Discussion Handheld PC Gaming devices

[KMFJD]

Steam's clearing out their old stock

 

[gorobei]

legion go follow up:

• new "go S" smaller size
• same size 8.8" oled, with rounded controllers
• both sporting a steam logo button

Leak: Lenovo’s larger Legion handheld adds OLED and keeps the detachable mouse

Lenovo’s SteamOS handheld isn’t the only one coming.

www.theverge.com

just add a 80 Whr battery and it should be good. if there are separate sku for steam os vs win11 and they discount the price accordingly this could be significant.

msi flew some ytubers to preview the claw 8 ai. supposedly they really put some effort/money into making a better product than the original claw/flaw.

 

[gorobei]

go S specs
Z2 go 8core zen3+
gpu radeon rdna2
8" 19x12 120hz
storage 512gb/1tb
16/32 gb ram
55whr
steamOS/win11

go 2
z2 extreme 8c/16t zen5
radeon 890m rdna3.5 16cu
8.8" 2560x1600 oled
win11

 

[gorobei]

MSI Claw 8 ai+ initial take (sponsored)

8" 120hz VRR 19x12 ips
lunarlake core ultra7 258v
arc 140v battlemage gpu
32gb ram
1tb m.2 2230 ssd
80 Whr battery
LTT 17hr in endurance mode , 1.7 in torture test, 4hr gaming in general
2x thunderbolt4 ports
1.75 pounds

$900 (thanks for playing, try again next time)

on the upside, 80whr battery seems to be the new normal. not using a 2280 ssd seems like a major fail. but at least they are taking the market seriously in addressing all the shortcomings of the first claw.

 

[gorobei]

aya neo 3
modular controls
this would be my 2nd best solution after detachable controllers with multiple button/pad layouts.

 

[gorobei]

pros:
igpu is close to amd 116 cu
integer scaling native
improved speakers
very low noise fans

cons:
slightly heavy
msi control center software is lacking
intel drivers are still bad at older game support. some require you to go spellunking around user forums for workarounds to get them to just run.
raytracing performance still not worth it (except maybe in minecraft)


ekes out some wins over allyX in a few games at 720p, and one or two wins over strixpoint hx370 but gets trounced in others. strix gpu is memory bandwidth constrained according to phawx.

 

[marees]

pros:
igpu is close to amd 116 cu
integer scaling native
improved speakers
very low noise fans

cons:
slightly heavy
msi control center software is lacking
intel drivers are still bad at older game support. some require you to go spellunking around user forums for workarounds to get them to just run.
raytracing performance still not worth it (except maybe in minecraft)


ekes out some wins over allyX in a few games at 720p, and one or two wins over strixpoint hx370 but gets trounced in others. strix gpu is memory bandwidth constrained according to phawx.

My takeaways:

• Claw 2 with Lunar Lake gives from 2 to 12 hours for gaming
• Beats prev gen AMD RoG ally X handily in low power (10w) mode by upto 75%
• Trades blows with current gen RDNA 3.5 based strix point
• Has frame capped auto-tdp modes (endurance gaming mode):
  • Efficiency — 30fps cap
  • Balanced — 40fps cap
  • Performance — 60fps cap

 

[gorobei]

acer shows 3 handhelds at CES

nitro blaze 7: 7" 1080p 144hz 50Whr $800
nitro blaze 8: 8.8" 2560x1600 144hz 55Whr $900
nitro blaze 11: 11" 2560x1600 120hz 55Whr $1100

16gb ram
2tb ssd m.2 2240 in the 7 and 8, 2280 in the 11
hall effect sticks/triggers
2x usbTypeC 1xTypeA

the 11 has removable controllers, webcam, and mysterious pogo pins on the bottom.

the battery capacity seems like a mistake, 80Whr should be the minimum. given the size of the 8 the 2280 should also be default.

the latest ryzen mobile with 40 gpu units seems like the bump up you would hope for in a true 2nd gen. linus did a mini rant video on the amd naming scheme and the mix and match of zen and rdna generations is a mess especially for handhelds.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

pros:
igpu is close to amd 116 cu
integer scaling native
improved speakers
very low noise fans

cons:
slightly heavy
msi control center software is lacking
intel drivers are still bad at older game support. some require you to go spellunking around user forums for workarounds to get them to just run.
raytracing performance still not worth it (except maybe in minecraft)


ekes out some wins over allyX in a few games at 720p, and one or two wins over strixpoint hx370 but gets trounced in others. strix gpu is memory bandwidth constrained according to phawx.

Impressive improvement over the OG Claw.

Did I miss something, or does it indeed launch Arkham Knight without mods now?

Adding the cons from the LTT review, plus one not on the list-
Bad Linux gaming (that's a major fail for many)
Price
m.2 2230

 

[gorobei]

My takeaways:

• Claw 2 with Lunar Lake gives from 2 to 12 hours for gaming
• Beats prev gen AMD RoG ally X handily in low power (10w) mode by upto 75%
• Trades blows with current gen RDNA 3.5 based strix point
• Has frame capped auto-tdp modes (endurance gaming mode):
  • Efficiency — 30fps cap
  • Balanced — 40fps cap
  • Performance — 60fps cap

Impressive improvement over the OG Claw.

Did I miss something, or does it indeed launch Arkham Knight without mods now?

Adding the cons from the LTT review, plus one not on the list-
Bad Linux gaming (that's a major fail for many)
Price
m.2 2230

the phawx is a bit like those hyper-miler commuters who are trying to extract the most for the lowest cost(power in this case).
in these low power situations/games the lunar lake looks very good so long as the drivers are updated and the devs do the work to make the game function with it. older games will suffer if there isnt enough adoption to make it worth it for the devs to go back to an old title (Returnal's fog issue could mean the igp isnt rendering everything it is supposed to, which could account for the better fps). i've seen some other reviews/previews where the results werent as good for the claw. the phawx may be going the extra mile to tweak every setting down to get the playable rates he requires, but the average buyer isnt going that far. going down to 720p from native 1200p and maxing out the ai frame gen isnt something everyone wants.

the claw 8ai+ is what msi should have released first and just skipped the original model. i am interested in what they follow up with.

on the amd side, the phawx did a preview of the asus rog flow z13 tablet 2n1 with strix halo.

on a 70whr battery with minimal noise they got some amazing results on newer games. if this is what happens when you give the apu more bandwidth and more compute units, then the future looks good.

the problem is that we need handhelds/gaming-laptops/tablets/nuc-tvboxes to be a big enough market that amd makes a dedicated chip for it.
the z1 and z2 are just cut down laptop chips which means they cant use the latest gpu drivers from amd, you have to wait for asus/lenovo/acer/etc to release the driver through their own software package which can take months. the msi claw can use the intel drivers directly from the intel page. the china handhelds using full 7840u and 8840u type chips can use amd drivers directly.

we need for the HH market to be big enough that amd makes a dedicated to gaming apu with fewer cpu cores than mainstream laptops and more gpu cu. larger ram amounts so the gpu doesnt get the short end of the stick of the shared memory should come naturally as brands settle on default minimums through competition. once we see full on stacked chiplet apus, that is when things will really get crazy.

i am amazed gigabyte hasnt ventured into this market. usually the taiwan brands are pretty keen to not lose any share of possible sales.

 

[gorobei]

technically probably not a PC but we have probably hit the threshold for public mindset penetration for the handheld formfactor
atari gamestation $150 q3 2025

dial knob, dpad, trackball controls. the relevant controls/buttons light up depending on game.

 

[gorobei]

seems the zotac zone was quietly released in only europe and asia. only a handful made it to microcenter. the zone 2(025) using the AI 9 HX 370 is coming to wide distribution sometime in 2025.
32gb
same 7" oled
1tb m.2 2280

https://www.microcenter.com/product/685328/zotac-zone-handheld-gaming-console

Zotac Zone 2 is already on the horizon as new Steam Deck competitor spotted

The Zotac Zone was found at CES with a new prototype model sporting the latest in AMD's Ryzen 300 chips for boosted gaming performance.

www.pcgamesn.com

also: msi is putting the same lunarlake cpu in the claw8ai+ in the 7" version of the claw ai+.

 

[gorobei]

pcworld with overview of lenovo legion go lineup

the cpus are either the z2 extreme, z1 extreme, z2 go which will confuse things to no end.

the legion go2 with z2extreme was a prototype as far as internals, tho the controllers were looking pretty finished according to other reviewers.
the go2 looks like the perfect balance, fixing everything problematic with the original: controller grip shape, battery size, storage size(2280 rumored to fit), oled landscape display with vrr. about all that i could ask for is the strix halo apu, but that would require a beefy increase to the cooling system/thickness.

even the one piece go S seems to be pretty solidly finished.