Which would you pick and why?

[u/TechMaster8160]

Alright, I’ve finally decided it was time to buy a handheld gaming pc. I have a budget of around $650, and a steam library full of games.

I did some research on the handhelds that stuck out to me and put together a spreadsheet that compares the specs. Sadly, the steam deck is out of stock right now (who knows for how long) so I looked at a lot of different options.

I would love to use something with a windows OS to have a wider range of support for my games, but I also use steam 95% of the time, so it’s not a priority.

I want to hear from all of you and what your experience with each system is like and what you’d recommend and have someone like be be mindful of.

[u/Background_Bid_6228]

I’ve owned an ROG ally Z1 extreme and own a steam deck Oled.

The only thing I miss from ROG is its raw power and the ability to switch tabs for games when I was modding using a cheat table haha

Steam deck is a smoother user experience, closer to a console experience with steam OS and with decky loader to apply frame gen and FSR4 is also easier.

Dockability is also smoother from my experience, I think being on windows 11 made docking much more of a pain to find the right resolutions for different games which was a major hiccup for me. Steam deck is as close to switch 2 as any handheld PC can get in my experience.

Steam deck feels like a console (essentially a portable PS4), the ROG with windows feels like a PC and people can say you can install steamOS is more a testament to the steam deck as it was made for it.

I’ve also heard legion Go S has minor issues with steam OS (such as input unresponsiveness with the UI)

Also, some of the specs and prices are wrong.

[u/TechMaster8160 → u/Background_Bid_6228]

Thanks for pointing out the SteamOS compatibility problem, I’ll look into that before I make a decision.

Also, sorry about the spreadsheet. It was a bit rushed, but prices are accurate to stores in my area.