More from Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and more: all the news about the handheld PC gaming revolution
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.
Listen along (use this link to get it in your podcast player of choice) as The Verge’s David Pierce discusses the current flood of portable gaming systems with Polygon editors Chris Plante and Russ Frushtick.
Yes, there’s plenty of focus on the portable gaming PC movement led by the Steam Deck, Rog Ally, and company, but there’s also consideration for the Switch and even your iPhone or Android device.
GPD, a boutique handheld PC maker that’s been kicking around long before the Steam Deck, is now pointing the finger at AMD for failing to deliver an entire batch of 7840U chips for its Win Max 2.
Practically every PC gaming handheld maker save Valve uses this chip or derivatives. Maybe a shortage? Bad blood? We’ve asked AMD to comment. Ayaneo has a clamshell coming out too...
Better known as the Ayaneo Slide, the company’s first handheld gaming PC with a keyboard (despite GPD filling the gap with many, many QWERTY-equipped entries, including the upcoming Win Mini) is among a slew of Steam Deck rivals with AMD’s 7000-series chip built-in, as well as a 6-inch 1080p screen, and Hall effect joystick / trigger setup.
The full details and price haven’t been revealed yet, but Ayaneo’s Indiegogo page is taking sign-ups for people who want alerts to lock in the lowest price possible right away.
If you took a Framework Mainboard, added a battery, screen and speakers, and stuck it all inside a case with slots for a pair of Nintendo Switch-style detachable Bluetooth controllers, you wouldn’t just have a poor man’s Lenovo Legion Go.
You’d have a gaming portable you can upgrade, potentially year after year, just by swapping that mainboard out. Why do I bring this up? Well: