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The older ones among us may well recall the infamous Smach Z - a Steam Deck before there was a Steam Deck. Setting aside the smattering of devices developed by Chinese companies like GPD and AYA, Smach Z was supposed to be one of the progenitors of proper, full-fledged handheld PC gaming for the mainstream gamer.
And then it fell flat on its face, of course.
Thankfully, the industry has very well moved on from that embarrassment. There's the Steam Deck, of course, but handheld gaming consoles have absolutely proliferated over the past couple of years, with examples such as the Asus ROG Ally and - of course - a whole assortment of exciting devices like the OneXPlayer Mini, GPD Win 4, AYANEO Air Pro, and others.
In other words, it's a good time to be into handheld gaming PCs, and today, we'll explain precisely why that is the case and why it might've been better had all these devices come along just a few years before.
READ MORE: Choosing the Best OS for Gaming
The Time of the Handheld Gaming PC is Here
It feels like it was yesterday, but back in 2021 we had a pretty solid idea of just how big of a deal the Steam Deck would end up being. Valve knocked it out of the park with a device that was, at the time, one of the best handheld gaming PCs we had ever seen. Was it perfect? Oh, goodness, no. At that form factor, though, perfection is untenable, as the thought process behind the best handheld gaming consoles focuses on features that suffered the least from moving over to mobile gaming.
In a handheld gaming PC, you're primarily constrained by the device's battery. Our current battery tech only stretches so far; as it currently stands, there are hard limits on how much power one can store in a lithium cell. That, combined with the current trends of GPUs alone drawing hundreds of Watts of power at a time means a rethink was in order for the modern handheld gaming PCs.
That's where the Deck's immaculate efficiency comes into the picture, and Valve's focus on caps: framerate caps, frame time caps, and clever refresh rate combos. We discussed these in our low-end PC optimization guide if you're interested! The key bit, though, is that this re-focusing of the handheld gaming PC from cutting-edge AAA experiences to something more realistic is what opened the door for the handheld device niche.
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What is the Best Handheld Gaming PC?
While many PC gamers looking to enter the handheld gaming PC niche may be hoping to snag the absolute best handheld device possible, it's important to underline that there really is no such thing right now.
To illustrate our point, the Asus ROG Ally runs Windows, giving you ultimate compatibility across the board. The Steam Deck is an ergonomic awesomeness, as well as featuring the best handheld gaming OS (as of 2023), and with support from Valve to boot. The GPD Win 4, on the other hand, looks incredible, as it emulates the legendary PS Vita all the while containing cutting-edge hardware and a variety of bonus features. We're only scratching the surface here, mind.
We could, feasibly, go on for the foreseeable future, as no gaming handheld comes without compromise. Do you want to run all of your favorite PC games without worrying about DMR and/or compatibility? The Deck is out of the picture. Do you want maximum support and customization potential? Anything Windows-related is out of the picture.
You get the point: the best handheld gaming PCs are many, and choosing just one is virtually impossible without leaning into your specific needs and wants.
Will a Powerful Handheld Gaming PC Run Any Modern Game?
This, too, is a layered question with no small deal of complexity implied within. Playing games - AAA games, in particular - on a gaming handheld usually works out rather well. If you really want to go for demanding games, like the recent Remnant 2, then even the best handheld gaming PCs will have a hard time dealing with it.
The ability to play games on a portable PC depends entirely on its hardware and its battery life, both of which are compromised by default in a portable PC. That's a roundabout way of saying that you're essentially gaming on a low-spec PC in the first place, of course, but the good news is that the tech itself is there if you don't mind 30 FPS.
Even the best handheld gaming PC, hardware-wise, will still need to reduce in-game settings to get truly playable frame rates, but that's really not your main enemy here. Instead, you need to contend with the following:
- excessively prohibitive DRM
- operating system compatibility level
- always-online titles
- third-party storefronts
These are your main issues while playing on a handheld gaming PC, and it's something to be aware of when trying to run modern games. Do keep in mind, of course, that you can stream games from your dedicated gaming PC or via GeForce Now, however!
Which PC Games are Best to Play on Handhelds?
No matter which handheld gaming PC you choose, its ability to play PC games is now a given, and it's time to choose which games to play. Your first order of business here should be our two dedicated shortlists:
These will give you a phenomenal kick-off for your future handheld gaming sessions, right off the bat! More importantly, they will also give you an idea of what to look for when you're picking games on your own.
In short, here's what you want to keep in mind:
- Indies are a delightful choice
- 2D games will usually perform great, but not always
- You may wish to avoid DRM-heavy multiplayer-only games (broadly speaking)
- AAAs of the yesteryear - up to PS4/XB1 - are a great choice
And that does bring us to the most interesting point of this whole schtick: had an equally powerful handheld gaming PC come out just a year or two ahead of the Deck, there'd be effectively no game that wouldn't run phenomenally well on it.
It's really only the modern, cutting-edge stuff in Unreal 5 and such that's starting to chug. Heck, you've got Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart running incredibly well on the Deck, and that's a current-gen exclusive to boot! So, the modern handheld gaming PC has definitely met its match, but's fine, because you can still play PC games that aren't breaking tech barriers every step of the way.
What's the Next Step for This Niche?
By now, we've established a few key talking points on the given topic:
- There's no such thing as the best handheld gaming PC at this time
- The Steam Deck is great, but not perfect (its value will diminish once we get a second handheld with trackpads!)
- Most games run, often not perfectly
- Battery life is a huge issue
The niche, however, is firmly established. We do have the Nintendo Switch to thank for much of the category's proliferation, absolutely, but the concept of mainstream portable gaming with previously desktop PC experiences is now firmly entrenched into the gaming industry. It's not going anywhere, and with both AAA games and AA games and indies and even emulator enthusiasts all getting their own chance in the limelight, it's a great time to be a gamer.
In a few years' time, we expect the niche to grow further still. Better portable hardware, improved operating system support, and more publisher-level support for games themselves are all a given. Playing all your games on the go is now a thing, after all, and portable gaming has been elevated far beyond what Smach Z once promised.
Good stuff, that.
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