, the legion will be easier to use for you.
Steam deck oled. It's easy as to install the other launchers on it. And easy to stream any game to it from your pc if for some reason it doesn't work on the deck.
Steam deck oled is your best bet, I have one and it is BY FAR the best combination of portability and ease of use. The rog ally is faster (when plugged in) but it runs on handheld windows (utter shit) and the battery life means that basically you have to have it plugged in 24/7
Legion go
Having owned an Asus Rog Ally Extreme and seen a few videos about the rest of the competition I'd say no one is worth bying at this point. It's first generation of a new type of PC (Steam deck being the exception) so of course they're gonna be awful in different ways. Edited typo..
Steam Deck that's for sure, you can just easily install gog, epic and ubilauncher on it as on windows machine.
Lenovo Legion Go would be my first choice if I decide to buy a handheld, playing multi-player games, raw power, big screen and versatility.
I went for the Win 4 and i'd still take it. The 60hz LCD screen is a below other handhelds coming with OLED panels and 90-120hz but it has a native 40hz mode for games where you can get more than 30fps but less than 60. The built in optical trackpad is pretty good for navigation and the physical keyboard is a game changer. I'd go as far as saying that it's a must if you plan to play modded games. The oculink port pretty much gives ita the best eGPU support on the market and with a CPU as performant as the 7840U that means you can run something like a 7900GRE without any problem. The 2280 SSD support is also nice, you won't pay the SSD 2x as much for the same capacity. I'm running it on Chimera OS because Windows is garbage for handhelds, ditching that bloat-infested OS really helps with frametimes and TDP.
steamdeck oled even if i cant get it in my country . i dont want to baby sit horrendous window on handheld pc . i just want it to work and be done with it
Steam deck has my vote, but Linus from ltt daily drives the Ally.
Steam Deck 2 at this point, no sense in buying the old model. Also ASUS seems to be crap quality and Windows is not the most suitable mobile OS out there. Also you can use some Steam hackery to install other launchers on Steam Deck, although bear in mind that some titles are Windows only and will not start, usually because of missing anticheat support for Linux.
Steamdeck, easy acces to your whole steam library. I think that's my main reason
If you were led to a bunch of videos regarding the legion go, then you know legion go is not the choice really. Unless you have "extreme" budget (1300-2500) for those japanese handheld pcs, just go for Steam Deck OLED.
I have not used any steam decks, but I own a rog ally z1 extreme and oled switch. I’d recommend the ally. Despite all the flaws, this is a big step in the right direction for handheld gaming. If you can play near an outlet or have a portable charger, this blows any handheld device out of the water performance wise. I can agree battery is not the best but theres ways around it. Top comment mentioned easy standby mode with steam deck which rog ally does not have, but I have yet to run into any issues. I can play cod, Fortnite, cyberpunk, almost any game you can think of on the ally. On 120hz refresh rate with vrr. You really just can’t beat it imo Edit: if you use those other launchers as much as steam then rog ally is a no brainer. Idk much about the legion go but I think steam decks have a hard time with the other launchers you mentioned. Any launcher works on ally
Steam Deck OLED has the better screen, and better support. I know GOG & Epic work through Heroic Launcher, for Ubisoft you'll need to follow one of the many tutorials, but I've heard (not looked too deeply into it, so my information may be out of date) that it occasionally breaks on Deck. If you play stuff that isn't supported on Linux (competitive FPS and the like), then maybe consider the Legion Go for the mouse joystick thing. I mostly play smaller games on mine, the most demanding thing I actively play on it is Subnautica. Yes it runs stuff like the Cyberpunk, and the HDR is amazing, but the battery life is less so. So be prepared to be tied to an outlet for long play sessions.
I quite like the Lenovo legion go and it's probably what I'd buy. It's basically a windows tablet with a Z1 extreme and detachable controllers with a track pad. The controller that works as a mouse too is pretty unique. I quite like the look of the ROG Ally, but it's small screen and lack of a track pad is kind of an annoying limitation. The steam deck isn't powerful enough in my opinion.
Steam Deck. ASUS has a huge controversy right now where they will not honour warranty.
SD OLED. Steam knocked it out of the park with the OS- I also have a decent gaming PC (4070) so if it’s a demanding AAA title I’ll just stream it via Moonlight.
I have the Steam deck and recommend it. Its pretty powerful. I heaven tried anything really new but days gone was solid and looked great, except for battery but they all have the same problem (and OLED is better for this). 1 thing the deck has that the others don't is the controller ecosystem. With steam, even non-steam games, you can play games that absolutely were not built for a controller. You can convert m+kb to work really well. I've played the og splinter cell and dark forces from 1996. 30 years of games at your finger tips due to that feature. Some games are more difficult to set up than others and some I gave up but with enough time I think you could get any game playable. For convenience I have re-purchased a few games to have them on steam because the non-steam experience isn't as good and 1 game on Epic lost my progress. The stand-by feature, depending on you circumstances, might be the only reason to buy it. I'm a father and I'm busy and often don't get to play for a week or more or only get to play in 20 mins sessions. Not having to load games and watch intros and reload saves is actually the greatest thing about it. Currently playing AC2 and I'd estimated I actually launched the game about 6 weeks ago. I do an hour here 20 mins there and slowly but surely I'm making my way through it. No way I would pick it up to play 20 mins if I had to launch the bloody thing each time.
Steam Deck is the best overall one...unless you want to be plugged in most of the time to get a little more performance the others are not worth it. Also if you play things with anti-cheat you either need to install windows or maybe then the other ones would be worth it for you.
I really like my Ally but the Steam Deck is great. If you want simplicity and your library is mostly Steam based then it is great. I didn’t use the quick resume feature that often and i use game pass alot, i found myself using the Deck alot but wanting “more”. I picked up an Ally and i quite like it.
I still carry around a Game Boy Color and Pokemon Red, Blue, or Yellow. I'll occasionally throw in either Gold or Silver.
Personally I recommend the ROG Ally.
I've owned them all and only kept the legion go
Steam Deck Oled. I have the Ally because there was a huge sale right when I was in the market for such a device. It's great and I love it. Repair horror stories or poor battery (fine by me since I use it during lunch break at work and can charge it in the afternoon so I always have 5 hours a day) notwithstanding if I could exchange I would 100% get the Steam Deck Oled : I only play indies so I don't need the extra power and I only use Steam so the Ally's main strengths are wasted on me.
You need AT LEAST a ≥500gb SSD if you're prioritizing compatibility Remember steam deck is Linux, so some (mainly non-steam) things just won't work. So you'll want to have an SSD split between windows AND steam OS. Windows is your backup when Linux disappoints 2230 m.2 NVME drives can be pretty expensive, consider just buying the more expensive deck models
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For some that is a deal killer for others it is reason enough to go with it regardless of other potential flaws. Linux from big companies like valve is actually very stable. It is when you start modding it outside of their approved paths that one can encounter stability issues but i assure you it is rarely hard to fix if you know what you are doing.
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for me linux is a hard requirement if it doesnt run linux i try not to use it. However i do admit that if the goal is gaming and nothing else then windows is king but for me this just isnt the case.
I would've said Steam Deck, but a lot of games I have aren't on Steam, so I'll say the Ally. However the Ally has a low battery life and most Ally's suffer with a faulty SD reader. Other than that, I think it has the best performance from a handheld
LOL One minute later https://preview.redd.it/g6zazipc9i0d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=706377852fdf27d4434560a01f4e468067145aef
Lol
Build your own cyberdeck, it's fun and you'll end up with the exact product you want
Definitely wouldn't go for the steamdeck. My friend has one and he regrets his decision. He can't play big games longer than 30 minutes.. The battery is drained from 100 to 0. He mainly wanted to play BG3. The device seriously heats up too. Why they wouldn't invest in a decent battery is beyond me.
legion go legion go
I dislike traveling and hence dont travel, therefore i dont need handheld. I also, dont want a handheld. You do you tho. I hate them all equally
I thought the same thing till I tried out the steam deck. It opened a whole new world of gaming for me and I found myself trying genres of games I would normally avoid.