Why no PC/Steam equivalent of the switch?

rubberduck · 13 Apr 2020 at 09:19

Switch is 3 years old now so I would have thought someone would have made a portable PC like the switch that runs steam.... I see Alienware are working on something called Concept UFO but I would have thought there would have been something on the market by now and not too expensive.

Gimpymoo · 13 Apr 2020 at 13:13

The handheld gaming market has been killed off by Android/iOS in recent years and "casual" gaming becoming a MASSIVE market.

The days of the DS Vs PSP battle are long gone.

As a PC enthusiast, it pains me to say that such a product will be too niché to be "price competitive" and will be priced as such.

Handheld x64 devices do exist but they are rubbish from a hardware point of view.

McPhee · 13 Apr 2020 at 14:28

Buy an old Switch. Install Android using the instructions over at XDA. And then stream your games to the Switch.

Overall, that's likely to be a much better experience than any potential handheld "gaming" PC is going to offer.

WantoN · 13 Apr 2020 at 18:23

Streaming to your device is the only viable alternative, with your PC doing the heavy lifting.

There's just not a market for a PSP like device anymore for PC, sad times.

heman · 13 Apr 2020 at 18:30

Nvidia Shield portable did pc streaming IIRC.

PC777 · 13 Apr 2020 at 18:35

I was interested in this a couple of years back, almost bought one, better than just a Steam handheld as it also runs Windows 10.

almoststew1990 · 13 Apr 2020 at 18:52

They are niché but they are out there. One of the current ones is the GDP Win 2. I haven't used it.

http://gpd.hk/gdpwin2

PC games aren't meant to be played on screen sizes like this though and I would imagine are quite unreadable. The sort of game that needs a mouse and keyboard will ruin the portability and the sort of game that needs a controller will be horrible to play on the layout of the GDP Win 2.

It's ancient now but around the time the Vita came out there was the Alienware M11x. 11" netbook form factor with a 17watt i7 and an Nvidia 540M. I wanted one so bad when they came out. I still do!

Rroff · 13 Apr 2020 at 19:12

I have two of the original GPD Pocket and have played around with various versions of the Pocket and Win - the GPU struggles a bit with games but they aren't without their uses though for a lot of PC games you have to setup with an external keyboard/mouse really and/or additionally a monitor.

The screen is actually fairly useable though unless you have poor eye sight - the resolution is reasonable to quite good depending on which model you use with enough sharpness you can easily make out detail/read text.

Build quality is a bit varied though - my first one I had to open up and isolate the Wifi antenna or it would make the screen flicker under load and the second one the chassis is a little bit off so the lid one side is about 0.5mm less flush to the rest of the case than the other side.

EDIT: Windows 10 rather spoils the experience though!