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.
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.
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TechTranscript
00:00Pretty sure some of you want to buy the best gaming handheld,
00:03but which one is the best?
00:05So in this video, we'll be taking you through the three best gaming handhelds,
00:08as well as two of the best streaming options if you want to go that route as well.
00:19Let's actually dive into what each of these has to offer right now.
00:23And which one is right for you.
00:24For me, the system I really set things off was the Steam Deck.
00:31It's almost as powerful as the PS4.
00:33I know for you specifically, like anytime you've since reviewed another gaming handheld,
00:38this has been the benchmark to beat.
00:40I still think it's good for what it is.
00:41And I will say on a screen that's that small,
00:45you don't really need to have like high resolution graphics.
00:47It looks really, really good.
00:49So I'm an even bigger fan of the OLED variant.
00:52At first, it looks pretty much the same as the old one.
00:56But just picking it up, there's a difference.
00:58It's a little bit lighter, which is nice.
01:00It has an OLED screen with Wi-Fi 6E, faster downloads, a faster SSD as well.
01:07So it's a lot of little improvements I make for like quality of life.
01:11If you're brand new to it, this is the way to go.
01:14Next up, we've got probably one of the first legitimate competitors to the Steam Deck.
01:20This is the ASUS ROG Ally.
01:24I was really excited for this because it runs Windows 11 natively.
01:29And the value, just for me, it made sense.
01:31I love the form factor.
01:33This is even lighter than the Steam Deck, right?
01:35It just looks cool, nice and white.
01:38This thing's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness.
01:41You know what that is?
01:42Windows 11.
01:43That's the problem.
01:44Games haven't been optimized for the Windows UI.
01:46So, you know, even when you boot this up, you got to log in like you would
01:49with a laptop and a computer.
01:51You have to go through a lot of more steps to get to the actual games,
01:53which is kind of frustrating.
01:55In order to get a decent performance out of this,
01:58you got to drop the resolution to 720, right?
02:00But I will say, since the screen is the same size as the Steam Deck 7 inches,
02:04you don't really notice it too much.
02:06I think a lot of the shortcomings with this have been fixed with the Legion Go.
02:11Yeah.
02:15With the Legion Go, one, we have a bigger screen,
02:18so I can actually use this in more of like a docked form factor,
02:21you know, on a table, but also really cool.
02:24You can take the controllers out.
02:26Yeah, it's a little bit tricky.
02:28I'll show you guys here, because with the Nintendo Switch,
02:31you push on a button that's up here and you pull up.
02:33This is a button that's on the bottom.
02:35You push down, which is a little bit tricky, but you can get it out,
02:39which is cool.
02:40This goes up to 1440p, which is really, really cool.
02:44Lenovo, just like Asus, they make great gaming hardwares.
02:49The cool thing about the Steam Deck is it actually feels like a gaming console
02:52when you turn it on, you're booted right into a home screen,
02:56which shows you all your games.
02:57Whereas with both of the options, the ROG Ally as well as the Legion Go,
03:02you're starting with the Windows desktop.
03:05So there's a lot of extra steps just to get to playing.
03:07But again, when you don't want to play,
03:10these are obviously going to be the better choices for the most part.
03:12If Steam Deck didn't exist, I would also get the Legion Go,
03:16just because you get it's the same price as the Ally,
03:19just with more features.
03:21The tangible controllers.
03:23I know the Switch does it too, but it's cool.
03:26It's a cool thing.
03:27More recently, we have seen a push for cloud streaming
03:32and not just like on your phones, but like consoles
03:34that are dedicated to streaming content.
03:37Like, what are your thoughts on that?
03:38I'm going to be honest, I'm not a fan of that.
03:39I like my games to be local.
03:41But at the same time, I understand
03:43that not everybody could spend $700 on a system.
03:45We got to talk about the PS Portal, right?
03:48This is like the hot ticket item right now.
03:50You can't even find these at the moment of recording.
03:54It feels really good as a DualSense is.
03:57But of course, the big sticking point with this system is
03:59it is something a lot of people don't know.
04:02You need a PS5.
04:03You can't just play this.
04:04You need a PS5.
04:05So in essence, this costs $700, right?
04:09You just need a $500 PS5, and this is $200 itself.
04:13If you have really good Wi-Fi connection, this works as intended.
04:16If you have bad Wi-Fi connection, you're going to have problems.
04:20For our next device, the Backbone One.
04:24And I know you haven't had a lot of experience with this one, but I have.
04:27And I actually really like this thing because I've been trying solutions like this.
04:30And basically all this is, is a little smart controller
04:33that you can easily attach to your phone.
04:34Now with our recent iPhone 15s, we can connect via USB-C.
04:40It automatically detects the controller on my phone.
04:43And look at that.
04:45I'm already in my game library here.
04:46So there's this really cool orange button here.
04:49It's the Backbone button.
04:50And when you launch it, what does this look like?
04:53Wow, this, I need to show you guys this.
04:56What does that look like?
04:56That looks like the PlayStation's UI right there.
05:00And what I find remarkable, this is my first time seeing this in action.
05:04How fast it was. It was just right there.
05:06It's one hub for all your games.
05:08That's something that we're not really getting on these other consoles.
05:12Here's the other really cool thing on here.
05:13I also have a USB-C connection at the bottom.
05:15What does that allow me to do?
05:17It allows me to charge the phone simultaneously,
05:19as well as connect to external display.
05:22That's smart.
05:23This is actually pretty cool.
05:24It's my favorite choice for mobile gaming.
05:28So right now it does go for $100.
05:31But when we looked at this around Black Friday,
05:33it was down to about $60.
05:35Oh, wow.
05:37Yeah, and holidays are coming, right?
05:39So the price will go down.
05:40But even at $100, that's still cheaper than this.
05:42Half the price. Yeah, half the price of this.
05:44So that's where we're at in 2023 with the state of gaming handhelds
05:49and some streaming alternatives if you want to go that route, too.
05:53I think that the future is looking really, really special.
05:56And I'm also eager to see what other manufacturers
05:59that we may not know about or expect, what they come out with.
06:02These systems hit that perfect sweet spot of portability and power,
06:06and we're going to see more of them.
06:07And I think it's awesome.
06:08Who knows? In about a year, we might be able to get like serious 1080p
06:12performance at 60 frames per second on these.
06:14Who knows?
06:15I'm already looking forward to doing the same video next year.
06:17All right, guys. So that's our video.
06:19Hope you guys enjoyed watching.
06:21I geek out about consoles all the time.
06:23And so it's just fun to do these videos.
06:24But, you know, obviously, that's what we think of these systems.
06:27We want to know what you think.
06:28I'm really looking forward to hearing what you guys have to say.
06:31And for everything else regarding gaming consoles, laptops, computers
06:35and anything tech related, make sure you hit Tom's Guide up over on our website.
06:39And we're also on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
06:43But once again, I was Tony Polanco.
06:45That was Paul. And we'll see you next time. Later.