There’s quite a few. Steam deck and Asus, as you mentioned, but there’s also AyaNeo, GPD, OneXPlayer, Aokzoe, Lenovo, etc. And many of these brands have several different models, if you’re counting individual products.
And, most importantly, money bags to subsidise the hell out of it. Let’s not kid ourselves here, the damn low price is one of the main reasons why people buy the SD rather than the ~2x more expensive alternatives.
Anecdotally, I have an Aya Neo. I know a few people with a few of the others brands. There’s a decently sized Aya Neo Discord that I’m part of, and I would assume the other brands have something similar. There’s definitely use of non-Steam handhelds, or there wouldn’t be a growing market for them.
I personally love it, and yes it can with a dock similar to the Switch’s. It’s ran every game I’ve thrown at it, and I’ve an original 2021 version. There’s a few quirks, like the joysticks will sometimes just decide to not do a random direction, but recalibrating is easy. Obviously the resolution quality isn’t as stellar as if you were running a pc meant output to a monitor, but on the built in screen everything is crispy. It’s decently heavy though, so my baby wrists get tired after a while. But yeah it’s great, playing whatever wherever is pretty ace.
There’s quite a few. Steam deck and Asus, as you mentioned, but there’s also AyaNeo, GPD, OneXPlayer, Aokzoe, Lenovo, etc. And many of these brands have several different models, if you’re counting individual products.
MSI just announced their handheld PC too, it has an Intel (Meteor Lake) CPU with Arc graphics.
Oh, good shout! That one looks 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻
Ah thanks.
How many of those do people actually use though?
Valve was essentially LATE to the handheld market, they just had the technical and company will to do it the best.
And, most importantly, money bags to subsidise the hell out of it. Let’s not kid ourselves here, the damn low price is one of the main reasons why people buy the SD rather than the ~2x more expensive alternatives.
I hear that.
But how many people actually use all of those other brands listed?
It’s ok to just say “no one” without downvoting.
All I’m hearing is crickets
Anecdotally, I have an Aya Neo. I know a few people with a few of the others brands. There’s a decently sized Aya Neo Discord that I’m part of, and I would assume the other brands have something similar. There’s definitely use of non-Steam handhelds, or there wouldn’t be a growing market for them.
Do you have a steam deck too?
I do not
How’s the Aya? Does it dock with the TV/monitor?
I personally love it, and yes it can with a dock similar to the Switch’s. It’s ran every game I’ve thrown at it, and I’ve an original 2021 version. There’s a few quirks, like the joysticks will sometimes just decide to not do a random direction, but recalibrating is easy. Obviously the resolution quality isn’t as stellar as if you were running a pc meant output to a monitor, but on the built in screen everything is crispy. It’s decently heavy though, so my baby wrists get tired after a while. But yeah it’s great, playing whatever wherever is pretty ace.
Ah yes lemme whip out my magical sales numbers ball and let you know