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[Gamezone]

With the release of Steam Deck and ROG Ally, do you think we'll see handhelds from other manufacturers like MSI, Razer, Lenovo...?

 

[Warnen]

Could see it with the always advancing apus. But is there a market for it? Think most of the people that want it will get the steam deck or what comes after it.

 

[Klosshufvud]

I doubt it. The market is still niche. Maybe if the next AMD APU is a breakthrough in terms of low wattage performance and we can have more handhelds in the more viable $300-500 range. But beyond a Steam Deck revision, I wouldn't expect much from the other players. It is surprising though that Microsoft hasn't entered the fray yet.

 

[TrebleShot]

If NVIDIA decide they’d like a slice it would be very interesting.

I’d also like a Sony version , no reason why they couldn’t do their own version of a handheld gaming PC. They used to do laptops.

 

[Klosshufvud]

If NVIDIA decide they’d like a slice it would be very interesting.

I’d also like a Sony version , no reason why they couldn’t do their own version of a handheld gaming PC. They used to do laptops.

Sadly since Nvidia SoCs are ARM and not x83, that will probably never happen. Likewise I doubt Sony would ever do a PC handheld.

 

[old-parts]

Sadly since Nvidia SoCs are ARM and not x83, that will probably never happen. Likewise I doubt Sony would ever do a PC handheld.

That's not a problem, you can convert x86 into Arm on linux via utilities like Box86 FEX and others, see examples here but performance is of course an issue, it works fine for old games and smaller games but modern big titles not so much. In theory someone could ship a SteamOS handheld running on Arm hardware but Box86 or FEX need support, someone to polish them into a usable state so it runs seamless in the background of SteamOS.

But I don't think Nvidia ever would due to their unfriendly stance towards open source software/drivers and they would be competing against one of their own important clients Nintendo.

Microsoft has some kind of deal with Qualcomm which is rumoured to expire after launch of next gen Qualcomm Arm chips meant to properly complete with Intel/AMD, this is when you may start to see Nvidia Windows Arm laptops and third parties start sticking them in PC handhelds so few more years at least.

There are no GPU drivers in Windows 11 Arm for anything other than Qualcomm Adreno so anything Arm based coming to market right now or near future has to be linux/steam.

The smart thing for any of the big PC gaming brands would to be have their device sold on Steam store and running SteamOS that would get the most eyeballs on it.

 

[Leonidas]

There probably will be, but none will be as successful as the Steam Deck.

 

[BennyBlanco]

I bet the companies who make cheap chinese handhelds are gonna make a ton of them.

 

[OverHeat]

Alienware maybe they had a prototype

 

[Captain Toad]

Will be see or not will be see?

I guess we will have to wait and be see.

 

[simpatico]

Every PC is a handheld if you build it right.

 

[64bitmodels]

I think it's only a matter of time before other manufacturers try to get their grubby hands in the market. My issue is if they'll do anything to stand out besides cram more power and resolution into the device without understanding why the Deck succeeded.

 

[64bitmodels]

Alienware maybe they had a prototype

even 3 years later the Alienware UFO is still fresh in my head, i remember how hyped i was for a device like that when i saw it for the first time
Dell must be kicking themselves for not releasing it years ahead of everyone else.

 

[ReBurn]

I would imagine that most gaming PC manufacturers would wait to see how well Steam Deck and Ally actually sell before jumping in. We don't have much information in the way of Steam Deck sales data other than some analyst saying that it sold 1.6 million in 2022 and predicting that it would cross 3.5 million by the end of 2023. It has been discounted twice so far this year. ROG Ally didn't blow the doors off at launch and was readily available at Best Buy on launch day amid weak preorders.

So far I would say that handheld PC gaming is mainly appealing to a subset of PC gamers but not so much to console gamers as a whole.

 

[64bitmodels]

I would imagine that most gaming PC manufacturers would wait to see how well Steam Deck and Ally actually sell before jumping in. We don't have much information in the way of Steam Deck sales data other than some analyst saying that it sold 1.6 million in 2022 and predicting that it would cross 3.5 million by the end of 2023. It has been discounted twice so far this year. ROG Ally didn't blow the doors off at launch and was readily available at Best Buy on launch day amid weak preorders.

So far I would say that handheld PC gaming is mainly appealing to a subset of PC gamers but not so much to console gamers as a whole.

Asus knew that the market was niche and took the plunge anyways. I don't think that major, unrealistic switch type success is needed for PC manufacturers to try their hand at a new handheld, especially since none of MSI/Gigabyte/Razer's products have ever been as successful as a console

 

[hlm666]

Would imagine razer will do something that's black and green with leds, be terrible build quality and cost more than anything else on the market.

 

[ReBurn]

Asus knew that the market was niche and took the plunge anyways. I don't think that major, unrealistic switch type success is needed for PC manufacturers to try their hand at a new handheld, especially since none of MSI/Gigabyte/Razer's products have ever been as successful as a console

You're right. They don't need to be mega-successful. They just need to be successful enough.

I think Steam Deck is a smart play for Valve because it was built to get people to buy games on Steam. That tight integration alone will give Steam Deck an advantage over other players even at its middling specs. I think the ROG Ally is the real litmus test for whether it will be worth it to other companies.

 

[64bitmodels]

I think the ROG Ally is the real litmus test for whether it will be worth it to other companies.

that's why i specifically singled them out. No other company has a storefront which gives them passive profit like Valve does, so the justification for other companies is harder.
Asus diving in despite the low incentive they have for doing so lets me know that there is cash to be found here for other companies. Not to mention the startups like AYANEO and Onexplayers whose call to fame are basically making these PC handhelds.

 

[ReBurn]

that's why i specifically singled them out. No other company has a storefront which gives them passive profit like Valve does, so the justification for other companies is harder.
Asus diving in despite the low incentive they have for doing so lets me know that there is cash to be found here for other companies. Not to mention the startups like AYANEO and Onexplayers whose call to fame are basically making these PC handhelds.

I guess it remains to be seen if there's actually cash there. If there is cash there it's going to have to be gleaned through markup on hardware, which could be a deterrent.

 

[Quasicat]

It would never happen, but I would love to see a handheld using the M2 chip. I have been using Apple Silicon for gaming since last year and emulation plays really well. Apple could make it so it runs the new Windows stuff, but the games that run natively are impressive. What I don’t want is something locked down like ios, but instead like MacOS which is more opened up.

 

[StereoVsn]

I can see Dell finally making one under Alienware brand and charging like $2K. Or Razer.

If Ally sells at least decently, then MSI and Gigabyte may jump in as well. This is a big if though.

 

[64bitmodels]

It would never happen, but I would love to see a handheld using the M2 chip. I have been using Apple Silicon for gaming since last year and emulation plays really well. Apple could make it so it runs the new Windows stuff, but the games that run natively are impressive. What I don’t want is something locked down like ios, but instead like MacOS which is more opened up.

one thing i saw from a youtube comment that's actually kind of a genius idea is a PC handheld where the screen is a pair of AR glasses you put on, and the system itself is just controller shaped with a battery and all the processing in it. you link the glasses and controller, and then you sort of carry them around. No screen size limitations, no battery being used on the screen (assuming the controller and glasses batteries are seperate), it's convenient and very useful. It's also inspired by the Apple conference where they displayed the vision pro as a screen which you could play games on.

 

[StereoVsn]

one thing i saw from a youtube comment that's actually kind of a genius idea is a PC handheld where the screen is a pair of AR glasses you put on, and the system itself is just controller shaped with a battery and all the processing in it. you link the glasses and controller, and then you sort of carry them around. No screen size limitations, no battery being used on the screen (assuming the controller and glasses batteries are seperate), it's convenient and very useful. It's also inspired by the Apple conference where they displayed the vision pro as a screen which you could play games on.

I mean you can kind of do that right now. I have played around with my Deck adb Ally connected to Xreal glasses.

It's not quite there since Xreal doesn't do head detection so you have to learn to keep your head straight since the virtual screen won't follow you. Text quality also sucks.

Still, it's pretty cool to have a giant screen in front of you.