Debate: Does Windows Suck On Handhelds? 

Returned my Legion Go for a Steam Deck and I don’t regret the decision. As a father not having a true suspend feature to where I can stop the game and come back was a real deal breaker for me with the Legion Go.

Suspend/resume should be standard as Windows is the only gaming platform without it.

As someone who owns all 3 of those units, this discussion nails everything. I use them for different things, but the SD is the ultimate handheld gaming machine. Ergonomics, suspend/resume, battery life….it’s just great at just about everything. The Ally and Legion Go are certainly better at one or two things, but you have to sacrifice everything else. There are times when I want that. AAA game that requires more power and screen real estate, I grab the Legion Go. Power and portability and the ability to use the external graphics card, I grab the ROG Ally. But 90% of the time the SD does everything else better. It’s really a testament to Valve as to how well the SD has stood up in this burgeoning field.

Valve really needs to release SteamOS for other handheld manufacturers

So good to see and hear Will talk since the tested podcast died

Great video. We need more Will videos on this channel.

Love the content guys!

It's not that these other devices shouldn't exist (variety of hardware), but ideally they'd have SteamOS or something similar on them. Windows is not a great experience for these in its current form. And the arguments for the Windows devices being a PC with all the tinkering benefits doesn't apply. SteamOS is Linux. It is a PC. You can tinker with it as much as you want. The key though is you don't have to. Linux is also worth supporting solely to escape our dependency on Windows. It's already more than viable as a desktop OS replacement too.

While I don't have a hand held, other than my phone, I can say the ONLY reason I still use Windows is because of gaming and software. If I could run all my games and software on Linux without having to fiddle with Wine or whatever I'd switch and never look back.

I understand the Windows guy preference to completely shut off the games. I do that, too, but quick resume is still an amazing feature. There's been many times some irl gets in the way (chores, visitors, doing something for work, etc). If I can't save right away, I hit quick resume to be gone for a half hour, then come back and continue. It's a godsend more than people realize

The problem is microsoft never ever interested for them to make windows optimized for handheld gaming

So this is where Mr Smith is hanging out. I know some don't care much for him but I really enjoyed the Tested podcast with Him, Norm, Jeremy and sometimes Gary. Great times, really wasn't the same after he parted ways.

Great conversation! This is a direction gaming is going and I appreciate the observations.

It’s honestly not bad. If I’m in hand held mode I’m gaming or watching RU-vid, and if I need to really use windows in depth I’ll dock it. It’s not that complicated lol.

Maybe it's just me but I use my Ally for more than just gaming like editing photos in Affinity Photos, editing videos or just doing other computer stuff and so because of that I pick Windows

I used to always shut things down, but i started a large project and realized that sleep actually works most of the time, so it saves me so much time opening up programs and tabs, if I can just sleep it.

windows 11 pretty heavy operating system in general, not surprised handhelds would struggle

Like Adam, I also spend most of my time plugged in with the Steam Deck. I just look at it as a much more convenient "gaming laptop" style device. I regularly take the train to Tokyo (about a 1 hour trip) and the train has plugs, if and when I fly to the US for a visit, the plane has a plug, but I can't necessarily whip out a Razer laptop in either case and go to town. The Steam Deck however fits perfectly in both situations, and making a space for the plug on the included case was a stroke of genius on Valve's part. Absolutely the best portable gaming experience on the market.

Owner of 3 devices here, I use the Steam Deck OLED as my travel handheld because of the amazing battery life, ROG ally as my multiplayer handheld because of VRR, and Legion Go as my single player handheld for the bigger screen. Not interested in the MSI Claw as intel graphics can’t compete with AMD at the moment so I have no input on that device. I’m also the type of person to completely shut down my devices except for the steam deck.

Windows Gaming PC / Series X / PS5 / Cloud Gaming + a Steam Deck OLED is the best combo - can always stream the games in-home to the handheld if you really need the extra power the Deck lacks. Ally / LeGo really have poor battery life to be a true portable handheld.

100% the only reason I'm still on Steam Deck is because of the suspend. I can suspend my SD over 10 times on a casual gaming session. Kid wants a drink etc. Sometimes it's off for 5 mins sometimes it's 2 hrs and every single time it resumes to the same state i left it. Usually with the same battery %

Lets be straight about one thing; Windows will never get better for handhelds (let alone desktops/laptops), because Microsoft is far too busy playing IT for OpenAI... It's time for more Linux and other complete alternative OSs.

While I'm mostly in the PC tinkering camp as used to defend the Windows handhelds, I have fully switched to Linux for half a decade and am more comfortable with even obscure and quirky Linux systems. Of which SteamOS is one, my deck being used as a Linux tablet in desktop mode half of the time that I use it, having changed some defaults like the web-browser. For me even SteamOS is more comfortable and tinker-friendly than a normal Windows installation at this point, if I were to pick up some handheld I'd be installing some Linux distro and using Steam Big Picture. And as mentioned elsewhere in this comment sections, the games that don't play on SD are the games I wouldn't want to play anyway, so that makes the choice even easier still. I also use it as my main controller, with the Steam Link Flatpak as a non-Steam app as the integrated streaming is buggy on the Preview OS version I run but the Flatpak is not. The combined functionality being what justifies the price for me, if it only gamed I would not have pre-ordered my Deck.

I love the form factor of the Steam Deck over all of the other handhelds. I don't like being stuck in one ecosystem though. I'm still waiting for a device that can offer the best of both worlds.

+1 On the sleep and resume issue. So much so now I get scared when my display turns off on my ROG Ally. It's a terrible crap shoot when the blasted thing falls into deeper sleep, and you get logged off Windows. Any existing work-around including registry editing doesn't seem to work either.

For me when returning from sleep/suspend, There are always some hung processes freezing the system so yeah i just shutdown always

the wiring in my place is a little sketchy (its a old place) to power down all the way

I installed ChimeraOS on my Ayaneo 2, I thought I might regret it, but far from it, it works so damn well, I never have failed sleep issues or anything like that anymore.

Bought the family a Steam Deck for Christmas 2022. Upgraded the ssd to a 512GB. Have a lot of causal games like rogue likes/lites, survivor likes, and puzzle games installed. Also have a few larger games like Forza 5, Farm Sim 22, and RE1rm. Probably about 20 games installed. I started playing FF7rm a couple weeks ago on PC. While I technically had enough space for it without uninstalling anything, I didn't want to have the ssd around 10% free space so I tried streaming it. I have the same PC that he was talking about streaming from. 13900k and rtx 4090 and I was surprised at how well it worked. Now idk if I'd play a racing games or shooters that are more latency sensitive that way. But maybe I'd be surprised there too.

Have you ever thought that maybe the reason you fully shut down your Windows devices is because sleep and hibernate are broken and never really work in Windows? I used to put my Windows mobile devices to sleep or hibernate, but then when I went to use them again I'd find that the bag they were in is really hot in the battery is dead because they constantly turn themselves on and drain while they're supposed to be asleep. I now fully shut down my Windows mobile devices when I'm done using them, not because I want to but because I know that I have to, otherwise they will fail me.

I play on the go or have other things to do in the middle of my game time, so I need the feature of sleep/wake. It’s a must, it works fine on my switch and steam deck. It’s weird that windows still hasn’t figure it out as even laptops have issues with this

I’m a casual gamer and the Nintendo switch is my primary console! I stopped playing video games after the PS3/xBox 360 era because I realized very quickly how online gaming was starting to shift towards a Pay to Play / micro transactions/DLC space! Lost interest! Plus I didn’t have time to sit and play games ! The switch got me back into gaming! The Steam deck is my only other “console”! Because it fills both my major needs! Portability AND back catalogue for the ps3/xbox360 era and before! Also helps that I can play many modern games via Steam!

I shut down my PC and handhelds completely as well. The only handheld which I have never fully shut off is my 3DS.

Depends all on if you need a laptop replacement or not... unless you put windows ins team deck too for that purpose or ok with linux

Yeah with my Ally I have to set Cyberpunk settings manaully.. then I get more FPS than the steam deck with higher settings :)

As a giant bomb fan seeing both will and grubb in this video just makes me so happy. Its like all the people I'm fans of all like each other and its great. I installed windows on my steam deck and for sure its a terrible experience. I only did it to play game pass games but I installed it to a sd card because its not ready for a permanent install.

Most of my games run just fine using Proton on Steam OS 3.5 on my steam deck lcd that I upgraded with a 2TB NVMe SSD &it was simple enough to add the hall effect joysticks I actually preffer the UI of Steam OS 3 over windows. If I got1 of the other windows handhelds I'd just probably put Nobara OS Steam Deck edition on it & windows wouldn't even get the chance the startup however from all the reviews I've seen none of the currently availabe handhelds actually out perform the steam deck enough to make the purchase worth it for me at least.

I have an Ally and windows does have a sleep wake function with the Power Button. I have played Sea of Stars and lies of P without losing progress.

I only have a Switch and traditional computers. I'm kind of waiting on text gen Steam Deck ,or for the Windows handhelds to mature some more (I'm in no rush). One nice thing about a Windows handheld is it can double as someone's normal computer when connected to a monitor. I think you can use regular Linux with the Steam Deck, but most people would want to go with Windows as their computer.

I have an Ally and have had no issues the few times ive used the suspend/standby fearure in a game. Im definitely a shutdown person 😊

You can make it work on handheld, you just need Emudeck and to run Gaming Mode (SteamOS mode), you keep the Windows benefits while having UI and experience of Steam OS

I have the Legion Go, Rog Ally and steam deck. About the sleep/resume in my opinion is not the main reason to get the steam deck anymore. On windows If you use hibernate instead of sleep you will have the same sleep/quick resume experience as the steam deck (only downside is that it takes a bit longer to turn on than the steam deck). I understand that defaults are important etc but I think anyone that doesn't like to fiddle with settings or knows and enjoys how to work well with windows should not get a Windows handheld. That being said, I haven't picked my steam deck in a while because I play a lot of FIFA (which has an Anti-cheat which is not compatible with the steam deck) and the performance on the deck is just too lacking for the games I enjoy... I loved the steam deck when it released and during the first 1,5 year but now I'm thinking about selling it although I'll probably not because I'm nostalgic about it.

This is why my favorite handheld is the GPD win mini, small compact 7" form factor but a keyboard is included which I feel is necessary for a windows device

I have Bazzite Steam OS on my legion go along side windows, I gave it a 256gb partition, its pretty sweet. Still main windows for now. there may come a time where I main Bazzite its that good for a daily driver

A note on the Sleep/Resume function: I installed Windows on my original Steam Deck and used it almost exclusively for months at a time, and there has to be some Bios level stuff going on because the sleep and resume worked perfectly even on Windows-Steam Deck

Windows on handhelds is the only thing that has ever made me miss windows 8 UI, as it was designed for tablets and the like and in all honesty, for that, worked quite well. It honestly suprised me how much of a step backwards the windows 11 tablet interface is compared to 8 and even to 10. That said, Bazzite solved any desire I had to go back to steamOS 3.5 after I gave away my steam deck when I got the legion Go, but I was soon back on windows due to the loss of functionality and my main gripe with my Steam Deck, game compatibility. 99% of the experience can be retained by just installing Steam and setting it toi boot to Big Picture Mode on windows startup. There in is the biggest adavantage of the windows gaming handhelds, flexibility, as while the Steam Deck has pick up and play out of the box being its advantage, the UI is just a steam install away and the OS is a Bazzite or similar install away, unlike on the steam deck where Windows support is pretty much an after thought and requires a lot of 3rd party apps to get even close. I guess its what you want, if you want flexibility a windows one is the way to go, if you want a console that plays a lot of PC games from your steam library, then steam deck is the way to go

I have a 0% interest if the device doesn't suspend/resume perfectly from the off state like a switch or my laptop lid. Life is too disruptive, that button has got to be perfect and it's the MAIN selling point for my decision on getting a steam deck. I may play one long RPG for a month never fully quitting out of the game and as a result I'm playing more often.

I love MY SD OLED but I prefer my Ally. The performance difference, compatibility, and VRR are the deciding factor for me. Battery is an issue if you go full blast but you can limit the watts and have similar performance and battery to the SD. Also no one talks about the fast charging on the Ally, less downtime. Also not everyone owns their games in steam. If you want to install games outside of Steam is becomes more complicated. At the end of the day I enjoy them both but the Windows hate is blown out of proportion.

I rarely ever turn off or shut down my computers... desktop or laptop

It all comes down to what your used to and your needs. I'm used to windows so you can never recommend me to use a Linux device and limit me to what I'm used to doing on windows same for games that I play in I don't want to be limited in my games where I need games to be verified to be able to play that is why I'm very happy with my ROG Ally because all my games just works and smooth at the same time it is 1080p which is what I'm looking for a handheld. I play with all my games in 1080p with no problem and everything that I downloaded just works and smooth with 1080p playing Kingdome Hearts 3, Genshin, Free Gamepass for 3 months and my steam games like FF15, FF 7 Remake, Ractchet and Clank Rift Apart, Forza Horizon 5, Yakuza Like a Dragon, GTA 5, Fortnight, Hi Fi Rush, Horizon Dawn is great on this device. I don't have to worry about verifications and if upcoming games or upcoming PS4 and PS5 ported to PC games will come to steam, epic, or gamepass because it is windows and all games just works in windows and the processor is powerful enough for this Gen games. My 2017 gaming laptop is already 7 years old and it can no longer handle modern games today so I bought the ROG Ally and I am very happy and satisfied with my purchase because all games just works and smooth.

Me when it comes to battery life, when I am at the airport. Battery is pretty important, a big reason I love the Steam Deck to play games like Minecraft or Terraria as some terminal waiting areas have chargers, and some don't, and it will last the 2 hrs of waiting and many times the entire 2 hr flight. I will be lucky some times where my flight will have a full 120v charging port.

Sleep resume issue can be fixed by changing to hibernate

After owning both systems I would take the ally any day of the week. Windows isn’t bad, and can play any game. The steam deck is very limited and then the games you can play is using a weak chip! Forget it. The Ally is the king of first generation handheld pcs ❤🎉

I'm on my third Windows handheld gaming PC. I bought the first one which was by GPD, and they've just been getting better since. Right now I'm on the GPD win Max 2 2023 edition. It's faster than the Deck and is able to play all of my games across all the different libraries that I own PC games in. That being said, I bought a Steam Deck and then immediately upgraded to the OLED model. Nine times out of 10 I'm grabbing the Deck because of the experience, the controls, and the ability to put it to sleep in not worry that it's going to turn itself on and drain the battery while in my bag. Both devices are PCs and I like to tinker, but Windows as a gaming handheld operating system stinks. Actually, Windows has been getting worse in general lately.

Windows is the best thing happened to handhelds, the possibilities are limitless.

When I have a chance to save the game before pausing the game, I would close exit the game and shut down the device, however there were so so many times when I had to just pause and resume with that one simple button. I am pro choice I guess!

Main problems for me is the suspend resume feature. It really break the experience.

Games On My Steam Deck 512 GB LCD Steam (10) Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Batman: Arkham Asylum Batman: Arkham City Batman: Arkham Knight DuckTales: Remastered Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade Shenmue III Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Yakuza 0 Atari Jaguar (3) Atari Karts NBA Jam Tournament Edition Rayman Xbox (6) Conker: Live & Reloaded Dead or Alive 3 Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball Jet Set Radio Future NBA Street Vol. 2 Shenmue II M.A.M.E. (4) Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat II NBA Jam NBA Jam Tournament Edition Nintendo 64 (10) Conker’s Bad Fur Day Diddy Kong Racing F-Zero X Killer Instinct Gold Mario Kart 64 NFL Blitz Super Mario 64 The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Wave Race 64 Nintendo Entertainment System (36) Anticipation Baseball Batman: The Video Game Battletoads & Double Dragon Castlevania Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers 2 Contra Donkey Kong Double Dribble DuckTales Excitebike Final Fantasy Kid Icarus Kirby’s Adventure Kung Fu Kung-Fu Heroes Mario Bros. Mega Man 2 Metroid Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! Ninja Gaiden Paperboy Popeye Super Mario Bros. Super Mario Bros. 2 Super Mario Bros. 3 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TMNT: The Arcade Game Tennis The Adventures of Bayou Billy The Karate Kid The Legend of Zelda Wizards & Warriors WWF Wrestlemania Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Game Boy (3) Dr. Mario Super Mario Land Tetris Game Boy Advance (2) Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga Mario Kart: Super Circuit GameCube (12) F-Zero GX Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes NBA Street Vol. 2 NFL Blitz 2002 Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Sonic Riders Soulcalibur II Star Fox Adventures Super Mario Sunshine The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Wario World Super Nintendo (20) Aladdin Chrono Trigger Donkey Kong Country Donkey Kong Country 2 Donkey Kong Country 3 F-Zero Final Fantasy III Kirby Super Star Kirby’s Dream Land 3 Mega Man X Mortal Kombat II Super Back to the Future Part II Super Mario All-Stars Super Mario Kart Super Mario RPG Super Mario World Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island Super Metroid The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Top Gear Nintendo Wii (10) Donkey Kong Country Returns Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Klonoa Mario Kart Wii New Super Mario Bros. Wii Sonic Colors Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity Super Mario Galaxy Super Mario Galaxy 2 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Sega Dreamcast (16) ChuChu Rocket! Crazy Taxi Dead or Alive 2 Grandia II Jet Grind Radio Marvel vs. Capcom 2 Marvel vs. Capcom: CoSH NBA 2K2 NFL 2K2 Shenmue Sonic Adventure Sonic Adventure 2 Soulcalibur Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Virtua Tennis Wacky Races Sega Game Gear (3) Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog 2 The Majors: Pro Baseball Sega Genesis (17) Aladdin Comix Zone Cool Spot Gunstar Heroes Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker Mickey Mania NFL Football ‘94 Starring Joe Montana OutRun QuackShot Starring Donald Duck Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master Sonic & Knuckles Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Street Fighter II’: Special Champion Edition Taz-Mania X-Men Sega 32X (1) Tempo PlayStation (19) Bust A Groove Bust-A-Move 4 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Disney’s Hercules Action Game Final Fantasy IX Final Fantasy Tactics Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VIII Gran Turismo Herc’s Adventures Metal Gear Solid PaRappa the Rapper Parasite Eve R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 Ridge Racer Tekken 2 Tekken 3 WipEout Xenogears PlayStation 2 (17) Disney’s Kim Possible: What’s the Switch? Final Fantasy X God of War God of War II Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec Gran Turismo 4 Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater PaRappa the Rapper 2 Rogue Galaxy Sly 2: Band of Thieves Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoon Tekken 4 Tekken 5 Tekken Tag Tournament Sony PlayStation Portable (11) Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy God of War: Chains of Olympus God of War: Ghost of Sparta Jeanne d’Arc Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Ridge Racer Tekken 6 Tekken: Dark Resurrection WipEout Pulse WipEout Pure Total: 200 games The big omissions are no DS and 3DS. Was never a fan of the DS when I had it. I tried putting 3DS last night but Citra is dead. Didn’t bother afterwards. No PS3 as I hear they usually don’t launch at all unlike on the ROG Ally and Legion Go. No need to include Wii U because the Switch already has the best ports from it. I have a few doubles of the same game. Like I have NBA Street Vol. 2 for both GameCube and Xbox. The Xbox version is the one I owned. It’s the best-looking one and it loads faster during the intro. But I kept the GameCube version because Dolphin is the more mature emulator and it’s more battery efficient than Xemu. I also have the SNES and MAME version of Mortal Kombat II. The SNES port is the one I owned and mastered playing. OG Xbox is an interesting console to emulate. It was the most powerful of the 6th generation with graphics still holding up 20 years later. But it has the weakest library between it, DC, PS2, and GCN. Hence, why Xbox emulation is behind. I felt Xbox was what Sony promised to deliver with the PS2 but PS2 *technically* underdelivered. PS2 is the most popular, but it had some of the worst graphics of that four. Microsoft engineers defeated Sony in that gen with better specs. Not that PlayStation 2 was that weak. It matured by 2005. I’m playing Rogue Galaxy from 2007 and it definitely looks like the best-looking game on the console. I doubt Dreamcast could run God of War and Rogue Galaxy at 60 fps when it could barely handle Shenmue II. PS2 was very much like Sega Saturn where it had this hidden potential to make beautiful games but it was difficult to develop for. Saturn is the one I can’t run. Another complicated console to develop for similar to PS2 and PS3 but far less popular. No concise tutorials for it on RU-vid and I’m clueless how to use CHDMAN. I may skip that one like I will with NDS. I never grew up owning a Saturn, so I don’t have nostalgia for it. I barely bought it in 2004 at a GameCrazy and rarely used it. I only want to play obscure 2D platformers like Super Tempo and Tryrush Deppy but it’s no big deal if I can’t play them. MAME is very hit or miss. Can’t seem to run the Model 2, 3, and NAOMI games. Can’t even launch any Street Fighter II game or Tekken Tag. But it can run Mortal Kombat I & II and NBA Jam & TE just fine which was the opposite experience with my Vita. My Vita plays the arcade version of Super Street Fighter II perfectly but can’t play the Midway classics. I do have some stinkers like WWF Wrestlemania, The Adventures of Bayou Billy and The Karate Kid on NES. But I did own Bayou Billy and remember beating The Karate Kid many times circa 1989-1990. One of the easiest games to beat similar to Kung Fu. Since most NES games are under a megabyte, it’s easier not to be picky. If it has some childhood attachment to me, I’ll download it even if the game is awful. Steam Deck is the GOAT, folks. Can play almost every generation and for under $300 if you look at the used market. Odin 2 can’t play Wii U or any recent AAA titles like FFVII Remake and Elden Ring. Steam Deck is the perfect balance of performance, price, ecosystem, and support. It’s the best gaming device I’ve ever owned. I’m only gaming on handhelds for the rest of my life. All-Time Favorite Gaming Devices 1. Steam Deck 2. PS Vita 3. Switch Lite 4. PSP 5. PlayStation 6. Dreamcast 7. PlayStation 2 8. Super NES 9. GameCube 10. Genesis 11. NES 12. Wii All-Time Favorite Games 1. Final Fantasy VII 2. Shenmue II 3. Tekken 3 4. NBA Street Vol. 2 5. Super Mario World 6. Ridge Racer (PSP) 7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 8. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! 9. Street Fighter II’: SCE (Genesis) 10. Super Street Fighter II (MAME) 11. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 12. Final Fantasy X *PS5* *Pro* I don’t need it or any console that’s tethered to a TV. AAA titles are dying. They’re becoming too expensive and too long to make. With all that power, you want AAA titles coming out every 10 years? Since the PS4/Xbone era, we don’t have limitations coming from hardware like previous gens. The limitations are coming from the man power and budget. Do developers want to spend at least 5 years making one AAA game? Console era is over. Every game system from here on out should be portable. Then I expect companies like Microsoft and Sony to be gatekeepers to their library like Valve. Most games will move to the cloud and subscription based. If you see my list of titles on my Deck, you can see I’m allergic to many modern games in Gen 7-9. I hate first-person shooters. Very few modern games I would consider fun. It’s more boring and complicated. I’m in Chapter 12 in FF7R and I don’t love it as much as the OG. There is a lot of meandering scenes and padding to the gameplay. Beautiful to look at. Not as fun to play. This is my problem with most AAA titles after Gen 6. True, they look good to look at. Give me Tifa with the graphical power we have now compared to 1997. But many of these games are also a burden and tedious to play. I read Red Dead Redemption II is a slogfest. 😴

Works fantastic on my gpd mini being i have a keyboard and trackpad built in. Sucks without it. But so does the steam deck using linux if you have to do anything that isn't steam. And it sucks significantly worse then windows when you do have to go to the desktop

0:55 i spend a lot of "time traveling" pcworld guy

I hope Valve makes a Steam Box

For me, I turn off my desktop PC when I go to bed but everything else is just in standby forever. Even my Switch which has been sitting behind the TV unused for years at this point is in standby. My Steam Deck sits next to my bed in standby, my Surface Pro sits next to my bed in standby even though I haven't used it in forever. Even the PC that's connected to the TV as a console replacement is in suspend unless I'm certain I won't be playing anything for an extended period of time. And honestly, I'd put my desktop PC into suspend as well but I'm having some technical issues with Fedora not behaving properly when woken up from suspend which causes random programs to act like they're running on a Pentium 2 and the entire system to freeze randomly when playing a game and alt-tabing out so I just keep it on throughout the day and turn off the screens and turn it off at night. Regarding operating system... I don't even want Windows on my desktop so yea, for me Windows sucks on handhelds for sure. I can't really see a point for having it on a handheld gaming device with a small screen. Using it without a mouse is just awful. The only place where I think Windows is good is on tablets with a decently sized screen, which is where it's quite nice as all the software is available and there's no big compatability issues with anything.

I like the Steam deck and the Rog Ally. I just don't like W11. Would prefer W10 over it, but not a dealbreaker for me.

That talk about PC vs console... sure, the steam deck (and steamos forks) do launch in big picture mode... but you do still have the full linux desktop should you need it, just as powerful and customizeable as any windows, if not more so.

I bet your IT people probably hate the fact that you're shutting your work computer down at night. That's when you typically want to run maintenance scrips and install updates.

Ally is good, Legion Go is nice, windows just drag them down. 12:17 you know what, tinkering is the heart of linux, SD included at some degree.

I really wish microsft would make a stripped down os just for these handhelds. Why not just take the xbox os and adapt it to a handheld pc?

Everyone blows this way out of proportion. Yes it takes 10 seconds longer to enter steam big picture mode. So what? From there you fire up the game exactly like you do in steamOS and you sit there and enjoy the game the same way as on steam deck. Resume does work fine on MOST games even on windows(at least they do on my ally). I’d welcome steamOS if it was released for the ally but windows isn’t that bad. Just set it up to boot into steam big picture.

Asus rog Ally is the best to me the only thing I would like is a little bit more battery but I would take performance over battery if it comes to it

I find it's usually those coming from console whining..anyone familiar with a Windows PC knows what to expect

I haven't had problems with waking from sleep on my laptops since forever. It used to a pain point on Linux, but now it's solved.

" i'm an old man and struggle with windows " the podcast

Until I can play my 2 most played games on steam deck, then Window's is where it's at for me.

I kinda would like to try a win 8 clone as a game system

Big fan of the Steam Deck OLED. I originally bought an LCD about a year ago and fell in love with it, so when the OLED came out, I was thinking I would pass on it and get one for my girlfriend for Christmas, but in the process of setting it up and making sure it ran well, I couldn’t look back. The LCD is a great device but the OLED is on another level imo. Anyway, I plan on skipping this generation of home consoles thanks to the Steam Deck and also don’t plan on getting any other alternative handheld until Valve releases the next version.

I will say, if you start a digital game on two Switches from the same account, it just gives a warning before suspending one. I realize cartridges may be different, someone may just have to try.

Honestly I have no real problems with windows 11 on my Asus ally but the experience is probably different on other handhelds.

Last night my ROG Ally woke from sleep while in its case and almost cooked itself. That by itself is a deal-breaker for me. Every Windows PC has this issue. Part of the blame goes to Asus for shipping a product plagued with Windows related issues while tacking on their own vestigial, laggy UI.

I remembered everyone wanting to dual boot into Windows when the Steam Deck first came out. After Windows 11 and SteamOS 3.5, I felt like that have died down

The games i really want to be able to play have linux incompatible anticheat such as call of duty and battlefield

Running it down to 3% will KILL your battery! Like 4x the wear on your battery. Keep em between 20-90% if you can.

Im a windows believer, for me its the opposite of easy steam os, very easy to play the steam games and emulation, but i want to play seamless coop mod in elden ring and its a pain to install it, my gamepass? Even i like fornite where can i play it? I know for some its a workaround to make it work, but wondows its waaaay easier to do some complex stuff than that linux distro

I have to say, all this video has done is convince me even more Windows is not built for these devices, and I made the right choice with the Deck, also the Steam Deck IS a PC!! It is PC hardware running a Desktop PC OS!

The biggest problem outside of the OS and control mapping is THAT NONE OF THE BASTARDS MAKING THESE THINGS POUT TRACKPADS ON THEM. the Steam Deck is actually fully set up to function on desktop mode and with browsers and apps JUST USING THE BUTTONS BUT it also has trackpads. NO WORK has gone into any windows handlheld besides installing a the shitty manufacturer's UI.

Did he just said settings are the game ? Steam deck rocks ! Will slaps !

My problem with the windows handhelds is the diagonal joystick layouts they all use. Like i hate it. Give me a steam deck like layout and i would buy it. Or better yet sticks at the bottom.

Windows is 100% not a handheld experience, especially without a trackpad… or a nearby plug socket… handhelds should not need to be plugged in to be viable. Simple as. And the argument that Windows is better because it lets you tweak and manually change stuff is never going to be a mainstream argument. Plug and play will always win, hence the success of the Switch.

Windows is needed but hated. I have to run windows just to play modern warfare and a few Xbox game pass games. The biggest issue is idle ram usage and ram usage in general is out of hand. We need a stripped down handheld version debloated. I manually debloat all my windows installs and do tons of tweaks to get them down less than half stock usage. The msi claw was using 63% of the ram sitting idle on boot. I got it down to 23% making massive improvements on the fps feeling much smoother and everything feeling way snappier and not running out of ram means you don’t borrow from the page file. Loading in open world games is smoother and so many things just work better and feel better. We need 32gb as a bare minimum when your sharing vram and running windows! Handheld companies are doing us a massive disservice by not giving us 32gb. I’d pay an extra 200$ for 32gb rather than extra storage. I can upgrade my own storage but not my own ram.

If yu are into modding/ hacking and old game sorry but windows in the master !! I love my ROG ally its literally perfect only issue with windows for me is the load ,, kills the batter way too quick

PC - turn off all the time PS5 - Mostly I save and exit the game and put the console to sleep because the PS5 mostly just loads the last (mostly hidden?) quicksave and games don't always support this. I don't think the Playstation can actually suspend a game (in cases where it works, this looks like a suspend though but I hate if I can't trust it) XBX - just standby, this works almost perfectly except for some older (XBO / 360) titles. Unlike the Playstation this actually suspends the game. Switch - you can turn the switch off??? standby, always, never exit any game

I didnt really buy yhe Ally to "use windows" tho. I mean yes sometimes I have to for some stuff. But after the inital setup all I ever do is boot it up. Wait for all apps to load then click the desktop icon of the gane I want to play. Play it and turn it off. It really isnt THAT much of an issue most of the time

Have owned about one example for each attempt to put Windows on any handheld, and that's why I don't own anything like these TOYS. SurfacePro is only usable because of the keyboard and kick stand, with mouse, for most of the work I'd do.

Ffs, it’s like hearing a console gamer vs pc gamer discuss their platforms (I’m with Adam here fwiw).

Its a shame that the guy on the right slapped Chris Rock like he did. Not cool man. Not cool.

Add me to the cold booting list. A big reason is I live at a high elevation, so I more easily accumulate lots of soft errors.

I own Steam Deck LCD, OLED and I did own a ROG Ally. I found it a mess. I missed my return window at Best Buy ... Couldn't sell it for more that $400. Worst technical purchase I've ever made. Steam Deck for the Win.

I prefer the ally

Why doesn't MS just make a Windows version for handhelds.

Had a Windows phone 10-13 years ago. And it sucked a lot

Why not just set steam to launch in big picture mode on those windows handhelds?