What handheld PCs should do to fight the Nintendo ...

I finished shopping for most video games for my Nintendo Change the day I purchased a Steam Deck. My Change has been a Mario and Zelda machine ever since. It’s easy: the Steam Deck took the Change’s finest trick — pick-up-and-play portability — whereas providing extra video games that run higher. I can simply resume those I began on my desktop PC, or proceed to play transportable titles on my desktop and marvel at improved graphics. 

However the Nintendo Switch 2, coming later this 12 months, could change that worth proposition. Not solely will it proceed to be the console that pulls households and children with creative, stunning, must-try unique Nintendo video games that use its detachable Joy-Cons’ many tricks, nevertheless it additionally has an actual probability at convincing the fans who would possibly in any other case purchase a handheld gaming PC — or who have been ready for handheld PCs to develop into much less of a wild west.

The Change 2 could meet or beat the Steam Deck in efficiency. If history’s any indication, it ought to simply promote higher than each handheld gaming PC mixed. When the unique Nintendo Change launched practically eight years in the past, there was almost nothing to play but Zelda, and Nintendo held its sport catalog in an iron grip — however now, the backwards-compatible Change 2 will launch with one of many largest and most welcoming libraries of all time, rivaled solely by smartphones and computer systems. The Change might theoretically develop into the brand new baseline for sport builders to focus on, and essentially the most dependable place to search out new handheld-friendly titles.

So: How can the budding handheld PC revolution escape the shadow of the Change 2? I gained’t say I do know for positive, however I did simply examine the {industry}’s temperature at CES 2025, the world’s largest tech present — and I’m afraid PC handhelds could keep in that shadow except the {industry} does extra. 

Handheld ergonomics was one shiny spot going into 2025. Whereas I nonetheless want the Deck’s total really feel, virtually each PC handheld I touched had properly sculpted grips that made them extra snug to carry than their predecessors. From the 8-inch MSI Claw 8 AI Plus and Lenovo Legion Go S, to the 8.8-inch Legion Go 2, and the enormous 11-inch Tencent Sunday Dragon, even the biggest Home windows handhelds didn’t really feel as awkward as a few of their first-gen predecessors.

There are 4 locations I feel the {industry} has to vary — and possibly, band collectively — if these handhelds need a significant piece of the Change. 

Consumers have to know that their sport will likely be able to play after they press the facility button on a handheld. That’s the Nintendo Change expertise, and it’s just like how the Steam Deck works as soon as video games are downloaded — nevertheless it’s removed from what Home windows handhelds at the moment provide.

That’s why the three largest items of handheld gaming information on the present had little to do with the {hardware} itself. They have been about ditching right this moment’s model of handheld Home windows. 

First, Lenovo revealed it might produce the first authorized third-party handheld to ship with Valve’s easy-to-use SteamOS as a substitute of Home windows — one thing solely the Steam Deck has completed to date. Second, Valve instructed us it might convey a SteamOS beta to additional third-party handhelds as quickly as this April. Third, a Microsoft executive told The Verge that the corporate would lastly do one thing significant about its bloated Home windows expertise on handhelds later this 12 months, combining “the very best of Xbox and Home windows collectively.” 

These strikes are heartening, because it’s a Wild West in handheld PC land. Most corporations go for a replica of Home windows that doesn’t reliably launch video games or sleep and wake correctly, defeating a few of the function of a pick-up-and-play handheld expertise. They’re crammed with difficult-to-navigate UI and pointless bloatware, too — to the purpose that right this moment, a community-created fork of Valve’s SteamOS UI is already a far better experience than Home windows. 

It’s additionally good for SteamOS followers: whereas the Steam Deck is a superb platform for SteamOS, we’ve already seen the Deck can’t compete with the Change by itself. Sport publishers don’t see the raw sales numbers to convey massive multiplayer video games like Fortnite or Valorant to SteamOS. (They are saying cheaters are too big a risk.)

However, whereas the CES strikes are important, Valve, Microsoft, and Lenovo are non-committal about how a lot issues would possibly enhance. Microsoft would solely give me the barest hints about making Home windows really feel extra like an Xbox sport console in some unspecified time in the future later this 12 months. Lenovo is hedging its SteamOS wager laborious — not solely will the Legion Go S ship in each Home windows and SteamOS varieties, the Home windows model will go on sale months earlier, and Lenovo gained’t decide to SteamOS for its bigger, later-in-2025 handheld. 

No different firm introduced a SteamOS handheld at CES, both, save for PC maker GPD, with a claim that was apparently false or misplaced in translation. Valve instructed me it has no different accomplice gadgets at the moment within the works for SteamOS, although it’d be blissful to work with extra corporations. I imagine each handheld maker ought to give SteamOS a shot.

This one’s straightforward: to maximise efficiency, battery life, economies of scale, and provide a closer-to-game-console expertise, handheld PC makers ought to universally undertake a 1080p-or-lower-resolution HDR OLED display screen with variable refresh price. 

Many PC producers are losing what little efficiency they’ll muster from a handheld chip and battery on a display screen with far too many pixels for the duty, artificially constraining efficiency and battery life in trade for 1600p or 1200p sharpness that the majority avid gamers gained’t miss on a 7-inch to 8-inch panel. Moreover, each handheld with out a variable refresh price display screen is probably going losing a great chunk of the frames that their handheld can serve as a result of their display screen is artificially limiting their framerate — VRR was the Asus ROG Ally’s secret weapon, letting it play video games extra easily than competing handhelds even when rivals’ chips supplied the identical FPS.

Lastly, HDR is a revelation on the Steam Deck OLED’s screen, letting each native titles and the HDR video games I stream from my PS5 really feel like they’re crammed with actual mild that explodes out of the display screen. It’s one thing Home windows desktops and laptops have by no means persistently supplied the way in which right this moment’s consoles do, however handhelds might be the gateway to altering that.

Is a display screen just like the one I’m describing costly or laborious to search out? Band collectively, PC corporations, and absolutely a show maker can change that for you.

Except you rely the Nvidia Tegra on the coronary heart of the Nintendo Change, AMD is the chief in handheld chips. However its semi-custom Aerith and Sephiroth parts for the Steam Deck really feel just like the solely ones proactively designed with power-sipping handhelds in thoughts, leaving everybody else at a portability drawback. And it appears like AMD’s new Z2 line won’t be all that completely different.

AMD’s Z1 batch of chips in handhelds just like the Asus ROG Ally wasn’t initially for handheld; they’re mildly tweaked laptop computer processors that want 17 or 18 watts to start to hit their stride, sufficient for an entire handheld to empty a typical 50Wh battery pack in properly below three hours with mildly intensive video games.

The Z2 line is equally a set of tweaked laptop computer chips, and whereas AMD instructed me some could provide extra efficiency on the identical energy and add improved effectivity tweaks, the entire consumed energy could not lower. Lenovo product supervisor Alex Zhu instructed me it’s working its Legion Go S’s Z2 Go chip at round 20 watts, which could give it worse battery life than the 15-watt-and-below Steam Deck even when its GPU is extra succesful. AMD additionally confirmed the Z2 Go is much less highly effective than the prior-gen Z1 Excessive.

AMD senior fellow Mahesh Subramony instructed me the corporate’s flagship Z2 Excessive chip, on TSMC’s shrunk-down N4P course of node with a mixture of newer Zen 5, Zen 5c and RDNA 3.5 cores, needs to be each extra environment friendly and rather more succesful than the Z2 Go, and fairly a bit higher than the Z1 Excessive as properly, nevertheless it’s not a leap ahead. Which will require AMD’s even newer RDNA 4 graphics, and it might require bespoke processors.

Don’t maintain your breath should you’re hoping Intel would possibly present significant competitors within the handheld chip realm. Whereas early evaluations of the Intel Lunar Lake chip within the revised MSI Claw 8 AI Plus are fairly promising, its pricey Lunar Lake chip may be a bit of a one-off, with future Intel components steering away from the power-saving on-die reminiscence that Intel experimentally added. I’m curious if that’s why MSI hasn’t fully launched the Claw as anticipated.

In the meantime, Intel actually has bigger fish to fry right now than making {custom} handheld chips. “It’s not a market that we’re actively pursuing, nevertheless it’s a market we’re blissful to allow,” Intel VP of technical advertising Robert Hallock tells me of handheld gaming. “It’s considerably extracurricular,” he added, explaining that it’s a enjoyable and thrilling however small market and that Intel has to select its battles. “We’re coming off admittedly, about 5, six years of strife and we now have to resolve the place we need to make investments.”.

Some producers have been capable of enhance the battery life drawback of right this moment’s off-the-shelf AMD chips by together with a a lot bigger battery pack — the Asus ROG Ally X doubled the dimensions of its predecessor’s pack to 80 watt-hours, and it’s now not the one 80Wh handheld you should buy. However that comes with measurement and weight tradeoffs that may only be partially engineered away.

We want handheld makers to hitch collectively and make a case for higher chips.

The PC {industry} additionally wants to chop costs if it desires an opportunity to eat Nintendo’s lunch. 

The Nintendo Change debuted at $299 in 2017 — round $380 in right this moment’s cash — and the OLED model arrived at $349 in 2021. A 12 months later, Valve’s Steam Deck debuted at $399. However right this moment, the only Windows handheld gaming PC I can recommend prices $799, roughly twice the worth of an entry-level Deck, and most Home windows handhelds have began at $600 and up. Excessive-end choices are nice, however the house could stay area of interest with out low-end choices, too. 

Solely the least costly mannequin of Lenovo’s SteamOS variant of the Legion Go S will lower that bar to $499 this Could. And all of these costs are nonetheless greater than Sony or Microsoft costs for a TV console with way more efficiency, and sure greater than Nintendo will cost for the Change 2.

I’m undecided what precisely PC makers would wish to do to problem the Change on value, nevertheless it’s possible not easy. Valve CEO Gabe Newell said it was “painful” but “critical” to launch the Steam Deck at $399, hinting that the corporate could have adopted the razor-and-blades business model the place console makers initially promote {hardware} at a loss, then make the cash again as individuals purchase video games. In that case, that’s a troublesome act to observe, as no different PC maker controls the world’s largest PC video games retailer and might afford to subsidize a handheld that method.

However not each console has been a loss chief: Nintendo reportedly by no means offered the Change at a loss, and Sony stopped selling the PS5 at a loss lower than a 12 months after its debut. So it’s attainable to chop costs with the correct invoice of supplies and economies of scale. Lenovo explicitly instructed me it labored with AMD on the Z2 Go chip to assist decrease the Legion Go S’s value, for instance.

To compete with Nintendo, an organization like Microsoft or Valve and even Sony wants to guide the cost, securing the elements and providing the correct working system for dozens of true Change rivals Think about dozens of portable Xboxes or PlayStations or Steam Machines, as a substitute of every PC maker marching to the beat of their very own drum.

I feel it’s time for an industry-wide push on handheld gaming. It might be the future of gaming, period. There’s an excessive amount of at stake to sort out it one half-baked Home windows handheld at a time.