The gaming industry is becoming increasingly mobile. Laptops are lighter, more portable, and more powerful than ever, while most of us carry gaming-capable mobile devices in our pockets. There is also an expanding range of dedicated handheld gaming devices, like the Switch and the Steam Deck, as well as reports of Sony re-entering the mobile hardware sector soon. Improved 5G technology, as well as better streaming and cloud gaming options, mean that gamers have a huge range of options available to us today.
Mobile Gaming Options
Mobile gaming takes many forms, from playing The Legend of Zelda on Switch to playing at an instant casino on your mobile phone. All of these forms of gaming have different requirements. While the latest AAA titles are going to benefit from having the best available GPU and CPU, that isn’t necessarily true of casino games. They benefit from integration with modern payment systems, and while there is a wide selection of games, they don’t necessarily need the smoothest framerates and video quality as offered by the current generation of Windows handheld gaming devices.
Windows Gaming Devices
When it comes to Windows devices, there are a lot of options already on the market. Asus ROG and Lenovo Legion handhelds, for example, benefit from offering access to Windows-based games. They use powerful processors and gaming features, too, but potential buyers may want to hold off until 2025 before buying.
In September, AMD and Microsoft confirmed that the chip manufacturer announced the upcoming AMD Ryzen Z2 chip. New versions of the ROG and the Legion, benefiting from the new chips, are expected in early 2025, and this means that current models will be outdated as soon as they are bought. There won’t necessarily be that much of a price increase, but there should be a significant jump in gaming and graphics quality.
Steam Deck
Perhaps the single best-known handheld gaming rig, outside handheld consoles, is the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck is manufactured and sold by Valve, and it is designed to run the company’s catalog of games on the Steam client. While the device certainly isn’t cheap, it is less expensive than buying a gaming laptop and is the ideal accompaniment for players who are invested in the Steam library.
Steam has nearly 80,000 games with thousands of new titles added every year. Some titles are free to play, but most of the better-quality games do have to be purchased. In November this year, Valve announced a new Steam Deck model, although it was only a color update on the existing OLED model. A truly upgraded model of the Steam Deck likely won’t be seen until the end of 2025 at the very earliest.
Nintendo Switch
Nintendo has long been at the forefront of handheld gaming devices, initially thanks to its launch of the GameBoy and, more recently, with the Switch. The device has access to a large library of games, can be docked to a TV for an improved static gaming experience, and has innovative Joy-Con controllers that can operate as two separate controllers or a single handheld device.
Leaks of a Switch 2 have all but been confirmed by the Japanese gaming giant, who has promised to release details in the first few months of next year.
Although you can never dismiss the possibility of an unexpected curve ball from Nintendo, it seems likely that the new device would be an upgraded variant of the current model with OLED as standard and 4K streaming to TVs. The ability to convert from a home console to a mobile gaming device, as well as Nintendo’s impressive games catalog, is what makes the device so popular.
Sony Handheld
It has been reported that Sony is looking to re-enter the handheld gaming device market. Sony enjoyed some success with the PlayStation Portable between 2004 and 2014, as well as the PS Vita in March 2019. It has been rumored that the device would be a portable PlayStation capable of playing all PlayStation titles, which would make it very appealing to console gamers. However, Sony has neither confirmed nor denied the rumors, and it may well come to nothing.
Mobile Gaming
For many people, portable gaming is reserved for mobile games. More than half of the world’s population has a smartphone capable of playing some form of mobile game. The mobile gaming industry has an annual revenue of approximately $100 billion, and major names in the gaming industry have launched or partnered with others to launch mobile variants of their game. However, mobile phones remain most popular with casual gamers.
Hyper-casual games are especially popular because they can be played for a few minutes at a time, which makes them especially well suited to use while commuting, watching TV, or waiting for friends. Users have become used to seeing in-app purchases and microtransactions, and some cell phones are sold on the strength of their capability as gaming machines.
Laptops
Although not as portable as any of the devices above, laptops are still portable devices. They can be folded and put in a backpack and can run on battery power rather than having to be plugged into the mains. They are also more powerful than most of the options above, although power and portability ultimately depend on the price tag.
The laptop is arguably the best option for those who are serious about gaming on the move because it still affords the benefits of keyboard and mouse gaming without being tethered to a desk workstation.
Conclusion
Mobile gaming is convenient and fun, and it doesn’t tie you down to playing in the living room or games room. It doesn’t even tie you down to playing at home. And there is an increasingly wide range of options when it comes to choosing a mobile gaming device.
Dedicated systems like the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch, as well as Windows mobile gaming devices, are joined by powerful smartphones and aided by 5G connectivity and improved game collections, bringing even greater variety to gamers.
