Handheld Gaming Gets Worse!!!

 128KB is a great channel of two brits who like to talk handhelds and they keep pretty up to date on news in this niche industry. Unfortunately it looks like not only is the Legion Go 2 pricing at $2,000 or more now, but the Legion Go S series has exploded in price, too.

So, as an addendum to my last post, I want to declare that you should, if you are keen on handheld gaming, restrict your consideration to the Nintendo Switch 2  or one of the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally models (before they go up in price, too!) 

I do still stand by my MSI Claw 8 AI+ purchase, but concede even it is both going up a bit in price (not as badly as the Legion Gos are, though) and also somewhat hard to find. So as such....I declare victory as a tie between the Switch 2 and the Xbox Ally X (and base model), which I suspect are only remaining cheap right now because ASUS produced a very large number of them before the RAM and chip prices skyrocketed. 

State of Handheld Gaming in April 2026

Another short blog post, but I wanted to follow-up on my January reviews of the various handheld gaming devices out there. When I wrapped my evaluation At the end of January I sort of settled on these evaluation: The Xbox ROG Ally X was a decent $1,000 handheld but if you could afford the extra to get a Legion Go 2 it would be the superior experience. I loved the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and also found the Xbox ROG Ally Base Model to be a decent budget entry, and I also suggested that the Steam OS edition of the Legion Go S with the Z1 Extreme Processor was probably all anyone really needed, especially if you could find it on sale. So....semi noncommital on any specific direction other than to point out that the cheapest two options (Steam Deck and Switch 2) are probably all anyone really needs for some occasional on-the-go gaming.

So now cut to April 2026, prices are soaring, the RAM market is causing shockwaves in lower cost products, Lenovo is allegedly doing a terrible job of rolling out driver updates for its Windows-based products, and I just learned that the Legion Go 2 is now retailing in the US fro $1849 if you can even find it. WTF

So! As a brief public service message, I would suggest that if you are interested in handheld gaming right now and have not yet bought in, that you consider one of these options:

Are you a casual handheld gamer? Is the goal to bring it along on trips or use as a second device in the house to play games when the TV is occupied or you don't feel like sitting at a desktop terminal? Then I would suggest that (in order of price point) you consider these options:

Switch 2 - get one before it goes up in price! Still MSRP $450 right now. Sure you have to exist within Nintendo's walled garden, but these days that's not much of a problem as its stacked with good stuff.

Xbox ROG Ally base model - it really is a nice little device, even with Windows, just make sure to keep it updated on drivers and bios updates. Best Buy has itr for $549 right now.

Steam Deck - if you can find one, it's still worth it, but be aware its getting long in the tooth and you will not be playing many current AAA titles on it.

Legion Go S Steam OS edition - If you can find the Z1 Extreme version on sale, ignore all of the above suggestions and just get this. I have not rried the Z2 chip version but it is cheaper and online reviewers suggest it works well, so that might be an option given its low price.

Okay, maybe you are more of an enthusiast, and you are willing to pay extra for a more premium experience? Well, here's my suggestions:

MSI Claw 8 AI+ - you can find one for cheap on the used market, and it's currently retailing at around $1150 but I have seen it on Ebay for half that price. It's proven to be my most consistently reliable handheld in terms of performance to cost, and has the best sound system. If someone (say, a wife or something) were to force me to dump all my handhelds except one, this is the device I would keep.

The Xbox ROG Ally X - it's holding steady at $1000 MSRP and its performance is great, but I do run into lots of bugs and gave up on the Windows Full Screen Experience which was just too annoying, buggy and unreliable for me. It's also almost twice the cost of the base model which may be slower but runs most stuff just fine.

Legion Go S - Despite a slightly older Z1 Extreme Chip, this Steam  OS edition is honestly superior in every way imaginable, especially if you can find it on a good sale. It seems to run for around $900 MSRP but can be found on sale occasionally for less than $700. I still think I could have just stuck with this as my Steam Deck replacement and not bought any of the other devices and I'd be happy.

Is there anything I wouldn't reccommend now? Well, I wouldn't suggest the Legion Go S Windows edition unless you really want to play Destiny 2 or something on it. I would advise that the Legion Go 2 is, while the best of the lot, simply not worth the current prices its going for right now, and Lenovo needs to step up support for drivers more. Stay away from the other MSI Claw models; I can't really comment on the MSI Claw A8 series, which uses the Z2 Extreme drivers instead of Intel, but the others are reportedly subpar in design or out of date (though I've seen the A1M sell for under $400 new online which does make it tempting to pick up just to see how it fares).  I also think that the Steam Deck is now just old enough to be better for those who love Linux gaming and don't mind sticking to their older portfolio of games, but if you want to play something new, stay away from it. This is based on my Steam Deck OLED model, which also gives me lots of hardware issues these days, annoying given I've only had it for about two and half years now. 

"Why NOT Switch 2!" - Zoidberg

 This post will join my collection of reviews and comments on the various PC handhelds flooding the market. You can go over to Ebay and do a little searching to see just how many of these things are out there....it's nuts, especially OneXPlayer which churns out high priced handheld variants like Games Workshop churns new Space Marine models. But they have a lot of competition in this space now, with some of it being higher end but still cheaper than what they have to offer (MSI Claw, Legion Go line) and some of it being cheaper (Steam Deck, Xbox ROG Ally Base Model, Legion Go S). It seems like $1,000 to $1,500 is the "prestige price point" now, and anything over that is the dominion of OneX. Meanwhile, you can still spend less than $600 and get a perfectly decent experience, even if not all of the PC games in your collection will run optimally.

All of this is moot, though, when if all you want is a convenient on-the-go gaming experience then you can get a Switch ($379 last I checked), Switch 2 ($450 at least for now) or good old Switch Lite ($229 new, I think?) and have pretty much all the gaming you can stomach, even if its restricted to the walled garden of Nintendo. So what are the advantages of going this route, and what reasons might you not want to do this?

The top advantage aside from price is that the Switch 2 is an actual console, so it and its predecessor is built with ease of use in mind. You can dock it and it just works on your TV. You can take it to go and it just works, unless you are using a second unit and then you have to connect to wifi to get it to handshake with Nintendo's servers before you can play digital games (card-based games will work enywhere, unless you are using one of the cards that is only a code on  Switch 2). You can pop off the joycons and do multiplayer. You can kit it out with all kinds of stupidly fun accessories. I love the Satisfye style grip handles, for example. You can play it, stop a game, shut it down and then start it up again right where you left off with game pause that actually works. 

It does, in short, all the cool things that make consoles a better user experience than a Windows 11 PC in console clothing can do. Even SteamOS which tries hard is still only about 85% of the way there.....though with that said, if you really want the closest experience to a Switch at the closest price point to a Switch then the Steam Deck is a no brainer.

The downside of course is it is a console. So you can't load all your Steam, Epic, Xbox and GOG libraries on a Switch, and if you don't like the types of games that tend to find their way on the Switch then you are out of luck (this is really less of a problem than it seems, though Nintendo's eshop is kind of filled with hentai garbage these days and cheap cash grabs, the Good Games do stand out from the chafe). 

Switch 2 games tend to be more expensive. Many come on game cards but are really just codes; if it says its just a code, don't bother getting it unless you want to take turns sharing that code with family, which I think is possible. Even then, one day in the future if you like having a device guaranteed to last a long time, odds are those codes will eventually fail as all console storefronts tend to go kaput when the user base drops low enough for the company to sunset everything. Likewise with the eshop....look in to how Nintendo closed down their DS/3DS shop for an idea on what its going to look like on the Switch in 5-10 years. 

A note on Switch 2 ergonomics: its got terrible ergonomics, though you can figure out how best to hold it, or go buy a grip attachment or silicone skin like I have to make it more comfortable. That said, all of this is moot as the mere fact that it feels like a feather compared to all the PC handhelds means it will be a much friendlier, easier device to play with for long sessions as a handheld.

All that aside, for many of us there is an expectation that we may not plan on playing all games on a device for the rest of our lives and that the hot newness of 2030 will be far more important than whether games on the 2017 Switch will still be available. So for that scenario....buying one now is totally fine.

Anyway, this is hardly a review of the Switch 2, but it is a moment of sanity that I wanted to shine on the month I do all these handheld reviews: PC handheld gaming is awesome and fun, and I love these gadgets, but if I was on a budget and wanted some on-the-go gaming, I would stick with a Switch 2 in 2026, or maybe also a Steam Deck OLED (or Asus Xbox ROG Ally base model). The Switch 2 is the benchmark by which all of these other devices should aspire to.

Why are Handheld PCs so Popular?

The Handheld PC Gaming Market is Weird

So I am ignoring my monthly challenge for a moment to post more on handheld PC gaming. I guess I could spin it into a weird article, as in, "Isn't it weird that the handheld console-like PC market has gone insane, let alone that it has such a high level of interest?" And I say this as someone who currently owns no less than four handheld devices (not counting the Switch or Switch 2), and I have sold at least three other handhelds. I have a problem, and I think this obsession is rather weird....and also weird that it seems to afflict so many other people.

Before we analyze the weirdness, let's pin down the practical aspects of handheld PC gaming: 

1. For many, carrying a handheld PC around for some quick gaming is very convenient. This makes sense; the console handheld market has been super popular for a long time now, and the idea, in principle, makes sense for PC gaming, too. Right? Well...see the cons below for the counterpoint to this.

2. A lot of people have invested heavily in  their preferred storefront for PC gaming, so being able to access their games in an on-the-go format makes sense, right? Right??? Hey, it does mean you don't have to restart in a different walled environment like you would with the Switch 2, for the most practical example.

3. A handheld PC can provide a more dedicated gaming experience, something that may be more tempting than the next rung up the ladder, gaming laptops. This part is (mostly) a solid truth; a dedicated handheld that runs well may indeed prove to me more consistently satisfying as a gaming experience, especially on the road traveling. 

4. For a lot of people it's not even about travel, but instead about convenience. You can pull out the handheld and play in areas not at your PC desk or in front of the TV. You can play games while others are using the TV, and in rooms you ordinarily couldn't game in. So the same value for portability as the Switch 2.

But, there are many cons to the PC handheld market! These are largely unique to the PC market, too, as console-based handhelds (of which the Switch family is the only current option; the new Xbox branded Asus handhelds are well-established as being just PC handhelds) are generally designed to solve these problems. These cons include:

1. Battery life is not great. You are not getting phone levels of battery life out of handheld PCs. The first generation of handheld PCs are relatively infamous for lasting maybe 1-2 hours at most unless you were willing to tinker heavily with the power wattage and performance metrics, which these devices mostly give you a lot of tools to manipulate. The battery power has gotten better, starting with the Steam Deck OLED and Asus ROG Ally X, but the performance levels you set the devices at can dramatically alter battery life. This leads to problem 2....

2. To really make these devices work for your needs you need to tamper with their settings, a lot. In fact, I think there are really two kinds of players for handheld PCs: those who are fairly into or at least savvy about altering the specs on a device to optimize performance to improve battery life, and those who (like me) kind of can't stand dealing with that, and set it to the highest performance you can get, then just make sure you have a plug in handy nearby when playing.  This level of complexity is lessened with the SteamOS based systems (such as of course the Steam Decks and the Legion Go S), but the windows based devices are all going to make this more complex because not only are you dealing with the device's overlay setting but you will also be diving into Windows, and if you're not technically savvy on this stuff you will be watching a lot of videos on how to make your device feel like you imagine it should. I just got a MSI Claw 8 AI+, for example, and spent close to 6 hours with the device trying to figure out why it ran like crap, and in the end it was all because the device had no obvious and easy path to updating the Intel integrated graphics drivers without going to Intel's site and downloading their latest drivers, something I would have thought could be done through the MSI overlay....but nope, even their updater seemed not to see the latest updates. Still, after all that tinkering I now have it running better than any of my other devices, but it really shouldn't have required that I jump through all those hoops imo.

3. If you get a Switch 2 from Nintendo you are locked into their store and games designed for their system, but in general those games run straight up and without issue. The only variable is the extent to which the studio provided the proper resources to optimizing the game for the Switch 2 (or original Switch), and you don't have to worry about anything. Even the battery life on the Switch 2, while not amazing, is consistently always better than the same experience on a handheld, even the ones with really good battery lives. But handheld PCs just can't manage this. You can access multiple storefronts, sure....but you are limited on some games, especially those using anti-cheat, on SteamOS systems. For Windows 11 devices you're dealing with a cumbersome OS not designed for handhelds, and can run into many unexpected performance issues. This means you may be loading, testing, modifying setting and then reloading multiple times before you are happy with a game's performance. 

4. Ditching a gaming laptop for a handheld is not practical either if you use your PC for work or other non-gaming tasks. A handheld can be souped up to handle non-gaming tasks for the most part, but now you're adding a Bluetooth mouse, keyboard and maybe even a screen; when you're done, your setup consumes as much or even more space than the laptop probably does, especially something like the compact 14 inch ROG Zephyrus which is what I use for work travel. 

This all sounds a little tedious when you line it up. There's also a new huge problem looming on a post-tariff horizon: these devices are getting more expensive, and the dollar value is going to really depend on your use case. If you're just looking for a device to play for an hour or two while commuting or in a hotel room somewhere, then there is really no reason not to get a Switch 2 or a Steam Deck base model, as you can spend $450 for the Switch 2 and $400 for the original Steam Deck new. You get a device that can handle a wide array of games which will be more than enough to keep you busy.

All of the other devices are for the enthusiast with money to burn, and in the case of myself and possibly many others, apparently not enough common sense. I think I have reached a point where I feel like I'm at a satiation point....and the new devices are all coming  in at $1000 or more, which really is past my tolerance limit for cost on this sort of device. Even some of the older devices which came out earlier this year and last year have gone up in price, so I am happy as an example that I got my SteamOS edition Legion Go S before the price hikes (and even on sale when I snagged it). I would be reluctant to pay any of the prices out there now....and only grudgingly caved on snagging the MSI Claw 8 which came in at $1049. Much as I'd like the Legion Go 2, I just can't justify the $1350 price tag for a handheld.

One of the problems I have run in to with handhelds is that the performance value on the device has an element of diminishing returns with cost. While running a game on the MSI Claw 8 or the Legion Go S (Z1E edition) definitely shows better performance than the Steam Deck OLED, they do not in fact provide enough value on this performance for me to feel like the Steam Deck is somehow no longer a viable product....it's still totally useful as a handheld device* (though I would like to know what SteamOS seems to be a much more stable experience on the Legion Go S than it is on the Steam Deck OLED, but that is a question for another time....)

The weird part of all this for me is that I feel like there is a real driver happening behind these handheld PCs which defies their conventionality as portable devices. Many of the games I can get to run well on these devices are still going to be better games to enjoy on a large screen with a dedicated desktop or laptop running them.** So this gets back to the weird part: why are they somehow as attractive as they are to a certain segment of the population? I have two working theories beyond what were mentioned above in the initial "pros" section:

First, I think that there are a lot of Gen X level gamers and maybe Millennials as well who either grew up in an era where the concept of a handheld was dominated by consoles, with the likes of the Gameboy, Game Gear, PSP and later PS Vita. There's always been interest in the ability to play games in this convenient format, and I know that growing up in the 80's I often dreamed of the idea of having a handheld device that could do what these modern handhelds do. This is a generational thing, is what I am saying; and it's one of the reasons that so many people are so fascinated with these handhelds, and will pay ridiculous prices for them, even though the actual practical experience of a much cheaper handheld makes far more sense.

Second, I think that despite the fact that so many of these devices are allowing you to play and enjoy these games on a suboptimal level of experience, the truth is that the transition to digital services for games going back to 2004 with Steam has led to a generation of gamers who have far, far more game in their backlog than they will ever have time to play. As an aging population of gamers increases, and their catalogs of unplayed and ignored games explodes, the handheld PCs provide a unique and effective way to quietly load and enjoy some of that backlog, and the trade off on fidelity is often worth it, because the gateway of a desktop PC or a console on the family TV has proven to be too big an obstacle for many busy gamers to ever get ahead of the tide of available gaming at their fingertips. Handhelds actually help to stave off a bit of this.

For those of you who have read some of my prior articles on handheld PCs, here's my current rundown: I sold by original Rog Ally (white model) and upgraded it to a ROG Ally X. I am done with the ROG Ally's for the foreseeable future, and plan to skip the Xbox branded editions. Then I did upgrade to a Steam Deck OLED a while back and greatly appreciated the experience, and donated my older Steam Deck. I had and enjoyed the original Legion Go but after I got the Z1E SteamOS edition of the Legion Go S I realized I liked the performance of a Linux-based SteamOS version of the Legion, as well as the better ergonomics so much more that I sold my original Go. I also really didn't like the detachable controllers, which were okay but fiddly; rumor is the Legion Go 2 makes its detachable controllers much better. 

Finally I just added the MSI Claw 8 AI+ to the collection, and am so far startled at how well it runs everything...after I spent six hours updating it. Despite all these lovely devices I still find half my handheld gaming is happening on the Switch 2, which is the best bang for the buck as long as you like Nintendo's offerings. 

Okay! Maybe this was just an excuse for me to talk about handhelds again, but I do think the phenomenon of this exploding and now very expensive market is just very, very weird....so there ya' go! 

*I used Senua's Saga: Hellblade II as a test example, since I have four of these devices. I was surprised to discover that while I could get the most graphical fidelity out of the MSI Claw for the best overall experience, the actual feel of the gameplay and overall look felt smoothest and cleanest on the Steam Deck! I think this is at least partly because the way SteamOS works, and the way Linux handles optimization on the graphics drivers, allows for publishers to very specifically target the Steam Deck performance almost as if it were a console. I'm still going to play it on the MSI Claw, but only because I need to cost justify my purchase....  

**Example: Senua's Saga: Hellblade II which is a gorgeous game, especially on a 48 inch OLED screen.

The 22nd Day of Horror: Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition (Switch 2)

 

Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition (Switch 2)

Besides finding suitably horror-themed games (and movies, and books, and graphic novels, etc.) to play for my 31 Day of Horror challenge, I've actually been trying to explore new types of games and themes to sort of branch out and find things I might find more interesting, or which are less demanding of my time, or --heck-- just more suited to my aging tastes and interests. Apparently one can play too many shooters, or too many third person games, such that the familiarity of those genres can become predictable and tedious (I'm looking at you, Atomfall!) but there are entire types of games I've avoided in the past, and one of those is the 2D style side scroller. These games come in a variety of flavors, but all have as a commonality a fixed perspective and a play pattern that has you moving, usually from left to right on the screen, experiencing something and maybe solving puzzles, surviving and unlocking story bits. Variants abound such as the roguelites (Dead Cells, Ultros) and the metroidvanias (Shadow Labyrinth, Metroid Dread) but the one subgenre of this style I have been enjoying the most is a style I am not sure has a proper name: games like Limbo, Inside and Little Nightmares all seem to fall into this special category of what I might imagine could be defined as "survival side scrollers."

Little Nightmares is in its third game and I decided now was the time to catch up on it. The Enhanced Complete Edition released on the Switch 2 at the same time as the third game, so I picked it up to start here. Interestingly they haven't released the enhanced edition of Little Nightmares II on Switch 2 yet, and the regular Switch edition looks very muddy and unpleasant on Switch 2 (it is not taking advantage of the souped up new hardware), so I am currently playing through that one on a Steam copy. But this review is about the first game.

Your character is apparently named 6 although I am not sure this information is communicated anywhere in the game that I found (I discovered my son has played all of these and is, similar to many other franchises out there I know nothing of, he by contrast is bursting with lore and esoteric details on these games). 6 appears to be a little girl in a raincoat, and the somewhat exaggerated graphical style of the game which is a 3D/2D (2.5D) format exudes a weird "hyper-real" feel to the environments and characters. They look cartoony and exaggerated (in a grotesque way) but the whole time I played it felt like I was just maneuvering my tiny person through endless dioramas of exquisite detail. It makes this game stand out amongst the rest, and I can see why a lot of people love this series as a result.

Anyway, 6 wakes up in the bowels of what you learn is a huge, monolithic and almost abyssal ocean liner. She seeks escape, but escape requires going through level upon level, looking for a way out while encountering the monstrous residents of the vessel. A custodian who seems to keep children in order to be slaughtered for food, who is blind but grasps with freakishly long arms and short legs. A pair of cooks who harvest food for the passengers, who you later meet and discover are all effectively grotesque ogres, gluttonous and mad creatures who will scramble to eat you if you are spotted. The final boss is possibly the one who runs it all, a vain woman dressed like a geisha who is the only thin creature on the ship but also possesses powers of shadow and a terrible hatred of her own image in mirrors. 

Amidst all this are other captured children, many beyond saving, and tiny mushroom-capped creatures called nomes who seem hesitant about you (though in a DLC playthrough of another child trapped on the ship they prove quite helpful and even friendly). 6 must make her way through each region of the ship, doing what she can, even as she finds she is gripped by her own intense hunger. Honestly, her debilitating periodic hunger attacks had me wondering if she was basically a child version of the ogres, eventually destined to transform into one of them....until I got to the story's end (which I won't spoil) and I was like....ah. Wow. Okay then.....

If you are wondering if this game is for you, I have the following observations on my playthrough of the main game and the expansion story (about a boy who tries to escape as well, via a different route): first and most important, I managed to get through the entire main campaign without consulting an FAQ or playthrough. I can't say the same for the expansion, which I think was targeting the more hardcore players, and an FAQ was helpful toward the end. Would I have figured out the rather myriad puzzles at the end on my own? Eventually I might have, but I'd probably have spent an extra hour puzzling it out and backtracking a lot....I did that even with the guide.

The second thing to know is that the 2.5D perspective means that unlike many other side-scrollers/metroidvanias this game lets you move around within each articulate and detailed area. You sometimes have to make jumps based on where you think you are going to land, only to discover you miscalculated, or the game's queues don't quite align with what you think is the correct trajectory. This doesn't pose a problem like 90% of the time, but that 10% can be frustrating. There's a sequence where 6 is being chased by a veritable wall of ogreish flesh and you escape with a daring leap over a chasm to a hook, and I think I had to try that one twenty times before I got it right. So...patience will be necessary in certain spots.

Luckily the game is built around a save point system that is well aware you are possibly at a rough spot, so it is generous in providing plenty of close proximity save locations, where 6 will reawaken as if from a bad dream. Usually if something got you the first time, you can (usually) navigate correctly around the problem on round two. Except, of course, for those handful of spots. You'll know 'em when you get to them.

All told, I really enjoyed my playthrough, and plowed through the DLC expansion immediately after. I also enjoyed the ending, it was not at all what I expected in either case. I then immediately jumped in to Little Nightmares II as a result. Definite A! The Switch 2 edition is a solid thumbs up, but I am sure the Steam version of the Enhanced Edition is also well worth it. 

Handheld Gaming Update: ROG Ally X vs. the Switch 2

 Well much has gone on in this weird space of "video game devices you can hold in your hand." In prior posts I talked about my experience with the Asus ROG Ally, the Steam Deck, and the Lenovo Legion Go. Since then, I have ditched the Asus ROG Ally and Legion Go, selling both to cohorts who found good homes for them. For the Steam Deck I have my original, but last year I upgraded to the Steam Deck OLED model, which was a nice improvement in terms of screen quality and battery size. 

And then....I picked up the Asus ROG Ally X, about a month or so back, when I saw it on a bit of a sale, and just last week wandered into a Target and found a Switch 2 on the shelf. So no sooner had I pared my handheld collection down than I reboosted it back up. This does mean that I have been exploring the advantages of the Asus ROG Ally X more or less in tandem with the Switch 2, and have some thoughts for those interested. 

Right off the bat, I'll just state this: if you want the best overall handheld device with the most flexibility, I think the Ally X is the best choice. It has superior screen quality and processing power to the Switch 2; it has better battery life; it does rest on a Windows 11 platform but I understand you can load up Steam OS for Linux if you see fit. While a Xbox themed ROG Ally X is on the horizon, that doesn't appear to do much that this one doesn't other than provide a streamlined Windows experience. I have been running plenty of "play anywhere" Xbox titles on the Ally X already with excellent results, so not sure how much better the branded edition will be.

The Switch 2 does have some cool features going for it, though. They are very specifically as follows: you can play most of the original Switch games on it, so backwards compatibility in like 95% of cases so far; it is a smaller "footprint" and weighs less than every other handheld except the original Switch and Switch Lite; it runs all those Nintendo games you like (well for me that's the Xenoblade games, Metroid, and I dabble in the Zelda titles but never get far in them). It's got gorgeous visuals compared to the original Switch, and a surprising number of older games run better on it, which is good because not many Switch 2 games are out yet, certainly not enough to merit a purchase on their own. If you get a Switch 2, grab Fast Fusion, it is easily the cheapest and best tech demo for the system yet (at only $15 USD it is much cheaper thank both Cyberpunk 2077 and Mario Kart World, both of which are also good tech demos for the machine).

Both systems have some downsides. The Ally X is still a Windows environment, and that can be annoying. It's a much smoother experience now than when the original Ally came out, however. They also fixed the MicroSD card problem, so that's a positive (don't even try using a MicroSD card in the original Ally unless you want to heat-kill it). The Ally X is a bigger device, so its a bit chonkier (not as chonky as all those Legion models, though).

Meanwhile the Switch 2's downside is that if you compare games on it to equivalent games on the Ally X, you will immediately realize that the best Switch 2 can do right now is at best mid-tier for what the Ally X can do. I was running Gears 5 and Starfield on the Ally X and it was a smooth experience for Gears 5 and pretty good for Starfield, but if you load up Cyberpunk on the Ally X and compare it to the Switch 2, you will notice that the Switch 2 version is doing some tricks to make it work, while the Ally X is just a better overall experience, with more options to tweak the graphics to suit to taste (Switch 2 have quality and performance mode, that's it).

EDIT: should mention price. While the Ally X goes for around $800 base model or $900 for a model with more storage, the Switch 2 of course is $450, which many news outlets have been complaining about. As price goes, its actually pretty reasonable. It's not 2017 anymore, unfortunately; a $300 original Switch is simply not going to hold a candle to the Switch 2. I feel like I got my money's worth, in other words.

For owning both systems I am content to have them, and they both have their use cases. For travel I kind of prefer the Ally X overall, but the Switch 2 continues to allow you the ability to play games without having to check in on the internet (unless you've set it up that way), and has a smaller print when it comes to packing and portability. It also is built for multiplayer experiences, and can handle that easily. The Ally X makes up for that by letting you access any of your PC gaming libraries on the go. Both seem to have decent battery life, as far as handhelds go; but you want to tweak Ally X to improve overall performance. I haven't tried running them both down yet, but I have gotten more time of the Ally X overall on an unplugged playthrough.