More from Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and more: all the news about the handheld PC gaming revolution
I had to download patches manually from Lenovo’s website just last week. Looking forward to never doing that again! I’m not sure what else is in Legion Space 1.2.7, as the company hasn’t issued a changelog yet, but previous updates brought joystick deadzone and sensitivity adjustments for example. There was a new graphics driver in December.
The tech works on DX11 and DX12 games and adds fake frames. It is not a silver bullet for low-perf handhelds: it can add so much lag AMD only suggests it for games running 60fps or better.
But this Filterless video shows it’s more nuanced than that. In the right games, you could save considerable battery or add noticeable smoothness. The ROG Ally will get it “as soon as possible”; Lenovo is “looking at how to properly implement” it.
No need to crowdfund — you can just up and buy it right here for its Early Bird price. There’s a lot to like about its design. But it’s unlikely its old Ryzen 5 4500U will even approach a $349 Steam Deck LCD in performance. I tested the very first Ayaneo, which came with that chip, and the Deck beat it soundly.
Also, it will no longer come with any flavor of SteamOS. It’s a Windows machine now.
Ayaneo’s Next Lite is a $299 Steam Deck competitor with unofficial SteamOS
I’m actually working on a review of the Legion Go right now, and it’s the only Windows gaming handheld I can recommend — if you absolutely must have Windows, can’t wait for Intel-powered handheld reviews, and don’t want a gaming laptop instead.
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Asus India exec Arnold Su told Techlusive that the new gaming handheld will “focus more on gaming” — what a Yo Dawg quote! — but will still be focused on Windows rather than, say, SteamOS. I wonder why.
The first Ally was a bit tortured but not a bad product overall, unless we’re talking about the cheaper, weaker version.
I’d like to know too! I’ve been told that in general Valve isn’t easy to get a hold of, and that it has contributed to some handheld makers’ decisions to launch on Windows.
But... Valve has clearly been working towards a SteamOS that works on more handhelds, as you can see if you launch the desktop Big Picture Mode on Windows handhelds. Also, Valve is a tiny company of roughly 300 employees.
Ayaneo’s Next Lite is a $299 Steam Deck competitor with unofficial SteamOS
There are still many unknowns about this new handheld Windows gaming PC, but Sean Hollister reports from CES 2024 that MSI’s Claw device feels comfier than competitors like the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go.
MSI says the Claw will ship this year, priced at $699 to start, or more if you’re willing to pay for an Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU.
The gorgeous X-ray-like close-up photos in this video are from Fritzchens Fritz — I’ve introduced you to his work before. You can also go straight to his Flickr page if you don’t have time for video. I particularly like this shot.
The video also shows how much smaller the Steam Deck OLED’s die-shrunk Sephiroth chip is — no die shots of that one yet, though.
Chinese boutique handheld firms are moving fast, with Ayaneo and GPD switching out their AMD 7840U in 2024 handhelds for the new 8840U instead — even though that chip is largely unchanged from 7840U. The only public diff is faster AI.
And yet there may be a new sheriff in town: OneXPlayer’s next system will feature an Intel Core Ultra. Phoronix has an extensive comparo showing Intel’s 155H beating AMD’s 7840U in GPU performance and power consumption simultaneously — just what I want in a handheld.
A tidbit from my interview:
Why is Fortnite still not playable on Steam Deck?
If we only had a few more programmers. It’s the Linux problem. I love the Steam Deck hardware. Valve has done an amazing job there; I wish they would get to tens of millions of users, at which point it would actually make sense to support it.
Epic’s own Easy Anti-Cheat does support Steam Deck, though — and both Valve and Epic agreed the anti-cheat part should be a simple matter in November 2021.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney: the post-trial interview
Rapper/podcaster Danny Brown enters his Steam Deck review (not necessarily the OLED model, but still) as the ultimate in-flight companion device.
It started as an April Fool’s tease, but the very real handheld gaming PC is now six months old. Along with gyro controls, a new Armoury Crate update is adding a new Feedback Hub, the ability to turn CPU Boost off, new AMD Advanced Graphics Options, and direct sharing of images and video to Discord and TikTok.
Windows Central highlights this Asus video tracking everything added since launch (we revisited our review over the summer), or you can read the changelog here.
Elden Ring, Hades, Vampire Survivors, Dead Cells and Persona 5 can now wake up your Deck. (If you’ve ever spent $30 on Steam, you’ve likely already got enough points for a vid.)
Hey Moon Studios, can we get an Ori and the Will of the Wisps HDR one for Steam Deck OLED?
Will you buy Valve’s limited-edition transparent Steam Deck for the US and Canada which has special eligibility rules? A “normal” OLED model that I swear to you is much better than the original where it counts? None at all?
No wrong choices here, but you’ve got under two hours to decide.
The Steam Deck’s initial Windows support lacked audio output before addressing that in May of last year, but we’ve been waiting for an update on dual-boot ever since.
Now, Valve designer Lawrence Yang told IGN in an email that “Dual-boot support (and SteamOS general install) is very high on the list for folks working on SteamOS.” However, those OS folks have been working on the new OLED version. Now that it’s here, players should expect “meaningful updates” in the coming year.
It’s a limited-edition $679 1TB model of the just-announced Steam Deck OLED, and this one’s only for sale in the US and Canada.
Valve says it’s an experiment and is hopeful it can do more colorways in the future. It’ll come with an exclusive case, too, based on the new case within a case that ships with the $649 version.
Valve just announced the $549 Steam Deck OLED — but the Steam Deck will still start at $399 if you’re willing to settle for the old LCD screen, less efficient chip, and smaller battery. You do get 256GB of NVMe storage for $399 now, up from 64GB eMMC!
The 64GB and 512GB LCD models are discontinued, though you may still be able to find them on closeout for $349 and $449 respectively.