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Gaming Laptops Are a Better Deal Than The Xbox Ally X - IGN
Why pay gaming laptop prices for a handheld?
We're fresh off the release of the Xbox Ally X, and it doesn't seem like handheld gaming PCs are going anywhere anytime soon. At least for me, handhelds have become my go-to way of playing my Steam – among other PC game stores – library when I'm not at my desk. In a lot of ways, these little devices have replaced much of what I used gaming laptops for, especially during a commute or a short trip.
This makes me wonder: why would you buy a gaming laptop in 2025 when PC gaming handhelds are getting more powerful and portable year after year? If all you're looking for is an alternate device to play your games on the go, the prospects for gaming laptops seem to be thinning. However, now that handheld gaming PCs are getting more expensive, it's once again getting harder to draw a clear line.
Handheld Gaming PCs Have Come a Long Way
Handheld gaming PCs aren't a new thing. Depending on who you ask, you can trace the form factor back to 2010 with the Pandora – a Linux based handheld that wasn't much larger than the Nintendo DS – but the Steam Deck is responsible for the explosion in more mainstream handheld PC devices these days. After all, it was affordable, and had a user experience that didn't require you to be an expert to navigate.In the roughly three years since the Steam Deck launched, it seems like every major computer manufacturer has jumped at the chance to craft its own handheld gaming machines. But because a company like Lenovo can't subsidize its hardware costs with software sales like Valve can, these other devices have been more expensive than the Deck.
Regardless of which modern handheld you pick up, though, you can still play pretty much any game on it, as long as you temper your expectations when it comes to graphics quality. You don't need to lug around a heavy gaming laptop just to get some time in Path of Exile 2 on the road.
The Pricing Problem
But gaming laptops aren't just more unwieldy than a handheld PC – they're generally more expensive, too. Even if devices like the Xbox Ally X and the Legion Go 2 are balked at because of their high prices, gaming laptops have always been kind of expensive. Even entry-level devices, like the Acer Nitro V start at around $900 right now, with an RTX 5050 and a Core i7 processor. And that's the low-end. High-end gaming laptops can get much, much more expensive.Our favorite gaming laptop right now is the Razer Blade 16, which is a premium device that looks like an edgy MacBook Pro. But that svelte design comes with a high price, starting at $1,899 with an RTX 5060 – much more expensive than even the Legion Go 2. You can also upgrade that laptop to an RTX 5090 if you want to spend $4,499. To be fair, that'll be much more powerful than any handheld device on the market right now, and probably for years to come.
Handhelds, on the other hand, were initially supposed to be these secondary devices we used in addition to our gaming PCs or laptops – that's how I use mine. That was a much easier sell with the Steam Deck. I bought the Steam Deck at launch for $529, which came with a 256GB SSD. Is it as powerful as my PC? Hell no, but I primarily use it to play Ball x Pit in bed while I listen to a podcast. You can substitute any recent gaming PC in that equation, too, and I'm probably using it in the same way. But as much as I love many of the handhelds I've used in the last couple years, I don't know if I would have ever got into them if the Steam Deck cost a thousand bucks.
Gaming laptops are meant to be your primary computer, and they're powerful enough to play most games at a higher resolution and with better visual quality than a handheld. And they're also able to do a lot more than just play your games.
Gaming Laptops Aren't Going Anywhere
I spend a lot of time on a handheld – I've reviewed a lot of them now – but I'm always returning to my PC, because it lets me play my games, and also get stuff done. There's just something nice about a device that lets you play something like World of Warcraft between Adobe Premiere sessions. And, really, that's what gaming laptops offer and something handheld PCs continue to struggle with, even as they start to have laptop-like price tags.Because while a lot of handhelds are launching with a full-fat version of Windows running on them, they have a long way to go before they can truly replace gaming laptops. Arguably, they even have a long way to go before they're easy to use for just gaming. The Xbox Full Screen Experience did a lot to address the user experience side of things, giving Windows a controller-friendly UI where you can launch games or open Edge, but it won't let you do much beyond that.
If you want to get some work done on the Xbox Ally X, that's certainly possible, but you have to get into the desktop and likely connect a keyboard and a mouse to even be able to use most productivity apps. And you'll probably want to connect it to an external display, too. It's certainly possible to use a handheld like you would any other PC, but it requires so many extra steps that it's probably not actually worth it.
Instead, for most people that only need one PC, a gaming laptop simply makes more sense, especially as the price delta between them continues to narrow. You'll be able to play games better, while also being able to do all the daily tasks we all have without having to plug two or more accessories into a USB dongle to do it.
Handheld gaming PCs are better as companions to your main gaming rig, especially if you already have a large Steam library to tap into. I'm not sure what the suits over at Lenovo and Asus are thinking, but it seems like a bad idea to have a secondary device be as expensive as a gaming laptop.
