Do you game on a handheld console?

[SamuelL]

If you're old enough to have lived through any of the 8bit or 16bit eras, you still appreciate those games, but you don't want to pay the outrageous prices for "retro" - check out the Analogue pocket.

I bought one a few years ago and it's probably the best handheld I've owned... You can buy all sorts of Chinese retro handhelds on Amazon/Aliexpress/etc for half the price, but they all feel like cheap junk next to the pocket - you get what you pay for.

For PC games: the Steam Deck does a better job than it has any right to considering how the majority of PC games translate like crap to gamepad control schemes. Still, night and day better than something like a GPD Win device. That being said, PC games are just better in every way on a desktop (or a laptop). There's no sense forcing yourself to have a subpar experience.

 

[cvaldes]

A lot of the regulars are older, and they seem to be more PC focused. It'd be interesting to know the age bandings with handheld use. I never consider gaming when I'm not at my PC.

Moreover gaming-on-the-go is very regional.

It is very popular in younger age brackets particularly in East Asia. TechPowerUp's readership is overwhelmingly Western (mostly US and Western Europe). There is almost zero forum participation from Asia.

It's worth pointing out that many Asians have long commutes on public transit. Handheld and smartphone gaming makes sense. If you ride Tokyo Metro or commuter rail (JR, Hankyu, whatever) you'll see lots of people gaming on handhelds and smartphones, lots of people looking at ereaders (books, manga, etc.). Gone are the old paper newspapers and books, this part of the world has gone completely electronic for such matters.

A lot of Americans are completely clueless about how much time the average Asian spends on public transit. When they visit abroad, they see it as some sort of amusement park ride, not as a daily part of life. I don't recall ever seeing anyone on Tokyo Metro using a notebook computer on their lap. I don't even see it on regional commuter trains, the only time I ever see this is on the Shinkansen (bullet trains) where there are airline-style tray tables.

This survey is fine as something that W1zzard can use to assess interest levels specifically for his TPU audience but it should most definitely not be used as any sort of measurement to summarize gaming as a whole.

It's worth pointing out that handheld and settop console markets combined, the PlayStation 2 ranks #1 (about 160 million units sold), with the Nintendo DS family coming in at #2 (about 154 million) and the Nintendo Switch family coming in at #3 (now over 151 million). For sure, it's not just a bunch of tweens on their beds using these handhelds. The Japanese have been gaming on the go for decades.

For sure this forum is heavily skewed toward PC gaming. You can see it in the Free Games and Games on Sale threads. It's almost all about PC gaming, Steam, Epic Games, GOG, etc. with very rare mention of handheld console gaming. There's almost zero mention of smartphone gaming even if that segment of the videogame industry has generated the most revenue for over ten years.

This site is almost like an SNL parody of videogaming from 20 years ago overwhelmingly focused on battlestations featuring ATX tower PCs and ultrawide monitors.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I own a switch, but never use it as a portable. It's sole use has become party games, and everyone is so busy that almost never happens.

When ?I'm on the go, im either driving somewhere or doing something. Mobile gaming hasnt been much of a thing for me since high school. The only exception is some phone emulator gaming on lunch breaks.

 

[jak_2456]

I have a Steam Deck, but I typically don't use it in any moving transport (car, bus, plane) as I prefer listening to music. However, I do still game on it when I'm in one place for a while, like a hotel room. I typically play more casual racing games like DiRT 4 and Forza Horizon 4 on it.

 

[68Olds]

Mobile gaming hasnt been much of a thing for me since high school.

When I was in High School video gaming involved a trip to a bowling alley or the arcade that the mall.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Switch, but small screens irritate me so an iPad is more my speed though for gaming the Switch's control setup is much better than the iPad's touch interface. Maybe a 2nd gen Steam Deck when that happens...

 

[Yukikaze]

I have a RG35XXSP, which is technically a handheld console, I guess.

I use it pretty much exclusively for this:

 

[BSim500]

With the growing popularity of modern handheld consoles, we’re curious—what do you game on when you’re away from your PC? Whether it’s a Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, or another portable device, let us know what keeps you gaming on the go!

If you can, let us know your age, too.

None. (Age, early 40's). I did try a friend's Steam Deck but it didn't "click" with me for several reasons:-

1. Maybe I've been spoiled by a 32" monitor but I just find 7" screens too small. 14-16" laptops seems to be a "baseline threshold" for me which if you dip below it, is just a step too far. Many genres, eg, strategy / 4X and a lot of older games UI's don't scale well at all (tiny HUD elements, etc). Even testing PC games on a 10-11" Android tablet (via Winlator), many feel too small. In fact looking back, even 320x240 pre-1995 DOS games were commonly targeted at 14-17" CRT's at the time, as were the 8-bit pre-PC stuff (Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, etc were commonly plugged into 14-20" bedroom TV's). So PC games have never really been designed around screens that tiny even going back 40 years.

2. Many games controls also aren't designed around "2 joysticks" and PC games in general are far too diverse to force one set of controls. I love using controllers with platformers and racing games, but outside of that, for a lot of genres like fast-paced FPS's, RTS, old-school RPG's (Baldur's Gate 1-2, Dragon Age Origins, Neverwinter Nights, etc), trying to force a controller ranges from 'far less pleasant' to 'virtually unplayable' without a mouse. Even genres like point & click adventures where you can get away with playing via a trackpad, I always plug in a mouse as its just more comfortable. People forget, "controller support" isn't just about listening for xinput control inputs, in modern FPS's in particular there's a hell of a lot of under-the-hood "cheaty aimbot code" involved (snap-targeting, target locks, enlarged enemy hitboxes, weapon selection wheels with slow-motion, even level design itself of fewer but more bullet-spongy enemies to reduce successive rapid fast turns, etc), and if you force a controller using software like AntiMicroX into old-school games that weren't designed around them and lack all this 'aimbot' code, the illusion you can force a controller in all PC games falls apart in about 5 seconds.

3. No idea how people can concentrate playing on a bus / airport, etc, with endless distractions, but I certainly can't. When I play, I definitely want to relax without other people's screaming kids or *tap, tap* "What'cha playing?"

Overall I thought about a Steam Deck but instead went with a 16" thin & light laptop (no dGPU, but with same Radeon 780M based APU as the handhelds), 4x bigger screen (2x height & 2x width) and you can pair up one of those compact Bluetooth controllers (eg, 8BitDo SN30 Pro) anyway and generally do a lot more outside of gaming.

 

[Kadath]

I have a RG35XXSP, which is technically a handheld console, I guess.

I use it pretty much exclusively for this:
View attachment 399351

Still love One Must Fall after all these years.

 

[Eliad Buchnik]

Handhelds are big downgrade for me, maybe I'll get one to stream games from my PC but even then latency will be an issue.

 

[colossusrageblack]

Handhelds are big downgrade for me, maybe I'll get one to stream games from my PC but even then latency will be an issue.

If you get a good handheld with WiFi 6 or higher and your PC is connected to your router via LAN cable, the latency is surprisingly low. Not noticeable unless you're playing something competitive, even then basically no different than a console controller feels sitting back on the couch to the console.