The Handled Gaming Device Phenomenon - Two months in with the Asus ROG Ally vs. Steam Deck vs. Switch OLED vs. Switch Lite vs. BackBone

 I have written a bit about my time with all these handhelds, and one thing has become clear to me: I am not nearly enough of a handheld gamer to have much care or concern for them in the long run, and I should save my money going forward. My limiters on enjoying handheld games boil down to, in no particular order:

You Need Lots of Leisure Travel Time:  I travel a reasonable amount in state, but even when traveling rarely have the sort of free time it takes to pull out a handheld gaming device and play with it (and hey, I imagine every time I will have that sweet, sweet free time, but it's not nearly as often as I would like, it turns out); most of my travel is consumed by work related connectivity, it turns out.

This problem is not fixed by handhelds, but it does mean your handheld experience only needs to be as convenient as the actual time available. That means that, for example, if you only have 10 minutes free to play something light, you only need a device that accommodates short and easy play. 

When it comes to quick and portable, any of these consoles could be loaded with short quick-play games, but the king of the pack is either the Switch lite or the Backbone (a device that turns your phone into something approximating a handheld console), with the Switch OLED being a solid contender as well. Hauling a Steam Deck or Asus ROG Ally around to play Asteroids or Pac Man (or if you're hip and modern, then Dead Cells or Blashphemous) seem like overkill. 

Tiny Screens are for Young Eyes: My eyesight as I get older is just not as good with tiny screens. This does mean that really good tiny screens with clear resolution, readable text, and decent colors are more important to the experience, though. I know of others my age with distinctly bigger eyesight issues than me, so I imagine some of these handhelds would border on useless.

Of the devices I mentioned, I would say the Steam Deck and Switch OLED are great, chiefly because most games designed for the Switch account for small screen play (there are a few obnoxious exceptions). Steam Deck requires good judgement on what you load, but also has that magnify feature that is AMAZING. Switch Lite is an eye strain unfortunately, even though I love my tiny Switch Lite for its portability. Asus ROG Ally actively hates your eyes, but its higher resolution is very nice. If it had a magnification option like the Steam Deck does that would be much nicer....but its real problem is the tiny Windows 11 interface that is a pain in the ass. 

Get a Grip!: Form factor is super important; third party products such as Hori's Split-Pad Pro attachments capitalize on this because they know plenty of adults have Switches and need something that feels comfortable to play with. To their credit, both Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally are very comfortable. So the Switch models lose out here, as they sacrifice ergonomic grips for portability and other features.

It Needs to Be Easy: the handheld is essentially a mini console, and its not something most people want to troubleshoot the OS on when you are flying of traveling somewhere with spotty internet. I am specifically calling out the Asus ROG Ally here, as its Windows 11 operating system has caused me no end of trouble diagnosing random crap that only Microsoft could be the cause of. The Backbone one is also a bit of a problem, unless you pay for their optional but useful Backbone app which helps make the product more useful, especially for streaming. The fact that so many ioS and Android games don't always play nice with it is a downside. So for Easy look to the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck (unless you do a lot of modding in Linux on Steam Deck, in which case Nope.)

It needs to not Overheat: The Asus ROG Ally overheats. A lot. It's bad enough that it impacts performance at times, and its placement of the MicroSD slot is adjacent to a major vent, so sometimes the device works fine unless you are trying to run a game off of the MicroSD slot. This is just bad design, and after two months with the Ally I've decided that problem alone changes my relationship with the device from "I love it despite and because of Windows 11" to "I grudgingly put up with this dysfunctional relationship because its the device I can play Destiny 2 and my Epic Game store products on with the greatest ease." I have never had an overheating issue on the Switches or Steam Deck. FYI I have had an overheating issue on my iPhone 13 Mini but that's pretty rare. 

Final Verdict:

Asus ROG Ally is not worth it, unfortunately, unless you are willing to put up with its many problems with Windows 11 being suboptimal, its overheating, and its lack of a coherent user interface for travel (it tries with the Armoury Crate thing, but fails).

Steam Deck is worth it, as long as you don't dive down the Linux rabbit hole too deeply. or if you like doing that, then its a must-buy!

Switch OLED remains the most versatile device, as long as you don't mind being stuck in the available library of games. Rumor has it a new Switch will come out next year, so YMMV though. 

Switch Lite wins for the ultra-portable element, but it loses for being hard on the eyes and not ergonomic. It also can't be modified like the OLED as the controller portions are not joycons, and are permanently attached. 

BackBone One wins as being most portable, but I find the entire "gaming on my phone" experience, even with a decent controller, to be suboptimal and disengaging; it just ain't fun for this old guy. 

That said, I still find simply pulling out the old gaming laptop to be a perfectly viable solution, especially if you expect most leisure gaming time to actually be in a hotel room. So....yeah.

A Brief 8/20 Update Since I wrote this: Everything I said above is still 100% valid, but I feel it worth mentioning that in the last 9 days I have done most of my handheld gaming on the Asus ROG Ally and that is primarily because the games I am currently focused on are either best to play or can only be played on its handheld environment (Destiny 2, Diablo Immortal, Diablo IV, Outriders...which I owned on the Xbox store and not Steam). I also have been dabbling in Assassin's Creed Odyssey on the Ally. I can't play any of those game on the Steam Deck, for the most part, without diving deep into the Linux environment and spending a lot of time trying to make some of them work. So...for purposes of my own circumstance, I guess the issues with the Ally are worth putting up with just for the broader range of games I can access alone. 

Reviewing the Backbone One - The Portability Firehose

 I recently decided to complicate my life slightly more by picking up a Backbone One, a funky and slightly overpriced device that attaches controllers to your iPhone, turning it in to a kind of portable game console. It's a $99.95 device, which is about $30-40 more than most PS5 and Xbox Series X controllers cost right now. On the plus side, it has an audio jack which is like gold in the phone world these days. There is a subscription based app which then makes it look and act like you're in a console environment while using it, though that is an entirely unnecessary product (with the caveat that it really does make it easier to connect to Xbox's Cloud streaming service than using Safari). It otherwise acts as a hub for various streaming apps, allowing me to connect to the PS5 and stream from the machine, or to my home PC to stream from my Steam library. It also works with a lot of games natively in the Apple Games store, and Apple's subscription service.

Until now, I have largely ignored gaming on phones for two key reasons: the general assumption that most (not all, but most) mobile gaming apps are predatory in some way therefore best avoided; and the fact that mobile gaming requires using the touch screen of the phone, which can be an awkward experience at best in most cases. As a result, the sorts of games that work best on phones with a touch screen are not ones I care for. Now, even with the Backbone handy, I think that by and large both of these statements remain true, but the situation changes a bit. 

Now it is already the case that I can readily identify and play games on the phone  (also, iPad) which work well with a remote controller. Sure, I could connect an Xbox controller via bluetooth before, but its not easy using that with an iPad let alone an iPhone. As for the predatory game design, in which the game is hyper monetized: easy solution there is, of course, to avoid those games which demand money be spent. This isn't too hard as the Apple store still contains lots of perfectly good or even great games with one time purchases (plenty of good RPGs, for example), or limited additional purchases (Dead Cells, for example, can be had for one base purchase plus three DLCs that are reasonably priced). Something else I noticed: there simply isn't as much hype around mobile releases. Mobile games tend to stick around for much longer, and fade when interest wanes or compatibility issues overwhelm it. The hype train of the Newest and Latest is mysteriously absent in the world of "free to download" apps.  

So, at least from a practical use case, my desire to avoid over-monetized and predatory games while finding games that work with the backbone is fairly easy to achieve. What I didn't expect with the Backbone was that streaming games I own from devices I own or in the cloud is a much better experience than I have been led to believe. Like...worlds better. As long, of course, as you have decent internet.

So far I have played some lengthy sessions in games like Outriders (on Xbox Series X) and The Division 2 (on PS5) and it was a very satisfactory experience. The only real issue to be honest is that I have the iPhone 13 mini, which is a smaller screen even than my Switch Lite, so this is not something you do without good eyes, or having some reading glasses handy. But I am shocked at how good the streaming is. I am lucky on this, though. Streaming at home: piece of cake, I am well set up for it. It's weird (and unnecessary) to play on the phone when my 42 inch OLED monitor is waiting for me to use it with whatever console I am streaming from, of course, but the experience is superior even to the Steam deck because the actual next gen console is doing the heavy lifting. The only issue would be latency in the controller itself, and I have noticed none at all at home.

I tried it at work, where I have a very good high speed internet arrangement (including a high speed public wifi for my employees) and it works great here as well, even with connecting online. It is better, or at least easier, to use the Xbox Cloud Streaming service in this case....my home consoles were more likely to have hiccups, I noticed.....but it worked really well. 

I tried it in some less suitable circumstances. I connected to the public wifi at a Chili's while having lunch with my wife and it worked okay, but you could see a bit of upside/downside lag. It was still weird playing my cloud saves on a game like Outriders at a Chilis, though. (FYI I could play Outriders on the Steam Deck if I picked it up through Steam, but I own it on the Xbox Series X so that's why I am testing a lot with this game). 

In the end, the phone+Backbone combination is letting me do the following: play (and resume playing) titles I already own on existing saves I have on my PS5 and Xbox Series X, which none of my other devices can do right now (I think I could accomplish this on the Steam deck with some effort at figuring out how to access Xbox on Linux, though); I can download and play native android games from the iPhone store that also work offline if needed (I have loaded Dead Cells, Hyperlight Drifter, Diablo Immortal, and a few RPGs that are backbone friendly); and I can also stream my Steam collection if desired. 

The Backbone+phone combo has two key limiters: you need good internet for the streaming, and you must accept the size of your phone screen. On the plus side, with a small phone and the backbone having a pretty low profile, this is as easy to slip into a pocket as the Switch Lite. It somehow manages to also have a more comfortable grip arrangement than the Switch Lite (which honestly kills my hands after playing for a while). I've had no hand-comfort issues at all with the Backbone. 

Now, for the reason I think that I (in my particular circumstances) may find that the phone+Backbone combo is actually what I needed all along for portable gaming: 

The thing is, I have over the last few years accrued the following devices. We won't go back to days of yore on this; my first post Atari 2600 console purchase was an original Gameboy when in college, which I used to play exactly two games: Castlevania and Metroid. No, this list is only of the current, relevant stuff (so my PS Vita stays in storage):

A Switch OLED; a Switch Lite; Steam Deck; Evercade EXP (plus prior original Evercade).

This is a pathetically small list of portable consoles compared to the average Youtuber who talks about portable consoles; I follow some of these vloggers who get into the portability and the retro/emulator elements, and they have sometimes dozens of imported, often cheap emulator handhelds, portable PC competitors to the Steam deck, and more. But for me, having access to four handhelds is a lot.

When I got the original Switch it was less for the portability and more for the sake of completeness to have all the current consoles on the market. What I discovered was that it was really fun to have a multipurpose portable console experience. Since that original Switch I moved to the OLED model as the screen quality is so much nicer, but when I travel the Switch Lite tends to be what I throw in the bag for ease of access. The reality is that outside of some rare occasions I never generally have an opportunity to pull the Switch Lite out for its actual intended purpose. It's more like an ornament, or a safety cord I can "pull in case of extreme boredom."

The Evercade series is likewise more for novelty than anything else. I like it a lot, especially the latest one, the Evercade EXP, but I am not throwing this in to my pocket on a regular basis for on the go gaming. It's more a novelty, a chance to occasionally revisit old classic 80's and 90's arcade games when I feel like it, and to introduce my son to them. But I think I've already logged more hours on my Backbone than I have on the Evercade EXP....so, yeah.

Steam Deck is a beast, and its a fascinating piece of hardware to have on hand. It's the one device these days I am most likely to throw in to a travel bag for a trip, but its impractical to say, throw in my work case because the thing is just too big for practical everyday hauling around. You can't fit it in a pocket, is what I am saying, and you can't play it for too long without having a way to recharge handy, so its better to have when you're going on a trip and staying at a hotel but maybe don't want to haul a laptop along for the ride.

Ultimately, what I have learned is that for daily portability it is nice to have something small and easy to use, which gives you just enough to handle those odd quiet moments when some actual portable gaming can be done. I bet if I were younger and not part of the rapidly growing elderly Gen X crowd that I might be able to find more free time slots for portable gaming....but I am an old guy now, like it or not, with a company to run and a family to wrangle, and portable gaming slips in when it can, not when I would like it to. As a result, throwing the Backbone in to my work bag or even for travel is an ideal and preferable alternative to what I have been doing (sorry Switch Lite!) for day to day access. 

Switch still has purpose, of course. I have designs on finishing Bayonetta 3, replaying after many years Metroid Prime, and Front Mission One of course. But its just not quite as impressive as what the iPhone 13 can run natively, I realize....Switch is looking old, now. And Steam Deck of course is amazing, an artifact of the future, but it needs a slimmer model to compete in the space we're talking about here, which is what can fit in my pants' pocket or my jacket's inner pocket. So going forward: it's just my iPhone as usual, but now with the Backbone One handy for whenever the moment takes me.

If this interests you but you have Android, the good news is a Backbone for Android should be out soon. Note that the current Backbone One is set up to plug in via the proprietary iPhone cable (lightning), so depending on how Apple's migration to USB-C goes that could end up requiring an adapter down the road. My iPad is already USB-C ready so I need an adapter for that when I plug the Backbone in to it to use as a regular controller (you can do that, it just feels a bit like holding an actual bone compared to a full size controller when holding it this way).