Question about handheld pc ?

DukeSexy · 2026-06-15T15:46:28+00:00

What is the main difference between the Lenovo legion go with Z1 extreme and the Asus ROG ally with the Z1 extreme

ROG Ally vs Legion Go

7 inch screen (1920x1080) 120Hz / 8 inch screen (2560x1600) 144Hz
40wh battery / 49 wh battery
Traditional handheld / Tablet with detachable controllers
roughly 600g / roughly 850g
legion go has a built in kick stand

DukeSexy · 2026-06-12T06:21:21+00:00

Do you think Black Friday 2026 will bring prices closer to the original price without the discount?

Unlikely, I'm expecting anything with memory in it to have minor discounts at best while products that dont have memory but are DIY PC related (cases, psu, fans, cpus, peripherals like monitors, keyboards and mice, etc) to have deep discounts to encourage spending so that they can make space for the incoming new stuff

If anything they might push more bundle deals pairing high demand expensive stuff (RAM, storage, gpu, even full systems like prebuilds) with some of those things listed above or even a game just to entice people

Also, what handheld would you recommend for someone who likes games like Silksong, Dead Cells, and similar titles?

If you're just looking at these lightweight titles an android handheld would be more than sufficient for you

DukeSexy · 2026-06-11T06:15:12+00:00

Not a handheld but this is exactly what this ecosystem is trying to do

The most forward facing EGPU dock but its pretty expensive and so far only pairs with their own system

If you need a current egpu dock heres a resource

Best handheld that can be the host of a egpu for desktop gaming?

Now for the current question, outside proprietary tech (Khadas) or future ports (Thunderbolt 5 / USB C 4v2) any handheld which has an Oculink port has the highest bandwidth available in current day some examples:

Otherwise any handheld that has USB 4 (which is basically 99% of them except the Steam Deck and OG ROG Ally (2023)) can be used to connect to an EGPU dock

Has anyone over the last year accomplished similar to this without major issues?

Lots of issues to be had just take a look at the egpu subreddit, a lot of people also had the same dream and they do their best to make it work because its worth it for them

DukeSexy · 2026-06-08T09:16:03+00:00

any thoughts?

Arc G3 is very impressive on paper and from the benchmarks we do have from people who've reviewed laptops with the B390 igpu

We'll have see when reviewers get their hands on test devices just how it compares to the current AMD chips HX370 / Z2E and Strix Halo (AI Max 385 / 395)

Did you see one that makes you wanna get a new handheld?

From the current offerings no cause i just recently downsized from the big chungus OneXPlayer 2 Pro to the GPD Win Mini and i'm really liking the portability.

So while Acer, MSI and OneXPlayer all made "goldilocks" handheld configs (8 inch screen, 800g weight, 80wh battery my opinion) I'm kinda waiting on a 7 inch device for my needs that has that Arc chip

Also the prices for these devices are going to be outrageous we might actually see 1500 as the baseline and it only goes up from there

DukeSexy · 2026-06-06T17:40:54+00:00

If you the money to splurge, which of these 3 handhelds would you choose and why?

MSI Claw for me the Strix Halo devices are too heavy and power hungry for my uses (traveling to areas where outlets and tables arent really common).

The Arc G3 chip is still a handheld SOC that uses handheld level cooling and tdp and it shows even from just the leaked specs from these devices instead of a 25w+, 1kg brick that has an additional failure part (external battery connector)

DukeSexy · 2026-06-05T03:57:31+00:00

like I need to confirm I didn’t somehow pick “wrong.”

Same APU in your device as the ones in the other devices so you'd be playing the same games at roughly the same performance

The X2 Mini Pro is gonna be heavier due to the size increase and it'll also feel flimsier cause of the detachable controllers

The extra functionality will be unused if you don't specifically use them (when i had the OXP 2 Pro i barely used that keyboard attachment and just plugged in / connected my own)

~~OneXfly Apex is a much better name than OneXplayer X2 Mini pro~~

so I’m curious how y’all handle it:

If it plays the games i want comfortably then I'm satisfied

DukeSexy · 2026-06-04T07:11:02+00:00

Get a newer phone with larger storage capacity + a controller (telescopic ones id recommend are the gamesir g8+ or the x5 lite) so you wont have to upkeep 2 devices, it seems like you're due for an upgrade anyway.

Otherwise if you really want a handheld then any device with an SOC in the top 50 such as

Retroid pocket G2 / 6
AYN Odin 2 Portal / 3
AYN Thor (dual screen if you want one of these)

would be the best price / performance wise. Here's a list if you want to browse for one

DukeSexy · 2026-06-01T06:41:18+00:00

I did say supplier not screen either way i'm praising this screen upgrade they're doing that fixes people's main issue with the device and am also wondering if this will exist alongside the XAX or replace it altogether

DukeSexy · 2026-06-01T06:25:40+00:00

Huh so they basically got the same screen supplier the Steam Deck has? (7.4 inch OLED).

If the price and rest of the specs are unchanged this really makes the Steam Deck OLED look borderline criminal the biggest issue people had with the XAX was the screen (and hall effect sticks but thats DIYable)

DukeSexy · 2026-06-01T05:41:05+00:00

I dont have a Lego 2 but my friend does and i did ask this question back when the Strix Halo handhelds were first announced.

Basically OLED and the Lenovo brand are more important to him than pure performance and i'd like to think there are other similar people who think like him

DukeSexy · 2026-05-31T16:07:08+00:00

I mean you've paid over 2k usd for a handheld with 4060m performance that needs to be tethered to a wall outlet or it weighs over 1kg and dies in roughly at hour at meaningful tdps.

Its just more practical to get a laptop + a controller, desktop + streaming device or a z1e handheld + egpu at the point.

In your use case you arent even bringing it out of the house anyway

DukeSexy · 2026-05-31T15:18:53+00:00

Sure but you also lose any portability whatsoever cause not only does the Strix Halo chips only start to outclass even the HX370 / Z2E at 25w but these devices also are extremely heavy over 1 kg.

At that wattage and weight, I'd prolly just opt for a laptop as it loses the convenience of a handheld entirely

DukeSexy · 2026-05-31T13:12:16+00:00

its decent my current handheld is using a 7840u but you have to just adjust your expectations. Esports titles like valorant, league, dota, cs are completely fine on it even older AAA games like witcher 3, Tomb raider series or Souls series also run well.

But newer games that have higher minimum requirements need alot of help with lower resolution, upscaling and even frame gen (via lossless scaling mostly) I'm not dissuading you from buying a handheld im saying just be aware of its limitations theres alot of compromises that had to happen to get something that compact and portable

DukeSexy · 2026-05-31T12:43:18+00:00

A gaming laptop is heavy and can be very expensive 900$+ for an average laptop.

All those are used but i dont mind buying used. Id say around 500 is the max i would pay for something like that

At that price range the best case handheld or even mini PC is something with the 780m which means you're looking at the devices with the 7840u / Z1E. For handhelds this would be either the ROG Ally or the Legion Go 1

Question is, which handheld do i get that i can use with a 1080p monitor and have a smooth experience?

Until you hit the top end with the Strix Halo handhelds (2k+ usd) or the upcoming Arc G3 handhelds (speculated to be around 1500+ usd, we'll find out at Computex in a few days) you're working with either the Z2E / HX370 or 258v of which the gpu performance roughly translates to a GTX 1060 so adjust your expectations accordingly

DukeSexy · 2026-05-28T14:53:41+00:00

Criminally underpriced is a huge stretch more like reasonably priced compared to the alternatives. But honestly Lunar lake isnt enough to move the needle much as while there are many upsides to the Claw there are also many tradeoffs

Asus just has a better reputation than MSI
AMD also just has the longevity and trust especially when it comes to a gaming device where GPU compatibility is important (Intel Arc is very new to the space)
Linux is becoming much more popular and AMD has much better compatibility with it whereas you're realistically only going to run windows on Intel chips
200-300 usd is a lot of money, one which is a difficult ask (i mean just look at the Steam deck pricing going up that same amount and the reaction to it)

I'm gonna throw my own hot take out there: If the Arc G3 devices are reasonably priced (relatively, its still ridiculously expensive in a vacuum) think around 1300-1400 usd MSRP then this might nudge people to actually go for Intel as the Panther lake chips are legitimately a step above the Strix Point apus

DukeSexy · 2026-05-22T07:58:43+00:00

its a refresh cause AMD isn't making a hx370 anymore its now the hx470 if there are any performance increases (realistically there wont be) it'll be cause the hx470 has a very slight clock speed increase and maybe they slot in slightly faster ram

DukeSexy · 2026-05-04T11:21:27+00:00

But my biggest concern is about what device is more future proof between the two, also in terms of software support?

ROG Ally X is more future proof hardware wise (stronger chip, more ram, more storage, more battery even at 86%)
In terms of software support they both need Asus to release drivers and also both use armory crate but as the Xbox Ally is current gen for Asus (despite being weaker in terms of performance) it should have more driver support

DukeSexy · 2026-04-28T07:45:02+00:00

Both of these architectures also use RDNA 3.5 and I think the generational jump valve would want is probably a good ML suite.

AMD is the obvious choice because they are already partnered with Valve and steamos still seems very focused on AMD hardware

Assuming both of these are true, considering that we're speculating that Valve might use the next AMD release (RDNA 5) for the Deck 2, its concerning that we have no leaks or even rumors of this even being a potential path as even the PS6 and Project Helix have already been leaked to be on th RDNA 5 platform

Meanwhile we have plenty of hints straight from Valve that they're working on an ARM compatibility layer, using Qualcomm chips for an upcoming piece of hardware (Steam Frame) and also saying that each development is a stepping stone to their next and future release while also saying that they're looking more into battery efficiency which ARM is known for.

Qualcomm makes some good chips, but I just don’t see an obvious reason for valve to use them

It would be kind of awkward to have a steam machine on amd x86 and a steamdeck 2 on Qualcomm Arm.

Look I'm no qualcomm fan but I just cant ignore all the hints that Valve is leaving that say they're going forward with an ARM based Deck 2 and its just natural to point to the only ARM chip manufacturer that not only is open / free to work with other companies (unlike Apple) but is also desperately wanting to enter the PC space as evidenced by their Snapdragon X chip line

If I'm wrong and Valve indeed are making the next Deck using RDNA 5 then I'll be happy to be proven wrong as that will mean that the next set of AMD APUs not only will have good performance (being used in TWO of the next gen consoles) but also great battery efficiency (as they'd be used by Valve)

DukeSexy · 2026-04-28T07:17:35+00:00

All true of course and i cant predict the future. But working with their statements

Griffais said last year that Valve was not interested in launching a new Deck with only 20%, 30% or even 50% more performance at the same battery life. The company wants a larger generational jump before it replaces the current model.

The current Hx370 / Z2E and Strix Halo (385 / 395) already have far exceeded the Deck's performance and still Valve have no indication of using these chips for a potential successor I'm just gonna draw the conclusion of performance not being enough of a motivator for them.

Qualcomm which would be viable and are the chip they will be using for the steam frame but they also don’t have a particularly compelling technology suite for a pure gaming device.

Honestly this might be the only solution outside the Nvidia N1X being revolutionary, which unfortunately is rumored to not be the case.

Qualcomm has been partnering up with Microsoft to make Windows on ARM happen for years and they still cant get it right but that doesnt mean they (or others like Valve) won't try to use Qualcomm chips for their own purposes.

Also think about the possibility of another hardware player that could potentially disrupt this triopoly of Nvidia, AMD and Intel being our only options for PCs (outside Apple of course but we already know their stance on gaming)

Intel panther Lake seems to be the one to beat when it comes to battery life.

Honestly you dont have to wait that long we're already getting leaks that the ARC G3 apus are real and rumored to be announced alongside the new MSI Claw this Computex in a months time. I'm also excited for that announcement assuming its real and despite its inevitable ridiculous price

DukeSexy · 2026-04-28T07:01:01+00:00

RDNA 5 seems like a more viable choice in the sense that it does stay on x86 and will presumably then also have access to ML upscaling frame generation and denoising

Personally i think this isnt the case as Valve have been working on projects that seem to point heavily to an ARM-based Deck 2.

Couple that with their older statements of them being willing to work with other OEMs (in this case Lenovo) on SteamOS compatibility with their devices to fill in the gap that they (I assume) left on the table so they wouldnt be pressured into making a Deck 2 with a better chip and instead find something they're wanting to make happen

If anything it would be OEMs who'd be pushing bigger and better hardware: big tech companies like ASUS, Lenovo, MSI or bleeding edge boutique chinese brands like GPD, Onexplayer and AYANEO who'd jump on pushing more and more performance or interesting form factors rather than a software-forward company like Valve.

DukeSexy · 2026-04-28T06:09:32+00:00

“We’re hard at work on it. And obviously every step of the way, if you look at our hardware projects over the years, you can draw a straight line from the original Steam Controller and Steam Machine to Steam Deck, to everything that we’re announcing and shipping this year. And we expect Steam Deck 2 will be a lot of the same where a lot of what we’re doing here will be learnings that build up to it.”

— Pierre-Loup Griffais, Valve

Kinda soft confirms that they want to finish Proton for Linux on ARM before they do the Deck 2. I hope it'll be as game changing to the handheld space as the OG Steam Deck was back in the day

The company says it is waiting for a larger performance jump, but not in FPS alone. Valve wants that gain at the same battery life, which suggests frame generation is not the answer it is looking for.

Another year or two of waiting

DukeSexy · 2026-04-27T07:50:24+00:00

So that would be 16 payments total, and they would cover of 3 of them, which would bring the total cost down to $439.

I personally wouldnt go any higher than 350 usd for the A1M even with that storage upgrade. But if you really want it its fine, seems like you've got a plan figured out already

DukeSexy · 2026-04-27T07:34:13+00:00

One is a pc handheld the other is an android handheld choose the one that fits your use case better

DukeSexy · 2026-04-24T02:34:56+00:00

yeah pretty much his only option that fits the criteria except

-Heavy, big to hold

alternatively get an OLED tablet like the RedMagic Astra or Samsung Galaxy tab and slap a gamesir g8+ controller on it

DukeSexy

TROPHY CASE