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Andy Edser, {hardware} author
This month I’ve been: Testing the Steam Machine, and making an attempt to get my head round its price ticket. Also, I’ve instantly discovered myself surrounded by refreshed gaming laptops. A pleasant downside to have, ey?
I like handheld gaming PCs. Note that I’ve fastidiously used the phrase “like,” fairly than love. In all honesty, I want they have been sooner. Or extra transportable. Concessions must be made if you wish to play demanding video games on the go, it is true. But, in current months, it is the worth that is actually put the tin lid on the entire handheld gaming affair for me.
The Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS, a handheld we fell in love with final yr at its $830 MSRP, is now listed for $1,332. Or how concerning the MSI Claw 8 AI+, a mega handheld I personally gave a 90% rating to (whereas admitting it was fairly costly) at $900? Now you may be fortunate to seek out one for below $1,200. Its recently-announced, Panther Lake-powered successor? That’ll rack you up $1,799 at pre-order costs.
I do know, I do know. It’s one other article from me complaining about pricing, and I realise I most likely sound like a caught document. But I can not consider a PC gaming {hardware} class extra screwed by the memory crisis than the handheld market right now. I update our handheld gaming PC deals every week, and recently I had to make an admission:
The Asus ROG Ally Xbox X, a machine we rightly criticised for having a “super-high price tag” on its release just eight months ago, is now what I’d call the best value proposition on the market. For one thousand smackeroonies. A cool grand. Serious cash.
That’s the price of a budget, yet soul-affirming, weeklong beachside holiday for two. And yet, if I were to recommend you buy any gaming handheld under today’s ridiculous pricing conditions, it’d be this one.
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It’s properly fast, for a start. With an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU furnished with RDNA 3.5 graphics tech and 24 GB of LPDDR5x-8000, it’s got a specs sheet that allows it to monster pretty much every other handheld we’ve ever tested.
You get a 1 TB SSD as well, which should allow room for plenty of modern games. There’s also the ROG Xbox Ally (non-X) to consider at $600, however the Ryzen Z2 A chip at its core feels just a little underpowered—though it is nonetheless price some thought at that worth.
Compare and distinction both with the Steam Deck OLED, which now runs you $949 for the 1 TB mannequin. Sure, it is acquired a nicer display. But the now-aging internals merely do not make any sense for this type of cash. A bit just like the Steam Machine, now I come to consider it—though I digress.
Plus, the ROG Xbox Ally X’s Windows Xbox full display expertise (what a horrible mash-up of phrases) is fairly darn good. It’s no SteamOS, but it surely’s nonetheless a reasonably seamless manner of interacting with the system by way of the medium of thumbsticks. And Steam’s Big Picture Mode continues to be an choice for sorting by your video games library, in fact.
It’s quiet, snug, and—once more I am unable to imagine I’m saying this—moderately priced given what you obtain in comparison with the competitors. Somehow, the Xbox handheld has managed to put itself throughout the market on the proper worth, at virtually the suitable time.
Which makes me marvel how for much longer it will be earlier than that MSRP jumps. Given the state of *gestures wildly* the whole lot else within the shopper electronics business proper now, I’d think about that throughout the subsequent few months, this column will grow to be defunct.
I’m type of astonished that the ROG Xbox Ally X continues to be sitting at its $1,000 MSRP as we communicate, and one thing deep in my bones tells me that will not be the case for for much longer.
I wonder if handhelds will survive as something aside from boutique units for the very well-heeled.
This is not a name to motion, I ought to stress. Honestly, if I used to be interested by shopping for a gaming handheld proper now and already owned a PC, I might most likely save my cash as an alternative.
But for those who’re useless set on shopping for a transportable gaming machine to shove in your shoulder bag in your subsequent flight, that is the one which makes probably the most sense within the present market.
And that is a wild state of affairs. With studies indicating that the reminiscence disaster, and the related tech worth will increase will proceed (and sure worsen) all through 2027, and probably 2028 as properly, I genuinely cannot fathom what kind of worth/efficiency metrics I’ll be utilizing to put in writing handheld opinions over the following couple of years.
How do I rating what are basically hobbyist units, pleasurable grownup frivolities, once they all command such eye-popping quantities of money? How do I sq. any actual idea of “value” with units that I do know rattling properly would price a lot, a lot much less, if it wasn’t for AI holding us throughout a barrel?
Gaming is already an costly passion. Even extra so whenever you need handheld comfort mixed with excessive efficiency. But pricing appears to be rising at such a fast fee, I wonder if handhelds will survive as something aside from boutique units for the very well-heeled.
They’re very troublesome to wholeheartedly suggest in 2026, I’ll inform you that a lot without cost.
Best gaming rigs 2026
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