As I see it there have been three epochs of PC handhelds. Firstly, the preliminary wave of prototype and underpowered units testing the waters. I attempted a superb few of those early handhelds, and so they all appeared fatally flawed in their very own method. To not fear, subsequent got here the massive bang of the Steam Deck. That is when Valve discovered a successful components and handhelds all of the sudden made sense to your common gamer.
As we speak, we’re in one other epoch, one among quickly evolving designs. We went from barely one good handheld final 12 months to being unable to determine between them which of them will make it into our greatest handheld gaming PC information.
Simply this 12 months we have seen the discharge of heaps of handhelds together with the ROG Ally, OneXPlayer OneXFly, OneXPlayer 2 Professional, Ayaneo Air 1S, Ayaneo 2S, Lenovo Legion Go, Aokzoe A1 Professional, and the Valve Steam Deck OLED. There are a number of different designs within the pre-order stage, and I am positive I am lacking a couple of different crowd-funded ones, too.
There is a good motive why we have so many handheld gaming PCs to select from. It is largely thanks to 1 significantly spectacular AMD processor: the Ryzen 7 7840U. This chip powers nearly each machine on that checklist, both because the 7840U or in its semi-custom guise, the Z1. It is solely Valve choosing one other chip, and that is nonetheless an AMD semi-custom job.
We had a tricky time attempting to whittle down this 12 months’s handhelds to simply three nominations. However myself, and the broader PC Gamer {Hardware} workforce, suppose we now have give you a stable checklist. Right here goes:
Greatest handheld gaming PC 2023: the nominees
The winner of the PC Gamer {Hardware} Award for the very best handheld gaming PC shall be introduced on New Yr’s Eve. All three of those handhelds are in with a shot of taking residence the massive prize, so tune in to search out out which one it will be.