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From Humble Beginnings to the Future of PC Gaming.

There's always an "awe" moment accompanied by sheer admiration for the technology that makes it possible, when seeing your favorite PC and console games running on a tiny handheld device. In my personal gaming journey, such a watershed moment was witnessing Disney's "Aladdin" and "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" running on the Nokia 6600—two incredibly cool moments that made me realize console games could actually be played on the go.

However, for decades, handheld gaming devices have always lagged behind consoles and PCs by several generations in terms of performance. Although a plethora of fantastic games specifically made for handheld devices are part of gaming history, players centered around handheld devices often felt disappointed by inferior versions of "big screen" games, which had little in common with their console and PC counterparts.

The dream has always been to play the latest AAA games on the go without sacrificing anything except for graphical details. Handheld gaming PCs have made this dream a reality. However, the path of development for devices like the Steam Deck has been filled with dead ends, unfulfilled promises, unrealistic expectations... and some pretty cool but sometimes impractical handheld gaming consoles.

The first phase of this journey began at the turn of the new century when Sony released a small laptop, whose design would inspire the first generation of handheld gaming PCs.

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Laying the FoundationsAlthough Sony has always been a renowned manufacturer of a new type of subnotebook at the time, the VAIO PCG-U1 that the company launched in 2002 was so compact that it was considered a handheld laptop.

Despite it certainly not being a gaming device, due to its unique joystick and button layout, it was very suitable for operation in hand - this is different from the Toshiba Libretto series, which can be regarded as the last common ancestor of the handheld gaming PC family. The VAIO PCG-U1 and its successors provided a blueprint for the first generation of clamshell handheld gaming PCs that appeared less than ten years later.

In the following years, there were hardly any exciting developments until Bill Gates shared details about Microsoft's ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) concept at the 2005 WinHEC.

The UMPC plan, then known as the "Origami Project," ignited people's hopes that we would eventually have a handheld computer capable of playing current AAA-level games. This sense of excitement came from a project video leaked in early 2006, which showed a tablet-like device running "Halo." However, these hopes were dashed when the Associated Press released a report citing a source "close to Microsoft," which stated that Origami would not have "advanced entertainment features."

A few weeks later, at the 2006 CeBIT exhibition, Microsoft announced the UMPC plan, confirming its extremely limited gaming capabilities. Although the story of UMPC was brief and failed - due to most models being expensive, niche positioning, and the rise of smartphones - it did implant the concept of x86-based handheld PCs into the mainstream PC hardware community. These PCs were optimized for handheld use and equipped with a complete Windows operating system.

Before UMPC, the form of handheld devices was limited to PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), handheld PCs based on Windows CE, low-end hardware based on ARM, and occasionally niche tablet computers running a full Windows system. However, the UMPC era showed that handheld PCs did not have to be limited in software and could run any software on their laptop and desktop counterparts. Sony first achieved this with the VAIO PCG-U1, which was only sold in Japan, and Microsoft took this idea to the world.In the era of UMPCs, a South Korean company called GamePark Holdings was revolutionizing handheld gaming with a device called the GP2X. Founded by former employees of GamePark, the manufacturer of the Korean version of the Nintendo Game Boy Advance, GamePark Holdings aimed to create an open-source successor to the GP32. What set the GP2X apart was its open-source operating system based on Linux, leading to a surge in homebrew software for the GP2X, primarily emulators. Unlike the PSP, which also had excellent emulators, the GP2X imposed no restrictions on its users.

This combination made the GP2X a dream machine for many homebrew developers, and despite the lack of commercial games, this handheld gaming device became a classic portable gaming console.

In 2009, GamePark Holdings released another niche but legendary handheld gaming device, the GP2X Wiz. The Wiz was a powerful open-source emulator and one of the early examples of a retro handheld gaming device, a product category that has become quite popular in recent years. Both devices garnered immense interest from the emulation community. Three members of the GP2X community would start their own open-source handheld gaming project, creating the first true handheld gaming PC, called Pandora.

Before we continue, here are some notable devices from this era:

Sony Vaio PCG-U1

The Sony Vaio PCG-U1, released in 2002, was at the forefront of the ultra-portable laptop category. It existed before the UMPC concept became popular, and its design had a significant impact on Pandora and GPD Win, both of which adopted and optimized the Vaio PCG-U1's mouse "thumb joystick" design for their gaming-centric purposes.

With the thumb joystick located in the upper right corner above the keyboard, along with the left and right buttons on the left side, the PCG-U1 was optimized for use when held with both hands. In other words, it was the first true handheld PC, equipped with a full Windows version, x86 compatibility, a full keyboard, and an impressive 6.4-inch 1024 x 768 display.This device is only sold in Japan and has achieved remarkable success due to its compact size, which is perfect for Japanese businessmen who often deal with projects during their train commutes. It features a unique Transmeta Crusoe CPU with a clock speed of 867MHz, and its gaming capabilities are very limited. Although this CPU is x86 compatible, the x86 instruction set is not implemented at the hardware level. Instead, the CPU uses a virtual machine to simulate Intel's x86 instruction set.

Samsung Q1

As the star product of Microsoft's push for UMPCs (Ultra-Mobile Personal Computers), the Samsung Q1 is a truly high-end handheld computing device. The first generation was limited due to the lack of a physical keyboard, but it was equipped with a 900MHz Intel Celeron M CPU and 512MB of memory, providing a pleasant Windows XP experience, including content consumption and web browsing. However, its gaming capabilities were severely hindered by the Intel Extreme Graphics iGPU, which is far from the term "extreme."

The second generation brought many upgrades, the most important of which included a full QWERTY physical keyboard, significantly improved battery life, and 1GB of memory. The screen size remained the same, but the 7-inch panel of the Q1 Ultra has a resolution of 1024x600, while the original model has a resolution of 800x480. The more expensive Q1 Ultra version also includes Windows Vista instead of XP, and the premium version even comes with an SSD.

This upgraded version is quite capable of running games, including "Half-Life" and classic isometric perspective RPG games, but the mouse joystick is on the left, and the arrow keys are on the right, which is not ideal for the former and most other shooting games.On the other hand, due to the left joystick, touch screen, and full QWERTY keyboard, this device is very suitable for playing isometric perspective RPG games and 2D platform games. However, the basic version of the Q1 Ultra is priced at $799, while the high-end version is as high as $1499, which makes Samsung UMPC unable to become popular among gamers or professionals who need an ultra-compact Windows PC.

Wibrain B1

Wibrain B1 has been overshadowed by Samsung Q1 in media coverage and popularity, but this small UMPC has become the most usable device among all UMPCs due to the addition of a practical touchpad. The touchpad, combined with the split physical keyboard and compact 4.8-inch touch screen, makes navigation in Windows XP exceptionally easy.

Regrettably, the underpowered VIA C7M CPU makes this small device unable to rank high on any performance charts, which also means it cannot run many games. However, its unique appearance and the best solution for navigation in the Windows environment compared to its peers are enough to make it on this list. If it were more popular, perhaps early handheld gaming computers would also add a touchpad on top of their game controller settings.

GP2X

GP2X is an open-source gaming and multimedia player device based on Linux, designed to provide a variety of functions such as gaming, video, audio, and images. It has powerful processing capabilities and supports a variety of game and multimedia formats. The GP2X community has also developed many software and games for it, making it highly customizable and expandable.Although the GP2X is not the first Linux-based handheld device focused on emulation games—the title belongs to its predecessor, the GP32 from 2001— the GP2X from 2005 is the first device that achieved success outside of Korea and spawned a small but loyal international community of homebrew software, the most notable member of which later created the first true handheld gaming computer—the Pandora.

At the core of the GP2X is a dual CPU configuration, including a 200 MHz ARM920T CPU and a 200 MHz ARM940T co-processor. The total memory capacity is 64MB, and the meager 64MB of storage space can be expanded via an SD card. The compact 3.5-inch display features a resolution of 320x240, which was standard at the time. Other features include a mini-USB port and an EXT port, allowing users to connect the GP2X to a TV via a special cable and play their favorite retro games on a larger screen. This is a manifestation of versatility.

This emulation beast runs on the open-source Linux operating system, which means that although it looks like other handheld gaming consoles at the time, it is actually a handheld computer that you can use to watch movies, listen to music, read PDF files, and of course, play games. Although the number of official games offered is small, it can be said without exaggeration that the community gathered around it loves this device, thus providing a large amount of software for the GP2X, many of which are emulators.

This small machine can run anything from the old days, such as AtariST and Amiga, all the way to the original PlayStation (although with poor performance) and GameBoy Advance. Overall, its emulation capabilities are legendary at the time and now. The GP2X essentially influenced all of our current retro handheld devices. The device also inspired the birth of the first handheld gaming computer. These two achievements together constitute a rather impressive legacy.

Small steps forward, teething problems, and unfulfilled promises

Three outstanding members of the GP2X and Wiz emulation community, Craig Rothwell (CraigIX), Fatih Kilic, and Michael Mrozek (EvilDragon), loved these small emulation devices but were frustrated with the many problems and shortcomings in the GP32 and GP2X experience.

Rothwell and Mrozek were distributors of these Korean handheld devices in the UK and Germany, but the three decided to take matters into their own hands to solve the problems. This is how the OpenPandora project began.In the words of Craig Rothwell: "We loved the GP2X and GP32, but they had their flaws: poor controls, strange internal design decisions, and manufacturers who didn't really understand what people wanted to do with them. As a distributor, this was frustrating. Cultural barriers were hard to overcome; design decisions that seemed reasonable and necessary in the UK seemed crazy to the Koreans. We were at an impasse. There was no doubt: if we wanted a great and unique open-source machine, we had to do it ourselves. So, the crazy adventure began."

This was indeed an adventure. The first mention of this handheld device dates back to 2007, when it was discussed on a now-defunct GP32X forum, a gathering place for the GP2X community, where these three members asked forum members what they would like to see if they actually manufactured this handheld device.

Their feedback was listened to, plans were made, and the Pandora was eventually born, the first true handheld gaming computer. The device was based on an Arm CPU (unfortunately, no x86 here) and ran an open-source operating system based on Ångström-Linux.

The project faced numerous setbacks, including failed collaboration with Chinese PCB designers, missed deadlines and major redesigns, orders not completed despite buyers paying for Pandora in advance, and multiple price increases. In the end, OpenPandora successfully sent thousands of Pandora handheld devices to customers, with the first batch shipped in 2010. Unfortunately, OpenPandora Ltd., owned by Rothwell, went bankrupt in 2013, leaving many unfinished pre-orders.

The German subsidiary OpenPandora GmbH, owned by Mrozek, continued to manufacture and sell the handheld device for several years. In 2014, Mrozek announced plans for the spiritual successor to Pandora, the DragonBox Pyra. Similar to Pandora, the DragonBox Pyra also faced multiple setbacks, and by the time of its release in 2020, its performance was far behind that of handheld gaming consoles made by GPD.

Pandora was the first true handheld gaming computer, but it was not the only handheld gaming computer project to emerge in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Among all companies, Razer announced plans for a clamshell handheld computer called the Razer Switchblade in 2011. The device would be based on an Intel Atom processor and Windows 7, and if released, it would have been the first x86-based handheld gaming computer. Unfortunately, the project never went beyond the concept stage, with some of the technology being used in Razer's first-generation Blade gaming laptop. Razer then developed a more traditional tablet device called the Razer Edge Pro, which was released in 2013.

Technically speaking, the Edge Pro was a gaming tablet, equipped with a powerful Core i7 CPU and a relatively powerful Nvidia GeForce GT 640M LE GPU with 2GB of video memory, which was very impressive for such a compact device. The device ran a full version of Windows 8 and was another attempt by Microsoft to promote Windows tablets. Once you connected the GamePad controller accessory, you had a fully functional handheld gaming computer capable of running AAA games of the time at playable frame rates. However, the high price and 4.2-pound weight made it unappealing for those who dreamed of playing the latest and greatest games on the couch.

This era of early prototypes and wild designs came to an end in 2014 with a device initially called the SteamBoy, a handheld Steam machine based on the then-novel SteamOS. This handheld device was one of the first to adopt a setup now common to many handheld gaming computers: a tablet-like form factor with a screen in the center, dual thumbsticks (in the case of SteamBoy, touchpads), a D-pad, face buttons surrounding the display, and shoulder buttons on top.SteamBoy was later renamed to Smach Z. Despite gaining significant attention from fans and tech media, the project ultimately became a paper tiger, and the company behind it went bankrupt.

Although this period ended with the bleak prospects of handheld gaming consoles, just one year later, a relatively small company in China launched a device that would reignite the fire of handheld gaming. This device would usher in the golden age of handheld gaming consoles and PCs alongside the Nintendo Switch.

Famous devices of this period:

Pandora

Pandora was a crowdfunding product before the emergence of crowdfunding platforms. It achieved the impossible. It was eventually released and fell into the hands of thousands of supporters, which is an achievement in itself. Although it was not based on an x86 CPU - the x86 platform was far from mobile-friendly in 2007 - and it did not support Windows, it was a fully functional handheld PC running an open-source Linux-based operating system, capable of performing all tasks that regular laptops and desktop computers could perform at the time.

The first edition of Pandora was equipped with Texas Instruments OMAP3530 - an ARM Cortex A8 design running at 600MHz - and PowerVR SGX530 GPU, which enabled it to emulate game consoles up to the PSX, run Linux games, and play older PC games such as "Baldur's Gate," which had been ported to run on Linux. Priced at about $350, it was a well-balanced mini-computer with the best gaming control scheme at the time.

The initial model only had 256MB of DDR-333 RAM, but the second edition increased the memory to 512MB. Other specifications include a clear 4.3-inch 800x480 LTPS LCD, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a full physical keyboard, and a range of ports including two USB ports. Although Pandora was not considered a handheld PC at launch, it is now considered the first dedicated handheld gaming PC.

Razer SwitchbladeDespite the Razer Switchblade never advancing beyond the concept stage, it was the star of the 2011 CES show, winning the CES 2011 People's Choice Award. When you see this product and the plans Razer had for it, you can understand why. The Switchblade was envisioned as a handheld PC capable of running modern PC games, featuring a full Windows 7 operating system powered by an undisclosed Intel Atom processor.

The highlight of this product was its dual-screen design, with the bottom OLED display covered in transparent buttons that would change according to the game you were playing, acting as a keyboard. This proved to be a good alternative to traditional controllers, but the Switchblade was too ahead of its time and failed to become a reality.

The x86 hardware, especially the iGPU part, could not provide enough performance in such a small size to support a qualified gaming device. Nevertheless, due to its unique design and early indication of future x86-based portable PC gaming consoles, it remains in the hearts of gaming and hardware enthusiasts.

GPD lit the torch — Valve took the torch and lit the bonfire.

GPD, also known as GamePad Digital, is a Chinese hardware manufacturer known for designing inexpensive analog handheld devices such as the GPD 5005 and 7018, as well as complex gaming handheld devices running Android like the GPD G5A.

Their top Android design — the GPD XD, achieved considerable success in the Western market due to its powerful internal configuration, well-crafted controllers, and excellent emulation performance.

After honing their skills by manufacturing Android handheld devices, GPD's ambitions grew larger, and it was time to do something bigger. At the end of 2015, GPD shared a rough model of their upcoming Windows handheld device on the Dingoonity forum, a community established for enthusiasts of Chinese-made gaming handheld devices, which was very active at the time. The discussion quickly reached a climax, and after more than 50 pages of heated discussion, we got a design close to the final one, which was subsequently launched on the IndieGoGo platform under the name GPD Win.

The GPD Win is an economical handheld gaming PC running Windows. Due to its weaker Intel Atom CPU, it doesn't have much horsepower, but its popularity was enough to warrant a successor — the GPD Win 2, which was released in 2018.The next generation of handheld devices has made the name GPD synonymous with handheld gaming PCs, with the GPD Win 2 successfully capturing the attention of mainstream tech media. Although still relatively weak in terms of gaming performance, the device is capable of running older AAA games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto V, and Batman: Arkham Asylum at playable frame rates, making it the first handheld gaming PC to offer a decent AAA gaming experience.

The GPD Win 2 was released less than a year after the launch of the Nintendo Switch, which, along with Alienware's UFO handheld PC concept, swept the world and became the darling of the 2020 CES show, reigniting mainstream gaming communities' interest in handheld gaming. This was undoubtedly a breath of fresh air after years of pessimistic predictions that dedicated handheld gaming devices would quickly die out due to the rise of mobile gaming.

GPD continued to develop new handheld gaming PCs, namely the Win 3, which is very similar to the legendary Sony Vaio UX series UMPC and was released in early 2021. By 2021, other Chinese brands such as Ayaneo and One-Netbook also launched their own handheld gaming devices, and the emerging handheld gaming PC market began to take shape.

Just a few months after the release of the GPD Win 3, Valve announced the Steam Deck. Although Alienware showcased its UFO gaming handheld prototype at CES 2020, the UFO never went beyond the concept stage, making Valve the first company to offer a handheld gaming PC outside of China.

The Steam Deck did not use off-the-shelf components but instead adopted a semi-custom APU manufactured by AMD. In terms of software, the device is based on SteamOS, the long-forgotten operating system behind Valve's failed Steam Machine project. The dream of the Steam Machine has been somewhat carried on, but the new iteration is portable.

The Steam Deck achieved varying degrees of success when it was released at the end of February 2022. Critics generally praised the hardware but criticized the software, as it felt quite unfinished at the time of release. However, Valve persevered, with each software update improving stability, adding new features, enhancing gaming performance, and making more games playable.

Seven months after its release, the playable game library expanded to over 5,000 titles. Before the handheld device celebrated its first birthday, Valve's developers resolved most of the issues. Less than a year later, the number of compatible games on the Steam Deck exceeded 10,000. The handheld gaming PC has reached a critical point, and major brands in the PC hardware field will soon follow in Valve's footsteps.Notable Device

GPD Win

Compared to modern handheld PCs, the GPD Win from 2016 is a compact device, weighing only 300 grams and equipped with a 5.5-inch 720p screen. At its core is the Intel Atom x7-Z8700, which has four cores, a turbo clock speed of 2.4GHz, and an integrated Intel HD Graphics 405 graphics card. Other notable configurations include a small 8.95Wh battery, 64GB of eMMC storage, and 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM.

The device also features a full-size QWERTY keyboard, a set of control buttons with dual thumbsticks, and a set of additional buttons located just above the keyboard. At the time, its gaming performance was impressive, especially considering the size of the device, the lack of internal performance, and the price of $330. Although it could not run mainstream AAA games of the time, the Win could achieve frame rates of over 30fps in older games such as Tomb Raider (2013), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Portal.

GPD Win 2

The Win 2 is a significant improvement over the original. Released in 2018, its gaming performance is twice that of the Win, thanks to the more powerful Intel Core M3-7Y30 CPU, paired with an Intel HD 615 integrated graphics card and 8GB of LPDDR3 memory.Significant improvements include a more substantial 37Wh battery, enhanced build quality, and a 128GB SSD that can be easily upgraded, thanks to a removable plastic cover on the bottom of the device. Unfortunately, this has not become a standard feature for handheld gaming PCs.

The device also features a 6-inch display, retaining a 720p resolution. As for the price, early supporters can get it for $649, which is not far from the average price of modern handheld PCs, while the regular retail price rises to $900.

Although the GPD Win was an experimental prototype handheld gaming console, the GPD Win 2 is a mature design that can provide a decent gaming experience in recent AAA games. It still cannot run heavy games from 2018 or 2017, but it is very close.

Aya Neo 2021

AYA (now known as Ayaneo) released its first handheld PC in 2021, with the early bird price for the 256GB version at $700 and the retail price at $869, consistent with other handheld devices at the time. Specifications include an AMD Ryzen 5 4500U with an RX Vega 6 graphics card, 16GB LPDDR4X memory, a 7-inch, 60Hz, 800p screen, and a 47Wh battery.

In terms of price, its performance is slightly inferior to the GPD Win 3, which was released almost simultaneously with the AYA Neo 2021, but the dream of achieving playable frame rates in current AAA games has finally come true. AYA Neo and GPD Win 3 can run games like "Forza Horizon 4," "Doom Eternal," and "Jedi: Fallen Order" at 720p resolution with frame rates of 30fps or higher, heralding a new era for handheld gaming PCs.

They are no longer devices specifically for emulation, playing old AAA games, and indie games, but have evolved into powerful devices capable of handling (almost) any challenge. Of course, AYA Neo cannot run "Cyberpunk 2077" at an acceptable frame rate, but we will achieve this goal faster than we think.

Valve Steam Deck

 The Steam Deck has brought a breath of fresh air to the market, which has long been dominated by expensive boutique brand devices. With a starting price of just $400, it can almost run any game you throw at it at a playable frame rate, demonstrating that we can kill two birds with one stone by giving up Windows in favor of Linux-based SteamOS.

The revival of the Steam Machine, but in a handheld form, is equipped with a semi-custom APU based on Zen 2, featuring four CPU cores running up to 3.5GHz, and supporting an 8-CU RDNA 2 iGPU with a total TDP of 15W. In addition to the price, the biggest difference from other handheld PCs of the same era is the 16GB of fast LPDDR5 memory, which, combined with the powerful iGPU, makes the Steam Deck a surprisingly powerful handheld device that remains highly usable to this day.

Admittedly, for the heavy hitters of 2024, the Steam Deck is already somewhat struggling, but the fact that this device can run AAA games released after it at a playable frame rate is commendable in itself. The OLED upgrade in 2023 did not touch the game performance, but the high-quality OLED screen with HDR support and a 90Hz refresh rate, along with a host of minor upgrades, has allowed the Steam Deck to extend its life for a few more years until we welcome the upcoming successor.

Current situation: a variety of choices and a bright market prospect

Asus was the first well-known PC hardware brand to join the handheld gaming PC camp, launching the ROG Ally handheld device. A "joke" product released by Asus on April Fool's Day in 2023 has sparked the interest of many PC gamers who want to find alternatives to the Steam Deck and Chinese boutique brand handheld devices.

The ROG Ally has achieved remarkable success, and it seems that Asus has plans to launch a successor. Less than three months after the "fake" announcement, the market welcomed another handheld PC gaming device supported by a major company.

Lenovo is the second major PC hardware brand to join this competition, launching the Legion Go, which iterates on the safe design of the ROG Ally and shows the audience that the evolution of handheld gaming PCs has only just begun.MSI is the third largest player in the handheld gaming PC market, opting for a conservative approach in design, but the company has chosen to abandon AMD hardware in favor of Intel APUs. The MSI Claw marks Intel's return to the handheld gaming PC market, and we hope to see more devices equipped with Intel hardware in the future, as competition is always welcome.

Another boon for handheld gaming PCs is the popularity of the Steam Deck, which has attracted the attention of many game developers, most of whom are independent developers who are actively working to optimize their games to adapt to the relatively low-end GPU in handheld gaming devices.

The heated discussion in the handheld PC market has brought Sony back to the handheld device market, albeit in the form of a streaming device like PS Portal, which is somewhat disappointing, but still a welcome development. On the other hand, Microsoft has realized that the biggest drawback of Windows-based handheld devices is the operating system itself, so the company may launch a version of the operating system that is centered on gaming for handheld devices in the future. Microsoft's Xbox division is exploring the handheld device market, and we may see Xbox handheld devices in the future. Whether it will take a streaming device form similar to PS Portal or be able to run games natively remains to be seen.

In addition to overcoming issues related to Windows, handheld PC manufacturers also face two other obstacles. The first is to reduce the price to give their devices a chance to compete with the current market leader, the Steam Deck. ASUS tried with the ROG Ally's Z1 version, but sticking to the same 1080p display and combining it with the weaker graphics performance of the Z1 APU is not a wise move.

The second obstacle is more daunting: convincing Intel, AMD, and possibly NVIDIA (although this is less likely considering the company's AI-first strategy) to develop chipsets that are more suitable for gaming handheld devices, rather than being content with off-the-shelf parts that are clearly biased towards CPUs and have minimal cache relative to the needs of CPUs and GPUs.

What's worse, Microsoft's recent huge push in the AI field has led AMD to focus on increasing the chip area occupied by NPU in future chips, which may damage the gaming performance of future APUs. Perhaps a semi-custom approach is a good idea, similar to the method adopted by Valve in developing the Steam Deck.

Despite these setbacks, the handheld gaming PC market still maintains a healthy development momentum. We are likely to see at least a new generation of Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and MSI Claw, and you can bet that companies like GPD and Ayaneo will continue to launch handheld devices with novel and exciting designs, such as the Ayaneo Flip DS.

Although AMD and Intel focus on NPU and AI performance, the gaming performance of future PC handheld devices will still improve, albeit at a slower pace, but at least until on-package RAM becomes a standard feature.Finally, the upcoming successor to the Nintendo Switch, along with the thriving independent game market for handheld devices, means that gaming handhelds, including PCs, will continue to hold a place in the mainstream gaming circle, ensuring media attention and guiding more and more players towards the handheld gaming field.

Worthwhile Devices to Watch

Asus ROG Ally

The ROG Ally by Asus is a significant device following the Steam Deck and is the first handheld gaming PC equipped with VRR and the AMD Z1 Extreme chip. Apart from issues with the SD card reader and poor battery life, the ROG Ally's hardware performance is excellent, but its software is where it falls short. If software issues are limited to initial frustrations during setup, such as cursing the sky every minute due to the lack of a touchpad, the situation might not be too bad. However, in reality, multiple Windows updates often lead to problems, typically affecting performance in some way, and the compact version of the Xbox app is harder to navigate than the regular user interface, proving that Windows still has room for improvement in handheld PCs.

Overall, the ROG Ally is a fairly impressive product, but it is hoped that future iterations will address the poor Windows experience, extremely short battery life, and the lack of a touchpad.

MSI Claw

(The text is cut off, and the translation for MSI Claw is not provided due to the incomplete information.)The MSI Claw marks Intel's return to the handheld PC market. After its CPUs were only used in the early x86 models of GPD, the launch of Ayaneo signifies that AMD has dominated in the following years. Although on paper, the Core Ultra 7 155H processor used in the Claw is a powerful mobile processor, driver issues and less than ideal energy efficiency make it lag behind AMD's products.

In addition, the experience issues of Windows have always been a problem that plagues all Windows handheld gaming consoles. However, it is worth mentioning that the other hardware configurations of the Claw are comparable to the ROG Ally and Steam Deck, and if the driver issues are resolved, the Claw may become a strong competitor to the Steam Deck and ROG Ally in the future.

Ayaneo Flip DS

Although the APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) that powers the Ayaneo Flip DS is not very exciting - what we get is the Ryzen 7 8840U, which has the same gaming performance as the 7740U but is equipped with an improved XDNA AI engine - the dual-screen design of the Ayaneo Flip DS is very interesting, showing how exciting it can be when emerging product categories are in the iterative and experimental stage.

It is hoped that more unique handheld designs can be seen before manufacturers propose a series of "must-have" features.

The handheld gaming PC market is still in its infancy, but the evidence suggests that the market is about to embark on an exciting journey. There are still many chapters in the history of handheld gaming PCs waiting to be written.