From the Steam Deck to Ayaneo, track the evolution of handheld gaming PCs, mobile GPU leaps, and the best portable hardware.
Also known as gaming handhelds·portable gaming pc·oled gaming device
From the Steam Deck to Ayaneo, track the evolution of handheld gaming PCs, mobile GPU leaps, and the best portable hardware.
Source-by-source view of what publications and communities are surfacing right now.
Tracking: The Best Handheld Gaming PCs to Take Your Games on the Go
Common questions on Handheld Gaming PCs, surfaced from across the indexed web.
I highly doubt that MSI set a $1,799 price for its new gaming handheld just so it could make a few quick bucks off of those who still have a big PC gaming budget. The original MSI Claw 8 AI+ that launched in 2025 had an $899 price tag attached, nearly half that of the new EX AI+ version arriving officially on June 23. The massive jump in price has a small part to do with upgraded hardware and new performance chips, but it has a massive part to do with RAM and storage costs. AI data centers are eating through the world's supply of these components, and practically all tech costs more than it di
Who's buying a $1,799 PC gaming handheld when you can get an Xbox Series X, PS5, AND Switch 2 for less?A $1,799 gaming handheld is a hard sell anytime, never mind in our current economy. At this price point, it's competing with full gaming laptops with discrete GPUs and, as mentioned, a bundle of consoles. Yes, the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is far more portable than anything else with the same level of performance, but I don't doubt that a lot of gamers will be happy to sit at a desk and play after saving hundreds of dollars. 👉 Gaming handhelds are the new netbooks — will they suffer the same tragic fate? The average gamer is going to have a hard time coming to terms with such a high cost for one devic
Who's buying a $1,799 PC gaming handheld when you can get an Xbox Series X, PS5, AND Switch 2 for less?The Steam Machine's CPU is definitely trailing some chips that are already on the market, but context matters a lot in this scenario. AMD's custom chip for the Steam Machine features 6 cores, 12 threads, and a boost clock up to 4.86GHz. The Z1/Z2 Extreme and Core Ultra 7 chips feature 8 cores running at a higher TDP, which makes a big difference, especially in compact devices. So, yes, the Steam Machine might not have the strongest CPU power, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to perform worse than premium gaming handhelds.
Steam Machine CPU benchmark results don't compare well to current handhelds we've tested, but I'm not worriedThe Steam Machine is expected to arrive with an RDNA 3 GPU featuring 8GB of VRAM. Unfortunately, I haven't yet seen any leaks in terms of the Steam Machine's GPU performance, but there are some hard facts to note. The Steam Machine's GPU is a far cry from the integrated chips in gaming handhelds that share system memory, and it's very likely that the boosted GPU performance will completely annul any CPU deficit. 👉 4 reasons why SteamOS is quietly winning over PC gamers — and why Windows won't be dethroned any time soon Where the CPU performance gap will most likely be felt is in huge open-worl
Steam Machine CPU benchmark results don't compare well to current handhelds we've tested, but I'm not worried
