handheld pc Help me find a good handheld PC

[Mikuaria]

Hey there, I have been watching stuff about handheld PCs since the Steam Deck came out and now that I have a new job I kinda want one
I've always been a fan of gaming on my bed chilling out with my 3DS or my PsVita and now my switch, but not all the games are on it and the performances *sigh*
I bought a lot of games on switch because of the portability but now that I see all these new options that are PCs, I'm really asking myself if I should get one

I have 26 mins of train every morning and I live with my girlfriend which uses my PC and the TV too to play, so I would love to be able to play like Cyberpunk or Baldur's Gate on a handheld device
I would love you people to help me with this, since I see so many reviews that are so different, I don't really know so I would love to here about people's personal experiences with those machines

 

Thank y'all and have a nice day !

[Agall]

11 minutes ago, Mikuaria said:

Hey there, I have been watching stuff about handheld PCs since the Steam Deck came out and now that I have a new job I kinda want one
I've always been a fan of gaming on my bed chilling out with my 3DS or my PsVita and now my switch, but not all the games are on it and the performances *sigh*
I bought a lot of games on switch because of the portability but now that I see all these new options that are PCs, I'm really asking myself if I should get one

I have 26 mins of train every morning and I live with my girlfriend which uses my PC and the TV too to play, so I would love to be able to play like Cyberpunk or Baldur's Gate on a handheld device
I would love you people to help me with this, since I see so many reviews that are so different, I don't really know so I would love to here about people's personal experiences with those machines

 

Thank y'all and have a nice day !

Steam Deck LCD or OLED are the best bang for the buck with a compromise on compatibility (since it runs Linux). Also docking the Steam Deck is pretty mediocre. Overall best handheld right now is the ROG Ally X, but that's $800.

 

You also might be able to find a first gen ROG Ally for very cheap, since a lot of people might've upgraded to the Ally X. That eliminates eGPUs unless you want to spend an absurd amount on an XG Mobile version.

 

If you've considered using an eGPU, I just made this thread discussing this very topic with my experience.

 

 

[Brando212]

Steam Deck really is wiping the floor with the competition currently due to how much Valve is subsidizing the pricing, makes it really hard for others to compete.

 

We won't see much more competition until the next gen AMD handheld oriented chips IMO. Though that'll also probably be when Valve announces their Deck 2 lol

[Mikuaria]

17 hours ago, Agall said:

If you've considered using an eGPU, I just made this thread discussing this very topic with my experience.

That's not an option I'd consider, I already have my own PC for more "PC Gaming" games (LoL, Valorant, FF XIV) but this one would be more for like RPGs or other solo games to play little bits by little bits kinda like I use my switch now, playing a bit of TotK every day if you get what I mean

I might wait for new devices to come out before buying since I don't have much money and they might improve by that time

Thank you for your advice !

[Mikuaria]

Also, is it that hard to get to play epic games store or GoG games on a steam deck?
Or is it just, install windows and do your thing kinda stuff?

[Agall]

5 hours ago, Mikuaria said:

Also, is it that hard to get to play epic games store or GoG games on a steam deck?
Or is it just, install windows and do your thing kinda stuff?

External game libraries work, but are really obnoxious. Example being Battle.net, which would seemingly break everytime I went to launch it and would sometimes take like 10 minutes to get to the point of launching the game. That could just be a Steam Deck specific issue and those other stores might work just fine on Linux, but Battle.net barely functions.

[Brando212]

7 hours ago, Mikuaria said:

Also, is it that hard to get to play epic games store or GoG games on a steam deck?
Or is it just, install windows and do your thing kinda stuff?

super easy to install without having to move to Windows. Lutris, Heroic Luncher, and NonSteamLaunchers will cover most of your 3rd party needs.

 

Just got the HoYoPlay launcher installed on my deck through NonSteamLaunchers last night to play Genshin Impact, so I know it works well

[Brando212]

1 hour ago, Agall said:

External game libraries work, but are really obnoxious. Example being Battle.net, which would seemingly break everytime I went to launch it and would sometimes take like 10 minutes to get to the point of launching the game. That could just be a Steam Deck specific issue and those other stores might work just fine on Linux, but Battle.net barely functions.

how did you install? Can't say I've had any issues with the Battle.Net launcher, I've tested it both through Lutris and NonSteamLaunchers.

[Agall]

10 minutes ago, Brando212 said:

how did you install? Can't say I've had any issues with the Battle.Net launcher, I've tested it both through Lutris and NonSteamLaunchers.

Likely using the proton API, since I didnt see a Linux version. I had to reinstall it a couple of times since it would just simply break. Been a month or so since I last tried and my Deck has since been replaced.

[Brando212]

7 minutes ago, Agall said:

Likely using the proton API, since I didnt see a Linux version. I had to reinstall it a couple of times since it would just simply break. Been a month or so since I last tried and my Deck has since been replaced.

when you get a chance try installing it through Lutris or NonSteamLaunchers, both actually use Wine-GE by default instead of Valve's Proton build, and it runs a lot more stable through the GE builds from my experience.

 

edit: if using SteamDeck then I also recommend the following https://github.com/ublue-os/bazzite

Bazzite is a good SteamOS fork that is based on Fedora. Is not locked down outside of Flacks like SteamOS is and it gets more up-to-date packages. Is also fully Wayland unlike SteamOS in its current form.

[Dragonwinged]

I personally own a Steam Deck, and It's great. Ihave encountered a few games, mostly obscure indie games that don't work well, but pretty much all major single player Steam games will work with Steam deck with little to no tinkering. Unfortunately certain anti-cheat software will falsely read proton as cheat software, so it's best to check the game vefore you play. 

 

From thqe others I've heard most of them are decent, but Windows 11 simply isn't designed for a handheld. Certain devices like the ROG Ally have their own gamepad ui, but its not enabled on startup like steam deck ui. 

 

Avoid the MSI Claw. The thing would perform worse on games compared to the Steam deck, and that's with it set to max TDP, which is double that of the Steam Deck.