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[Hugare]

How much to get one of those over in the States?
Though cellphones games don't count. 2 hours of heat before a dead battery doesn't make for good portable fun.

The Odin 2 Base is $299 and it's the most powerful android device yet. It runs everything up to Switch and some PC games. Im from Brazil, so I dunno about shipping to your location, but I think it may cost $20 or $30.

Now some devs are making Wii U and PS3 emulators for it. Wii U have some playable games such as Deus Ex Human Revolution and Wind Waker HD, both run perfectly.
PS3 is still too young (1 month), so give it time, but some PSN titles are already fully playable.

About the battery: Odin 2 has an 8.000mah battery. It can play PS2 for 7h.

In comparison, Rog Ally can play PS2 for 2h.



Android devices are way more battery efficient than x86 devices such as SD or Ally.

If you want to play older devices in portable form, its the way to go

 

[rm082e]

Handheld gaming PCs are a niche market for sure. I own a Steam Deck, play it a few times a year when I'm traveling, and think it's cool. But I represent maybe 5% of the PC gaming audience or less. The only thing some of the Windows deck clones have going for them is better specs. From a software and ecosystem standpoint, they suck balls. The first thing you would probably want to do with them is format and install the Steam OS.

I think Microsoft is going to be in for a real disappointment with whatever they're doing. If it's just a hand-held PC with an Xbox logo and crappy UI on it, that's going to flop hard. If it's a closed ecosystem device, that's going to flop even harder. I don't see any way it sells more than a few million units.

 

[Magic Carpet]

About the battery: Odin 2 has an 8.000mah battery. It can play PS2 for 7h.

Holy heck that is impressive. My iPhone gets only around 3 to 4 hours of battery life playing big games like Genshin Impact. Resident Evil Village even less.

 

[Minsc]

That's why I sold my Steam Deck and I don't even like taking the Switch around. They're just too big. The DS and PSP are the perfect size.

True, but you also have to consider the people gaming on a Switch, Switch 2 and Steam Deck, are not playing SD games from that era, or even sub-SD. Try playing Civilization 7 on a 4" screen, or Baldur's Gate 3, or Elden Ring and reading the descriptions of abilities and other small text.

Hell, even a 7" screen isn't that great, and you see people frequently clamoring the Go's giant ~9" screen.

When you're trying to resolve what's normally shown on a 85"+ HDTV at 2160p on a tiny 4" screen at 480p, it just doesn't work like it used to.

 

[RaptorGTA]

Something to consider is where a person is playing their handheld.

Myself and a few friends i talk too just like being able to sit on the couch, bed, somewhere around the house and play.

When I worked in an office, it was nice to play for a short time on my handheld. If I travel, I'll bring something along to play here and there.

I personally love my Legion Go but it is limited.

 

[RoboFu]

Just another milestone to all mobile future. PCs running toward mobile and mobile running toward pc specs.

I just wonder if we will hit all in one home servers of just skip to everything in the cloud but super fast connections?
It's interesting to think about at least.

 

[DrMano]

I will tell you where it is coming from:

Xbox and its fanboys desperately trying to find a place where they can exist.

I feel attacked <=C

 

[Badlucktroll]

i think microsoft is gonna do it but they will be a day late and a dollar short as always

 

[RCU005]

It worked for Nintendo because of their style of games but for us enthusiasts is that really how we want to play our games? I am old fashioned but I want the full experience-- big screen OLED with the sound blasting on my Pioneer surround sound system. I understand the traveling part but to me it dulls the experience. Can all the graphical advances be appreciated on the small screen? Where is this demand coming from as they appear to be niche products outside of the Switch.

It's not that people want it. The industry wants it because it's a way to cut costs, and make graphical inferior games, and also cheaper. They want to convince you to want it.

Following Nintendo, it's a bad idea though. It's going to happen the same thing it did with the motion controls. Sony and MS released their version, but it was way too late.

Even though Nintendo is keeping the concept of hybrid console, I bet they are already moving on within R&D to make something new for the following gen, while everybody will still be trying to get into the handheld, but it's too late.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

Even though Nintendo is keeping the concept of hybrid console, I bet they are already moving on within R&D to make something new for the following gen, while everybody will still be trying to get into the handheld, but it's too late.

The Switch is really more a portable that has a dock. I don't think they will ever go back to making a dedicated console.

 

[Three]

It's not so much that it's an overreaction, it's more that the minimum requirement for new games has stagnated over the last 5-6 years or so, which has made mobile chips more viable than ever for modern games.

Not sure that's entirely true, with more crossgen it certainly is but Steamdeck launched in 2022 and already it's struggling to run modern PS5/XS only games.

I think it's more the fact that a sizable library of older games now exist and improvements in mobile chips that made it take off and not so much stagnation in game requirements for the newer current gen games.

 

[Jigsaah]

I think it basically boils down to the success of mobile gaming. It the next step...that Nintendo has already taken and dominates. PC handhelds are a very different market and still in it's infancy. This feels like when console gaming began and you had SNES, Genesis, 3DO, Jaguar, NEOGEO, etc. Home consoles were the gold rush of that time. Now PC handhelds is the new gold rush. Simple really.

 

[nemiroff]

How many proprietary platforms are we talking about here? If they use the same platforms., who cares.

 

[Sooner]

I will tell you where it is coming from:

Xbox and its fanboys desperately trying to find a place where they can exist.

I think their other strategy is better - just saying PS5 is an Xbox.

 

[poppabk]

This. Literally this. Its only Xbox going crazy for it.

Isn't a big part of it the success of the portal? Xbox is the only one who doesn't have a handheld.

 

[damidu]

I will tell you where it is coming from:

Xbox and its fanboys desperately trying to find a place where they can exist.

getting your ass handed to you by sony, only to go against steam+nintendo next round sure sounds like a xbox plan.

 

[PSYGN]

It is not about satisfying an existing demand. It is about creating the demand.

Sounds like something Microsoft and Xbox would say

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Consoles and PC are pretty saturated

These companies are trying to rush into what they think is a new market but Steam Deck is proof that the market is quite limited in size

 

[EverydayBeast]

High schools in America deal with students and gaming handhelds, gameboy, sp, ds and psp were huge in schools.

 

[Humdinger]

It worked for Nintendo because of their style of games but for us enthusiasts is that really how we want to play our games? I am old fashioned but I want the full experience-- big screen OLED with the sound blasting on my Pioneer surround sound system. I understand the traveling part but to me it dulls the experience. Can all the graphical advances be appreciated on the small screen? Where is this demand coming from as they appear to be niche products outside of the Switch.

I'm with you on the bolded part, but Nintendo's success makes it clear that a lot of people don't agree with us. They prefer the handheld option, even if that means they're playing at lower resolutions. Personally, I've got no need for portable gaming, but I can't dispute how popular it is. So I can't blame companies for trying to cash in.

 

[Tams]

Boy do I have news for you.

That's not really what they meant though.

All those (Chinese) OEMs making such devices make no games for them.

Now, there's a massive back catalogue, made bigger by the old home console games now runnable on modern mobile devices (but they have the issue of not being made to be mobile games).

WarioWare is a prime example.

 

[Justin9mm]

They probably aren't taking off because they aren't realistically portable.

Yeah but the screens need to be bigger than they once were for modern games especially AAA. On an older PSP etc. You wouldn't see shit. I used to use a phone holder on my series X and PS5 controller to remote play and whilst I'm using the actual controller and physically playing was great, it was still horrible because you can't see shit. I have a PS Portal now and playing on the 8" screen for some games, there is no way I could go back to something smaller. For the price you pay for something like the Steam Deck or Legion, I wouldn't buy it unless it was at least 8" now because of my experience.

 

[Comandr]

Yeah but the screens need to be bigger than they once were for modern games especially AAA. On an older PSP etc. You wouldn't see shit. I used to use a phone holder on my series X and PS5 controller to remote play and whilst I'm using the actual controller and physically playing was great, it was still horrible because you can't see shit. I have a PS Portal now and playing on the 8" screen for some games, there is no way I could go back to something smaller. For the price you pay for something like the Steam Deck or Legion, I wouldn't buy it unless it was at least 8" now because of my experience.

Recently got to go hands on with a PSP for a little bit. I forgot just how small the thing is. I remember when I got one the screen felt absolutely MASSIVE compared to my GBA SP. In some ways, having such a small device is nice nowadays for quick on the go gaming. Honestly though messing around with it for a little bit, my hands started to cramp pretty fast. As phones have gotten bigger, I think people have gotten more accustomed to larger screens. I mean, my phone has nearly a 7 inch screen. It doesn't feel unwieldy at all to me. At one point, I thought the steam deck was enormous, and now I wouldn't mind if it was actually sliiiightly bigger with a larger battery and 8 inch screen.

Also: holy shit. I've never seen a PSP E-1000. I actually had to look it up. I love the design. I could live without the capacitive buttons but the rest is clean af. Love the matte black.

 

[yet_another_alt]

High schools in America deal with students and gaming handhelds, gameboy, sp, ds and psp were huge in schools.

If only that were still the case. Phones are much worse than gaming handhelds as a distraction.

 

[Parazels]

Those windows handhelds will never take off, until they get user friendly interface. They are like windows 6.5 phones before Android and iOS: attractive for several enthusiasts, but not for a mass market.

 

[bitbydeath]

Handhelds are more niche than VR.
It works for Nintendo because it’s a hybrid but I doubt many use it as a handheld.

 

[Ashamam]

The killer portable will be smart glasses and a controller providing the compute. But it’s going to need Vision Pro levels of stability in the virtual screen. That isn’t easy. But it has been done so just a matter of time before they get it into a smaller form factor like glasses. Maybe by splitting the device into two wearables, we’ll see.

 

[Nikodemos]

The biggest problem with Windows handhelds is that modern Windows is a violently shit OS, especially for a portable. This has a self-limiting effect on the desirability of such devices. Anybody who struggled with desktop Windows will say "fuck no, not again", especially with a control scheme that's not fully compatible with a mouse-driven interface. Plus, the actually good ones (ex. Ally X) are on the expensive side.

Steam Deck is not sold on general electronics storefronts, therefore it has intrinsically reduced discoverability. Only Steam users can directly get informed of its existence. The price is circa ~$80 too high across the range. And there's still some fiddlyness involved with setting up, especially in the case of non-Steam games, or 3rd party improvements (DLSS-to-FSR, 80% charge hold).

Given all these considerable pitfalls, I'd say that the posted sales estimates are actually on the 'nearly robust' side, hence the relative optimism regarding the segment. Of course, things need to greatly improve in order to get any real traction. SteamOS needs to become fully hardware-agnostic, and get more QoL improvements (SD doesn't even have a native charge % limiter, vital on a battery-powered device), in order to spread beyond select handhelds (SD/Ally X). There are several older, now discontinued, PC handhelds (ex. AYN Loki Max) which would considerably benefit from SteamOS's ~13(+/-2)% performance increase over Windows.

I won't go too much into the Microsoft side, since I find it highly unlikely they'll delouse Windows to an acceptable enough degree as to become handheld-friendly. It would go against their whole corporate doctrine. Maybe they'll make some sort of XboxOS, but its inherent reduced compatibility with non-Xbox games will, again, limit the desirability of such a handheld (I can't see XboxOS allowing some sort of GOG/Epic sideloading, a la SteamOS). And MS doesn't have the semblance of an 'ecosystem', unlike Sony (to sell a potential Xbox portable as companion device).

 

[Ozzie666]

The space is getting crowded that's for sure. PC manufacturers helping grow Steam. But don't kid yourselves, these aren't hand helds in the traditional sense, with hand held game development. Just a fancy portable PC playing at weaker specs, which is the oppsite of the PC master race manefesto. Suddenlty graphics and power aren't important.

It's still very niche and many comapnies are going to jump in and fail. I think steam deck just show's it's not about the power.

 

[cireza]

Sounds like something Microsoft and Xbox would say

This is what every company wishes it could achieve. The obsession over MS is destroying your brain.

 

[cireza]

Yeah but the screens need to be bigger than they once were for modern games especially AAA. On an older PSP etc. You wouldn't see shit. I used to use a phone holder on my series X and PS5 controller to remote play and whilst I'm using the actual controller and physically playing was great, it was still horrible because you can't see shit. I have a PS Portal now and playing on the 8" screen for some games, there is no way I could go back to something smaller. For the price you pay for something like the Steam Deck or Legion, I wouldn't buy it unless it was at least 8" now because of my experience.

You don't see shit because games aren't optimized for the small screen. This is a developer/priority issue, not hardware. PSP games have large text and are easy to read.

Nowadays you need bigger and bigger screen because no effort is made on that side. This is just TV presentation on a small screen, please have bionic eyes or accept to barely read anything.

 

[Shtof]

Yes, they do.
But they see Switch numbers and are unable to help themselves.

 

[Gojiira]

Isn't a big part of it the success of the portal? Xbox is the only one who doesn't have a handheld.

Portal isnt a handheld console though, its a peripheral, a accessory to the PS5. Like seriously it does nothing on its own.
And the whole Xbox handheld stuff started way back with the Switch and has only intensified since the Switch 2 reveal.
Its just like others have said, its Xbox throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks rather than a unified, deliberate approach.

 

[Gojiira]

Im sure Portal gave them a nudge though at least

 

[StereoVsn]

I kind of wish someone would make a more traditional handheld. I recently played through WarioWare Twisted and am currently working through OOT and I really miss the smaller form factors.

Switch Lite or bunch of emulation handhelds exist.

 

[Three]

They probably aren't taking off because they aren't realistically portable.

This is a result of not having games developed for handhelds but TV games on a handheld. The experience would be shite trying to read HUD/UIs so now we lose portability as the tradeoff.

 

[Horseganador]

It's saturating the market with many systems that do basically the same thing (Xbox will be years late to the party) and that are really selling a pittance, NS2 will sell more than all of them combined in its first month.

 

[tkscz]

This is a result of not having games developed for handhelds but TV games on a handheld. The experience would be shite trying to read HUD/UIs so now we lose portability as the tradeoff.

It's more than that. The handheld PC market is also killing off the need for longer battery life with the longest barely eeking over 2 hours. Don't get me wrong, I like seeing what AMD puts out there with it's "mobile" chips, but they are still x86 based and require quite a bit of power to run games well. I think the new 395+ Max (dumb name) is an unbelievable step forward when running at 40+ watts but won't feel much better than the current Z2 extreme when brought down to 15w. Running it at 30w would be better but you'll have an hour or less in battery.

Not to mention for these to be portable, you have to have a carrying case or bag, vs my N3DS XL slipping right into my pocket and lasting for more than 5+ hours. One of the main purposes of handheld games is the convenience of whipping it out and playing a quick session of a game and then putting it back away. Something that we are losing overtime.

Yet Chinese handheld makers are making smaller handhelds using ARM chips that output GPU power that even out powers that Switch. Even more Apple's iPhones are doing the same while having more battery life and can slip right into the pocket.

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

I've bought more Xbox consoles than I can count. I have over 500 xbox games digitally and I don't even know how many physical and I can tell you that I'll never spend another dollar on Xbox as long as they live now. Not only are they late to the handheld party but they don't offer anything I can't get elsewhere. It could be 40 Tflops with a built in dick-jerking arm and a cigarette dispenser and I still wouldn't touch it.

Switch 2, I can't wait for that. Know why? I can't get their games anywhere else. It's that simple.

 

[diffusionx]

This is a result of not having games developed for handhelds but TV games on a handheld. The experience would be shite trying to read HUD/UIs so now we lose portability as the tradeoff.

all this says to me is that the idea of playing these games on a handheld is fundamentally flawed. The best games on these handhelds are usually designed for them, which is why the DS is so beloved, you basically had to make a DS game for it and it led to crazy stuff like Hotel Dusk and TWEWY.

Of course it seems like capitalism's drive to monopolization has squeezed the life out of the bespoke (DF alert) handheld market.

 

[PurePlatinum]

The switch is an outlier and succeeds because of a completely un-replicable element, which is Nintendo games. Steam Deck is actually a very niche product.

I don't think PS/Xbox are going to find the same success here. PS Portal to me is the perfect solution to this use case.

 

[poppabk]

Portal isnt a handheld console though, its a peripheral, a accessory to the PS5. Like seriously it does nothing on its own.
And the whole Xbox handheld stuff started way back with the Switch and has only intensified since the Switch 2 reveal.
Its just like others have said, its Xbox throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks rather than a unified, deliberate approach.

Didnt they add streaming without owning a PS5?
Anyway I think people are talking mainly about the form factor which is popular with people who don't have full control of the TV. Kids, people with families etc.

 

[bender]

Switch Lite or bunch of emulation handhelds exist.

I still think the Switch Lite is too large and I own a bunch of emulation handhelds. It's not what I'm talking about. I'd like to see a new portable that is actually portable with games being developed for it. And for a while prediction, I think Nintendo will do this eventually which will help them reset and stay well behind the market leaders in graphics tech where they are most comfortable operating.

 

[StereoVsn]

I still think the Switch Lite is too large and I own a bunch of emulation handhelds. It's not what I'm talking about. I'd like to see a new portable that is actually portable with games being developed for it. And for a while prediction, I think Nintendo will do this eventually which will help them reset and stay well behind the market leaders in graphics tech where they are most comfortable operating.

That won’t ever happen as game dev is too expensive.

 

[bender]

That won’t ever happen as game dev is too expensive.

Nintendo already delayed hardware advancements with the Wii and Switch. I wouldn't be surprised if it happens again as they are doing this because game dev is too expensive.

 

[GymWolf]

Yes, hopefully this shit is gonna fade sooner rather than later.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

I'd like to see a new portable that is actually portable with games being developed for it.

That's what the Switch is.

 

[bender]

That's what the Switch is.

Read the entire thread.

 

[Durin]

I think some companies that can't create a reason for you to buy their product over others will leave the market since many are trying their hand at PC or Android handhelds...but I think the handheld (or these hybrids that can plug into a tv too) market is only going to grow.

We're hitting diminished returns on graphics at the mid-tier and high-end for consoles and desktops, too many games failing at high budgets, and almost half the Playstation userbase still on last-gen hardware (many Steam users still have GPUs equivalent of PS4 era power). The Switch 2 will be the equivalent of last-gen hardware, but you can take it anywhere, and other handheld PCs will climb a bit past that along with external GPU options.

As the perceivable fidelity differences diminish, more people will opt for the portability benefit, or want it as a companion device if it can play most of their existing game library. The market isn't highlander, you can have more than just Nintendo make a profit off it.

 

[yogaflame]

I still prefer console and pc gaming than handheld. My neck hurts and eye strain when playing to much on handheld.