Best possible hand-held gaming PC in 2025

Valve has discovered the total possible of its hand-held 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 existence for longer gaming periods, a weight loss for better convenience, plus Wi-Fi for sooner downloads. The Steam Deck OLED is the most productive on-ramp for hand-held PC gaming there may be, with a couple of downsides. The APU throughout the OLED is nearly similar to the unique Deck, save for potency, and that puts the hand held considerably in the back of the curve in the case of energy. Merely put, some triple AAA releases can be out of achieve to you.

When you’re in search of a well-priced hand-held with a shocking show and get admission to on your Steam library at the pass, the Steam Deck OLED is the best choice.

Learn our Steam Deck OLED assessment.

The Steam Deck wasn’t the primary hand-held gaming PC, however it’s no doubt been probably the most a hit. It provides you with seamless integration with Steam and a console-like revel in way it may be as plug-and-play as you prefer – with the good thing about having an absolutely user-tweakable OS underneath the hood.

The lower-end 64GB fashion is now discontinued, however for now, you’ll nonetheless select it up from outlets like Amazon, enlarge the garage, and pair it with the very best Steam Deck equipment to deliver it as much as a usable capability.

Titles corresponding to Starfield, Superstar Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Remnant 2 purpose the Steam Deck to misstep. While we’re a bit of clear of all main AAA releases being unplayable, the clock is ticking and you will really feel you get extra price in the event you go for one thing a bit of more moderen.

The customized APU dubbed Van Gogh remains to be robust sufficient for many video games and in the event you basically wish to play via unfashionable video games, 2D video games, sidescrollers, or emulated titles then you’ll be more than pleased with the functionality. That is nonetheless a great-value hand-held gaming PC.

Learn our Steam Deck assessment.

Whilst we didn’t get the OLED show that was once extensively rumored, the Asus ROG Best friend X made huge adjustments to nearly each different facet of its design and got here out the opposite aspect as simply the most productive Home windows gaming hand-held, despite the fact that Home windows is its largest downside when in comparison to the Steam Deck.

With 8GB additional reminiscence, and quicker reminiscence at that, the ROG Best friend X can outperform with regards to any like-for-like hand-held gaming PC to be had at this time. Armoury Crate is way progressed, and whilst now not easiest, its interface is more uncomplicated to grasp and navigate, which is massive for individuals who don’t wish to have interaction with Home windows 11.

The $799 ticket is tricky to swallow, however truthful. One anticipated good thing about Best friend X’s unlock is that the bottom Best friend Z1 Excessive has additionally noticed its fee lowered somewhat significantly. On the other hand, in the event you’re chasing the most productive functionality in video games with out being restricted to Steam, the Best friend X has the Steam Deck and all different Best friend handhelds overwhelmed fingers down.

Learn our Asus ROG Best friend X assessment.

With its 8.8-inch show, the Lenovo Legion Move is the hand held for you if you wish to have a big-screen revel in. Whilst its dimension naturally is helping with immersion, it’s additionally responsive, sharp, and bright. With a local decision of 2560 x 1600 and a refresh charge of 144Hz, the IPS panel is set as excellent because it will get for an LCD hand-held.

There’s some robust {hardware} too. The AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive chipset makes the Legion Move probably the most robust handhelds round, however it’s additionally probably the most flexible because of the removable controllers and kickstand, which provide you with a singular revel in, particularly in ‘FPS Mode’.

The Legion Move does have a couple of flaws. It’s a lot heavier than its competition, weighing in at 854g, which may make the use of it for lengthy classes a little tiring. You’ll additionally want to tinker with settings and determination reasonably regularly, as 1600p may also be too tough for the Ryzen Z1 Excessive APU in lots of instances, and the tool may also be fiddly.

Learn our Lenovo Legion Move assessment.

The Aya Neo is a slick and svelte bundle that isn’t as astonishingly dear as the opposite non-Valve/Asus entries on our listing these days. It has a very good OLED show making an allowance for super distinction ranges with true blacks and vivid highlights making for an overly colourful and punchy symbol.

OLEDs have excellent symbol patience too so there can be no visual ghosting and enter delays can be stored to a minimal given the very speedy reaction time. Its pint-like statute way it’ll simply be stowed away to your bag and enjoying it at the pass is way more sensible than say with the relatively monstrous Steam Deck.

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

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

This boundaries the Air to much less processing intense video games, however that also covers numerous flooring. 2D-pixel video games in particular shine at the OLED panel, for instance. That can be greater than sufficient for you – particularly when blended with its smallness.

Sony’s PSP is arguably probably the most best-designed items of tech ever conceived and it’s transparent GPD is of this persuasion as it sort of feels they took the whole thing super about that and progressed the controls and added a keyboard hidden beneath a sliding display screen.

While being a an identical fee to different handhelds, this novel development and high quality design make it our select for probably the most top class hand-held 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 period of time.

The keyboard isn’t probably the most splendid typing revel in however it’s strangely useable. It additionally blows the Steam Deck and ROG Best friend’s contact keyboard out of the water. Powering the GPD Win Max 2 is the Ryzen 6800U, an overly performant APU that can see more moderen titles ticking alongside in spite of it now not being the most recent and biggest.

By means of taking inspiration from the PSP regardless that, the controls can best be progressed by way of such a lot and they’re nonetheless extra cramped and uncomfortable than many of the different entries on this listing. It’s in fact quite dear, however if you’re a PSP purist, that can be a small fee to pay.

Whilst now not a PC gaming hand-held within the conventional sense, the Razer Edge provides you with get admission to on your PC library by way of cloud streaming. You’ll hyperlink your Sport Cross, GeForce Now, and Steam accounts to circulation video games from anyplace and the Edge does all of it with a shocking show and quite a lot of energy to again it up.

Cell video games also are a breeze because of the Andriod OS, supplying you with the way to run video games natively with its 128GB garage. After 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 once an implausible tool with quite a lot of room to develop someday.

Nexus is the trick that the Edge has up its sleeve, because it lets you utterly remap the button inputs to the integrated Razer Kishi V2 controller. You’ll then make those overlays disappear, leaving your gaming revel in uninterrupted. This tool is just for cell titles regardless that, as PC cloudy streaming helps the Razer Kishi V2 as regardless that it was once a typical Xbox controller.

Learn our Razer Edge assessment.