This is the catch-all thread for general discussion around handheld gaming systems - which seem to be getting more and more popular each year.
If discussion of a particular system warrants its own thread, please feel free to create one.
Here are some existing dedicated threads:
Check out this monster Acer unveiled at CES!
Acer made an enormous 11-inch gaming handheld
It's getting to the point where down the road I can see myself having a moderately powerful system that is a great handheld AND can be docked to a monitor/keyboard/mouse for a traditional desktop experience.
Razer’s RGB dock turns gaming handhelds and phones into TV consoles
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Razer says its Handheld Dock Chroma is a “6-in-1” docking station that transforms phones, tablets, or handheld gaming devices “into powerful gaming consoles” with 100W power passthrough support for charging. It’s priced at $79.99 and will be available on January 30th, with preorders starting on January 7th.
Yes, but how good will it look on a huge 4k TV with current hardware?
The rumors were true. The first third-party SteamOS system announced at CES!
Lenovo Legion Go S official: $499 buys the first authorized third-party SteamOS handheld
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No trackpad, no buy for me anymore. Now that I have a good setup for the trackpads on the Steam Deck I have no urge to go to just controller controls.
I'm really glad that SteamOS is going to (hopefully) take off with Lenovo.
No trackpad, no buy for me anymore. Now that I have a good setup for the trackpads on the Steam Deck I have no urge to go to just controller controls.
I'm really glad that SteamOS is going to (hopefully) take off with Lenovo.
Curious how that setup works. Other than for browsing in desktop mode, I haven't found a good use for those trackpads. I have a game that uses them by default (Dogs Organized Neatly) and it feels a bit awkward and I'd rather just use one of the sticks.
Do you have a game that works well or has a good custom setup that uses the trackpads? I think they're great pieces of tech with the haptics, but its more a novelty than something super useful for me.
Legion Go line seems slap dash. Okay we have 1,2,3,4 and 5 handhelds. We're showing the cheaper ones but the one you want the most info on is... coming.
athros wrote:No trackpad, no buy for me anymore. Now that I have a good setup for the trackpads on the Steam Deck I have no urge to go to just controller controls.
I'm really glad that SteamOS is going to (hopefully) take off with Lenovo.
Curious how that setup works. Other than for browsing in desktop mode, I haven't found a good use for those trackpads. I have a game that uses them by default (Dogs Organized Neatly) and it feels a bit awkward and I'd rather just use one of the sticks.
Do you have a game that works well or has a good custom setup that uses the trackpads? I think they're great pieces of tech with the haptics, but its more a novelty than something super useful for me.
I'm curious what games you’ve played as well. I never the use the trackpad for games on the Deck. But to be fair, I’ve only ever played games that support a traditional controller.
I tried really hard to love the Steam Controller back in the day, but it just never clicked with me. I know the one on the deck is supposed to be way better but that experience put me off that type of control.
I mostly use the trackpad for mouse driven games that are not super action packed, e.g. The Sims 4. A small niche, to be sure, but I do love being able to play the Sims 4 in bed.
Beyond mouse function, using the left track pad as a scroll wheel or a radial menu is nice.
Carlbear95 wrote:athros wrote:No trackpad, no buy for me anymore. Now that I have a good setup for the trackpads on the Steam Deck I have no urge to go to just controller controls.
I'm really glad that SteamOS is going to (hopefully) take off with Lenovo.
Curious how that setup works. Other than for browsing in desktop mode, I haven't found a good use for those trackpads. I have a game that uses them by default (Dogs Organized Neatly) and it feels a bit awkward and I'd rather just use one of the sticks.
Do you have a game that works well or has a good custom setup that uses the trackpads? I think they're great pieces of tech with the haptics, but its more a novelty than something super useful for me.
I'm curious what games you’ve played as well. I never the use the trackpad for games on the Deck. But to be fair, I’ve only ever played games that support a traditional controller.
I tried really hard to love the Steam Controller back in the day, but it just never clicked with me. I know the one on the deck is supposed to be way better but that experience put me off that type of control.
I've never had a Steam Controller, and I've always been curious about them 
The default "As Mouse" and "Trackball" never really sat well with me in games. I change "As Mouse" to "Mouse Region" and use most of the defaults. There are a couple of guides on Youtube about it. I bind L4 and R4 to right and left click respectively. Left Trackpad is usually Scroll Wheel.
With this setup, anything that needs continuous scrolling won't really work (FPS/TPS).
Games I've used this for: Dune: Spice Wars, Last Epoch (the controller config is...shaky), Offworld Trading Company, Stellaris, Striving for Light, OddRealm, Against the Storm. Almost all of the turn based stuff that uses the mouse works well (but it does with the defaults too so...)
And the track pads are important if you ever go to desktop mode. I do enough weird stuff like setting up Heroic Launcher that I like that. To be fair, usually that involves hooking up to a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. But sometimes I need to check something in desktop mode.
Not everybody fiddles around with that stuff, so YMMV.
Legion Go line seems slap dash. Okay we have 1,2,3,4 and 5 handhelds. We're showing the cheaper ones but the one you want the most info on is... coming.
Going over the news a lot. I’ve decided that there is still a lot of handhelds coming out of Lenovo. It makes more sense now. The higher mid range white coming out soon looks good.
I still want to know about the Go 2.
The next Ally is probably a ways off and I want a better Steam deck 2 more than ever
Wow uh, that announced Acer is huge. Hope its not as heavy as it looks
For the over-compensator in your life
jamos5 wrote:
Wow uh, that announced Acer is huge. Hope its not as heavy as it looks
For the over-compensator in your life
Or people with aging eyes.
pandasuit wrote:jamos5 wrote:
Wow uh, that announced Acer is huge. Hope its not as heavy as it looks
For the over-compensator in your life
Or people with aging eyes. :)
And who want to get their arm day workout in while gaming 
MannishBoy wrote:pandasuit wrote:jamos5 wrote:
Wow uh, that announced Acer is huge. Hope its not as heavy as it looks
For the over-compensator in your life
Or people with aging eyes. :)
And who want to get their arm day workout in while gaming :P
You don't hold it out in the air, you rest it on your lap.
pandasuit wrote:MannishBoy wrote:pandasuit wrote:jamos5 wrote:
Wow uh, that announced Acer is huge. Hope its not as heavy as it looks
For the over-compensator in your life
Or people with aging eyes. :)
And who want to get their arm day workout in while gaming :P
You don't hold it out in the air, you rest it on your lap.
Wouldn't that would put it further from their aging eyes and defeat the benefits of the larger screen?
No, because that's where I'd naturally hold a handheld anyway if I was sitting up. Same place just bigger screen.
Not like all that space behind the screen has to be full of heavy stuff like batteries. Think of a laptop.
The rumors were true. The first third-party SteamOS system announced at CES!
Lenovo Legion Go S official: $499 buys the first authorized third-party SteamOS handheld
No trackpad, no buy for me anymore. Now that I have a good setup for the trackpads on the Steam Deck I have no urge to go to just controller controls.
I'm really glad that SteamOS is going to (hopefully) take off with Lenovo.
That little square below the right stick is actually a trackpad.
That little square below the right stick is actually a trackpad.
That's neat. I really only use it for fiddling with menus, I don't actually personally like the trackpads for actual in-game controls.
More frequently I accidentally trigger them via brushing the edge of a finger over them (and end up disabling them via the settings or something).
Wouldn't that would put it further from their aging eyes and defeat the benefits of the larger screen?
It would for me, yeah. The only time I can recall playing my Steam Deck sitting up is on the train. When I'm at home I'm not using it sitting at a table.
Otherwise I'll be in bed/on the couch for literal couch gaming.
Depending on how hot/cool these things run, I'd be hesitant to rest it on my lap for heat reasons.
I agree that extra screen real estate would be appreciated for games with a lot of text though. There's definitely some games that are borderline unplayable because of menu/text size, as opposed to performance.
So I was sorta right...
Legion Go White (729)
Legion Go Powered by SteamOS (500)
Legion Go 2 Z2 16 gigs, 512 SSD.
Legion Go 2 Z2 Extreme 32 gigs, 1 tb SSD
I'm thinking the Z2 might be pass the 1 thousand dollar (USD) mark. Pricey
That little square below the right stick is actually a trackpad.
Lenovo: Trying to bring back the mouse nub since the early 2000's.
More seriously, that doesn't look big enough for anything that I would want to use it for. The Steam Deck trackpads are pretty well sized for my fingers and thumbs.
I picked up a Legion Go Z1 Extreme in the Boxing Day sales.
I would have preferred a Steam Deck, but they are not available over the counter in Australia - you have to order them and the backlog is real. The store guy persuaded me that the Legion had better hardware, bigger screen, runs more games, and I could get it then and there.
Some early thoughts:
1. Every time I use a PC/Windows platform, I am reminded why I love console gaming. I do not enjoy those first few days of set-up, downloading stuff, tweaking settings, watching youtube videos, etc. Windows 11 setup is tedious... I do not want any MS Office features, this will not be used for anything productive, thank you very much!
2. Ambitiously, I picked up Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Gamepass and it will not run, despite me following a ton of videos and forum threads on how to run it on my exact model.
3. Approx 2 weeks after my new purchase, the Steam Deck-compatible Legion is announced. Beginning to think about returns policies.
4. Now I am playing Starfield on it, no problems, and enjoying it more.
I had my hopes up too high. Essentially, I've bought a gaming laptop with controller dongles. Serves me right for impulse purchasing.
Options: You can go down the Bazzite/SteamFork and turn it into a great steam like option.
The GO S line might be a better fit if you dislike the size (Z1. extreme) and you get a better battery size and a little weaker processor
Options: You can go down the Bazzite/SteamFork and turn it into a great steam like option.
This is very appealing, thank you ... back to youtube/the forums!
I don't mind the size of the Go, just the fiddly OS/settings stuff
My wife has been taking over my steam deck so I guess when v2 comes out I'm gonna save up. It is good to see her game again though, she was getting into a rut of only animal crossing and now she's upgraded to a chill gardening sim. Much better for her ability to relax.
Some impressive hardware in this. It’s a clamshell handheld design but it does have built in controller.
Hardware aside, I can't get behind that form factor for a handheld.
Flipscreen Blackberries are back!
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