The best handheld gaming PC in 2024

The best handheld gaming PC console – Legion Go

Legion Go

The best handheld gaming PC console

The giant is coming to the handheld PC market, and Lenovo did a great job at making the Legion Go. The experience on the handheld is certainly the best you can get at the moment, and by most standards, you can’t go back to other handhelds.

Deal from Amazon

Take a look at the Legion Go

The Legion Go marks a monument that tech giants are jumping into the handheld PC market, and we can expect to see more and more flagships in a cheaper price range. And I must confess that the Legion Go should be everyone’s endgame for a while, as its performance is insanely awesome for the price.

Design: The Legion Go learns and combine everything that gamers would want in a handheld: detachable controllers that are similar to the Nintendo Switch, a heavy but well weight distribution for not dragging your hands down, multiple programmable buttons and an ergonomics design for long gaming sessions. The overall feeling of having this handheld is quite great, like you actually own a valuable item, not some cheap knock-offs.

Display: The Legion Go’s 8.8-inch QHD (2K) display is bright at the highest standard of current handheld gaming PCs – 500 nits. Its refresh rate is variable, highest at 144 Hz, which is the highest in the handheld industry. While many people are still arguing that 2K display isn’t necessary for handheld PCs, that’s not true, as the smartphone tech is using higher resolution for a long time. The Legion Go’s screen size is bigger than everything I tried that shares the same form factor, and if you ask the lazy handheld man’s advice: once you go big, you never go back.

Gaming experience: For most user experience, the Legion Go learns very well from the Steam Deck, which is still the best handheld gaming design for gamers. I mean, it can vary for different people, but when I hold a big handheld gaming PC, I really want to easily access to both analog sticks and buttons. The Legion Go is definitely on top of my mind when I need to choose a handheld PC that I can comfortably play for a long time.

The Legion Go has a right trackpad that it, again, learns from the Steam Deck. Some people don’t care about trackpad will deny the usefulness of the feature, but when you get used to the versatility of having trackpad, you are unable to miss it. There is a scroll wheel that you will need for a pure Windows handheld, which no other handheld brands care to make. Now you want to zoom in with your sniper? Just go.

Performance: The Legion Go shares the same custom AMD Ryzen Z1 or Z1 Extreme with the ROG Ally, which is similar to all of the flagship Ryzen 7840U you can find on other brands’ handhelds. As a custom processor, it should provide top-of-the-line power at better-efficient power.

Battery life: The Legion Go doesn’t provide the biggest battery on the market, but it supports fast charging. It depends on your preference, but it is quite the same as Android smartphone market at the moment, as you should rely on fast charging than higher battery capacity.

Value for money: The Legion Go is certainly a tech giant’s product, as it comes with a much more affordable price than other brands. And it is easier to order one, unlike anything from Aya, OneXPlayer or GPD that takes you a long time.

The most affordable handheld gaming PC – Steam Deck

Steam Deck

The most affordable handheld gaming PC

Want to get a handheld gaming PC at only $399? The Steam Deck is the perfect handheld PC for you that doesn’t break your bank.

Deal from Amazon

Take a look at the Steam Deck

The Steam Deck is considered as the best handheld gaming PC, despite of its lower performance in comparison with other handheld PCs at the moment. Why? Because the Steam Deck sets up a very good price/performance benchmark that you can’t get from a handheld PC. It starts at only $399, meaning the Steam Deck is just nearly the same price as the Nintendo Switch OLED model.

Design: Valve doesn’t boast about trying thousands of prototypes to achieve the final Steam Deck design. Even though it is quite heavy for a handheld, especially for early adopters who are familiar with the Nintendo Switch, you get a functional design that will work for your gaming sessions. Perhaps that’s why the later Steam Deck OLED only focuses on reducing the weight, but not changing the design.

Display: Like all budget technology devices, the Steam Deck must sacrifice its display the most. It is a 7-inch HD IPS screen, which is quite similar to the Nintendo Switch OLED, and it emits 400 nits that is brighter than the Nintendo handheld. Even for today standards, I still find the Steam Deck’s display tolerable. The anti-glare screen on the 512 GB version is a bit less bright, but it is one of the best experiences for playing games outdoors. After all, the handheld is meant for bringing anywhere, right?

Gaming experience: When I said about the functional design, I really meant it. The Steam Deck may appear to be a heavy handheld at first, but when you get used to it, you will understand that it’s the best for quick-action games. Current handheld PCs are unable to achieve the same design as the Nintendo Switch, because they pack too many things to run heavy games, so the functional design of the Steam Deck is overall great to use.

Steam Deck also introduces trackpads which are neglected on other handheld gaming PCs, but again, the versatility of these trackpads improves gameplay of most power users. And Steam OS, yes, another selling point of the Steam Deck. Whether you rely on accessibility, or just like the idea of being able to focus only on gaming, the Steam Deck OS can make your life a little easier in lots of little ways. It’s something that other Windows handheld PCs are trying to achieve, but none can come closer to the Steam Deck’s experience.

Performance: Sadly, it’s where that the Steam Deck is behind the competition. Using only a quad-core processor that is based on older structure, the Steam Deck struggles with many modern AAA games. We can only wait for the Steam Deck to be more popular, and more developers are willing to optimize their games for the Steam Deck. One hint is you can look for the Steam Deck verified games, if you only use Steam for your games collection.

Battery: The Steam Deck has only a 40Wh battery that is not good to keep you from playing. And there is no fast charging, either, so most of the time you will playing the Steam Deck in charging mode. Hey, make sure that I don’t recommend doing this.

Value for life: The Steam Deck certainly lacks many fancy features to be the top-tier handheld gaming PCs, however, Valve knows that it’s not a winning of hardware specifications. That’s why you can buy a handheld gaming PC at nearly the same price as the Nintendo Switch, and it still can do justice for a lot of games.

If you’re going to buy a spare SD card for your Steam Deck, make sure you read my ultimate handheld SD card guide.

The best customized handheld gaming PC – Asus ROG Ally

*DISCLAIMER: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated, and as an eBay Partner, I may be compensated if you make a purchase.

ROG Ally

The most powerful handheld PC for lower price

The Asus ROG Ally brings the Ryzen 7 7840U into a lower price, and it’s so hard to ignore. Combines with 120Hz screen and good software function, it is supposed to be the most concerned handheld PC in this year.

Deal from Amazon

Deal from Ebay

Take a look at the ROG Ally

The ROG Ally is a the first handheld gaming PC from a tech giant, and it brings the competition to a more sensible price point. Asus knows that later products will easily outperform the ROG Ally, so they focus on keeping the handheld easier to upgrade internal parts.

Design: As an Asus product, the ROG Ally features a flashy design with multiple LEDs. It is quite a common trend for current handheld gaming PCs, albeit the Steam Deck, and it depends strongly on the user preference. The ROG Ally keeps a smaller size than the Steam Deck, so people who’re on small side will prefer this handheld than the latter. Speakers are front facing, and I always prefer front-facing speakers, because front-facing speakers are louder than other positions.

Display: ROG Ally uses a 7-inch Full HD IPS screen that is quite common in the handheld gaming PC market. Though the sharpness of the ROG Ally display is not the best, its 500 nits emissions makes it one of the brightest screens you can find at the moment. Also, the display is smooth with a fast 120 Hz refresh rate. Certainly the display is behind the Legion Go, but it is still better than most others.

Gaming experience: The ROG Ally keeps a very similar design as the Steam Deck, as the company knows which one is the best to learn from. As a result, playing with ROG Ally is really enjoyable, though I still find it’s behind both the Steam Deck and Legion Go in terms of the best buttons placement. It uses hall sensor sticks and triggers which is not available for Steam Deck users, and personally I would prefer the hall sensor. Even when the feeling is different for each other, I still want to cling in the hope that hall-sensor sticks are less prone to drifting.

Gaming experience is related even more on software side, and Asus’s Armoury Crate isn’t the best software in the world, whether on a desktop or handheld PC. The ROG Ally maps many physical buttons for its Command Center and Armoury Crate, and it is quite easy to remember all of them.

Performance: The ROG Ally is the first handheld to introduce the custom Ryzen Z1 chip, which is based on the current flagship 7840U processor of handheld gaming PCs. You can expect the best performance at the moment, however, I must remind you that it’s still a long way to achieve the best performance in the handheld gaming PC world.

Battery: There is only one problem for the ROG Ally, it has a sub-optimal battery capacity. Luckily, the ROG Ally features fast charging, and smaller battery capacity means shorter charging time.

Value for life: While most parts of the ROG Ally is not as good as the Legion Go, it really depends on which software hub that you want to use. The ROG Ally is still a smaller handheld, and it is far easier to customize than the Legion Go. Even for a casual and lazy gamer, the option to upgrade better hardware isn’t something you should take lightly.

The best screen in handheld gaming PC – Steam Deck OLED

Steam Deck OLED

The best screen in handheld gaming PC

Knowing that the handheld world doesn’t rely on the power, Valve upgrades their next Steam Deck with what their customers are asking of: better screen, better battery life and overall a lighter device.

Deal from Amazon

Take a look at the Steam Deck OLED

The original Steam Deck serves as a pioneer in the development of the Steam Deck OLED. Valve understands that it would be foolish to release new hardware each year. Instead, the company wants to learn from the big boy Nintendo and focuses only on what their customers need the most.

Design: The Steam Deck OLED is basically the same handheld as the original, albeit a slight difference in size because of bigger screen. It will have thinner bezels on both top and bottom, which debuted with the old Steam Deck. It has about 40 grams less weight, but I feel like it’s a lot lighter than the old Steam Deck, don’t know why.

Display: This time, the Steam Deck OLED deserves its title as the best display in handheld gaming PCs. The OLED screen made by Valve makes for a clear and bright image – the brightness has been significantly improved as the handheld can emit up to 1000 nits. I must say the OLED experience is quite unique to the Steam Deck OLED, and even when I used the AyaNEO OLED model in the past, the Steam Deck OLED just destroy it with a much bigger screen.

The Steam Deck OLED also locks the refresh rate to 90 Hz, which is another upgrade from the 60 Hz refresh rate on the old Steam Deck.

Gaming experience: Everything that you loved in the Steam Deck is brought back to the Steam Deck OLED, at a far better experience. The handheld gaming PC is lighter, so you can expect to hold it for a longer time. The OLED screen is always better than the old LCD screen, and I mean anyone can differentiate when putting side-by-side. If I must choose, I would want an OLED screen more than better refresh rate or higher resolution, especially when higher resolution usually means you need better hardware to match up with.

Performance: The Steam Deck OLED remains the same specifications. Actually, the processor is thinner at only 6 nm, which theoretically reduces the battery consumption. Other than that, the Steam Deck OLED’s processor is a Zen 2 CPU, while others use Zen 4 CPUs and have up to 8 cores. The Steam Deck OLED isn’t what you should buy if you mainly want to maximize FPS on AAA games.

Battery: The Steam Deck ups the game with a standard 50Wh battery, and man the difference is real. You can expect to draw out about 30% more time than the original Steam Deck. It also supports fast charging that allows you to play after just 1 hour. The upgrade is worth the money.

Value for life: Unlike other handheld PC brands, the Steam Deck OLED does not fully rely on the hardware, as its base Steam OS is a valuable system for gamers. At a cheaper price than either the Legion Go and ROG Ally, the Steam Deck OLED base storage caps at 512 GB, so it can store a few more titles for you.

Although my website is depended on affiliate links, I don’t recommend you to buy the Steam Deck on Amazon. You should order your Steam Deck OLED on its own website.

The best portable handheld gaming PC – GPD Win 4

*DISCLAIMER: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated, and as an eBay Partner, I may be compensated if you make a purchase.

GPD Win 4

The best portable handheld gaming PC

GPD brings out its ultimate hybrid handheld gaming PC with the GPD Win 4. This is the only handheld gaming PC with keyboard, best serving people who wants 70% gaming and 30% working.

Deal from Amazon

Deal from Ebay

Deal from AliExpress

Take a look at the GPD Win 4

GPD is the brand that starts the whole handheld gaming PC market that we love and play today, and as you can see, this is the fourth generation of a handheld. With more experience than other brands, the company knows which is its strength. The GPD Win 4 is the best hybrid handheld PC that you can buy, meaning it’s suitable for anyone who wants to work with their handheld PCs.

Design: The GPD Win 4 is that I mentioned is the revision of the original GPD Win 4 last year, and it only upgrades the latest chipset in the old design (which is a great way to reduce the R&D cost). The GPD Win 4 is usually dubbed as the modern PlayStation Vita due to its similarity, and it is far smaller than the Steam Deck.

However, the most special thing about the GPD Win 4 is its keyboard. While the keyboard doesn’t help much for any games, if you plan to use your handheld PC for working, you can think about the GPD Win 4 as a portable, hybrid option.

Display: The GPD Win 4 has a 6-inch display at Full HD resolution, so it has sharper image than most other brands at 367 PPI. Usually for a portable handheld PC, the display is the first that we need to sacrifice the size. Still, GPD uses a LTPS screen for their handhelds, and it can increase the sharpness and brightness of the display better.

Gaming experience: First, I must say owning a portable handheld gaming PC is real good. It is nowhere near the size of the PS Vita, obviously, but it’s just the size of the Nintendo Switch, though it’s heavier. Copying the design of the PS Vita improves the ergonomics on the GPD Win 4, and I don’t find playing the handheld bring me any hand fatigues.

GPD Win 4 allows you to connect with an eGPU via Oculink for a better gaming performance. It’s great when you try to combine with the flagship Win 4 that has a 7840U CPU. Even my recommendation at only 7640U is enough to play AAA games with the eGPU support.

Performance: I recommend to get the Ryzen 5 7640U processor for better value. It is basically similar to the performance of the last-gen Ryzen 7 6800U, and I don’t think paying extra for the 7840U version worth the price. You’d better spend the extra for the G1 eGPU of GPD.

Battery: The GPD Win 4 has a 46Wh battery, which isn’t the top on the market. However, if you’re running the Ryzen 5 processor, the chipset doesn’t draw as much power as the Ryzen 7 version, thus increasing the battery life. The GPD Win 4 has fast charging, so you can expect to quickly fill its life before continuing your gaming sessions.

Value for life: The GPD Win 4’s value depends on whether you want a keyboard or not. Certainly it’s the best portable handheld gaming PC, and you really need a small handheld, you can’t go wrong with the GPD Win 4. But again, paying that much for a handheld for portability isn’t my recommendation, so you should think about your actual keyboard use case.

The best clamshell handheld gaming PC – GPD Win Mini

GPD Win Mini

The best clamshell handheld gaming PC

As far as clamshell handhelds go, the GPD Win Mini is the best option. It’s even more portable the GPD Win 4 when bringing around, and it can be a better hybrid option for people who want to work and play alike.

Deal from AliExpress

Take a look at the GPD Win Mini

The GPD Win Mini is more than just the best clamshell handheld gaming PC you can buy; it’s an entirely new category of handheld gaming PC, offering more than any handset before it. GPD shouts out the selling point of making the handheld resembles the mini laptop.

Design: As you can see, the GPD Win Mini is more like a mini laptop than a handheld. With the handheld, it’s a compact miniature device that you can grab and bring it around easily. However, as a handheld, the GPD Win Mini isn’t easily handled for first time users. But when you can get used to it, you will find out that the handheld is even more lightweight than other typical devices using landscape form factor.

As a mini laptop, the GPD Win Mini has a metal shell combined with plastic. It is useful for cooling, and I also want to regard the cooling system of the GPD Win Mini as one of the best handheld gaming PCs.

Display: While the GPD Win Mini isn’t different from the GPD Win 4 with its display, it has a much better refresh rate up to 120 Hz. The screen is bigger at 7 inch, so it should have lower PPI, thus the image will be less sharp.

GPD is also the first to apply Gorilla tempered glass for their handhelds’ screens. This isn’t a screen that’s just for trying with the scratch, it also has an anti-glare technology that can help you to play outdoors.

Gaming experience: Using a clamshell handheld gaming PC is quite different from a normal one, even though I have used many 3DS in the past. The GPD Win Mini is certainly on the small side, especially when most of its weight distribution is on the top screen. However, I wish that the company can integrate the trackpad to the keyboard or something, because I always accidentally trigger the touchpad. Perhaps muscle memory will help me better in the future.

With the physical backlit keyboard, the GPD Win Mini can be a working laptop in a second. You can put it on a table, and use the keyboard in a much better way than a traditional virtual keyboard.

Performance: I only recommend the 7640U version of this GPD Win Mini, as the 7840U flagship version is nearly $200 more expensive, and the added performance isn’t really worth it. If you want more FPS on your AAA games, investing in the G1 eGPU will be better.

Battery: The GPD Win Mini is quite thin to keep everything intact, so the battery is slightly smaller than the GPD Win 4. It isn’t really a problem, as the handheld PC supports fast charging, and you can continue your game soon enough.

Value for life: The GPD Win Mini is expensive, but it’s the first clamshell foldable handheld PC that I’d recommend to anyone and everyone, not just people asking about mini laptop, or folks who want the coolest new thing.

The best handheld gaming PC for long playtime – OneXPlayer 2

OneXPlayer 2

The best handheld gaming PC with strong display and speaker

If you value your gaming experience, the OneXPlayer 2 will show off its most valuable strengths: the Harman Kardon speakers and 2K-display screen.

Deal from Amazon

Deal from AliExpress

Take a look at the OneXPlayer 2

Although many things are different for the handheld gaming PC world, with the Legion Go features the same detachable controllers, the OneXPlayer 2 is still the best handheld with so many flagship features. If you want a premium product that enables you longer playtime, the OneXPlayer 2 is certainly a good option to try.

Design: The OneXPlayer 2 is perhaps the prototype for the first Legion Go, as it features the same big size and detachable controllers. It is recommended for people who want a big screen experience, but the weight distribution is really as good as the Legion Go.

Display: The OneXPlayer 2 features a 8.4-inch QHD display, so it is really a step up from other handheld gaming PC. Because PC games are not really optimized for handheld gaming PCs, you will find games with too small texts that you can’t read them all. The OneXPlayer with bigger screen is a good solution. Also, better resolution means higher PPI for the screen, so the image sharpness on the OneXPlayer 2 is really good.

Gaming experience: On the software side, the OneXPlayer 2 has a very good center to change settings. Last year, the OneXPlayer 2 could be the best handheld gaming PC that can push more power for better performance, thanks to its dedicated system. On the hardware side, the OneXPlayer 2 features a 2K display and Harman Kardon audio, and I must say I impressed with this combination very much in the past.

However, the OneXPlayer 2 loses to the Steam Deck, Legion Go and ROG Ally in terms of button placement. It is more difficult to reach out for the right analog stick when using the ABXY buttons. One main culprit could be the big size of the OneXPlayer 2, but more importantly, the not optimized button placement.

Performance: The OneXPlayer 2 has a last-year flagship processor, which can’t be compared to the Legion Go or ROG Ally. Still, it is not really far behind, and it gives plenty power to keep playing some AAA games on low settings. However, when the processor isn’t the top-of-the-line, the QHD 2K display will be a hindrance for lowering the FPS. And if you need to lower the resolution, then what is the point to have 2K display at first.

You really should wait for the OneXPlayer 2 Pro, which I am waiting to try one as soon as possible.

Battery: Finally, the reason you want the OneXPlayer 2. With the 65Wh battery, the OneXPlayer 2 is the best you can buy at the moment. It also supports fast charging, and this could be the only handheld that the manufacturer asks for a 100W charger.

Value for life: The OneXPlayer 2 is not really a good handheld when the Legion Go exists, but it is still the biggest beast that you can buy for up to 50% more playtime than other handhelds. In terms of cooling system, the OneXPlayer 2 is also the best on the market, and I really think that you should value this if you want to overclock for the most graphically demanding games.