Gaming Handheld Review

  • 8 months ago
The Steam Deck OLED, Asus ROG Ally, and Lenovo Legion Go are among the best gaming handhelds out there. Each allows you to play the best PC games on the go without sacrificing graphics or performance. Though each gaming handheld is great, they each have their respective strengths and weaknesses. This could make it difficult to decide which one is right for you.

We take a look at the Steam Deck OLED, Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, PlayStation Portal and the Backbone One to see what each gaming handheld has to offer. We’re also taking a look at some streaming options for those on a budget.

Category

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Tech
Transcript
00:00 Pretty sure some of you want to buy the best gaming handheld,
00:03 but which one is the best?
00:05 So in this video, we'll be taking you through the three best gaming handhelds,
00:08 as well as two of the best streaming options if you want to go that route as well.
00:12 Let's actually dive into what each of these has to offer right now.
00:22 And which one is right for you.
00:24 For me, the system I really set things off was the Steam Deck.
00:28 It's almost as powerful as the PS4.
00:33 I know for you specifically, like any time you've since reviewed another gaming handheld,
00:38 this has been the benchmark to beat.
00:40 I still think it's good for what it is.
00:41 And I will say on a screen that's that small,
00:45 you don't really need to have like high resolution graphics.
00:48 It looks really, really good.
00:49 So I'm an even bigger fan of the OLED variant.
00:51 At first, it looks pretty much the same as the old one, but just picking it up,
00:57 there's a difference a little bit lighter, which is nice.
01:00 It has an OLED screen with Wi-Fi 6E, faster downloads, a faster SSD as well.
01:07 So it's a lot of little improvements I make for like quality of life.
01:11 If you're brand new to it, this is the way to go.
01:13 Next up, we've got probably one of the first legitimate competitors to the Steam Deck.
01:20 This is the ASUS ROG Ally.
01:25 I was really excited for this because it runs Windows 11 natively
01:29 and the value just for me, it made sense.
01:31 I love the form factor.
01:33 This is even lighter than the Steam Deck, right?
01:35 It just looks cool, nice and white.
01:38 This thing's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness.
01:40 You know what that is?
01:42 Windows 11.
01:43 That's the problem.
01:44 Games haven't been optimized for the Windows UI.
01:46 So, you know, even when you boot this up, you got to log in like you would
01:49 with a laptop and a computer.
01:51 You have to go through a lot more steps to get to the actual games,
01:53 which is kind of frustrating.
01:55 In order to get a decent performance out of this,
01:58 you got to drop the resolution to 720, right?
02:00 But I will say, since the screen is the same size as the Steam Deck 7 inches,
02:04 you don't really notice it too much.
02:06 I think a lot of the shortcomings with this have been fixed with the Legion Go.
02:10 Yeah.
02:11 With the Legion Go, one, we have a bigger screen,
02:17 so I can actually use this in more of like a docked form factor,
02:21 you know, on a table.
02:22 But also really cool, you can take the controllers out.
02:26 Yeah, it's a little bit tricky.
02:28 I'll show you guys here, because with the Nintendo Switch,
02:30 you push on a button that's up here and you pull up.
02:33 This is a button that's on the bottom.
02:35 You push down, which is a little bit tricky, but you get it out, which is cool.
02:40 This goes up to 1440p, which is really, really cool.
02:44 Lenovo, just like Asus, they make great gaming hardware.
02:49 The cool thing about the Steam Deck is it actually feels like a gaming console,
02:52 when you turn it on, you're booted right into a home screen,
02:55 which shows you all your games.
02:57 Whereas with both of the options, the ROG Ally as well as the Legion Go,
03:01 you're starting with the Windows desktop.
03:05 So there's a lot of extra steps just to get to playing.
03:07 But again, when you don't want to play,
03:10 these are obviously going to be the better choices for the most part.
03:12 If Steam Deck didn't exist, I would also get the Legion Go,
03:16 just because you get it's the same price as the Ally,
03:19 just with more features.
03:22 The touchable controllers, I know the Switch does it too, but it's cool.
03:25 It's a cool thing.
03:27 More recently, we have seen a push for cloud streaming
03:32 and not just like on your phones, but like consoles
03:34 that are dedicated to streaming content.
03:37 Like, what are your thoughts on that?
03:38 I'm going to be honest, I'm not a fan of that.
03:39 I like my games to be local, but at the same time, I understand
03:43 that not everybody could spend $700 on a system.
03:45 We got to talk about the PS Portal, right?
03:48 This is like the hot ticket item right now.
03:50 You can't even find these at the moment of recording.
03:52 It feels really good as a DualSense is,
03:57 but of course, the big sticking point with this system is
03:59 it is something a lot of people don't know.
04:02 You need a PS5.
04:03 You can't just play this. You need a PS5.
04:05 So in essence, this costs $700, right?
04:09 You need a $500 PS5 and this is $200 itself.
04:13 If you have really good Wi-Fi connection, this works as intended.
04:16 If you have bad Wi-Fi connection, you're going to have problems.
04:20 For our next device, the Backbone One.
04:22 And I know you haven't had a lot of experience with this one, but I haven't.
04:27 I actually really like this thing because I've been trying solutions like this.
04:30 And basically all this is, is a little smart controller
04:33 that you can easily attach to your phone.
04:34 Now, with our recent iPhone 15s, we can connect via USB-C.
04:39 It automatically detects the controller on my phone.
04:42 And look at that.
04:45 I'm already in my game library here.
04:46 So there's this really cool orange button here.
04:49 It's the backbone button.
04:50 And when you launch it, what does this look like?
04:53 Wow, this, I need to show you guys this.
04:55 What does that look like?
04:56 That looks like the PlayStation's UI.
04:59 Yeah, right there.
05:00 And what I found remarkable, this is my first time seeing this in action.
05:03 How fast it was. It was just right there.
05:06 It's one hub for all your games.
05:08 That's something that we're not really getting on these other consoles.
05:12 Here's the other really cool thing on here.
05:13 I also have a USB-C connection at the bottom.
05:15 What does that allow me to do?
05:17 It allows me to charge the phone simultaneously,
05:19 as well as connect to external display.
05:22 That's smart. This is actually pretty cool.
05:24 It's my favorite choice for mobile gaming.
05:28 So right now it does go for $100.
05:31 But when we looked at this around Black Friday, it was down to about $60.
05:35 Oh, wow.
05:36 Yeah. And holidays are coming, right?
05:38 So the price will go down.
05:40 But even at $100, that's still cheaper than this.
05:42 Half the price. Yeah, half the price of this.
05:44 So that's where we're at in 2023 with the state of gaming handheld
05:49 and some streaming alternatives if you want to go that route, too.
05:52 I think that the future is looking really, really special.
05:56 And I'm also eager to see what other manufacturers that we may not know
06:00 about or expect, what they come out with.
06:02 These systems hit that perfect sweet spot of portability and power.
06:06 And we're going to see more of them. And I think it's awesome.
06:08 Who knows? In about a year, we might be able to get like serious 1080p
06:12 performance at 60 frames per second on these. Who knows?
06:15 I'm already looking forward to doing the same video next year.
06:17 All right, guys. So that's our video.
06:19 Hope you guys enjoyed watching.
06:21 I geek out about consoles all the time, man.
06:23 So it's just fun to do these videos.
06:24 But, you know, obviously, that's what we think of these systems.
06:27 We want to know what you think.
06:28 I'm really looking forward to hearing what you guys have to say.
06:31 And for everything else regarding gaming consoles, laptops, computers
06:35 and anything tech related, make sure you hit Tom's Guide up over on our website.
06:39 And we're also on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
06:43 But once again, I was Tony Blanco.
06:45 That was Paul. And we'll see you next time. Later.