Can anyone tell me where handhelds are supposed to go from here? Truly. I can’t really see what can be improved from the perspective of the Steam Deck - all the things that come from a next gen device seem a bit antithetical to how the portable device functions. Better specs to make use of the better screen (HZ+resolution) mean a bigger battery and more weight, so…
The OG Deck is about as heavy as any portable should ever be, the OLED is noticeably lighter. So are the console wars shifting to handhelds in the next gen hardware packaging competition? The future of the gaming industry is just making more powerful Nintendo Switches?
Note: I’m not against more handhelds being out there. I just genuinely don’t see where they can really improve from here in any meaningful way after the next screen improvement
as a steam deck user, who would like to use it during shortish transits (20 minutes per ride) i’d like it to be a good bit smaller. the size of the ayn odin 2 mini would be ideal, with slightly recessed sticks, so you could easily pull it out of the backpack and put it back in quickly. yes, that’s conflicting with others who would like to have a bigger screen, using it more like a travel console being tied to wall power, but that’s personal preference.
outside of the usual spec bumps, that’s all i could think of in terms of upgrades for the deck.
This is mainly just looking at it being different consoles in the space. The Switch 2/PS handheld/Xbox handheld won’t have to compete on who has the best hardware, for Nintendo games you get the switch, PS games the PSP, and game pass you get the Xbox.
As for future PC handhelds, there will be linear improvements (better performance, better battery life, etc), different UI options (SteamOS versus windows with some program slapped on top), and different use cases (smaller more portable devices, etc).
Can anyone tell me where handhelds are supposed to go from here? Truly. I can’t really see what can be improved from the perspective of the Steam Deck - all the things that come from a next gen device seem a bit antithetical to how the portable device functions. Better specs to make use of the better screen (HZ+resolution) mean a bigger battery and more weight, so…
The OG Deck is about as heavy as any portable should ever be, the OLED is noticeably lighter. So are the console wars shifting to handhelds in the next gen hardware packaging competition? The future of the gaming industry is just making more powerful Nintendo Switches?
Note: I’m not against more handhelds being out there. I just genuinely don’t see where they can really improve from here in any meaningful way after the next screen improvement
as a steam deck user, who would like to use it during shortish transits (20 minutes per ride) i’d like it to be a good bit smaller. the size of the ayn odin 2 mini would be ideal, with slightly recessed sticks, so you could easily pull it out of the backpack and put it back in quickly. yes, that’s conflicting with others who would like to have a bigger screen, using it more like a travel console being tied to wall power, but that’s personal preference.
outside of the usual spec bumps, that’s all i could think of in terms of upgrades for the deck.
This is mainly just looking at it being different consoles in the space. The Switch 2/PS handheld/Xbox handheld won’t have to compete on who has the best hardware, for Nintendo games you get the switch, PS games the PSP, and game pass you get the Xbox.
As for future PC handhelds, there will be linear improvements (better performance, better battery life, etc), different UI options (SteamOS versus windows with some program slapped on top), and different use cases (smaller more portable devices, etc).