It is time to take one other have a look at a variety of Home windows-based handhelds and this time, we’re testing essentially the most superior, strongest {hardware} in the marketplace proper now – the precise massive boys of the hand-held vary – stacking them up in opposition to the established frontrunners: Steam Deck (in each LCD and OLED incarnations) and the Asus ROG Ally.
Primarily, I checked out three choices and you will find their comparative specs in a useful desk beneath. They’re all essentially based mostly on the identical AMD silicon (whether or not you wish to name it the Ryzen 7 7840U or the Z1 Excessive) paired with LPDDR5 reminiscence. The quantity of reminiscence varies – 16GB is mostly sufficient, however we’re beginning to see titles that would like extra (an element of that 16GB being shared between graphics and system reminiscence). With that in thoughts, the 32GB and 64GB of the OneXPlayer 2 Professional and AyaNeo Kun respectively can show compelling.
Thus far, so Asus ROG Ally, however type components on these units are remarkably totally different. They don’t seem to be afraid to supersize to the purpose the place the already-quite-big Steam Deck and ROG Ally are dwarfed by all three of those jumbo machines. The Lenovo Legion Go is outlined by a big 8.8-inch LCD with 60Hz, 120Hz and 144Hz help and a decision of 2560×1600. AyaNeo Kun and OneXPlayer 2 Professional are smaller-but-still-huge at 8.4 inches and the identical decision, albeit restricted to 60Hz solely.
| Asus ROG Ally | Lenovo Legion Go | OneXPlayer 2 Professional | AyaNeo Kun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Principal Processor | AMD Z1 Excessive | AMD Z1 Excessive | Ryzen 7 7840U | Ryzen 7 7840U |
| CPU | Zen4, Eight Cores, 16 Threads, Max 5.0GHz | Zen4, Eight Cores, 16 Threads, Max 5.0GHz | Zen4, Eight Cores, 16 Threads, Max 5.1GHz | Zen4, Eight Cores, 16 Threads, Max 5.1GHz |
| GPU | RDNA 3, 12 Compute Models, Max 2.6GHz | RDNA 3, 12 Compute Models, Max 2.6GHz | RDNA 3, 12 Compute Models, Max 2.7GHz | RDNA 3, 12 Compute Models, Max 2.7GHz |
| Max SoC TDP | As much as 30W (25W Transportable) | As much as 30W | As much as 30W | As much as 54W |
| Reminiscence | 16GB LPDDR5 6400MT/s | 16GB LPDDR5 7500MT/s | 32GB LPDDR5 7500MT/s | 32GB/64GB LPDDR5 7500MT/s |
| Show | 7-inch 1920×1080 – 120Hz IPS with VRR | 8.8-inch 2560×1600 – 60/120/144Hz IPS | 8.4-inch 2560×1600 – 60Hz IPS | 8.4-inch 2560×1600 – 60Hz IPS |
Larger, weightier, thicker, there’s room for 2 USB type-Cs and even a Kind-A on the Kun and OneXPlayer 2 Professional, with the latter specifically exceptional in simply how thick it’s. The Go has removable controllers that work like Change joycons, which evidently the OneXPlayer 2 Professional emulates – besides that whereas removable, they have to be linked to a hub to really work. There isn’t any such luxurious on the AyaNeo Kun, nevertheless it does get twin trackpads – a rarity on Home windows handhelds (however commonplace on the Deck in fact). The Legion Go has one such pad, and an revolutionary ‘cradle’ for the precise controller that makes it act like a mouse. Fascinating!
As these units are giant, all of them include kickstands. Nonetheless, the OneXPlayer 2 Professional and Kun use the flimsy fashion of stand favoured by Nintendo on its commonplace Change design. Solely the Legion Go goes the additional mile when it comes to stability with a metallic, full size stand, harking back to Microsoft Floor and Change OLED. All of those options work OK, however the Legion Go looks like the true deal – a steady resolution and removable controllers that work with minimal fuss. It is a correctly well-designed piece of package.
Going into the benchmarks, we’ll begin off with the 15W shoot-out – the facility degree employed by Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED and arguably the bottom you may go for playable triple-A gaming. Nonetheless, all of those handhelds are power-starved at this TDP – to the purpose the place Steam Deck can truly outperform these machines – and it is at 25W the place you discover the sweetspot and genuinely game-changing will increase in efficiency: sufficient to make the likes of Alan Wake 2 and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora playable.
We’ve some points with the video drivers within the Lenovo Legion Go, so 720p benchmarking on our video capture-based resolution did not work. There are not any such issues at 1080p, nonetheless, the place we have moved up TDP to 25W – the candy spot for the most recent Z1 Excessive and Ryzen 7 7840 processors. Nonetheless, the Legion Go is liable to stutter and/or irregular body supply on all 4 of our check titles, with solely A Plague Story: Requiem not exhibiting egregious hitching. Trying to rule out video output itself as the problem, I observed comparable stutter from the Go’s in-built show. I noticed the identical factor throughout the ROG Ally evaluation interval and the impact is now gone, so I am hopeful that up to date drivers will assist right here as in any other case, I feel the Go is somewhat particular.
The 1080p outcomes basically affirm that whether or not you are gaming on a Z1 Excessive processor or the Ryzen 7 7840U usually favoured by Chinese language producers, the {hardware} performs in a really, very comparable method. You’ll be able to push all of those chips additional, in fact. The ROG Ally, OneXPlayer 2 Professional and Legion Go max out at 30W (the Ally requires the unit to be plugged into the mains for this), however in the end there’s little or no acquire for doing so – solely round three to 10 % of additional efficiency for 20 % of additional energy.
The AyaNeo Kun is an enchanting piece of package in that you could push it to 54W TDP – however once more, the rule of diminishing returns kicks in massively. 54W is a 116 % enhance in energy consumption over 25W, however in Cyberpunk 2077 you acquire simply 11.5 % extra efficiency and that is one of the best enchancment I noticed in my testing. There is a level at which the GPU reaches its supposed efficiency goal, or else bottlenecks based on one other manufacturing facility, like reminiscence bandwidth limitations, presumably. It is simply not price it for gaming, although you will notice extra of a lift in CPU-based duties.
Subsequent up, battery life. With a 40Whr battery, the unique Steam Deck delivered round an hour-and-a-half of battery life on the most recent triple-A video games, which elevated considerably on the OLED mannequin because of the transfer to a 7nm processor and a 50WHr battery. Bear this in thoughts once you try the desk beneath, taken with A Plague Story: Requiem in a GPU-heavy fiery scene operating at 1080p with balanced upscaling on low settings (which nonetheless seems to be nice, by the way in which). I caught with 25W TDP taking into account that that is the important thing to operating high-end video games nicely. I additionally ramped up display brightness to the utmost.
It is of little shock to search out that the Asus ROG Ally, with only a 40Whr battery, coming in final right here, with slightly below an hour then. The Legion Go together with its nigh-on 50Whr battery does higher with virtually one hour, 19 minutes of gameplay – so the a lot bigger, extra vibrant display does not look like having any influence on battery life. That is adopted by the OneXPlayer 2 Professional with its 65.5Whr battery delivering virtually 106 minutes of gaming. It is barely extra environment friendly general than the Legion Go nevertheless it is not operating at 144Hz display so maybe to be anticipated.
The OneXPlayer additionally scores nicely in opposition to the AyaNeo Kun. You are getting an additional 9.5Whr of battery capability with the AyaNeo product however that is solely translating into round six minutes extra gaming. Something over an hour and a half goes good, I might say – it is just about the sort of battery life I had with the unique Steam Deck and I managed to stay with that, besides, all of those outcomes are fairly low general.
| Battery Capability | Battery Life | vs ROG Ally | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asus ROG Ally | 40.0 Whr | 57 Minutes 55 Secs | – |
| Lenovo Legion Go | 49.2Whr | 78 Minutes 48 Secs | +36.0% |
| OneXPlayer 2 Professional | 65.5Whr | 105 Minutes 41 Secs | +82.5% |
| AyaNeo Kun | 75.0Whr | 111 Minutes 35 Secs | +92.6% |
Within the video atop this web page, you will see how I put the 25W Ryzen 7 7840U to activity in demanding video games like Alan Wake 2, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and the Burning Shores growth for Horizon Forbidden West. I used the OneXPlayer 2 Professional for these checks, however you may obtain a lot the identical expertise on the opposite units examined right here. Even 720p with low settings on the primary brace of video games seems to be completely advantageous on a cellular display, although Alan Wake 2 does demand some grainy upscaling. Horizon requires 720p with dynamic decision scaling, however nonetheless holds 30fps on medium settings and appears suitably spectacular – marred solely by cinematic cutscene stutter.
Allowing for that each one of those units successfully run on the identical {hardware}, there are fascinating variations. To begin with, the Lenovo Legion Go is essentially the most well-made system I am taking a look at immediately. Construct high quality is nice, whereas the 8.8-inch display is large. I genuinely just like the system however I feel the software program must be higher and it wants help for extra trendy drivers – or no matter else it’s that is inflicting the frame-time inconsistencies. ROG Ally was the identical however is improved now, so fingers crossed. I might wish to see a bigger battery too however actually, as a lot as I really like the display, I actually would have most popular 1080p with VRR – which stays the ROG Ally’s key USP. A gaming handheld does not want a 1600p display. That stated, native help for extra refresh charges means clear dividers for 36fps and 40fps, each of that are noticeably higher and smoother than 30fps.
OneXPlayer 2 Professional gives comparatively spectacular battery life judged by the opposite Home windows handhelds. The display high quality is nice, however once more, decision is arguably too excessive and the 60Hz panel principally means you are concentrating on 30fps or 60fps – and vanishingly few trendy triple-A video games ever get nearer to 60. The removable controllers require a hub to operate just like the Joycons they mimic – which is a missed alternative – and the shape issue of the machine is frankly enormous compared to the others, notably when it comes to depth. I did just like the equipment accessible although, and there is even an outdated Floor-style keyboard that transforms it right into a mini-laptop of types. These machines are basically refactored laptops so why not have that performance? The software program aspect of issues is a bit threadbare although in comparison with the AyaNeo units and the ROG Ally.
Subsequent up, the AyaNeo Kun: I am undecided show vibrancy is pretty much as good because the Go or the OneXPlayer 2 Professional and as soon as once more, there may be simply no want for a 2560×1600 display: 1080p with VRR would have been a significantly better selection. AyaNeo has thrown all the things it may on the specs right here – 64GB is excessive overkill, however when you think about this system as a full-on laptop computer in a handheld shell, it begins to make extra sense as a dockable, take-anywhere laptop – albeit one that may require a workstation set-up to ‘dock’ into.
Nonetheless, the ROG Ally remains to be an important piece of package – reminiscence limitations at 16GB are beginning to make themselves recognized, however in any other case, it is the smallest and lightest machine of the bunch and holds up nicely performance-wise in most titles. It is solely the battery life and weaker color copy that’s problematic. Since I reviewed it, its software program has improved tremendously, and Steam Deck apart, it is the one PC handheld on the market that allows you to sport with extra constant frame-times past 30fps because of its VRR display. In comparison with the Legion Go and the OneXPlayer 2 Professional specifically, that show is considerably washed out and nowhere close to as vibrant, however VRR – or a tweakable Deck-style refresh fee – is essential to those handhelds and this stays a gamechanger for the Ally.
There’s loads of selection then, however no outright winner. Efficiency is proscribed on Steam Deck in comparison with these beasts, nevertheless it’s nonetheless the popular PC handheld general – it looks like a correct console/PC hybrid in a approach that these Home windows machines simply do not. You simply want to just accept that some video games are past Valve’s in any other case masterful transportable, and it is right here the place the Home windows handhelds can carve out their very own area of interest. They’ve their flaws, however operating at their greatest, they do issues that no different handheld can.
Nonetheless, these Home windows-based transportable units simply carry on coming – and with Microsoft’s Phil Spencer seemingly intent on making Xbox viable on these units, I am positive it is solely a matter of time earlier than that ‘unicorn’ handheld arrives: a machine that’s as accessible as Steam Deck, with the required horsepower to run cutting-edge video games. Within the meantime, I look ahead to updates to the Legion Go – I used to be a contact let down by its software program and lack of VRR, however the {hardware} itself is top quality and there is loads of worth from its specs and sticker worth.
