Best handheld gaming PC in 2024

Valve has realized the total potential of its handheld with the Steam Deck OLED. The display screen is larger, brighter, and higher than the unique Deck in our quantity two spot, however the refresh is excess of meets the attention.

You get enhancements to battery life for longer gaming periods, a weight discount for larger consolation, plus Wi-Fi for faster downloads. The Steam Deck OLED is the perfect on-ramp for handheld PC gaming there’s, with just a few downsides. The APU contained in the OLED is nearly equivalent to the unique Deck, save for effectivity, and that locations the hand held considerably behind the curve by way of energy. Merely put, some triple AAA releases can be out of attain to you.

If you happen to’re on the lookout for a well-priced handheld with a shocking show and entry to your Steam library on the go, the Steam Deck OLED is the best choice.

Learn our Steam Deck OLED overview.

The Steam Deck wasn’t the primary handheld gaming PC, nevertheless it’s actually been essentially the most profitable. It provides you seamless integration with Steam and a console-like expertise means it may be as plug-and-play as you want – with the advantage of having a very user-tweakable OS underneath the hood.

The lower-end 64GB mannequin is now discontinued, however for now, you may nonetheless choose it up from retailers like Amazon, increase the storage, and pair it with the greatest Steam Deck equipment to carry it as much as a usable capability.

Titles corresponding to Starfield, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Remnant 2 trigger the Steam Deck to misstep. While we’re somewhat away from all main AAA releases being unplayable, the clock is ticking and you could really feel you get extra worth in the event you go for one thing somewhat newer.

The customized APU dubbed Van Gogh remains to be highly effective sufficient for many video games and in the event you primarily need to play by retro video games, 2D video games, sidescrollers, or emulated titles then you may be very happy with the efficiency. That is nonetheless a great-value handheld gaming PC.

Learn our Steam Deck overview.

Whereas we didn’t get the OLED show that was extensively rumored, the Asus ROG Ally X made large adjustments to nearly each different facet of its design and got here out the opposite facet as simply the perfect Home windows gaming handheld, even when Home windows is its greatest disadvantage when in comparison with the Steam Deck.

With 8GB further reminiscence, and sooner reminiscence at that, the ROG Ally X can outperform nearly any like-for-like handheld gaming PC out there proper now. Armoury Crate is far improved, and whereas not excellent, its interface is less complicated to know and navigate, which is big for many who don’t need to interact with Home windows 11.

The $799 price ticket is difficult to swallow, however truthful. One anticipated benefit of Ally X’s launch is that the bottom Ally Z1 Excessive has additionally seen its value diminished fairly drastically. Nonetheless, in the event you’re chasing the perfect efficiency in video games with out being restricted to Steam, the Ally X has the Steam Deck and all different Ally handhelds overwhelmed arms down.

Learn our Asus ROG Ally X overview.

With its 8.8-inch show, the Lenovo Legion Go is the hand held for you if you’d like a big-screen expertise. Whereas its dimension naturally helps with immersion, it’s additionally responsive, sharp, and vivid. With a local decision of 2560 x 1600 and a refresh fee of 144Hz, the IPS panel is about nearly as good because it will get for an LCD handheld.

There’s some highly effective {hardware} too. The AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive chipset makes the Legion Go one of the crucial highly effective handhelds round, nevertheless it’s additionally one of the crucial versatile because of the removable controllers and kickstand, which provide you with a novel expertise, particularly in ‘FPS Mode’.

The Legion Go does have just a few flaws. It’s a lot heavier than its rivals, weighing in at 854g, which might make utilizing it for lengthy durations a bit tiring. You’ll additionally have to tinker with settings and determination pretty ceaselessly, as 1600p will be too demanding for the Ryzen Z1 Excessive APU in lots of instances, and the software program will be fiddly.

Learn our Lenovo Legion Go overview.

The Aya Neo is a slick and svelte package deal that isn’t as astonishingly costly as the opposite non-Valve/Asus entries on our record right this moment. It has a superb OLED show permitting for excellent distinction ranges with true blacks and brilliant highlights making for a really vibrant and punchy picture.

OLEDs have good picture persistence too so there can be no seen ghosting and enter delays can be saved to a minimal given the very quick response time. Its pint-like statute means it would simply be stowed away in your bag and taking part in it on the go is way extra sensible than say with the comparatively monstrous Steam Deck.

The Steam Deck’s ace up its sleeve, nevertheless, is its droop characteristic which lets you choose up from the place you left off, one thing that’s sorely missed right here given how handy the Aye Neo Air is.

One other letdown is what’s powering the machine underneath the hood. The Ryzen 5 5560U. This sadly doesn’t maintain a candle to the RNDA 2 and RDNA 3-derived APUs powering the remainder of our roundup.

This limits the Air to much less processing intense video games, however that also covers a variety of floor. 2D-pixel video games notably shine on the OLED panel, for instance. That could be greater than sufficient for you – particularly when mixed with its smallness.

Sony’s PSP is arguably one of many best-designed items of tech ever conceived and it’s clear GPD is of this persuasion because it appears they took every thing nice about that and improved the controls and added a keyboard hidden beneath a sliding display screen.

While being an identical value to different handhelds, this novel building and high quality design make it our choose for essentially the most premium handheld gaming PC. While the display screen doesn’t slide up that a lot, it makes a noticeable distinction and your neck will thanks in the event you play it for any size of time.

The keyboard shouldn’t be essentially the most best typing expertise nevertheless it’s surprisingly useable. It additionally blows the Steam Deck and ROG Ally’s contact keyboard out of the water. Powering the GPD Win Max 2 is the Ryzen 6800U, a really performant APU that can see more moderen titles ticking alongside regardless of it not being the most recent and best.

By taking inspiration from the PSP although, the controls can solely be improved by a lot and they’re nonetheless extra cramped and uncomfortable than many of the different entries on this record. It’s after all fairly costly, however if you’re a PSP purist, that could be a small value to pay.

Whereas not a PC gaming handheld within the conventional sense, the Razer Edge provides you entry to your PC library through cloud streaming. You may hyperlink your Sport Move, GeForce Now, and Steam accounts to stream video games from wherever and the Edge does all of it with a shocking show and loads of energy to again it up.

Cell video games are additionally a breeze because of the Andriod OS, supplying you with the choice to run video games natively with its 128GB storage. After we reviewed the Razer Edge, we discovered the cloud streaming setup to have one notable flaw with its decision output, however past that, it was a incredible machine with loads of room to develop sooner or later.

Nexus is the trick that the Edge has up its sleeve, because it permits you to utterly remap the button inputs to the included Razer Kishi V2 controller. You may then make these overlays disappear, leaving your gaming expertise uninterrupted. This software program is just for cellular titles although, as PC cloudy streaming helps the Razer Kishi V2 as if it was a normal Xbox controller.

Learn our Razer Edge overview.