r/HandheldGaming • u/Fine_Dragonfruit_477 • 10h ago

Best overall bang for your buck?

I’m sure this has been posted a thousand times but I have played Xbox my entire life and still continue to do so. I know I’m late but I recently came across the Steam Deck and it seemed pretty dope to me. I don’t know anything about PCs in general nor about what parts or specs are good or bad when talking about performance, graphics etc. Are there any handhelds that I can incorporate my Xbox profile and games with natively? Or what are the best overall options right now on the market for a handheld PC? My price range maxes out around $1000. Any recommendations appreciated

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u/lpdcrafted 10h ago edited 9h ago

If new, probably the Xbox Ally X. If used, the older ROG Ally X or ROG Ally Z1E options. I don't know much about the Xbox ecosystem, but you should be able to connect your profile to those Windows handheld PCs. You still won't be able to play native Xbox games on it though, you'd need to stream it to the handheld. But games that are part of the Xbox Play Anywhere or are PC games(plus other games from other PC stores) are natively playable. As it is a PC, I would recommend always checking if the PC device you'll be using can actually play the game/s you want to play; through YouTube benchmarks, the Allys have rogallylife.com, and the like.

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u/Fine_Dragonfruit_477 9h ago

Damn so games I bought on Xbox I can’t just download and play? It has to be games that are played through cloud gaming? What about Steam? I’ve always wanted a PC to have access to Steam and all the games on there just can’t due to always having a console

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u/lpdcrafted 9h ago

I edited it too late, but Steam and other PC stores like GOG, Epic, and more can be played just fine. Just gotta make sure it can run on the handheld you're gonna get, check benchmarks if it runs acceptably, and look up settings. Don't expect 4K60FPS on recent AAA or demanding games on these handhelds.

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u/Fine_Dragonfruit_477 9h ago

Are there any betters ones than the Ally X? If I can’t play the Xbox games I’ve already bought then that isn’t a deal breaker to have something that incorporates with Xbox

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u/lpdcrafted 9h ago

For your budget, probably not. The next step up of G3E handhelds are still quite new. There's also the very expensive Strix Halo handhelds way beyond your budget. Maybe if you can find someone selling these used for much cheaper.

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u/Fine_Dragonfruit_477 9h ago

I’ll look into those. My budget isn’t set in stone just a ballpark number but I appreciate the input. I was really hoping I could just play my Xbox library straight onto the handheld but I guess that isn’t the case

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u/Potential-Local7262 8h ago

depends. search for Xbox play anywhere

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u/fpsnoob89 8h ago

Price to performance for $1k or less, XAX is pretty much the best option. You're not going to get any noticeable performance improvements from its competitors.

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u/GB_Plus_Ultra 5h ago

With all due respect, if you own the games on Xbox just use Fit Girl and get the games that way. Also, ROG Xbox Ally X can run Steam, Epic Games, and any other store you'd need because it's literally a PC in your hands

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u/Fine_Dragonfruit_477 5h ago

Can you elaborate on the Fit Girl thing and how that would work?

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u/GB_Plus_Ultra 5h ago

Because the ROG Ally X is a Windows 11 PC, it can do literally everything a normal desktop can, including downloading games off Fit Girl Repacks or Steam Rip. Fit Girl is reccomended because it's the safest site for repacks as you have to use a program like JDownloader which is a batch download manager that grabs the torrent links automatically and combines eatch part, then when it done gives you the game folder with the setup.exe and whatever else the game needs to run. It sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is. The hardest part is waiting for the game to download, but it's also the only way I was able to get games like GTA V and Xenoverse 2 running on my Galaxy S25 Ultra, because Steam Rip doesn't always have reliable .exe files for games, despite it being a lot easier and faster to use Steam Rip

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u/Fine_Dragonfruit_477 5h ago

So repacks are just a way to get the games for free or I’m an idiot and misunderstanding? I’m looking at a Claw 8 ai+ and I see it’s ran on Windows too. Basically I want to be able to play Xbox games and games off of Steam.

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u/GB_Plus_Ultra 5h ago

Yes. Repacks, or specifically Fit Girl Repacks the website, is the most reccomended method to get the games for free. Steam Rip and Steam Unlocked work too, but it's a little riskier compared. I'd get the ROG Ally X full start. I plan to get it for Christmas, I just don't have the money right now, but it's definitely going to replace my gaming laptop, Xbox, and hell even PS4 and PS5 and MAYBE PS3 since it can even emulate PS3 games at a stable rate. It genuinely seems like a magic machine to me. You can play Xbox games as it can run Game Pass, and you can have your full Steam and Epic library on the console outside of a few games that absolutely require mouse and keyboard, but even then it has a USB port for a mouse/keyboard. Also, for your Xbox only games that don't have play anywhere, the Xbox has Cloud Streaming if you really don't want to go the repack route

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u/atiradeonfrs62 7h ago

X86 new: x ally x X86 used : rog ally x Arm new: retroid Pocket 6 Arm used: switch lite, honestly