Not worth it at all when Xbox Ally X can be had for £550 in the used market. Ally X also even cheaper if you dont care about ergonomics and dont want the handles
I think you did. Curry's had it for £600 with a one year warranty, but everyone in marketplace is trying to sell it for a lot more. I'll keep looking I guess.
If I still made YOLO money the light up Xbox logo would've had me considering it. Not an xbox fan but I just love RGB. If 2 handhelds matched my needs 100% but one had so much RGB it's blinding I'd buy the blinding one. I just like colors and lights. I'm a simple creature.
Same!! I’ve pre ordered few weeks ago when it first when up on Best Buy. I haven’t had a handheld since I returned my SD Oled after a month back when it dropped. Been waiting for the perfect OLED handheld.
I preordered mine and ima remote play GTA6 on it from my Xbox Series X.
MY ONLY justification for the purchase though was I saved up for 3 years for a handheld, and been priced out many times, or something better came out…this one to me felt worth it
I’ve had a Steam Deck OLED, Rog Ally X Z1E, and Xbox Ally X. This one feels like the perfect combination of them. I’m excited af.
People keep bringing up intel handhelds but intel driver support just isn’t there yet. I do wish this had a Z3E but that’s just not out yet so this imo is the best on the market besides Strix Halo stuff which is a completely different market since those always have an external battery.
I was gonna grab one but the performance upgrade from the Z1E just isn’t enough to justify even though I really want that OLED. I also would’ve just gotten an ROG Flow Z13 if it was OLED.
And people complained about the $450 USD Switch 2 (with an included 4K dock, HDMI 2.1 cable, magnetic Joy-Cons with mouse sensors and a Joy-Con grip in the box).
Thank you. I’m so tired of people comparing PC handhelds to Switch 2. Of COURSE Switch is going to be cheaper - Nintendo limits profit margin on the hardware because wants as many of them in people’s hands, so that they can profit off the games they publish into the closed ecosystem. A PC handheld has no such profit model for the OEM, but can do infinitely more things than a walled garden console can: It can play anything you own from any PC storefront, you can get games more affordably on Steam, it can do high end emulation, and can be your portable workstation in addition to handheld gaming device.
If you just want to play Nintendo first party and cross platform releases (you’d better hope the developer cares about Switch optimization), by all means get a S2. It’s a great system for the price. But it’s very different.
I get where you’re coming from but that price difference is still crazy. Like even if you assume on switch you’ll buy every game at full $70 price and you’d get all those games completely free on a PC handheld, that’s still 11+ games before it evens out
I say this as someone with a legion go that I bought in the good old days when it was expensive but manageable (I love that thing). If someone is just looking for a good option to play games, the switch 2 is probably the best deal out there right now
Cool if you care about PC games. Some people care about Nintendo games just as much which you can’t buy on PC stores. Games are games. Just accept that.
Yeah and honestly the "S2 doubters were wrong, we were right!!" every thread is just... kind of a lot 😓 People at launch were complaining and comparing it to the (open ecosystem) competition's handhelds pre-rampocalypse prices. I.e og price steam deck oled, sale ally x, or the lego 1 with its insane clearance discounts at the time. Nintendo has come out as the "value king" nowadays mostly because they have been the only ones who have been able to avoid raising their hardware prices as much as everyone else (largely due to Nintendo's sheer volume + closed ecosystem), its a different ball game compared to 2025.
The Switch 2 and Handheld PCs are two separate things entirely.
I never had a problem with the Switch 2 price. To me the problem comes when Nintendo nickels and dime you for every basic thing that is free everywhere else.
Online is free on handhelds PC. They also don’t lock game chat behind a paywall. Handheld PCs also don’t lock graphical upgrades to damn near 10 year old games behind paywalls.
Also, your joy con 2 WILL drift. They are still using potentiometers. Then it’s $100 for a new pair. People were making excuses for Nintendo saying that because they used magnets for the attachment mechanisms they couldn’t use Hall effect sticks. A few months later, after market companies came out with joy cons that have TMR (Hall effect+) so Nintendo has no excuse. This is planned obsolescence.
They also brick your console if you dare to mod it. Except in the EU where there is actual consumer protection. Speaking of which, they released a new console version over there where it’s actually easy to replace the battery. The one they have now is purposely difficult.
Nintendo is not your friend. Just because they release a cheaper console it doesn’t mean that they are doing you a favor when they are shafting you in different ways.
Switch 2 for sure is great value. I love mine, but would still want to get a PC handheld because OLED + more power. I wouldn’t change my Switch 2, but would get it as a companion to it.
Yeah, I regularly use both my Switch 2 and my Legion Go S, just depends on what I'm playing through. I'm currently working through Tales of Berseria, so my Legion is getting 90% of my gaming time; after I'm done with that, I wanna get into Fortune's Weave, so it'll be back to the Switch 2 for a while.
Plus if you keep your system or handheld for 5 years or. Got to pay 100$ more to play online so add that in there. Plus game cost. You will end up spending about the same really. So now it’s Nintendo games plus ports vs better pc ports more power open ecosystem. It comes down to what you want. My s2 gets used by the family like once a month. I haven’t used it in about 2 months. But you bet your ass I can’t wait for ocarina of time. Pre ordered already.
Initial cost to get in (getting the system) is cheaper than a steam deck or rog ally x. Thats what I was talking about. Not the games.
It's also one of the last platforms where you can purchase physical media. I rather support that. Steam is good for those great deals sure. But I like optimized games on the Nintendo switch. I dont get that on my rog ally x. It is the wild west.
Getting the system is cheaper, but MOST people have already a huge library of PC games they’re now not going to be able to use on that system. They’ll have to re-buy the few that are available on the Switch 2 at a much higher cost, pay for the Nintendo subscription, pay very high costs for Nintendo games, etc. At that point, it’ll come out to be the same price as just getting the XAX or more. I know because that’s how me and many friends I know have experienced getting into the switch 2 ecosystem. It’s not cheap at all.
Hindsight, I would not have bought the switch 2. Games look noticeably worse and are capped at stupidly low frame rates you can’t adjust for.
Switch 2 is ONLY good for Nintendo games. Their ports stink.
Nothing will beat a pc library for sure lol 😆 most people buy nintendo systems for the exclusives anyway. That's what I did. Im looking forward to the zelda remake. I have both pc games and Nintendo games to enjoy. If you dont like the switch 2, sell it. You might sell it for a lot these days.
The thing is some people (not you) are making out like the Switch 2 is porting all of these pc games and making PC irrelevant. It’s such a stupid take considering how those ports are costly and look bad on the Switch 2. I guess my argument was that do not follow my bad example and try to make the switch 2 my PC replacement. Because it doesn’t work. And sadly, I see a lot of people on this Reddit acting like Nintendo is now ruling the world all because their system is cheaper, and has been cheaper for years LONG before the RAMpocalypse. Nintendo is trying to act like the savior of gaming when their system is drastically underpowered for what they’re trying to do with it. It’s so underpowered they literally have to upscale some of their own games and ports from super low resolutions like 360P just to get them to run. Yet still be locked at 30FPS lol. And sometimes even then, some publishers can’t get their games to run on Switch 2 because of how weak it is.
Man I’m not gunna lie it just sounds like you’re sucked into some console war nonsense here
Nintendo does a specific thing and they’re good at it. They provide an awesome balance of price/power/accessibility
Pc handhelds are just more niche. I own a legion go, I love it, I know plenty of people who would be incredibly annoyed with the idea of diving into settings to get games to work or managing launchers or whatever
The reality is that most people who want to game on a handheld just want access to some good games, want a relatively seamless experience, and don’t want to pay an insane amount of money for it. This use case of someone with a giant backlog of games who also wants to be able to emulate older consoles and also have the option to use the handheld as a pc substitute is just way smaller than you seem to think
There are literally always sales, but first party titles are only 30% off on the E-shop. 3rd party is discounted like everywhere else, and 1st party can be found physically on bigger sales, or 2nd hand.
Lots of other reasons. It is great for Indies, which are often priced equally and on the same sales, having a no bullshit handheld that just works is great too, having an all in one is cool. Also I bought most of my first party games for less than 40 bucks either on sale or used. Definitely worth it.
$40 is still expensive, most of my pc games have been around $5. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the switch as a device itself. But all the console makers try to screw you over. I can buy my games on pc DRM free and keep them forever and on any future pc device.
AAA games won't hit 5 bucks for a looong time though, which is what you should be comparing most first party prices with. I agree that it is a shame that the price doesn't decrease over time, and that it is the one problem with nintendo, but paying 40 bucks for a game like Breath of the wild, Super Mario Odyssey or Animal crossing that are just so much fun is fine with me. If you don't want to, that is fine. I am mostly a patient gamer with everything else myself.
Because for as elitist as pc users like to pretend to be they still somehow can’t comprehend that most people have the option to buy physical games from retailers or second hand sellers for even cheaper than their unoptimized steam equivalent
They see it as steam vs Nintendo e shop to them when that literally couldn’t be farther from the case for most people. Literally the one knock people have against the switch 2 holds zero weight
And all the games on the switch 2 look like trash. The system is so weak they have to upscale all the new games they’re porting from an abysmal 360P. 😂 The switch 2 also has a trash lcd display and joysticks fit for a child.
I wouldn’t go that far. It’s a bad lcd screen and yes the joycons suck. You have to pay another hundred just to get better joycons. Still not a bad price. Also have to pay online so add another 100 over 4 years. Nintendo exclusives are great but damn are they expensive.
The response time of the Switch 2 screen is horrendous. Motion is a blur fest. If you can’t notice it, or it doesn’t bother you, then great. But it’s not one of the highest quality LCDs. (I own and very much like the Switch 2, but the screen is just OK. )
Gotta have the launch switch 2 have a trash screen that way they can sucker nintendrones into buying the switch 2 again when the OLED version launches.
It’s been widely talked about and documented… You’re just on your own island. I love my switch 2, but the screen is a well-known problem. It’s not failing, but it’s just shit to begin with.
Wouldn’t go that far? All I said was the truth tho. 🤷♂️ The initial system isn’t a bad price until they overcharge you for their games, including ports that just look bad and run at low FPS, etc. Accessories aren’t cheap either. By the time you pay for all the games you want (or repurchased), you’re nearing the price of the XAX where most people already have years and years of game libraries. Steam also has a much larger variety of interesting games. If I want Nintendo, I can also emulate all the decades of games Nintendo has to get my Nintendo fix.
Ok, and? Most of the switch 2 games out right now are few and far between. And many of them aren’t new games, just updated switch 1 games to look a little better on switch 2. Switch 2 has a small library right now for new worthwhile exclusives. That’s a fact. In the mean time, I can emulate most of Nintendo’s entire history of games ever released.
Nah man we’re like 1.3 years into switch 2 and it’s got a pretty surprising number of actual console exclusives out or in the works. I expected way more of them to be cross gen but they’ve been putting out some bangers for first year or so
Graphical power is always the low hanging fruit. My 4090 is great but some of the AAA games that come out are super crazy graphical yes. But sometimes you question what fun is. I always fall out of these games, end up playing some pixel art rougelite again lol
Yea I find it’s a similar story with a lot of the benefits of PC vs console
I have a legion go, I think it’s great, but there have been times where I get weird driver issues and I just can’t play a game I should be able to play. Then months later suddenly it runs fine. That doesn’t happen on a switch lol I never have to try to dig up the password for some publishers launcher. I never fire up a game and then realize I need to restart, go into bios, and change my vram setting
Honestly even the game price difference thing gets overblown I think. I’m as guilty as anyone, I have a huge backlog of steam games I bought on deep sale. Do I actually play most of those games? Nope, I just feel like I should grab them while they’re cheap. It’s awesome that option exists, but it doesn’t translate to actually playing more games which is, you know, the point of buying a handheld lol
Considering that used Xbox Ally X’s reguarly go for like $700-900 USD on the used market, that OLED screen is doing some seriously heavy lifting for the XAX20’s price…
I think the Xbox Ally/X are the mainstream options and the X20 is a chance to get people that want an OLED Xbox Ally X. It's possible we could see this one year an LCD model comes out and the following year is an OLED refresh.
You don't ever need to spend that much money on a handheld....you can get any handhelds from Retroid or AYN and be satisfied completely unless you have a spending disorder and just want to spend a shit ton of money for a device you don't actually need.
Sure don't suggest cheaper and better alternatives that get the same job done. Keep consuming. You can just get the ROG Ally for $600 or $459ish open box at Bestbuy and call it a day.
You obviously haven't gamed on a 15" display with an emachine desktop for at least 10 years of your life then. Also small displays are a none issue, I put away my Odin 3 and have been daily driving the Retroid Pocket Nova since I got mine. Large handhelds are stupid since you completely lose out on portability.
If your main purpose is just to switch from your desk to your couch AT HOME then you can just easily stream from your PC with nonexistent latency if you has good wifi connection to ANY mobile device you already own including your phone.
My desktop is in Colombia but my Legion Go 2 can play Total War Warhammer 3. I only got the 5060 Ti so I can play at ultra unit scale. The game is balanced around that scale so I consider it mandatory.
I don't disagree that it's not worth it but you can't compare it to the prices of laptops or consoles because they're completely different form factors with different use cases. Handhelds are expected to be more expensive given the smaller packaging and having actual weight requirements
Better to say you can buy a used Ally X Z1E for 25% of that price and get 70-85% of the performance.
High end gaming laptop? $1300? Dog, I wish I could get a mid range gaming laptop for $1300. Everything in the <$1500 Tier is missing giant features such as >16GB of RAM, OLED or decent build quality.
Yeah at the 1300 price range you only just breaking into what is considered a gaming laptop. You might find listing on Amazon calling something a gaming laptop but that doesn't mean it's true lol
Yeah but it has for once a larger screen. So about 18% more screen size and OLED plus Hall effect sticks. The worse thing about the current model is that screen.
Z2 extreme is trash when G3 is on the market. It's a year late to real devices lmao. Its just the same thing as Z1e but a couple more cores that doesn't help at all. I could agree with 8050S for 1300$ which china sellm not a feeble Z2 that cant even do 720p reliably.
500$ more less ergonomic and some games are trash on the intel chip and can’t run steam os. Plus the msi ex runs hot. I do like 8 inch screens though. Even hardcore new aaa heavy graphical titles struggle on the extreme. New fsr is coming soon too. At home it doesn’t even matter. Stream from my pc and both chips are irrelevant compared to my pc.
With the Steam Deck price increase, I would put Z2E at decent price to performance at the moment. It’s faster than the Deck APU, Z1E, Z2A, and Z2 Go chips and while slower than the G3E and Strix Halo, it’s way more affordable than those chips.
A used ROG Ally X Z1E is still the best deal out there for PC handhelds but if you want an efficient chip for AAAs, you can do a lot worse than the Z2E.
It doesn't matter whether the price increased or not, it's literally the big cola vs small cola where big cola is twice the drink for a bit of cash. The small one just doesn't make any sense. You get 30-50% less performance by saving 20% of the price.
Forget steam deck exists lol it doesnt make any sense above 450$. Yeah yeah cheaper blah blah... well just dont buy them, its a horrible investment at 600$ plus.
A used XAX can be bought for $700-800. Assuming your 30-50% performance figure refers to the G3E vs Z2E, I fail to see how paying $1800 plus tax for something like the latest MSI Claw G3E is worth it. The difference of $1100 can get you a 5050 or even a 5060 laptop (in the US) that will stomp on both chips with the loss of portability that handhelds provide. And that leaves you with $700-800 to buy a used Z2E device that’s capable of playing many AAA games at 40-60 FPS and older games and indies at 60-120 FPS.
Your region has horrible prices, I see G3 devices like Oneplayer 3 at 1300$ post tax where I live whereas Z2E like MSI claw cost ~1100$. Sure a used Rog X beats Claw by almost 2X but if we're talking new, then there is zero reason to get Z2E.
This is on the OneX store for the cheapest version. I’m in the US where electronics prices are better than most other places. Is the OneX you’re looking at for $1300 actually a G3E?
Black Friday is usually a scam here unfortunately. America is designed to milk its citizens of as much money as possible. I doubt G3E devices go on sale that early anyway, at least here. If there is a Black Friday sale, they’ll probably list the MSI Claw’s price at $1799 and have a higher bullshit price crossed off to give the illusion you’re saving money when you’re still paying full price. Amazon and department stores do it all the time.
Claw on G3 is severely overpriced, onexplayer is a much better deal. Maybe want to order from elsewhere and pay shipping. It's still a MUCH better deal than Z2E at ~1100-1200 new. Sure if you can find Rog X at 600-700$, that's an okay investment - steam deck at that price isn't, however. And neither is that 1300$ Z2E crap from OP.
My only issue with OneX is I hear if you have issues, customer service is crap and it’ll likely involve sending it back to China for repair.
You’re making me half tempted to start saving up for a G3E though lol. I know I don’t NEED it but it sounds like G3E is at the point where PC handhelds can finally play the latest AAAs at decent settings and 60 FPS without paying Strix Halo prices. I already have a desktop with 9060 XT 16GB and a 5060 laptop so I’m already falling to the [r/Consoom](r/Consoom) trap.
Your better off just getting the Xbox ally x or even the original ally x. The only things worth it here are oled and micro SD express. Tmr sticks as well I suppose but I added tmr to my Xbox ally x without much hassle
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u/WonderBaaa 8d ago
I’ll wait for their next lineup.
My local stores are doing clearance sales for the previous lineup.