The promise of handheld PC gaming has always been an attractive appeal to manufacturers. From the defunct Nvidia Shield Portable to Dell’s Alienware Concept UFO prototype and countless Steamware products on Kickstarted, many have tried over the years and many have failed.
In some ways, Valve is a more prominent name in gaming, with Steam being the world’s largest PC gaming platform despite Epic’s ambitions. It makes sense that the company would try to launch the Steam Deck, a Switch-like handheld console that will be available to gamers in December. But Valve hardly has the best track record when it comes to hardware, as anyone has Buying one of the Steam Machines, Steam Boxes or Steam Controllers are all attestable.
Steam
But there is reason to be optimistic. These came out before the Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite took the gaming world by storm and spawned countless clones. Given the outcry over the OLED Switch model not meeting gamers’ hardware expectations, if there was ever a time a powerful PC gaming handheld was going to succeed, it’s now.
Or is it? With cloud gaming subscriptions getting better and better in terms of selection and smoothness, as well as improved compatibility with Android and iOS devices, this begs the question of whether Is there value to be found in handheld PC gaming versus cloud gaming on your phone or tablet? .
Let’s break it down with numbers. The Steam Deck starts at $399 for the base 64GB eMMC model. That’s hardly enough to match many PC games alike The Fallen Order of the Jedi (55GB) and it won’t fit Death trapped 80GB) or Call of Duty: The Cold War (82GB) both. If you want better, faster storage, you’ll have to spend $529 for the Deck with a 256GB NVMe SSD or $649 for a 512GB NVMe SSD. If you need or want even more storage, it supports microSD cards, but at that point you’re already paying double the price of most current-gen consoles (when you have can find them) and you’re not too far off from what a budget gaming PC will offer you.
There’s another possibility that could save you more — get the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7/S7 Plus ($600-650) or any other Android tablet or phone of your choice — and Xbox GamePass Ultimate ($15). The combination of the two will get you around the same price as the Steam Deck max storage, but there are some key advantages you won’t get with a dedicated handheld console.
First, both the Tab S7 and S7+ have a high-refresh 12.4-inch/11-inch Quad HD 120Hz display, while the S7+ has a high-refresh Super AMOLED panel, giving you deep blacks and sharp colors. You don’t have to hold it in your hands to know it puts the 7-inch h 1280×800 LCD on the Steam Deck to shame. Not to mention it only supports 60Hz, half of what you get with the Tab S7 or most flagship phones today.
Both Tab S7 models are fully compatible with Bluetooth 5.0 accessories, meaning you can connect your Xbox Core or any other wireless controller to work with your games. It also has an optional keyboard case with touchpad and mouse connectivity, meaning it’s better suited to FPS and strategy lovers than the Steam Deck. It will also be better for productivity and multimedia than the Steam Deck – mind you it doesn’t include a dock if you want to use it with a monitor.
If portability is a bigger concern, the combination of a flagship Android phone and the Razer Kishi ($100) plus Xbox Game Pass Ultimate gives you a portable, pocket-sized console. Regular iPhones and Androids also have better, sharper screens and don’t require you to carry an additional device every day.
Most PC gamers have better gaming rigs at home or gaming laptops that give you plenty of power and portability. When cloud gaming comes into the equation, it allows you to play a huge amount of PC and console games on Android and soon iOS. It’s true that there are times when you want games stored on your device, but with most airports and planes having Wi-Fi and the 5G rollout continuing, those times you absolutely no connection is very rare. Ultimately, the Steam Deck seems like a solution looking for a problem with better alternatives to handheld games already on the market.
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Category: GAMINGSource: newstars.edu.vn