Finest handheld gaming PC in 2025

Valve has realized the total potential of its handheld with the Steam Deck OLED. The display screen is greater, brighter, and higher than the unique Deck in our quantity two spot, however the refresh is way over meets the attention.

You get enhancements to battery life for longer gaming classes, a weight discount for better consolation, plus Wi-Fi for faster downloads. The Steam Deck OLED is the perfect on-ramp for handheld PC gaming there may be, with a couple of downsides. The APU contained in the OLED is sort of an identical to the unique Deck, save for effectivity, and that locations the hand held considerably behind the curve by way of energy. Merely put, some triple AAA releases can be out of attain to you.

For those who’re in search of a well-priced handheld with a shocking show and entry to your Steam library on the go, the Steam Deck OLED is the best choice.

Learn our Steam Deck OLED evaluation.

The Steam Deck wasn’t the primary handheld gaming PC, however it’s actually been essentially the most profitable. It offers you seamless integration with Steam and a console-like expertise means it may be as plug-and-play as you want – with the good thing about having a very user-tweakable OS underneath the hood.

The lower-end 64GB mannequin is now discontinued, however for now, you may nonetheless decide it up from retailers like Amazon, develop the storage, and pair it with the greatest Steam Deck equipment to deliver it as much as a usable capability.

Titles akin to Starfield, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Remnant 2 trigger the Steam Deck to misstep. While we’re just a little away from all main AAA releases being unplayable, the clock is ticking and it’s possible you’ll really feel you get extra worth in the event you go for one thing just a little newer.

The customized APU dubbed Van Gogh remains to be highly effective sufficient for many video games and in the event you primarily need to play by way of retro video games, 2D video games, sidescrollers, or emulated titles then you can be more than pleased with the efficiency. That is nonetheless a great-value handheld gaming PC.

Learn our Steam Deck evaluation.

Whereas we didn’t get the OLED show that was broadly rumored, the Asus ROG Ally X made massive adjustments to just about each different facet of its design and got here out the opposite facet as simply the perfect Home windows gaming handheld, even when Home windows is its greatest downside when in comparison with the Steam Deck.

With 8GB further reminiscence, and quicker reminiscence at that, the ROG Ally X can outperform nearly any like-for-like handheld gaming PC out there proper now. Armoury Crate is way improved, and whereas not good, its interface is less complicated to know and navigate, which is large for individuals who don’t need to interact with Home windows 11.

The $799 price ticket is tough to swallow, however truthful. One anticipated benefit of Ally X’s launch is that the bottom Ally Z1 Excessive has additionally seen its worth lowered fairly drastically. Nonetheless, in the event you’re chasing the perfect efficiency in video games with out being restricted to Steam, the Ally X has the Steam Deck and all different Ally handhelds crushed fingers down.

Learn our Asus ROG Ally X evaluation.

With its 8.8-inch show, the Lenovo Legion Go is the hand held for you if you would like a big-screen expertise. Whereas its measurement naturally helps with immersion, it’s additionally responsive, sharp, and vivid. With a local decision of 2560 x 1600 and a refresh charge of 144Hz, the IPS panel is about nearly as good because it will get for an LCD handheld.

There’s some highly effective {hardware} too. The AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive chipset makes the Legion Go one of the highly effective handhelds round, however it’s additionally one of the versatile due to the removable controllers and kickstand, which provide you with a novel expertise, particularly in ‘FPS Mode’.

The Legion Go does have a couple of flaws. It’s a lot heavier than its opponents, weighing in at 854g, which may make utilizing it for lengthy intervals a bit tiring. You’ll additionally have to tinker with settings and backbone pretty often, as 1600p may be too demanding for the Ryzen Z1 Excessive APU in lots of instances, and the software program may be fiddly.

Learn our Lenovo Legion Go evaluation.

The Aya Neo is a slick and svelte package deal that isn’t as astonishingly costly as the opposite non-Valve/Asus entries on our listing right now. It has a superb OLED show permitting for excellent distinction ranges with true blacks and brilliant highlights making for a really vibrant and punchy picture.

OLEDs have good picture persistence too so there can be no seen ghosting and enter delays can be saved to a minimal given the very quick response time. Its pint-like statute means it should simply be stowed away in your bag and taking part in it on the go is way extra sensible than say with the comparatively monstrous Steam Deck.

The Steam Deck’s ace up its sleeve, nevertheless, is its droop characteristic which lets you decide up from the place you left off, one thing that’s sorely missed right here given how handy the Aye Neo Air is.

One other letdown is what’s powering the gadget underneath the hood. The Ryzen 5 5560U. This sadly doesn’t maintain a candle to the RNDA 2 and RDNA 3-derived APUs powering the remainder of our roundup.

This limits the Air to much less processing intense video games, however that also covers numerous floor. 2D-pixel video games notably shine on the OLED panel, for instance. Which may be greater than sufficient for you – particularly when mixed with its smallness.

Sony’s PSP is arguably one of many best-designed items of tech ever conceived and it’s clear GPD is of this persuasion because it appears they took all the pieces nice about that and improved the controls and added a keyboard hidden beneath a sliding display screen.

While being the same worth to different handhelds, this novel development and high quality design make it our decide for essentially the most premium handheld gaming PC. While the display screen doesn’t slide up that a lot, it makes a noticeable distinction and your neck will thanks in the event you play it for any size of time.

The keyboard is just not essentially the most perfect typing expertise however it’s surprisingly useable. It additionally blows the Steam Deck and ROG Ally’s contact keyboard out of the water. Powering the GPD Win Max 2 is the Ryzen 6800U, a really performant APU that may see more moderen titles ticking alongside regardless of it not being the most recent and biggest.

By taking inspiration from the PSP although, the controls can solely be improved by a lot and they’re nonetheless extra cramped and uncomfortable than many of the different entries on this listing. It’s after all slightly costly, however in case you are a PSP purist, which may be a small worth to pay.

Whereas not a PC gaming handheld within the conventional sense, the Razer Edge offers you entry to your PC library through cloud streaming. You possibly can hyperlink your Sport Move, GeForce Now, and Steam accounts to stream video games from wherever and the Edge does all of it with a shocking show and loads of energy to again it up.

Cellular video games are additionally a breeze due to the Andriod OS, supplying you with the choice to run video games natively with its 128GB storage. Once we reviewed the Razer Edge, we discovered the cloud streaming setup to have one notable flaw with its decision output, however past that, it was a improbable gadget with loads of room to develop sooner or later.

Nexus is the trick that the Edge has up its sleeve, because it means that you can fully remap the button inputs to the included Razer Kishi V2 controller. You possibly can then make these overlays disappear, leaving your gaming expertise uninterrupted. This software program is just for cellular titles although, as PC cloudy streaming helps the Razer Kishi V2 as if it was a normal Xbox controller.

Learn our Razer Edge evaluation.