Handhelds are severely power limited, even if they get really good there will always be a desktop/console version of the hardware with better performance
Handhelds are very performant. They achieve high enough framerates with a low power demand. They sacrifice fidelity. Something which most people are happy to exchange for the portability.
They are far too convenient. Considering the price for a “medium long termn” game pc, the cost of energy, the lack of portability ecc. Is clearly more convenient to have a console and a medium spec Desk/pc portable for work. Ofk you sacrifice graphic quality but to be honest i already played most of my games in 1080p on my old desktop. With the console and a “dock” solution you end up playing the same kind of game on your monitor and you also have the full portability. OFK with an AAA game your battery run out quickly but any casual Indi game runs for hour and 99% of them are perfect to play on small screen.
I think that handhelds are having a bit of a renaissance but I think ultimately they will fade in popularity
PC handhelds are too big, heavy, and have bad battery life. I see mobile phones with telescopic controls like backbone/kishi or switch like joycon controls ultimately winning out. Console quality games are starting to be ported to iPhone and I’m sure android is not far behind. Emulation and cloud streaming are just getting better and better. Handhelds aren’t going to replace home consoles and PCs though, just supplement it, as it’s a device everyone already has
PC handhelds are too big, heavy, and have bad battery life
I generally agree, but if ARM chips next year don’t disappoint then it won’t be the case for long. It’ll take time until x86 games play nice on them but when they do we can expect PC handhelds similar to Android ones. Reasonably sized and with a great battery life. Handhelds have a good future.
If they're machines with ARM CPUs playing x86 games, they have to translate CPU instructions from x86 to ARM before they can execute it. That puts considerable strain on the CPU, especially on top of running the game itself.
It would also murder any battery gains you'd hope to gain from switching to ARM.
every time one of these idiots predicts that gaming will change forever, it’s just gaming expands into new areas and the market size grows. it’s not the future, hell handhelds are nothing new, it’s barely even a new thing.
I think the distinction is that starting with the Switch, handheld gaming has been a different experience. Sure, you could play Super Mario World on you Game Boy Advance on the go, but that was a decade after the game had been released. Now, you get the modern Mario game on your handheld, and it is the exact same game and the exact same time as the console release. It is a large shift in gaming.
Now, I would argue that this is a step back, as the experience that works best on a a handheld isn’t the best for a home console/PC. That isn’t the point of this article though. The point is that short of some performance loss, the on the go experience is nearly identical to the at home experience.
eh, it’s the exact same game because they put a video out on a handheld and dropped the console idea. No one thinks of the switch in the same world as a ps5/xboxwhatever - it fits in that same place that handhelds have always lived.
it’s a very good handheld, with a video out. It’s not the diametric shift that is proposed.
No they’re not. They’re what I use when my kid is using the tv, and it’s what my kid uses when we’re away from home and the tv. Handheld gaming will always be a side distraction to consoles and PC gaming.
I’m not sure. I honestly don’t find a huge appeal to them, but I’m not often in a situation where I have a large amount of time to kill outside of my home.
A steam deck would be nice, but I realize I’d probably do what I do with my switch, which is use it once every few months.
As long as desktops are a thing I can’t see myself using a handheld. I can see it replacing gaming laptops though, and those may soon be a thing of the past.
I owned every Nintendo handheld since the original Gameboy. They were so convenient to just be able to play anywhere. I could be laying in bed or on the sofa. Put it in your pocket or toss it into a bag to carry with you.
However, I don’t really feel like the switch has really captured that same sense of portability. It’s large and bulky and heavy. It feels uncomfortable for me to play the same ways I used to play the older handhelds. It also feels more fragile, so I’m hesitant to just toss it in a bag. I ended up just using it as a normal console 99% of the time.
Maybe it’s just me being older, but I feel like the switch didn’t give us the best of both worlds, it just compromised and gave us a worse version of a handheld and a worse version of a console.
I almost exclusively play the switch in handheld. If I’m playing on the tv I’m playing on the PlayStation (once 4 now 5). But i still agree that it’s not that comfortable to play in long sessions, but I be also prefer to jump on and off games anyway so it only hits me when I’m either sat in an awkward position or a game has really grabbed me.
And hopefully higher clocks and/or more cores when docked or on AC. I lov love my steam deck but would love it more if it could manage 1080p when docked without the performance tanking.
A little, yeah. It’s screen is 800p and the hardware was designed to target that. Older and less demanding games manage ok at 1080p or even 4k but newer AAA games are not going to get there.
you really have to give it to Nintendo to produce a console that can be handheld, easily shared with other players, and dockable so you can play it on the big screen. what a versatile system
I always felt Nintendo was rather innovative or at least took risks. Shoulder buttons with the SNES controller. The thumbstick and rumblepack with the N64. Wireless with the wavebird on the GameCube. Motion controls with the Wii. Touch screen with the DS and WiiU.
A lot of these are common sense now but at the times they were introduced they were awesome.
Before then, Nintendo literally invented the crosspad which has been a mainstay we take for granted on game controllers ever since (except for the decade when they had it patented, which is why the directional pads on the Master System, Genesis, PS1, 3DO, etc., etc., from that era are such shit). Even as something as simple as that can be innovative.
Imma let you finish, but the Genesis controller was not bad at all, especially for fighting games that required quarter/half circle inputs it was always reliable for hitting diagonals
I definitely hope the trend continues, though not necessarily replacing consoles as an entity. I’ve an Aya Neo 2021 (first gen) and it’s been amazing. I have a hard time staying in one place and actually committing to sitting down at a console / desktop to play games, I don’t like gaming on laptops to much, and the Switch has a limited library; so a handheld PC specifically made for gaming has been fantastic. It’s so nice to just pick up and be able to play whereever, and I’m very glad to see that it seems like handheld PCs are here to stay
Handheld PC games have been such a “game changer” for me too. I love Nintendo and the Switch but like you said the library was a bit limited. Alongside, the storage and the types of games too.
I’m in bed and playing Ori. I haven’t bought a TV for my bedroom yet and sitting at a desk to play some games feels more cumbersome.
I really like that Steam has really changed things. It really brings PC games to a console-like experience.
From that artsy article graphic, at first I thought the ROG Ally was smaller than the Switch. Not so, it seems.
Funny thing is, this isn’t the first time this has been attempted. I remember Razer putting out a gaming tablet back in the Windows 8 days. Most of the concern I have for people buying these is interface - Steam has done a lot to alleviate concerns of a desktop environment in a game boy, including offering community tools to fill the gaps.
The ROG Ally is enormous. I had a chance to handle one in person – it’s closer to the size of the Steam Deck, and it’s like five times the thickness of the Switch.
If anything it’s really incredible the Switch is as small as it is.
Steam’s big picture does a lot to remediate some of the challenges of working with a controller in a desktop environment. The ROG Ally additionally has switchable modes between desktop and gamepad and it allows for mouse movement with the thumbsticks and stuff in addition to the touch screen.
It also has this app called Armory Crate SE which is basically an Asus-branded game launcher like GeForce Experience where you can fine tune settings on each game.
Add comment