Gaming Laptops Are a Higher Deal Than The Xbox Ally X

We’re contemporary off the discharge of the Xbox Ally X, and it doesn’t look like handheld gaming PCs are going anyplace anytime quickly. At least for me, handhelds have change into my go-to approach of enjoying my Steam – amongst different PC sport shops – library after I’m not at my desk. In quite a lot of methods, these little gadgets have changed a lot of what I used gaming laptops for, particularly throughout a commute or a brief journey.

This makes me surprise: why would you purchase a gaming laptop computer in 2025 when PC gaming handhelds are getting extra highly effective and transportable 12 months after 12 months? If all you’re in search of is an alternate machine to play your video games on the go, the prospects for gaming laptops appear to be thinning. However, now that handheld gaming PCs are getting dearer, it’s as soon as once more getting more durable to attract a transparent line.

Handheld Gaming PCs Have Come a Long Way

Handheld gaming PCs aren’t a brand new factor. Depending on who you ask, you possibly can hint the shape issue again to 2010 with the Pandora – a Linux primarily based handheld that wasn’t a lot bigger than the Nintendo DS – however the Steam Deck is answerable for the explosion in additional mainstream handheld PC gadgets lately. After all, it was inexpensive, and had a consumer expertise that didn’t require you to be an knowledgeable to navigate.

In the roughly three years for the reason that Steam Deck launched, it looks like each main pc producer has jumped on the likelihood to craft its personal handheld gaming machines. But as a result of an organization like Lenovo can’t subsidize its {hardware} prices with software program gross sales like Valve can, these different gadgets have been dearer than the Deck.

Regardless of which fashionable handheld you decide up, although, you possibly can nonetheless play just about any sport on it, so long as you mood your expectations relating to graphics high quality. You don’t have to lug round a heavy gaming laptop computer simply to get a while in Path of Exile 2 on the highway.

The Pricing Problem

But gaming laptops aren’t simply extra unwieldy than a handheld PC – they’re typically dearer, too. Even if gadgets just like the Xbox Ally X and the Legion Go 2 are balked at due to their excessive costs, gaming laptops have all the time been sort of costly. Even entry-level gadgets, just like the Acer Nitro V begin at round $900 proper now, with an RTX 5050 and a Core i7 processor. And that’s the low-end. High-end gaming laptops can get a lot, way more costly.

Our favourite gaming laptop computer proper now could be the Razer Blade 16, which is a premium machine that appears like an edgy MacBook Pro. But that svelte design comes with a excessive value, beginning at $1,899 with an RTX 5060 – way more costly than even the Legion Go 2. You also can improve that laptop computer to an RTX 5090 if you wish to spend $4,499. To be truthful, that’ll be way more highly effective than any handheld machine available on the market proper now, and doubtless for years to return.

Handhelds, however, had been initially presupposed to be these secondary gadgets we used along with our gaming PCs or laptops – that’s how I exploit mine. That was a a lot simpler promote with the Steam Deck. I purchased the Steam Deck at launch for $529, which got here with a 256GB SSD. Is it as highly effective as my PC? Hell no, however I primarily use it to play Ball x Pit in mattress whereas I take heed to a podcast. You can substitute any current gaming PC in that equation, too, and I’m in all probability utilizing it in the identical approach. But as a lot as I really like lots of the handhelds I’ve used within the final couple years, I don’t know if I might have ever received into them if the Steam Deck price a thousand bucks.

Gaming laptops are supposed to be your main pc, they usually’re highly effective sufficient to play most video games at the next decision and with higher visible high quality than a handheld. And they’re additionally capable of do much more than simply play your video games.

Gaming Laptops Aren’t Going Anywhere

I spend quite a lot of time on a handheld – I’ve reviewed quite a lot of them now – however I’m all the time returning to my PC, as a result of it lets me play my video games, and in addition get stuff finished. There’s simply one thing good a few machine that permits you to play one thing like World of Warcraft between Adobe Premiere periods. And, actually, that’s what gaming laptops supply and one thing handheld PCs proceed to wrestle with, whilst they begin to have laptop-like value tags.

Because whereas quite a lot of handhelds are launching with a full-fat model of Windows working on them, they’ve a protracted technique to go earlier than they’ll really exchange gaming laptops. Arguably, they also have a lengthy technique to go earlier than they’re straightforward to make use of for simply gaming. The Xbox Full Screen Experience did lots to deal with the consumer expertise facet of issues, giving Windows a controller-friendly UI the place you possibly can launch video games or open Edge, but it surely received’t allow you to do a lot past that.

If you need to get some work finished on the Xbox Ally X, that’s actually doable, however you must get into the desktop and sure join a keyboard and a mouse to even be capable to use most productiveness apps. And you’ll in all probability need to join it to an exterior show, too. It’s actually doable to make use of a handheld such as you would some other PC, but it surely requires so many further steps that it’s in all probability not really value it.

Instead, for most individuals that solely want one PC, a gaming laptop computer merely makes extra sense, particularly as the value delta between them continues to slender. You’ll be capable to play video games higher, whereas additionally having the ability to do all of the every day duties all of us have with out having to plug two or extra equipment right into a USB dongle to do it.

Handheld gaming PCs are higher as companions to your primary gaming rig, particularly if you have already got a big Steam library to faucet into. I’m unsure what the fits over at Lenovo and Asus are considering, but it surely looks like a nasty thought to have a secondary machine be as costly as a gaming laptop computer.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC parts queen. You can observe her @Jackiecobra