More from Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and more: all the news about the handheld PC gaming revolution
Those Decks didn’t last long! Valve told us it’ll make more of the nicely discounted refurb units available, though, and that they’ll generally go in and out of stock.
I may have hinted to my family that I wanted an OLED upgrade as my one Christmas present this year... wonder if they saw it in time?
Could the MSI Claw 8 AI Plus salvage Intel and MSI’s gaming handheld reputation? Well, MSI now claims its handheld averages 7 percent faster than its chief rival at far less power, or 20 percent faster at the same 17 watts.
I’m still working on my GPD Win Max 2 review, and there’s now a more powerful model on sale. It’s pricier at $1,500 — but the 8840U version I’m using is now discounted to $1,000, so that’s great!
This is the best tiny Windows machine I’ve used, though I find I want a mouse. It’s also an OK handheld.
Steam Box? Gaming Chromebook? Take your best guess — but it sure looks like Johnny Deng, a Valve electrical engineer, is testing to ensure a powerful new “AMD Lilac” can properly control your TV (or vice versa) over HDMI.
It’s fascinating to think about. Why would Valve use ChromeOS instead of SteamOS? Valve did tell us it’d “love to work with third-parties” on living room extensions...
The Claw 8 AI Plus and Claw 7 AI Plus have appeared on Amazon for $899 and $799 respectively, and will ship Dec. 25th and Dec. 1st respectively, per Videocardz... but the listings seem to have been stripped of those crucial details now.
MSI already announced both handhelds in June as quick followups to the embarrassing original. Lunar Lake could bring better performance and battery, but apparently not pricing.
I have a hard time believing this OneGx2 could be comfortable to hold, but major kudos if OneXPlayer can figure it out! I’m currently toying with a similar GPD machine that hides its joysticks beneath little covers, but a split keyboard and sticks beneath a full keyboard is something else.
If you read my Lenovo Legion Go review and thought “that but less expensive and cumbersome,” Videocardz may have good news: the unannounced smaller “Legion Go S 8ARP1” now has a firmware update for its unannounced AMD Rembrandt APU. That’s a last-gen architecture that should be more affordable than AMD’s “Extreme” line.
Also, though: the original Legion Go is its best price ever right now.
Ayaneo has revealed some specs for its next Windows handheld. The Ayaneo 3 will be available with either a seven-inch LCD or OLED HDR display, and an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 or Ryzen 7 8840U processor. The handheld will introduce an extra set of buttons on the back, plus lock switches to reduce the travel of its triggers for FPS players.
At 10am AEDT specifically, according to Valve. The company recently announced a November launch date in the country for the handheld gaming PC, but didn’t provide a specific date.
A tiny $1200 laptop that doubles as a gaming handheld, with an incredible array of ports. Surprisingly easy to type on, plays games as well or better than a Legion Go, supports two kinds of eGPUs. Keyboard and touchpad make navigating Windows way easier than most handhelds.
But you might not enjoy holding its stiff metal frame, and it’s better paired with a mouse!
Valve Steam Deck designer Lawrence Yang set some release timeline expectations in an interview with Reviews.org:
“We’re not going to do a bump every year. There’s no reason to do that. And, honestly, from our perspective, that’s kind of not really fair to your customers to come out with something so soon that’s only incrementally better. So we really do want to wait for a generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life before we ship the real second generation of Steam Deck.”
That checks out given we already knew a next-gen Steam Deck might not arrive before 2026.
Last week I asked: “Will Valve really sell a Steam Deck plugin that helps bring Epic Games to the handheld?”
Turns out the answer is no. As far as I’m aware, Junk Store will still be available to sideload through Decky Loader, though.
“Junk Store has been approved for sale on the Steam Store!” its developers write — before pointing out Valve hasn’t technically approved the Epic Games Store and GOG game installer tool quite yet.
But why shouldn’t they? You can already add Junk Store to a Steam Deck with the Decky Loader sideloading system. I asked Valve; we’ll see!
The best PC/Switch/Steam Deck gamepad I’ve ever used. Top-tier joysticks and wireless, great battery life, gyro, and rumble, convenient dock, can wake Switch and/or OLED Deck wirelessly from couch. Comfy, too! If it had swappable battery and saved multiple Bluetooth pairings, it’d truly be Ultimate.
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If you don’t have a Steam account but want to buy a Steam Deck for someone, Valve now lets you complete a Steam Deck purchase as a guest. Could be useful for the holidays.