HANDHELD HEAVEN

We’ve got a classic Nintendo teardown this issue; something that coincided with this writer’s decision to buy my partner a Switch Lite. Compared to my full-fat Switch, the Lite is a truly compact unit, with a tiny but bright 720p LCD display. It’s clear that Nintendo is (as ever) leading the charge in portable gaming.

It got me thinking about handheld gaming, and how PC gaming has remained almost entirely absent from that sphere. Sure, we now have gaming laptops that can rival home consoles, but genuine handheld PC platforms are virtually non-existent beyond streaming through smartphones. In fact, smartphones are becoming the dominant platform for pocket-friendly gaming. Sony abandoned its efforts after the lackluster PSP Go, and while Switch Lite sales have been strong, they’re not close to the 150+ million Nintendo DS units sold prior to the Switch.

Modern Android and Apple phones are competent gaming platforms, with some designed specifically with gaming in mind, such as Asus’s ROG Phone. But if you haven’t already, check out the Alienware Concept UFO. That’s what I want the future of handheld gaming to look like: PC-powered, customizable, with access to PC’s gloriously huge game library.