More from Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and more: all the news about the handheld PC gaming revolution
I know, this looks ridiculous — but the last time I was sick, and that time I was injured, I’d have given good money for it! It’s a $9 ball joint adapter that connects Mechanism’s increasingly large array of gaming mounts to popular flexible arms you can buy.
Also see: Mechanism’s gaming pillow and its delightfully strong MagSafe + twin-finger adapter.
Unlike every other “Best Steam Deck SSD” written story I’ve found, Tom’s Hardware actually put them to the test — 16 drives in total.
Most offered similar results! The Crucial P310 and Corsair MP600 Mini (with new Phison E27T controller) slightly stood out on performance and battery life — but not temperature.
The Claw was an embarrassment, and MSI quickly announced successors with Intel’s new Lunar Lake instead. But though MSI originally said the “MSI Claw 8 AI Plus” should arrive September, it’s now telling ComputerBase it won’t launch till CES in January.
Just to be clear, the ROG Ally X put the final nail in the original Claw’s coffin. Friends don’t let friends buy an original Claw.
I thought it might be vaporware, but maybe it’s worse! Mysten Labs wants a $599 deposit today that’s basically non-refundable — the terms and conditions roughly boil down to “maybe you get your money back if we don’t ship by 2027 but pray I don’t alter the deal further.” Check out the “bad faith” clause too.
All this for a last-gen chip and a 60Hz screen.
[www.suiplay0x1.com]
It’d be tough for me to recommend a $1,000 Ayaneo Kun over a $800 Asus ROG Ally X, but one particular sticking point may go away — you can buy it (and the fairly weak Ayaneo Next Lite) directly from Best Buy, making potential returns easy.
Ayaneo has lovely build quality. While its PC handhelds haven’t nailed battery and affordability yet, it’s one to watch!
We held off on a story ’cuz we couldn’t initially find it on preorder, but here it is at Scan UK and Overclockers UK and Germany’s CaseKing, for example.
What about the US? Zotac told Tom’s Hardware it isn’t offering preorders here. Can’t imagine it beats ROG Ally X for the same $800 with a much smaller battery inside... but twin trackpads and OLED intrigue me!
$450 MSRP for a Game Boy emulator console is a bundle of cash, OLED screen and premium build notwithstanding — $700 if you want it in Game Boy grey.
$220 for the elegant Micro seems better, but we’re still talking about a crowdfunded Indiegogo. Would you pick these over an $220 Analogue Pocket? Full specs at the links.
7
Verge Score
In some ways, it’s even better than Deck.
Can a Windows handheld beat Valve’s Steam Deck OLED? This sequel to last year’s ROG Ally answers with more storage, faster RAM, double the battery, and USB4. We’ll need more time for benchmarking and battery testing before we can publish our review, but if you can’t wait, it is available now from Asus and Best Buy.
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The Nintendo DS-like’s lower screen will soon double as a virtual keyboard, triple as a virtual touchpad, and quadruple as a dual-screen task switcher with the company’s Ayaspace v2.5 software update. Those could all make it a bit easier to navigate Windows handheld!
The Minisforum DEG1 is just $99, it’s already on sale, and your existing desktop PC parts (GPU, PSU) can make it work.
It connects with Oculink, not USB4, so it won’t work with most laptops — mostly boutique handhelds. But it could be more powerful than existing Oculink eGPUs with a desktop card at its disposal!
It’s the most gadgety handheld gaming PC yet, with a Surface-like detachable keyboard too. It’s not cheap — but unlike a Microsoft Surface, it actually comes with the keyboard and other accessories. It’s $200-$300 off for the first small batch of buyers.
We haven’t so much as touched one yet, mind! Could be iffy!
Zotac just confirmed the dimensions of its new PC gaming handheld to me — plus a few other specs — and wow is it large. The 7-inch handheld is wider, taller, and almost as thick as the 8-inch Lenovo Legion Go, and notably bigger than Steam Deck.
(Deck is technically thicker than both, but a lot of that’s down to taller joysticks.)
You can find the whole thing in PCWorld’s YouTube video at the 34-minute mark: with 3DMark Wildlife Extreme locked to 60fps, Lunar Lake (and its integrated memory!) is consuming 10 watts less than Meteor Lake.
As The Phawx points out, Meteor Lake kind of sucked at efficiency, so don’t celebrate yet? At least now Intel has a chance.
