The rise of handheld gaming consoles that play PC games

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Handheld consoles are making a comeback, thanks to the success of the Switch. The Switch is the fastest selling console (during its first year) in history and 79.87 million units have been sold, as of December 2020. The main reason for the console's popularity is because of its style of play - docked and handheld - giving users the freedom to play on their TV at home or on its 6.2 inch display while travelling in the train. This suggests that many people still prefer gaming on handhelds. Many previous handhelds enjoyed record sales like the GameBoy, Nintendo DS and PSP.

Thus, many other companies are trying to get attention of gamers - both modern and retro - with portable gaming devices. Among these are the Aya Neo, Smach Z and GPD Win 3 - all inspired by the Switch - that are aimed at PC gamers using the hybrid console concept. The Alienware UFO and Lenovo Lavie Mini, dubbed the Switch killers, were exciting concepts showcased at CES. These products have been well received. Handheld PC gaming is now a thing, thanks to these products.

What to expect from these products

These products are solely made for PC gaming (although you can download emulators to play old console games). Yes, there is no fancy magic involved. They are built with similar hardware used in laptops and come preinstalled with Windows 10 or Linux.

These small, lightweight and portable systems have good quality gamepads (some even detachable like the Switch), have touchscreen displays, can be connected externally to monitors whenever you feel like experiencing big screen gaming, and provide decent gameplay performance especially at HD or 720p.

The consoles do not include a graphics card, they run on integrated graphics, due to their small form factor. This also means that you cannot game in 4K or even 1440p. The resolution does not really matter since you're playing on a small screen.

Only some of these products include a physical keyboard. The absence of keyboards in the others is due to the touch display. You can bring up the Windows Virtual Keyboard whenever you want.

Last but not the least, you need to understand that some of these products are listed on crowdfunding websites. This means they may or may not be successful, even if you back it up.

Do you think such consoles will be successful? What do you think? Feel free to share your views below.