Debate: Does Windows Suck On Handhelds?
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- čas přidán 14. 05. 2024
- Jeff Grubb from @GiantBomb thinks Windows sucks on handhelds, but do Adam and Will agree? In this video they debate all the finer points of how Windows works on handheld gaming PCs like the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go in order to figure out if they have a place in this world.
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00:00 - Intro
01:44 - Will's Initial Thoughts
03:46 - Game Compatibility
05:15 - Benefits Of Windows
07:38 - Battery Life
09:45 - Tinkering
12:29 - Windows Installation
14:03 - Launchers/Software
18:34 - Suspend/Resume
22:22 - PC vs Console
24:57 - Final Thoughts
#windows #handheld #steamdeck - Věda a technologie
Returned my Legion Go for a Steam Deck and I don’t regret the decision. As a father not having a true suspend feature to where I can stop the game and come back was a real deal breaker for me with the Legion Go.
I sold my Ally for the Deck OLED. Same thing, it’s just more refined and seamless with the Deck at this point.
I totally agree on this.. ❤
I only have the SD OLED, and not the other consoles, but I have yet to have a game I wanted to play that I could not on the SD OLED. Game manufacturers are being forced to optimize an 800 or 720p experience that works well on the SD or suffer the sales loss. This is also good for people with older PC’s as well. To be honest, with games like Cyberpunk running perfectly on the Deck, games that can’t run just prove incompetence on the developer, or simple indifference. Streaming and AI frame generation literally make this issue a total non issue as we move onto the next generation of these systems with optimized chip sets in a year or two. Nothing compares to the Chiaki4Deck streaming experience I am getting with wifi 6E at home with my PS5 on my SD OLED. I literally played over 50% of Ghost of Tsushima on the SD after the game sat half finished for more than a year on my PS5 and the graphics and lack of any discernible lag were amazing.
Hibernation instead of sleeping works fine. You can set the power button to make the device go to hibernation and never look back. It takes 5 seconds to resume, but consumes almost no battery (unlike sleep on all other devices) and it worked perfectly on every game I tried. Windows sucks at stock even for desktop use not just handhelds, but if you put the time to learn the workarounds they are the best OS atm imo.
@@Lambretta_G I agree. Problem was I bought it at launch so there were no known work arounds yet. Also, my other issue was that games weren’t optimized to run on the Legion Go, so I was always having to play around with the settings. While On deck verified games are pretty much good to go. As a father, who may only have 20-30 minutes to play at a time, not having to spend any time troubleshooting makes a HUGE difference.
Suspend/resume should be standard as Windows is the only gaming platform without it.
It's gonna be tough one for Windows to implement since Windows is installed on many devices besides Handheld.
There’s a “Fix”
I just got the rog and it's okay at least half the time when I put it in sleep mode. I think I just need to manually put it to sleep to increase the success rate for the wake up. My steam deck is nice and sleeps and wakes up great. But I have issues when turning it on. It'll loop boot or just not turn on at all. Still love both of them. Msi claw seems terrible and the Lenovo seems ugly to me
@@nthnglsn Yeah lenovo's UI looks ugly tho. I like the Armory Create the most it looks futuristic and clean and easier to use.
@@nthnglsn RMA your deck,never happens to mine.
As someone who owns all 3 of those units, this discussion nails everything. I use them for different things, but the SD is the ultimate handheld gaming machine. Ergonomics, suspend/resume, battery life….it’s just great at just about everything. The Ally and Legion Go are certainly better at one or two things, but you have to sacrifice everything else. There are times when I want that. AAA game that requires more power and screen real estate, I grab the Legion Go. Power and portability and the ability to use the external graphics card, I grab the ROG Ally. But 90% of the time the SD does everything else better. It’s really a testament to Valve as to how well the SD has stood up in this burgeoning field.
Try the Legion Go with BazziteOS, there's some dual boot guides on YT, and it basically brings the full SteamOS experience to the LGO. I highly recommend it for SteamOS users, it's what I do on my LGO.
I put Bazzite (Steam OS) on my Legion Go a few weeks back. Haven't looked back since. It turns the Go into a giant, more powerful Steam Deck. Love it.
I'll take less compatibility for the ability to use Steam OS instead of Windows. It's just so damn good.
I feel guilty sometimes that I don't use my Ally very much. It's very good playing Xbox Gamepass though.
Why is is better than the SD at gamepass? I use gamepass easily as well as Xbox remote play on the SD using XBplay.
Valve really needs to release SteamOS for other handheld manufacturers
They did promise to release that for everyone and it would make sense as it pushes everyone using that towards Steam. The problem is it has been years now and they have done no such thing.
Personally I would prefer a light wieght version of windows as it makes running all the other game plattforms much easier.
I agree with you, only problem I'm think if Valve release SteamOS is the driver support other handheld would need to do more testing would take them months get to a state working right like in windows as they're not even trying to port them in to Linux if that the case. Or started their own Linux SteamOS like OS using proton. Like right now people can install a SteamOS not from Valve, the most part of it is that people been putting things together trying talk to the hardware and add it to the decky loader, or the side bar.
At the moment, Bazzite is the next best thing (afaik)
There’s also ChimeraOS and Nobara Steam Deck Edition, but yeah.
Agreed
That could cause some issues between Microsoft and valve. I think main reason valve haven't released steam os for public is they don't want to threaten Microsoft, since valve is quiet comfortable having their store on windows platform.
So good to see and hear Will talk since the tested podcast died
oh you'd love Brad & Will Made a Techpod
It's not that these other devices shouldn't exist (variety of hardware), but ideally they'd have SteamOS or something similar on them. Windows is not a great experience for these in its current form. And the arguments for the Windows devices being a PC with all the tinkering benefits doesn't apply. SteamOS is Linux. It is a PC. You can tinker with it as much as you want. The key though is you don't have to.
Linux is also worth supporting solely to escape our dependency on Windows. It's already more than viable as a desktop OS replacement too.
The benefits of Windows on a PC gaming handheld has nothing to do with tinkering and everything to do with game compatibility. Windows is the default OS for PC gaming. Compared with Linux, games on Windows just works. Its the same reason why the PC gamers that praise SteamOS on their Steam Decks refuse to switch to Linux on their main gaming rigs. Not wanting to have one's PC gaming or handheld gaming device limited to only Steam, or even worse, Steam's curated list of games compatible with Proton, is not an unreasonable position.
I understand what you're trying to say, but there is some information there that isn't accurate.
As someone who does use Linux as their sole OS on my desktop, things have changed a lot in the years following Proton's debut. Just about everything works now. It's the exception now that something doesn't, and those are usually the few games with anti-cheat that refuse to support Wine/Linux. Some games may require an additional launch parameter. Some perform better, some less. Linux tends to handle CPU-limited scenarios better, while Windows GPU-limited. Shader cache issues are better handled on Linux (Vulkan, Steam distribution of shaders). Windows handles VRAM-starved scenarios better. Older games generally run better on Linux, whereas they may not even start on Windows without additional fixes. Linux (depending on your distro & desktop environment) will generally use a lot less system resources. Windows currently has better utility programs for tweaking GPUs, games, drivers (Afterburner, SpecialK, Nvidia Profile Inspector, etc.).
SteamOS, Proton, and much less Linux aren't limited by Steam. You can play games from all the other platforms/launchers. In some cases the open-source launchers are arguably better than the official clients (Heroic).
The list of games that Valve approves are just a guidelines for Steam Deck compatibility. And it includes other requirements like controller icons and UI legibility for the Deck hardware specifically. You can launch literally anything through Proton. In fact, it's not really a good indicator of whether it'll run well through Proton at all - there are a lot of games listed as 'Unsupported' that play very well. ProtonDB is a better indicator.
I don't know if I'd recommend Linux on desktop to everyone just yet, but that day is almost here.
SteamOS on a handheld on the other hand is a clear yes for me. As Will pointed out several times in the video, it's just that convenient and seamless - on Linux!
@@conchobar
Maybe it's just me but I use my Ally for more than just gaming like editing photos in Affinity Photos, editing videos or just doing other computer stuff and so because of that I pick Windows
Great video. We need more Will videos on this channel.
So this is where Mr Smith is hanging out. I know some don't care much for him but I really enjoyed the Tested podcast with Him, Norm, Jeremy and sometimes Gary. Great times, really wasn't the same after he parted ways.
This is Will from... PCWorld
While I don't have a hand held, other than my phone, I can say the ONLY reason I still use Windows is because of gaming and software. If I could run all my games and software on Linux without having to fiddle with Wine or whatever I'd switch and never look back.
Praech brother 🙌😅
Proton is amazing for running most of what you want.
The games that the SD can't run its usually because of the developers 💀 I'm staying away from those people
I've switched to a mac for anything non gaming and a dedicated gaming pc running kubuntu (now, other distros before). It's glorious!
@@gilot19 That's the point. Windows is the default OS for the PC gaming industry. It just works.
Love the content guys!
Great conversation! This is a direction gaming is going and I appreciate the observations.
windows 11 pretty heavy operating system in general, not surprised handhelds would struggle
Lot of legacy stuff, but it's not just about performance issues.
Windows is still first and seemingly only a desktop OS.
It is still hardly touch friendly.
It depends on what handheld struggles. I have the gpd winmax2 7840u and it does not struggle at all. I am interested to know what handheld you are talking about.
What do you mean by struggle. If you are referring to power efficiency, Ally and Legion Go users that installed SteamOS clones on their devices haven't seen any major battery gains.
I used to always shut things down, but i started a large project and realized that sleep actually works most of the time, so it saves me so much time opening up programs and tabs, if I can just sleep it.
Depends all on if you need a laptop replacement or not... unless you put windows ins team deck too for that purpose or ok with linux
+1 On the sleep and resume issue. So much so now I get scared when my display turns off on my ROG Ally. It's a terrible crap shoot when the blasted thing falls into deeper sleep, and you get logged off Windows.
Any existing work-around including registry editing doesn't seem to work either.
Lets be straight about one thing; Windows will never get better for handhelds (let alone desktops/laptops), because Microsoft is far too busy playing IT for OpenAI...
It's time for more Linux and other complete alternative OSs.
Which is extra ironic because Microsoft runs more and more of their own things on Linux. In fact, most of Azure is running Linux. And their AI stuff is 100% running Linux. You don't use Windows for that.
I understand the Windows guy preference to completely shut off the games. I do that, too, but quick resume is still an amazing feature. There's been many times some irl gets in the way (chores, visitors, doing something for work, etc). If I can't save right away, I hit quick resume to be gone for a half hour, then come back and continue. It's a godsend more than people realize
Theres a quick resume too on windows, just sleep and wake
@@LeRouxMashinrou It's nowhere near the same
@@shadowthehedgehog181 Okay lol, you might need to use a windows handheld then lol
@@shadowthehedgehog181 why isn’t it? I’ve left my ally asleep over night and continued the day right where I left off 🤷🏻♂️
Bought the family a Steam Deck for Christmas 2022. Upgraded the ssd to a 512GB. Have a lot of causal games like rogue likes/lites, survivor likes, and puzzle games installed. Also have a few larger games like Forza 5, Farm Sim 22, and RE1rm. Probably about 20 games installed. I started playing FF7rm a couple weeks ago on PC. While I technically had enough space for it without uninstalling anything, I didn't want to have the ssd around 10% free space so I tried streaming it. I have the same PC that he was talking about streaming from. 13900k and rtx 4090 and I was surprised at how well it worked. Now idk if I'd play a racing games or shooters that are more latency sensitive that way. But maybe I'd be surprised there too.
I play on the go or have other things to do in the middle of my game time, so I need the feature of sleep/wake. It’s a must, it works fine on my switch and steam deck.
It’s weird that windows still hasn’t figure it out as even laptops have issues with this
Like Adam, I also spend most of my time plugged in with the Steam Deck. I just look at it as a much more convenient "gaming laptop" style device. I regularly take the train to Tokyo (about a 1 hour trip) and the train has plugs, if and when I fly to the US for a visit, the plane has a plug, but I can't necessarily whip out a Razer laptop in either case and go to town. The Steam Deck however fits perfectly in both situations, and making a space for the plug on the included case was a stroke of genius on Valve's part. Absolutely the best portable gaming experience on the market.
It’s honestly not bad. If I’m in hand held mode I’m gaming or watching CZcams, and if I need to really use windows in depth I’ll dock it. It’s not that complicated lol.
I only have a Switch and traditional computers. I'm kind of waiting on text gen Steam Deck ,or for the Windows handhelds to mature some more (I'm in no rush). One nice thing about a Windows handheld is it can double as someone's normal computer when connected to a monitor. I think you can use regular Linux with the Steam Deck, but most people would want to go with Windows as their computer.
Windows Gaming PC / Series X / PS5 / Cloud Gaming + a Steam Deck OLED is the best combo - can always stream the games in-home to the handheld if you really need the extra power the Deck lacks.
Ally / LeGo really have poor battery life to be a true portable handheld.
I have an Ally and windows does have a sleep wake function with the Power Button. I have played Sea of Stars and lies of P without losing progress.
I installed ChimeraOS on my Ayaneo 2, I thought I might regret it, but far from it, it works so damn well, I never have failed sleep issues or anything like that anymore.
Yeah with my Ally I have to set Cyberpunk settings manaully.. then I get more FPS than the steam deck with higher settings :)
I love the form factor of the Steam Deck over all of the other handhelds. I don't like being stuck in one ecosystem though. I'm still waiting for a device that can offer the best of both worlds.
you know you can dual-boot windows and steamOS on the steam deck, right?
You can play games outside of Steam on the Steam Deck
@@arshtat Why would you want to dual-boot Steam Deck to windows if you can get the Ally that is already windows out in the box and has more powerful hardware? You should only buy steamdeck if you prefer SteamOS because the hardware of steamdeck is too weak for windows and you'll probably have worse battery than the ally. Its weird that you will buy SteamDeck to install windows with its weaker processor the thing is Ally can booth steamOS thru bazziteOS at the same Ally has more powerful hardware with 1080p VRR. I only recommend SteamDeck for people who prefers steam OS over windows or people who can't afford the Ally.
@@Lestibournes Not without a bunch of tinkering.
If Xbox's rumored handheld can have a Xbox front end Game mode and a Windows Desktop side this would be the best of both worlds. I love my steam deck but I do play anti cheat games. My son can't even play Roblox anymore on my Steam Deck. There's just not enough Linux systems out there for Devs to justify compatibility.
The problem is microsoft never ever interested for them to make windows optimized for handheld gaming
But oddly they all come with 3 months of Gamepass. I'm guessing it's a tracking marketing campaign to gauge interest.
Most of my games run just fine using Proton on Steam OS 3.5 on my steam deck lcd that I upgraded with a 2TB NVMe SSD &it was simple enough to add the hall effect joysticks I actually preffer the UI of Steam OS 3 over windows. If I got1 of the other windows handhelds I'd just probably put Nobara OS Steam Deck edition on it & windows wouldn't even get the chance the startup however from all the reviews I've seen none of the currently availabe handhelds actually out perform the steam deck enough to make the purchase worth it for me at least.
I have Bazzite Steam OS on my legion go along side windows, I gave it a 256gb partition, its pretty sweet. Still main windows for now. there may come a time where I main Bazzite its that good for a daily driver
the wiring in my place is a little sketchy (its a old place) to power down all the way
For me when returning from sleep/suspend, There are always some hung processes freezing the system so yeah i just shutdown always
While I'm mostly in the PC tinkering camp as used to defend the Windows handhelds, I have fully switched to Linux for half a decade and am more comfortable with even obscure and quirky Linux systems.
Of which SteamOS is one, my deck being used as a Linux tablet in desktop mode half of the time that I use it, having changed some defaults like the web-browser.
For me even SteamOS is more comfortable and tinker-friendly than a normal Windows installation at this point, if I were to pick up some handheld I'd be installing some Linux distro and using Steam Big Picture.
And as mentioned elsewhere in this comment sections, the games that don't play on SD are the games I wouldn't want to play anyway, so that makes the choice even easier still.
I also use it as my main controller, with the Steam Link Flatpak as a non-Steam app as the integrated streaming is buggy on the Preview OS version I run but the Flatpak is not.
The combined functionality being what justifies the price for me, if it only gamed I would not have pre-ordered my Deck.
Me when it comes to battery life, when I am at the airport. Battery is pretty important, a big reason I love the Steam Deck to play games like Minecraft or Terraria as some terminal waiting areas have chargers, and some don't, and it will last the 2 hrs of waiting and many times the entire 2 hr flight. I will be lucky some times where my flight will have a full 120v charging port.
Owner of 3 devices here, I use the Steam Deck OLED as my travel handheld because of the amazing battery life, ROG ally as my multiplayer handheld because of VRR, and Legion Go as my single player handheld for the bigger screen. Not interested in the MSI Claw as intel graphics can’t compete with AMD at the moment so I have no input on that device. I’m also the type of person to completely shut down my devices except for the steam deck.
Its a pick your poison situation. All 3 devices have pros and cons. Which ever device you pick you are going to have concessions to make.
@@conchobar Thank you! Finally someone gets it! I’ve had my Deck for over a year, and I use it more as a companion device for my desktop. You can play AAA games on it, but you’re gonna be making huge compromises to get the performance you want out of it; and that’s ok!
100% the only reason I'm still on Steam Deck is because of the suspend. I can suspend my SD over 10 times on a casual gaming session. Kid wants a drink etc. Sometimes it's off for 5 mins sometimes it's 2 hrs and every single time it resumes to the same state i left it. Usually with the same battery %
I have an Ally and have had no issues the few times ive used the suspend/standby fearure in a game. Im definitely a shutdown person 😊
That talk about PC vs console... sure, the steam deck (and steamos forks) do launch in big picture mode... but you do still have the full linux desktop should you need it, just as powerful and customizeable as any windows, if not more so.
I'm on my third Windows handheld gaming PC. I bought the first one which was by GPD, and they've just been getting better since. Right now I'm on the GPD win Max 2 2023 edition. It's faster than the Deck and is able to play all of my games across all the different libraries that I own PC games in.
That being said, I bought a Steam Deck and then immediately upgraded to the OLED model. Nine times out of 10 I'm grabbing the Deck because of the experience, the controls, and the ability to put it to sleep in not worry that it's going to turn itself on and drain the battery while in my bag.
Both devices are PCs and I like to tinker, but Windows as a gaming handheld operating system stinks. Actually, Windows has been getting worse in general lately.
Sleep resume issue can be fixed by changing to hibernate
I’m a casual gamer and the Nintendo switch is my primary console! I stopped playing video games after the PS3/xBox 360 era because I realized very quickly how online gaming was starting to shift towards a Pay to Play / micro transactions/DLC space! Lost interest! Plus I didn’t have time to sit and play games !
The switch got me back into gaming!
The Steam deck is my only other “console”! Because it fills both my major needs! Portability AND back catalogue for the ps3/xbox360 era and before! Also helps that I can play many modern games via Steam!
This is why my favorite handheld is the GPD win mini, small compact 7" form factor but a keyboard is included which I feel is necessary for a windows device
I have a 0% interest if the device doesn't suspend/resume perfectly from the off state like a switch or my laptop lid. Life is too disruptive, that button has got to be perfect and it's the MAIN selling point for my decision on getting a steam deck. I may play one long RPG for a month never fully quitting out of the game and as a result I'm playing more often.
You can make it work on handheld, you just need Emudeck and to run Gaming Mode (SteamOS mode), you keep the Windows benefits while having UI and experience of Steam OS
Until Windows gets in the way.
big picture is not equivalent to game mode in SteamOS at all. Game mode on SteamOS gets rid of the entire desktop environment, provides a virtual monitor via it's compositor called Gamescope that's what enables all the scaling options, HDR, FPS capping control etc. Windows with big pucture mode isn't capable of doing that.
@@eaglemmoomin_418 That's what Emudeck does, you lose Windows until you restart or have to open task manager somehow to get rid of it and change settings so you enter windows again.....
The advantage is you still using windows at the core so you get to play all games while getting steam OS experience without any windows interference
@@TRX25EX no that's really not what EmuDeck is doing. GameScope is a compositor and is a huge reason behind a lot of the functionality of SteamOSes game mode. For Windows to do this MS would have to rewrite big chunks of it. You don't know what you're talking about here.
If the purported console version of Windows is actually true they ie MS will have to make a lot of changes to Windows some of them similar to what Valve have done with SteamOS.
@@eaglemmoomin_418 You just complicating a simple to understand thing, I bet you are fun at parties with that mentality......
I say again, Emudeck Game Mode is basically giving SteamOS experience while having Windows as a core operating system hence nearly all games will work on it......
Stop complicating things
I have the Legion Go, Rog Ally and steam deck. About the sleep/resume in my opinion is not the main reason to get the steam deck anymore. On windows If you use hibernate instead of sleep you will have the same sleep/quick resume experience as the steam deck (only downside is that it takes a bit longer to turn on than the steam deck). I understand that defaults are important etc but I think anyone that doesn't like to fiddle with settings or knows and enjoys how to work well with windows should not get a Windows handheld. That being said, I haven't picked my steam deck in a while because I play a lot of FIFA (which has an Anti-cheat which is not compatible with the steam deck) and the performance on the deck is just too lacking for the games I enjoy... I loved the steam deck when it released and during the first 1,5 year but now I'm thinking about selling it although I'll probably not because I'm nostalgic about it.
For me, I turn off my desktop PC when I go to bed but everything else is just in standby forever. Even my Switch which has been sitting behind the TV unused for years at this point is in standby. My Steam Deck sits next to my bed in standby, my Surface Pro sits next to my bed in standby even though I haven't used it in forever. Even the PC that's connected to the TV as a console replacement is in suspend unless I'm certain I won't be playing anything for an extended period of time.
And honestly, I'd put my desktop PC into suspend as well but I'm having some technical issues with Fedora not behaving properly when woken up from suspend which causes random programs to act like they're running on a Pentium 2 and the entire system to freeze randomly when playing a game and alt-tabing out so I just keep it on throughout the day and turn off the screens and turn it off at night.
Regarding operating system... I don't even want Windows on my desktop so yea, for me Windows sucks on handhelds for sure. I can't really see a point for having it on a handheld gaming device with a small screen. Using it without a mouse is just awful. The only place where I think Windows is good is on tablets with a decently sized screen, which is where it's quite nice as all the software is available and there's no big compatability issues with anything.
As a giant bomb fan seeing both will and grubb in this video just makes me so happy. Its like all the people I'm fans of all like each other and its great.
I installed windows on my steam deck and for sure its a terrible experience. I only did it to play game pass games but I installed it to a sd card because its not ready for a permanent install.
I've always been a huge fan of Giant Bomb and Tested, and feel damn lucky to now know some of those guys!
-Adam
0:55
i spend a lot of "time traveling"
pcworld guy
It all comes down to what your used to and your needs. I'm used to windows so you can never recommend me to use a Linux device and limit me to what I'm used to doing on windows same for games that I play in I don't want to be limited in my games where I need games to be verified to be able to play that is why I'm very happy with my ROG Ally because all my games just works and smooth at the same time it is 1080p which is what I'm looking for a handheld. I play with all my games in 1080p with no problem and everything that I downloaded just works and smooth with 1080p playing Kingdome Hearts 3, Genshin, Free Gamepass for 3 months and my steam games like FF15, FF 7 Remake, Ractchet and Clank Rift Apart, Forza Horizon 5, Yakuza Like a Dragon, GTA 5, Fortnight, Hi Fi Rush, Horizon Dawn is great on this device. I don't have to worry about verifications and if upcoming games or upcoming PS4 and PS5 ported to PC games will come to steam, epic, or gamepass because it is windows and all games just works in windows and the processor is powerful enough for this Gen games. My 2017 gaming laptop is already 7 years old and it can no longer handle modern games today so I bought the ROG Ally and I am very happy and satisfied with my purchase because all games just works and smooth.
Main problems for me is the suspend resume feature. It really break the experience.
A note on the Sleep/Resume function: I installed Windows on my original Steam Deck and used it almost exclusively for months at a time, and there has to be some Bios level stuff going on because the sleep and resume worked perfectly even on Windows-Steam Deck
Exactly!! this guy gets it! Windows 11 just "works" on Steam Deck
But why would you want to put Windows on the Steam Deck? It's like deliberately putting a weaker engine into a race car. It's a weird thing to do.
@@ceebee I think you are talking about Steam OS on a Steam Deck, It's like deliberately putting a weaker engine into a race car. It's a weird thing to do. Whereas putting Windows on a Steam Deck is like an upgraded engine in to a race car, its a right thing to do 🤣🤣
I hope Valve makes a Steam Box
Have you ever thought that maybe the reason you fully shut down your Windows devices is because sleep and hibernate are broken and never really work in Windows?
I used to put my Windows mobile devices to sleep or hibernate, but then when I went to use them again I'd find that the bag they were in is really hot in the battery is dead because they constantly turn themselves on and drain while they're supposed to be asleep.
I now fully shut down my Windows mobile devices when I'm done using them, not because I want to but because I know that I have to, otherwise they will fail me.
I had a SP4 with the dreaded sleep of death, never again.
I love MY SD OLED but I prefer my Ally. The performance difference, compatibility, and VRR are the deciding factor for me. Battery is an issue if you go full blast but you can limit the watts and have similar performance and battery to the SD. Also no one talks about the fast charging on the Ally, less downtime.
Also not everyone owns their games in steam. If you want to install games outside of Steam is becomes more complicated. At the end of the day I enjoy them both but the Windows hate is blown out of proportion.
I do have the Ally bro and I love the fact that I can play my 3 months free Gamepass, Genshin, Fortnite, Kingdom hearts 3 both on epic and steam games like ratchet and clank rift apart, FF 7 remake at 1080p with no problem. I do want to try steamdeck one thing that is stopping me to try it is it is only 800p and doesn't have VRR, and the limitations of games but I'm happy that there are a lot of gaming handheld device competing today hopefully sony and xbox see how handhelds are booming and make a stand alone handheld that can play 1080p without any internet because I do prefer a handheld than a home console. Too bad sony game up on PS-Vita.
@@nathanjuan6042 It's a tough choice. I love the 90 HZ OLED but I prefer the VRR when playing or emulating at 40 FPS. It's just buttery on the Ally. If you're enjoying the Ally, I don't think you'll gain much from a SD. Unless battery life is an issue.
I understand why people don't _prefer_ Windows on handhelds, but the amount of people I've seen suddenly act like they're completely tech illiterate and that it's some kind of horrendous labyrinth is baffling lol. Especially since the desktop environment on the SD is going to be much more foreign to most people.
I agree with your comment and windows does have a Suspend, Resume feature with the power button, people who are saying windows cant do it are straight lying.
@@ShadowBassMan the problem is it drains battery and for some reason windows disables the hibernate option so people don’t know there’s something better.
Works fantastic on my gpd mini being i have a keyboard and trackpad built in. Sucks without it. But so does the steam deck using linux if you have to do anything that isn't steam. And it sucks significantly worse then windows when you do have to go to the desktop
I didnt really buy yhe Ally to "use windows" tho.
I mean yes sometimes I have to for some stuff. But after the inital setup all I ever do is boot it up. Wait for all apps to load then click the desktop icon of the gane I want to play. Play it and turn it off. It really isnt THAT much of an issue most of the time
When I have a chance to save the game before pausing the game, I would close exit the game and shut down the device, however there were so so many times when I had to just pause and resume with that one simple button. I am pro choice I guess!
I have ROG Ally and Deck OLED. ROG Ally is still my favorite.
Asus rog Ally is the best to me the only thing I would like is a little bit more battery but I would take performance over battery if it comes to it
After owning both systems I would take the ally any day of the week. Windows isn’t bad, and can play any game. The steam deck is very limited and then the games you can play is using a weak chip! Forget it. The Ally is the king of first generation handheld pcs ❤🎉
I really wish microsft would make a stripped down os just for these handhelds. Why not just take the xbox os and adapt it to a handheld pc?
Windows on handhelds is the only thing that has ever made me miss windows 8 UI, as it was designed for tablets and the like and in all honesty, for that, worked quite well. It honestly suprised me how much of a step backwards the windows 11 tablet interface is compared to 8 and even to 10.
That said, Bazzite solved any desire I had to go back to steamOS 3.5 after I gave away my steam deck when I got the legion Go, but I was soon back on windows due to the loss of functionality and my main gripe with my Steam Deck, game compatibility. 99% of the experience can be retained by just installing Steam and setting it toi boot to Big Picture Mode on windows startup. There in is the biggest adavantage of the windows gaming handhelds, flexibility, as while the Steam Deck has pick up and play out of the box being its advantage, the UI is just a steam install away and the OS is a Bazzite or similar install away, unlike on the steam deck where Windows support is pretty much an after thought and requires a lot of 3rd party apps to get even close.
I guess its what you want, if you want flexibility a windows one is the way to go, if you want a console that plays a lot of PC games from your steam library, then steam deck is the way to go
Im a windows believer, for me its the opposite of easy steam os, very easy to play the steam games and emulation, but i want to play seamless coop mod in elden ring and its a pain to install it, my gamepass? Even i like fornite where can i play it?
I know for some its a workaround to make it work, but wondows its waaaay easier to do some complex stuff than that linux distro
I agree. Deck and Ally both have serious problems. The Deck is miserable as soon as you need to leave Steam. The constant need to download shaders means that games can become unplayable on slow wifi (like when traveling). The Ally has all of the pains of windows and then its own special pain introduced by Armory Crate.
"but wondows its waaaay easier to do some complex stuff than that linux distro". Well that's one way to say you haven't used Linux for gaming.
Have you used a Windows based handheld? What do you love/hate about it?
-Adam
Recently bought the Legion Go after I wanted more performance than what my Steam Deck offered. I was primarily a console player, and the Steam Deck was the perfect gateway for me to get interested in PC gaming.
From my experience, Windows 11 does everything SteamOS can do and more. Having the full features of Windows 11 on top of being able to fast boot into Steam big picture mode is amazing, especially since we can all acknowledge that most launchers pale in comparison to SteamOS.
The only aspect of the Steam Deck that I miss is the form factor. The ergonomics of the Steam Deck are second to none, but I'd gladly sacrifice that in favor of performance.
@@nighttilt Got a Legion Go and put Bazzite on it to get the best of both worlds. Decent gaming UI and the power of an updated device. Won't be going back to Windows on mine as the Windows UI experience is terrible on a handheld without a keyboard and mouse.
I've not Adam but I'm a grown up and have a steam deck and only play on that when I have 20mins here and there. But its great. Its not a pc really but a console in my eyes. I will see how the windows handhelds mature and i could go handheld for the foreseeable future. Im reluctant to upgrade my pc from a rx6600 because my steam deck is a fine replacement. So i will wait a year or 2 and get a better pc aaa gpu and use steam deck for older titles.
Used the Steam Deck for the first full year of its production, and loved it. Hated having to check ProtonDB during Steam sales to see if I could actually play the games I wanted to buy, hated not being able to play Roblox and Minecraft on it with my kids. Bought an Ally and didn't touch my Steam Deck for 3 months afterward. I then listed my Steam Deck went on Craigslist. All these devices have virtues and compromises. You just have to find the one that best fits your use case. One interesting tidbit: I preferred to play my SD at low wattage to avoid the blaring fans when gaming at 15watts. The quieter Ally dares me to play at much higher power, so it changed the way I play the same games.
" i'm an old man and struggle with windows " the podcast
Big fan of the Steam Deck OLED. I originally bought an LCD about a year ago and fell in love with it, so when the OLED came out, I was thinking I would pass on it and get one for my girlfriend for Christmas, but in the process of setting it up and making sure it ran well, I couldn’t look back. The LCD is a great device but the OLED is on another level imo.
Anyway, I plan on skipping this generation of home consoles thanks to the Steam Deck and also don’t plan on getting any other alternative handheld until Valve releases the next version.
Have owned about one example for each attempt to put Windows on any handheld, and that's why I don't own anything like these TOYS.
SurfacePro is only usable because of the keyboard and kick stand, with mouse, for most of the work I'd do.
I find it's usually those coming from console whining..anyone familiar with a Windows PC knows what to expect
I've been using Windows for like 26 years now, I know what to expect that's the reason why I try to avoid it 😅
@@H4GRlD if my 87yr old grandmother can work out Windows then I don't see the problem unless your someone who's straight up tarded
Unless your grandma plays Fortnite or uses the Adobe Suite she won't even notice the difference.
I shut down my PC and handhelds completely as well. The only handheld which I have never fully shut off is my 3DS.
I haven't had problems with waking from sleep on my laptops since forever. It used to a pain point on Linux, but now it's solved.
I like the Steam deck and the Rog Ally. I just don't like W11. Would prefer W10 over it, but not a dealbreaker for me.
I kinda would like to try a win 8 clone as a game system
If yu are into modding/ hacking and old game sorry but windows in the master !! I love my ROG ally its literally perfect only issue with windows for me is the load ,, kills the batter way too quick
I remembered everyone wanting to dual boot into Windows when the Steam Deck first came out. After Windows 11 and SteamOS 3.5, I felt like that have died down
people are stupid🤷 there was a lot of wanting to put Windows on Decks before it had even come out and people knew what the OS was and how it worked.
Windows is a desktop OS and is best treated/used that way on a desktop or laptop🤷. Trying to use it on a handheld is just plain annoying and janky🤷.
Ally is good, Legion Go is nice, windows just drag them down.
12:17 you know what, tinkering is the heart of linux, SD included at some degree.
I rarely ever turn off or shut down my computers... desktop or laptop
Games On My Steam Deck 512 GB LCD
Steam (10)
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham Knight
DuckTales: Remastered
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
Shenmue III
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
Yakuza 0
Atari Jaguar (3)
Atari Karts
NBA Jam Tournament Edition
Rayman
Xbox (6)
Conker: Live & Reloaded
Dead or Alive 3
Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball
Jet Set Radio Future
NBA Street Vol. 2
Shenmue II
M.A.M.E. (4)
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat II
NBA Jam
NBA Jam Tournament Edition
Nintendo 64 (10)
Conker’s Bad Fur Day
Diddy Kong Racing
F-Zero X
Killer Instinct Gold
Mario Kart 64
NFL Blitz
Super Mario 64
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Wave Race 64
Nintendo Entertainment System (36)
Anticipation
Baseball
Batman: The Video Game
Battletoads & Double Dragon
Castlevania
Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers
Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers 2
Contra
Donkey Kong
Double Dribble
DuckTales
Excitebike
Final Fantasy
Kid Icarus
Kirby’s Adventure
Kung Fu
Kung-Fu Heroes
Mario Bros.
Mega Man 2
Metroid
Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
Ninja Gaiden
Paperboy
Popeye
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
TMNT: The Arcade Game
Tennis
The Adventures of Bayou Billy
The Karate Kid
The Legend of Zelda
Wizards & Warriors
WWF Wrestlemania
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Game Boy (3)
Dr. Mario
Super Mario Land
Tetris
Game Boy Advance (2)
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Mario Kart: Super Circuit
GameCube (12)
F-Zero GX
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
NBA Street Vol. 2
NFL Blitz 2002
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Sonic Riders
Soulcalibur II
Star Fox Adventures
Super Mario Sunshine
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Wario World
Super Nintendo (20)
Aladdin
Chrono Trigger
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong Country 3
F-Zero
Final Fantasy III
Kirby Super Star
Kirby’s Dream Land 3
Mega Man X
Mortal Kombat II
Super Back to the Future Part II
Super Mario All-Stars
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario RPG
Super Mario World
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
Super Metroid
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Top Gear
Nintendo Wii (10)
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Kirby’s Return to Dreamland
Klonoa
Mario Kart Wii
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Sonic Colors
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario Galaxy 2
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Sega Dreamcast (16)
ChuChu Rocket!
Crazy Taxi
Dead or Alive 2
Grandia II
Jet Grind Radio
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
Marvel vs. Capcom: CoSH
NBA 2K2
NFL 2K2
Shenmue
Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventure 2
Soulcalibur
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
Virtua Tennis
Wacky Races
Sega Game Gear (3)
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
The Majors: Pro Baseball
Sega Genesis (17)
Aladdin
Comix Zone
Cool Spot
Gunstar Heroes
Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker
Mickey Mania
NFL Football ‘94 Starring Joe Montana
OutRun
QuackShot Starring Donald Duck
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
Sonic & Knuckles
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Street Fighter II’: Special Champion Edition
Taz-Mania
X-Men
Sega 32X (1)
Tempo
PlayStation (19)
Bust A Groove
Bust-A-Move 4
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Disney’s Hercules Action Game
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Gran Turismo
Herc’s Adventures
Metal Gear Solid
PaRappa the Rapper
Parasite Eve
R4: Ridge Racer Type 4
Ridge Racer
Tekken 2
Tekken 3
WipEout
Xenogears
PlayStation 2 (17)
Disney’s Kim Possible: What’s the Switch?
Final Fantasy X
God of War
God of War II
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
Gran Turismo 4
Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
PaRappa the Rapper 2
Rogue Galaxy
Sly 2: Band of Thieves
Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoon
Tekken 4
Tekken 5
Tekken Tag Tournament
Sony PlayStation Portable (11)
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy
God of War: Chains of Olympus
God of War: Ghost of Sparta
Jeanne d’Arc
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Ridge Racer
Tekken 6
Tekken: Dark Resurrection
WipEout Pulse
WipEout Pure
Total: 200 games
The big omissions are no DS and 3DS. Was never a fan of the DS when I had it. I tried putting 3DS last night but Citra is dead. Didn’t bother afterwards. No PS3 as I hear they usually don’t launch at all unlike on the ROG Ally and Legion Go. No need to include Wii U because the Switch already has the best ports from it.
I have a few doubles of the same game. Like I have NBA Street Vol. 2 for both GameCube and Xbox. The Xbox version is the one I owned. It’s the best-looking one and it loads faster during the intro. But I kept the GameCube version because Dolphin is the more mature emulator and it’s more battery efficient than Xemu. I also have the SNES and MAME version of Mortal Kombat II. The SNES port is the one I owned and mastered playing.
OG Xbox is an interesting console to emulate. It was the most powerful of the 6th generation with graphics still holding up 20 years later. But it has the weakest library between it, DC, PS2, and GCN. Hence, why Xbox emulation is behind. I felt Xbox was what Sony promised to deliver with the PS2 but PS2 *technically* underdelivered. PS2 is the most popular, but it had some of the worst graphics of that four. Microsoft engineers defeated Sony in that gen with better specs.
Not that PlayStation 2 was that weak. It matured by 2005. I’m playing Rogue Galaxy from 2007 and it definitely looks like the best-looking game on the console. I doubt Dreamcast could run God of War and Rogue Galaxy at 60 fps when it could barely handle Shenmue II. PS2 was very much like Sega Saturn where it had this hidden potential to make beautiful games but it was difficult to develop for.
Saturn is the one I can’t run. Another complicated console to develop for similar to PS2 and PS3 but far less popular. No concise tutorials for it on CZcams and I’m clueless how to use CHDMAN. I may skip that one like I will with NDS. I never grew up owning a Saturn, so I don’t have nostalgia for it. I barely bought it in 2004 at a GameCrazy and rarely used it. I only want to play obscure 2D platformers like Super Tempo and Tryrush Deppy but it’s no big deal if I can’t play them.
MAME is very hit or miss. Can’t seem to run the Model 2, 3, and NAOMI games. Can’t even launch any Street Fighter II game or Tekken Tag. But it can run Mortal Kombat I & II and NBA Jam & TE just fine which was the opposite experience with my Vita. My Vita plays the arcade version of Super Street Fighter II perfectly but can’t play the Midway classics.
I do have some stinkers like WWF Wrestlemania, The Adventures of Bayou Billy and The Karate Kid on NES. But I did own Bayou Billy and remember beating The Karate Kid many times circa 1989-1990. One of the easiest games to beat similar to Kung Fu. Since most NES games are under a megabyte, it’s easier not to be picky. If it has some childhood attachment to me, I’ll download it even if the game is awful.
Steam Deck is the GOAT, folks. Can play almost every generation and for under $300 if you look at the used market. Odin 2 can’t play Wii U or any recent AAA titles like FFVII Remake and Elden Ring. Steam Deck is the perfect balance of performance, price, ecosystem, and support. It’s the best gaming device I’ve ever owned. I’m only gaming on handhelds for the rest of my life.
All-Time Favorite Gaming Devices
1. Steam Deck
2. PS Vita
3. Switch Lite
4. PSP
5. PlayStation
6. Dreamcast
7. PlayStation 2
8. Super NES
9. GameCube
10. Genesis
11. NES
12. Wii
All-Time Favorite Games
1. Final Fantasy VII
2. Shenmue II
3. Tekken 3
4. NBA Street Vol. 2
5. Super Mario World
6. Ridge Racer (PSP)
7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
8. Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
9. Street Fighter II’: SCE (Genesis)
10. Super Street Fighter II (MAME)
11. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
12. Final Fantasy X
*PS5* *Pro*
I don’t need it or any console that’s tethered to a TV. AAA titles are dying. They’re becoming too expensive and too long to make. With all that power, you want AAA titles coming out every 10 years? Since the PS4/Xbone era, we don’t have limitations coming from hardware like previous gens. The limitations are coming from the man power and budget. Do developers want to spend at least 5 years making one AAA game?
Console era is over. Every game system from here on out should be portable. Then I expect companies like Microsoft and Sony to be gatekeepers to their library like Valve. Most games will move to the cloud and subscription based. If you see my list of titles on my Deck, you can see I’m allergic to many modern games in Gen 7-9. I hate first-person shooters. Very few modern games I would consider fun. It’s more boring and complicated.
I’m in Chapter 12 in FF7R and I don’t love it as much as the OG. There is a lot of meandering scenes and padding to the gameplay. Beautiful to look at. Not as fun to play. This is my problem with most AAA titles after Gen 6. True, they look good to look at. Give me Tifa with the graphical power we have now compared to 1997. But many of these games are also a burden and tedious to play. I read Red Dead Redemption II is a slogfest. 😴
Everyone blows this way out of proportion. Yes it takes 10 seconds longer to enter steam big picture mode. So what? From there you fire up the game exactly like you do in steamOS and you sit there and enjoy the game the same way as on steam deck. Resume does work fine on MOST games even on windows(at least they do on my ally).
I’d welcome steamOS if it was released for the ally but windows isn’t that bad. Just set it up to boot into steam big picture.
Windows is the best thing happened to handhelds, the possibilities are limitless.
My problem with the windows handhelds is the diagonal joystick layouts they all use. Like i hate it. Give me a steam deck like layout and i would buy it. Or better yet sticks at the bottom.
I completely disagree that somebody who had an Asus Rog Ally and returned it over the legion go and honestly I've been very happy. Even the steam deck I can't cuz the game said I play which is like mech warrior five on the legion go with the upscaling. It looks gorgeous and it runs really nice on the steam deck. Not so much and that's green. It's gorgeous on the Lenovo legion go. And yes, the software is not where it is should be but it also took The Rog Ally a while to get it to where it's at a Lenovo has been pretty good with their updates so far. The legion go is a much better device and I like the community surrounding it. I like that they stay in touch with the gamers and they're constantly letting people know what they're going to be doing. When is the next update? What are they adding? I'm a big fan of that and they finally added where you don't have to go looking for updates. It's all right in the legion go. Hell even bottleneck I play on the legion go with the little mouse pad on the side and it works great. I'm always tethered. I've actually bought 100 watt chargers off Amazon with fast charging and I have them basically to throw all my whole house and I got big long cords and you know like the plug is behind the couch so it's not really an inconvenience. It doesn't bother me. You know if I'm watching TV or somebody's watching TV. I'm playing on my legion goal even when I go to bed behind. My bad. I got 100 watt charger with a nice long 10 ft cord in my car. Have a 100 watt charger I plugs into the cigarette lighter with a 6 ft cord. I'm good you know everywhere I go even at work. I have 100 watt charger. I bought these underwire chargers from Amazon but I've had them now for a few months. Actually. That work really well and you know they were like 30 bucks each you know so I couldn't. I couldn't say no to that and they have the fast charging attached to him which is like 65. I think it's like 65 70 the fast charging. So again the battery life not really an issue for me. I think it runs like a dream. And yes, you do have to tinker but you only have to tinker one time. Once you tinker one time and you set up the device, you're good to go. Even my emulators I run Xenoblade Chronicles x gorgeous. It looks on the legion. Go gorgeous and it runs super smooth. Nothing that Nintendo would ever be able to achieve on any of their consoles because they don't put that much power into. So again you know. And this is all stuff that yeah you could do on the steam deck but it doesn't have the power for it. Maybe if the next team that comes out and it's more on par when it comes to power. A much powerful chip and so on. Then I can see myself making that jump to something else. But as of right now nah it's not there yet. The legion go is still my goal to a lot of the times I prop up the kickstand I plug in the charger and I'm playing detach the controllers and I'm playing with them like I'm playing on a switch. I have really big hands so they feel good in my hands. Again, that's my opinion. All this is my opinion and I definitely would never trade power over battery life just won't do it and not for not for a gaming device never ever ever ever ever ever because again I always have somewhere in my life. I've set up my life where I have 100 watt chargers always around me so that's not really an issue for you. Plus I also bought a big massive 3000 million battery and it's really small and I keep it in my bag so if I need to travel and I don't have a charger is that 30,000 watt amp gets the job done and it's a fast charger too. It's got 65 watt plus that's really small convenient. It's not. You know cumbersome again. And yeah people can play about the weight of the legion go again, I don't see it. It's not something that bothers me. Maybe you know cuz I got big hands. You know I used to it I guess at this point. But yeah I can come to play for a good hour or two. Not a problem at all, maybe even longer without getting fatigue. But yes, that screen and that high refresh rate runs and looks gorgeous on the legion go and yes, the 4090 is a great GPU but I don't want to be attached to my desktop. I rarely use my desktop PC since I got the losion go. I really do because I've been able to run almost all my games. Hell I even play a lot of my older games that I never beat from back in the days I got a huge backlog on steam. I got a backlog on GOG. I got a backlog on through Xbox EA you name it. So I've got games to play for a long time and now that they add it that new app that you could download on the steam which is called lossless frame or something like that. That really makes a big difference. It adds extra frames to almost most games and it makes it look nice and smooth
I will say, if you start a digital game on two Switches from the same account, it just gives a warning before suspending one. I realize cartridges may be different, someone may just have to try.
windows handhelds are a pain to use, I spent most of the ally battery trying to setup thing, then when Im ready to play a d4mn game the battery is already off.
The games i really want to be able to play have linux incompatible anticheat such as call of duty and battlefield
I like the term Gaming linux machine, call me old fashion but Console the steam deck is definitely not a console and either is just a pc with a frontend. Steam deck actually has his own OS base on linux architecture right ? But also they dominate the “easier to navigate Through games and menus” comparing it to a console experience but way too different, we have a ton of configuration most games on consoles dont have. Steam deck is the premium fusion of xbox 360 and ps3 era, you can play most of those games with a much improved graphics and textures, most of those games are truly good by today poorly standards of game releases. Special shout outs for indie games no one believed before and now they are the base on steam deck library.
If it had something like WinDash ss its UI then maybe it would be better accepted by everinoe
Honestly I have no real problems with windows 11 on my Asus ally but the experience is probably different on other handhelds.
Lenovo really made it easier adding the track pad on the go. Granted Asus has the best front end launcher for windows. Legion needs work but to their credit they are constantly updating.
Also why would you buy one of these handhelds to play with it permanently plugged in? Kinda defeats their purpose.. as does plugging in an egpu like with that Asus.
Tip on the Ally. Switch power button from Sleep to Hibernate. It takes a little longer to wake but it resume my games where I left off.
Last night my ROG Ally woke from sleep while in its case and almost cooked itself. That by itself is a deal-breaker for me. Every Windows PC has this issue. Part of the blame goes to Asus for shipping a product plagued with Windows related issues while tacking on their own vestigial, laggy UI.
Windows is needed but hated. I have to run windows just to play modern warfare and a few Xbox game pass games. The biggest issue is idle ram usage and ram usage in general is out of hand. We need a stripped down handheld version debloated. I manually debloat all my windows installs and do tons of tweaks to get them down less than half stock usage. The msi claw was using 63% of the ram sitting idle on boot. I got it down to 23% making massive improvements on the fps feeling much smoother and everything feeling way snappier and not running out of ram means you don’t borrow from the page file. Loading in open world games is smoother and so many things just work better and feel better. We need 32gb as a bare minimum when your sharing vram and running windows! Handheld companies are doing us a massive disservice by not giving us 32gb. I’d pay an extra 200$ for 32gb rather than extra storage. I can upgrade my own storage but not my own ram.
Plenty of people have put SteamOS-like Linux distros on their Allys and Legion Gos, and they have not seen any major improvements in battery life or performance. The flaws of Windows as handheld gaming OS lie mostly in the UX. I totally agree these handhelds are running out of VRAM on more demanding games.
Add me to the cold booting list. A big reason is I live at a high elevation, so I more easily accumulate lots of soft errors.
What I’ve come to realize with the deck. Simple install is better. I’ve tinkered, I’ve installed decky cryobyte emudeck all the enhancements. I launch desktop mode more than most. I have an external hub Velcroed to my case for transfers and pc stuff. After all that, one update will eff it all up and what was seamlessly working now has hiccups. I’d imagine this is the case with all pc handhelds.
Now i just leave the thing stock with stable updates. It just works. I’m tired of patching the things that break. A Simplified experience wins and thats why the deck wins in my book.
The only negatives I see are game support and those are developer issues.
Steam Deck community has always been about tinkering since it first released. From installing Proton GE, decky loader, Retro emulation, Adding Epic store support, or even Gamepass game streaming. The percentage of Steam Deck users who limit themselves to just playing verified Steam games has to be in the 30% realm.
@@conchobar well with a huge unvaried list without proper updates to the list I’d believe that. Steam DB is the better way to see compatibility and you can use your phone to pull up supported lists but in order to see it on deck you will need to install decky which is a patch that always seams to disappear with os updates.
I’m just saying even though you can tinker doesn’t mean you have to just to have a great gaming experience. I don’t think windows inherently has something like this as a base without being sucked out of the gaming interface. You can launch a lot of games simply by switching proton. There are inherent outliers that must be launched in desktop mode but that isn’t any different than windows therefore I wouldn’t consider it worse. Most of the time if it’s a game on console I will just play it on Xbox.
Game Devs definitely need to get their act together for deck support. If lacking support wasn’t the case I think the deck would be unparalleled simply because out of the box you can play a big library without ever having to switch to desktop. Again, you can switch if you want more options but out the gate it’s simple and easy to use. Other pc handhelds can’t say the same and I think people get so caught up in tinkering that they forget how good the experience is at its core.
I like to just turn on my game and play it, hit sleep if I need to walk away or pick it back up the next day and jump right back into it. The deck does this very well but once you start updates and undo all the patchwork you’ve done it starts to feel like you are constantly fixing a broken thing and not actually playing games. That’s why I prefer to leave mine stock after all the tinkering I’ve done. I just wanna pick up and play pc games without booting up a pc and installing a bunch of crap.
For me the other handhelds bring literally almost nothing to the party over the SD OLED. Being tethered to a wall is not my idea of a handheld. If I wanted that, a mini PC on my TV would blow away those units. Happy to stay in that ecosystem until SD 2.0 is released. Even the graphics don’t look as good to me as the OLED where the colors just pop and at the distance I play, I can’t see individual pixels. Happy to wait until the real handheld specific chips launch and AI frame insertion tech is doubling frame rates anyway. I play a ton of games right now at 90 hz at home, and 45 hz on the road to extend battery life and see very little difference in overall gaming experience between the two. Agree that 40 - 45 hz is a nice sweet spot between all the variables on a hand held.
Steam is Steam whether on Windows or Steams OS. I have Windows on my Steam Deck bc it makes using mods for games super easy and all the normal Windows apps work great.
I have Windows11 on my arcade pc and my Beelink mini pc under my tv. I hate it so much, it's the worst version of windows there is. I recently purchased a Lenovo Legion go thinking "oh geez here we go".. I'm actually not minding it so far and I like the swipe up to access the taskbar feature.
I'm very happy with the Asus Rock Ally I have the Steam app set up the console so while I have steam open it runs like a steam deck I love the fact that I have a fully-fledged PC in my hands remember guys games are about software you don't need a 4090 to make a game look good if the game is built correctly and the drivers are good doesn't take much to make a game look amazing look what the Nintendo switch is accomplished I have a PC
ADAM - Running with your device always plugged in will cause those batteries to wear out faster. Thankfully, most chargers and batteries help to mitigate that, but keeping the battery at 100% will wear out the battery faster.
I believe that modern gaming devices nowadays like the Ally are equipped with the ability to cease charging once they reach 100%. They can detect when they've reached full capacity, preventing overcharging and mitigating battery wear, similar to how phones operate these days. However, it's important to note that even with these features, lithium-ion batteries still degrade over time. Until solid-state batteries become available, battery lifespan will remain relatively short.
Depends on the chemistry but actually just keeping lithium batteries at full state of charge, even if no longer charging, is known to increase the rate of deterioration. Similar at keeping very low states of charge. This is why they store batteries with 50-60% soc and why when you get an EV on lease the lease co will likely tell you keep it between 20-80% unless you need to travel a longer distance and even then, schedule 100% to coincide with departure. It's in their best interests really that they get the car back with the absolute best state of health.
Compared to (deep) cycling the batteries this is false as that also induces wear to them, especially when going below 30%.
That said, limiting level of charge to 80% combined with keeping them connected avoids either form of wear.
Which I can confirm by how my laptop's battery is still in good condition (90% capacity) after 6 years of moderate use.
@0tismunkm3y3r explained this in greater detail above, it boils down to the same properties of Lithium battery chemistry.
Both user. driver and battery life and steam input. others actually good.