All the alternatives are advertised to be shipped with Windows only and so not interesting to me. Probably this is interesting for a lot of potential customers but I don’t want Windows on any device that I own.
They’re all basically PCs so you can actually still install Linux on them. In fact, there’s a distro called ChimeraOS, which is a community-made SteamOS, that you can install on any handheld (or even a regular PC). ChimeraOS contributors even regularly test against popular handled devices (like the ROG Ally for instance) and put in fixes and optimizations for various things. So in that regard, getting something that’s NOT the Steam Deck may not be such a crazy idea.
Interesting. Did not know about ChimeraOS. But can I get a ROG Ally without paying for a Windows license?
No, but even with the Windows tax it’s cheaper than the Steam Deck. The 512GB Steam Deck is $649, but the ROG Ally equivalent is $599 - and it has a much faster CPU+GPU.
It also depends on the audience. A lot of people might not be comfortable installing a different OS. Steam Deck is ready out of the box.
Personally, I have installed many OSes many times, so I am comfortable doing it to a handheld device. But the inputs on the Steam Deck would stop me from buying any alternatives. SD has so many options, full Xbox layout, track pads in either side, four paddles on the back, gyro, and the two “menu buttons”. And they all feel super premium!
The last thing I’ll say is about the support of all of this. I have only owned two valve made physical products at this point, Steam Deck and Steam Link. The updates for Steam Link continued far after the product was discontinued. The amount of bugs on the Steam Deck that were fixed via an update the day following it’s report is truly astonishing. I have owned 3-4 ASUS ROG products and after the last keyboard I owned (how do you messup a keyboard?!?!) I decided it would take some serious innovation to get me to buy another product of theirs again. I have also owned two different models of GPD win, very unimpressed but the quality of the inputs so I sold them very fast. I can’t speak to any other handheld but I can say I feel very comfortable with Steam backing the Deck.
They’re all basically PCs so you can actually still install Linux on them
Not even all PC’s play nicely with Linux, especially in smaller form-factors and laptops etc. I’ve had several laptops with weird hardware that didn’t have a proper driver (esp tabletized devices with odd audio, video, or network chipset revisions). My last laptop I had to run a bunch of hacked-up scripts to get the audio working (amp would sleep and not wait) properly until kernel support improved about a year later
Linux is versatile, but one shouldn’t automatically assume it’ll work on Linux.
Nobody is assuming anything. If you take the time to read the post you responded you’d see that ChimeraOS is tested against these devices and is often patched to support the variances in their hardware.
You should also definitely consider battery life and how important each “upgrade” is. Windows supports a few extra games but isn’t optimized for a handheld like SteamOS. A better screen or more performance would be cool but not if it costs an hour of battery life.
One thing that ended up surprising me is how little I’ve cared about performance on the Deck. It’s kind of the nature of a handheld that you play games like Hades and not RDR2 or whatever. So, it ends up being less of a problem. Big, beautiful games tend to call for a big screen and a few hours whereas a portable is like, “I have 30 minutes to kill. I’ll play Tetris Effect.”
That’s such a big thing. Linux is better for a handheld. I used to own a couple of GPD Win’s and Windows made it so frustrating so I just sold them. With my Steam Deck I have found very few games I couldn’t play on Linux. I actually can’t think of a single example that isn’t a competitive multiplayer game. But, personally I didn’t buy a handheld for competitive multiplayer…
I like the idea but the battery life puts me off a lot. Generally if I’m into a pc game be it skyrim, rimworld, stellaris, fallout, GTA or others. A few hours just doesn’t cut it.
That said their very impressive and apus might be the best thing to happen in recent years. Really showing potential in my opinion.
I might also be a bit cautious of handhelds in general because my last was the Sony Vita which Sony almost immediately ignored after launch.
I wasn’t sure what handheld PC alternatives to steam deck were out and I just assumed they were low tier cheap versions. Wow was I wrong, those look nice, but get pricey. The specs look really good on that one you mentioned, the Ayaneo geek 1s.
As a steam deck owner I’m very happy with it, I’ve only used it in hand held mode. I just got the dock for it, I am a little concerned I’ll notice any performance issues more when hooked up to a large screen. I would love some time to try these alternatives out.
I just got the dock for it, I am a little concerned I’ll notice any performance issues more when hooked up to a large screen.
I’ve been using it predominantly docked and the performance is quite decent. A few tips:
- You can use the streaming function if you have a decent PC.
- Set device resolution to the resolution you want the game to be playing in. E.g. 1080p or 4k, then set the native in game resolution to something lower. Next, set your scaling filter to FSR instead of Linear. This will scale up the in game resolution to device resolution without sacrificing the internal memory and heating up the hardware.
- Make sure you set your TV to game mode to reduce input lag for controllers.
I mostly do retro gaming on my handhelds and PC gaming on my home machine but 2023 has brought some incredible portable options. I’m really keen for a powerful PC based handheld, especially with egpu support
I’m waiting for one with an OLED screen and good battery life. New models are coming out all the time and I’m excited to see what’s available in a year or two.
That Ayaneo Air 1S just launched on Indiegogo and has an OLED screen. It’s a stunning piece of kit but I’m not convinced by the battery life, which is why I’d be more interested in the Geek 1S or a different device altogether.
