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.

 

[gorobei]

the verge on HH sales numbers via IDC(international data corp)

Three years later, the Steam Deck has dominated handheld PC gaming

How big is the handheld PC gaming industry?

www.theverge.com

under 6M sold from 2022-present, with another ~2M forcast for 2025.
3.7M were steamdecks, rest were asus,lenovo,msi
does not include chinese makers gpd/ayaneo/oneX

oneXplayer's android transforming HH the oneXsugar

The OneXSugar asks: what if Nintendo Switch could transform into Nintendo DS?

Qualcomm’s new handheld gaming chips are here.

www.theverge.com

standard layout and swinging dualscreen nintendoDS layout. not likely to get x86 version. more than meets the eye.

 

[gorobei]

LTT on the ayaneo 3 modular control

expensive and pretty dependent on them still making the modules years down the road. i would be curious if anyone(media) actually goes back to check on software support for the umpteen thousand models ayaneo has pumped out over ~5 years

 

[gorobei]

msi releasing a8 claw with amd Z2 extreme, still offering intel ai claw.
same VRR display, same 80whr battery, new cooling solution.

 

[gorobei]

linus with xbox-asus handheld and info on hh os plans

2 versions: ai Z2extreme 24GB ram 80Whr and Z2 A(potato) 16GB 60Whr
same lcd screen as ally

low resource os that will boot up straight into game ui overlay not even loading win desktop. improvements to standby and wake.
based on some wording from MS linus is hoping the os changes will be made available to other HH and desktop users.

 

[quikah]

linus with xbox-asus handheld and info on hh os plans

2 versions: ai Z2extreme 24GB ram 80Whr and Z2 A(potato) 16GB 60Whr
same lcd screen as ally

low resource os that will boot up straight into game ui overlay not even loading win desktop. improvements to standby and wake.
based on some wording from MS linus is hoping the os changes will be made available to other HH and desktop users.

Improvements should be for Windows as a whole. Will see how this goes. If it is reasonably priced i might pick it up. Given the xbox price increases i am expecting a $999 price tag on the top one. Maybe $699 for the lower end model.

Native xbox game support would be nice to get sone of the old Xbox360 games, but Jez Cordon is thinking there are licensing issues. Wouldn't be that hard imo, just run an Xbox360 vm on the device.

 

[gorobei]

ayaneo flip follow up: flip 1S DS

7" 1920x1080P OLED 144Hz main screen + 4.5" 1620x1080 3:2 lcd secondary screen
AMD Ryzen™ AI 9 HX 370 vapor chamber cooling
TMR medium joystick, hall effect triggers
optical finger mouse
m.2 2230 form factor

given tariffs looming, i kinda doubt most of the shenzen small run makers will have much of a future in the US.


good news: the phawx on the nerdnest podcast says the z2 extreme chip can use direct download gpu drivers from amd without needing the oem (asus/msi/lenovo/etc) to issue it through their own software package.

 

[gorobei]

oneXplayer G1 stealth handheld

mini notebook format with removable keyboard with gaming controls and giant trackpad/kb underneath.

the primary market for these things is in asia (japan/korea/etc). people in big corporate office suit and tie jobs are expected to look respectable, so big flashy gamer laptops are frowned upon by older generations. clamshell types of stealth HHpc like this and the GPD pocket 4 or max2 wont draw any looks in a meeting room but allow the user to game on the train ride home.

 

[marees]

AMD CEO Lisa Su Says Xbox Partnership Will Power the Future of Gaming​

AMD & Xbox are All-in​

AMD has released a video featuring CEO Dr. Lisa Su discussing the company’s new partnership with Xbox and what it means for the future of gaming. In the video, Su states: “AMD and Microsoft are advancing a bold shared vision for the future of gaming—one that enables seamless gameplay across any screen, placing gamers at the centre of the experience anywhere.” She continues: “We’re so excited to be deepening our relationship with Microsoft and building on more than two decades of partnership, innovation and trust, from the earliest days of the Xbox 360 to the most advanced consoles.”

This includes the newly announced ROG Xbox Ally announced at SGF 2025. The CEO’s comments can be seen in the AMD YouTube video

AMD CEO Lisa Su Says Xbox Partnership Will Power the Future of Gaming

The AMD CEO has just issued comments on the newly announced Xbox partnership, claiming it is the "future of immersive gaming".

www.cgmagonline.com

 

[marees]

AMD CEO Lisa Su Says Xbox Partnership Will Power the Future of Gaming​

AMD & Xbox are All-in​

AMD has released a video featuring CEO Dr. Lisa Su discussing the company’s new partnership with Xbox and what it means for the future of gaming. In the video, Su states: “AMD and Microsoft are advancing a bold shared vision for the future of gaming—one that enables seamless gameplay across any screen, placing gamers at the centre of the experience anywhere.” She continues: “We’re so excited to be deepening our relationship with Microsoft and building on more than two decades of partnership, innovation and trust, from the earliest days of the Xbox 360 to the most advanced consoles.”

This includes the newly announced ROG Xbox Ally announced at SGF 2025. The CEO’s comments can be seen in the AMD YouTube video

AMD CEO Lisa Su Says Xbox Partnership Will Power the Future of Gaming

The AMD CEO has just issued comments on the newly announced Xbox partnership, claiming it is the "future of immersive gaming".

www.cgmagonline.com

AMD might set a baseline of chip/family of CPU/GPU that allow for native xbox gameplay that lets other OEMs build "Xbox consoles" or something like that

https://twitter.com/x/status/1935710333512880279

 

[gorobei]

android oneXsugar near final engineering sample

still a ton of software issues to be solved with emulation and the 2 touchscreens. ergonomics on grip are a bit sharp.
$670 on indeegogo, no indications on tariffs.

i guess if it breaks you have an expensive fidget toy.

 

[marees]

GPD win 5 leaks

Leaks for the highly anticipated GPD WIN 5 have just surfaced

GPD WIN 5 – Everything We Know So Far - GPD | PC Gaming Handhelds & Mini Laptops

The GPD WIN 5 leaks are here! Discover the AMD-powered handheld with an iGPU so fast, it could make some external GPUs obsolete. Details inside.

gpdstore.net

https://twitter.com/x/status/1948322504516223042

 

[gorobei]

the Phawx goes over gpd win5 specs

ai 385 and 395 options
32/64/128 gb ram
2x m.2 slots: 2280 and socket3
7" 120hz vrr
80 W hr battery

pcworld tests win11 vs steamOS on handhelds.

some odd outliers in the benchmarks but anywhere from 10% to ~2% penalty, per the Phawx the problem isnt all the background windows stuff but rather the power scheduling/allotment. Z1 extreme is still surprisingly performant.