Game Handheld The market is booming, with more devices than ever before, and avid community is eagerly waiting for the next big advancement in portable gaming. In fact, PC handhelds are so popular that most of the stories I saw towards the release of Switch 2 were whether people would buy it or buy a steam deck.
I stand firmly on the team steam deck, but I was interested in how many people even made this comparison. I also wrote about my feelings at the time, as it was a constant comparison of the Steam Deck and Switch 2 and it was ultimately the best game handheld. But one reason why everyone can easily compare is that they are priced pretty similarly, which made me think about the state of PC handheld pricing.
We don’t think that manufacturers are still sitting in a bubble where the wrong moves make the manufacturers come out of the market and public interest cools significantly, but we cannot ignore the somewhat cautious differences in steam deck prices compared to their competitors. This is obviously due to the aging hardware within the steam deck, but while the standards for 2025 are very limited, the deck is just beginning to struggle consistently with the Triple A game. Still, some developers will not get in the way to ensure they run the latest games on their decks, as we saw in the shadow of the assassin’s beliefs.
Instead, what we see from Asus, MSI, Ayaneo, Aokzoe, OnexPlayer, and more is the competition to get the most powerful possible and get it to the market as quickly as possible. This includes choosing a powerful AMD chip like the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, which is usually found on mini-game PCs, or using it for handhelds instead.
A good way to measure how pricing is accelerated in the gaming handheld market is when it was announced in June 2023, with the MSRP of $699 and the regular Z1 model priced at $599.
By this time, the Steam Deck LCD had already been on the market for nearly 18 months, starting at $399 for the 64GB model, followed by OLED for $549 in November 2023. This meant that all mainstream handhelds in the market during the 2023 holiday season were very competitive prices.
Two years later, Asus is preparing to launch the Xbox-themed Xbox Ally X at a rumoured price of $999. MSI ships the Claw 8 Ai+ for $999. Meanwhile, the steam deck can be purchased for $399, but only the model at this price is the 256GB LCD model, with some OG models being discontinued with the introduction of the OLED version.
This means that the gap between the top and bottom of the mainstream market has expanded from $300 to at least $600, and there are cases to improve the power of these new handhelds, but it’s still a difficult medicine to swallow, especially in some of the things I’ve tested so far.
Regarding power growth over the past three years, handhelds rarely use custom APUs like steam decks. This evolved into some manufacturers, using the aforementioned AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, but waited for the imminent arrival of chips in the AMD Ryzen Z2 range. Currently, I already have a check of the first Strix Halo handheld on the aforementioned GPD Win 5 using the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395.
It feels like the gaming handheld market is probably falling due to the spirit of chasing the same power that plagues the smartphone market. Fans are eagerly waiting for the next top-spec Android phone and are ready to drop cash on a shiny new model, even if the upgrade hasn’t changed the game. This feels slightly illegitimate compared to the rather humble beginnings of PC handhelds just a few years ago. Without the sales data to analyze, it is also difficult to say how much these expensive handhelds sell, and what manufacturers consider to be successful.
Ultimately, it’s not the power that makes steam decks so popular. It’s a cheap price and how easy it is to use Steamos. When you launch a steam deck, you will be driven to a version of steam that plays the installed game in seconds. The Xbox Ally model is trying to change this situation, but the same cannot be said for the Windows handheld yet.
Another major advantage of steam decks is its evaluation system. This is used to show whether the game works on the deck. It’s far from perfect, but it clearly has considerable weight as it is a system that developers actively boast when they achieve “validation” status. In some cases, developers will make Steam Deck-specific graphics profiles available, as seen in CD Projekt Red Games Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3.
Perhaps the lesson we have learned from the current handheld landscape is that gamers don’t necessarily want the most powerful handheld if they ignore the core fundamentals of what makes a handheld so good. This is especially appropriate when these handhelds cost 2.5 times more than a steam deck.
Amidst all this pricing confusion, we haven’t seen or heard anything from the valve regarding Steam Deck 2 yet. It’s reasonable to expect the current model to come with substantial upgrades, but it’s possible that you still lack the most powerful handheld on the market, as you don’t need the power to sell units.
The next 12 months in the gaming handheld market will be particularly exciting and we can’t wait to follow up for the ride. If you want to chat about handhelds or common PC hardware with like-minded people, you can join the Discord server.
