Screens are too small, controllers too small, lighting it too weak, battery life is too short...

And then graphics are usually subpar...

why , for 2% , no sane manager would pay for that

I'll be honest, I don't really understand the need for handhelds at all. Like pds41, when I go out it's precisely to do other stuff rather than to stare at a screen and play. And if it's just about something portable, to take when you travel or something like that, there's literally decades worth of PC games that'll work even on a crappy a laptop.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you are saying, but the CPU is a zen2 4 cores/8threads, which is from 2019 and the GPU is RDNA2, which is the current generation architecture.

First i was glancing a few minutes to see the design, though the 'this is so innovative, the layout was odd but when i used it it was so natural to use' etc etc. Sorry but just let me skip the commercial; to which i'd posted my thoughts on my first impressions at this point. Also no i haven't kept up on 'current' architecture in more than 10 years, so saying it's socket this icore that, all of it doesn't matter. I remember the Cyrix 686 CPU's, and socket 7. Beyond that line the pieces up so they fit. If i have to build a new system i find a CPU i like, then see what boards/setups are compatible and buy appropriate pieces, no clue what they are look like or how they act til they all arrive and i take 2 hours to build the damn thing. Same with memory, I remember Simms and Dimms. Now there's Double Dimms, there's DDR's, and probably several more types of ram going from 100 pin to 400 pins with slighlty different layouts to make them fit/not fit. I don't know, i don't care since I'm not a repair shop and if i have to upgrade I'm forced to get all new hardware none of the old stuff carries over, so why keep track?

The zen2... So which architecture is that? Looking it up it's likely an AMD Ryzen chip, and i see lots of diagrams of the advantages in articles but not seeing which actual instruction set it's using. So for a handheld, what does that mean? Whoop-de-do.

Doing a second search in Wikipedia it actually shows it's in the x86-64 desktop line (only referenced in family classes/related and not anywhere else), though it sounded more interesting if it could run multiple instruction sets... that would do wonders for emulation and cross execution.

Yes yes, I don't really care one bit about PUBG. But! Some fraction of those millions of gamers will likely move to Linux, creating more momentum for Linux gaming. That in turn benefits me.

Ah yes, dry cynicism aside, this has the potential to seriously affect the gaming landscape. Think more companies using Vulkan instead of DX, think more companies using multiplatform engines, think more support for AMDs open-source drivers etc etc. ad nauseam. All benefiting linux gamers. And all this on top of the fact that I've yet to encounter a game in my library I couldn't adequately play already right now.

It's really exciting actually. Cynicism aside. I'm probably not even going to buy a Deck, yet it pleases me greatly there is such a thing coming.

They could if they wanted to and if the gyro was a proper 6 axis then that makes camera work easier plus if its capabilities were used properly you could use it as a controller for a desktop PC.

Lol, kinda makes me glad I paid $75 for a Chinese handheld that lets me play any of the 10 billion ROMS floating around the internet*. Hell, it even has SCUMMVM and DOSBOX support. I was able to play the gog version of Blade Runner right out of the box, just by placing the folder on a MicroSD card. Apparently, if you have the right firmware, you can also play Half-Life on it..

*And most of those are probably better suited for a handheld than the crap I own on Steam

It's cute how Valve keeps flaunting the "open platform" line of theirs, while it's pretty obvious they want to keep their stranglehold on the vast majority of the PC games landscape. At the end of the day, they're still just a business.

That said, I'll be curious to see in-depth reviews of the hardware once the final product lands in people's hands. It'll also be interesting to see how much improved their WINE/PROTON layer will be when this actually releases. This may very well kill the likes of the GDP portables and others, specifically at those price points.

Personally, I ain't got no skin in this game. A device like this would still end up being too fiddly for me. For portable gaming I'll just stick to my Switch where I won't have to worry about versions and compatibility layers and other nonsense. For anything more involved I'd just use a laptop instead. *shrug*

No, it's not beneficial if it brings DRMed gaming to Linux. It's harmful. And it's overall harmful because now there are devs who expect your OS to be compromised to allow their game to play on it, which is a big not-benefiting-you.

It's beneficial due to the increased development of these tools and exposure of the platform to people. AKA directly benefiting me and other linux gamers.

Most gaming done on Linux is done with DRM'ed games. And even if you avoided DRM like the plague (which is fine, we are here after all) then you still benefit from an improved Proton/Wine/more Vulkan games etc. for your drm-free gaming pleasure.

And you think that potentially some thousands of linux gamers using PRoton playing PUBG will in any way affect or sway the fact that companies are implementing more and more of these outrageous solutions to limit gaming freedom? Compared to the millions of existing gamers on Windows? Why would they even care - the masses have already swallowed it.

No. What we need is more exposure, hype and gamers to drive more development, support and awesome gaming on linux. This makes my gaming experience better. And I never even have to touch PUBG or the like. Just let Valve do the work, take it, for free, and go happily on your merry way. Thx GabeN.

When it's written by a mac user, you've got to admit, that sentence suddenly becomes paradoxically funny (and I say this being a weathered mac user myself).

Anyway, I get your point about gaming laptops, and if you want to game on the go then this product might make sense, otherwise, for the same prize you can probably put together a small form factor computer powered by an APU and expect similar performance and a longer-lasting machine. (edit: if you feel like building a computer, that is :P)

thats so wrong ... basically pirating games and technology

Let's hope GOG finally launches Linux version of GOG Galaxy so we could get achievements, time tracking and cloud saving support there aswell.
I'd very much rather have linux support and more games supporting cloud saving instead of having a launcher that could launch games from every store...