IGN’s Jackie Thomas has reviewed every major handheld gaming PC, from the Steam Deck to the ROG Xbox Ally, playing games, running benchmarks, and testing their gaming performance, battery life, ergonomics, and more. After 100+ hours of testing, these are the 4 best gaming handhelds in 2026 – and why we don’t recommend the Steam Deck anymore.
Where to buy:
Asus ROG Xbox Ally –
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X –
Lenovo Legion Go S –
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ –
For more, check out our full guide to the best handheld gaming PCs in 2026:
My rog ally z1 extreme can’t even run Samson. It’s pathetic machine
I have an LCD Steam Deck with upgraded SSD. I’m can’t decide between sell my LCD Steam Deck, get the Lenovo Legion Go s 32gb Ram, upgraded to a Steam Deck OLED or find a retroid pocket handheld. I wanna still be able to play my Steam library. Battery life is important and I really wanna play newer games and the Steam Deck is starting to show it’s age for playing newer games. Thoughts anyone???
I have a Lenovo lap top, 32 gigs ddr5, 1 T hard drive top line I7 , what a peice of junk.
I spent 5 months with my Legion go 2 Z2E 32g and absolutely loved it. Recently switched to a Legion Go S Z1E Steam 32g and I actually like it more. It’s so much lighter and more ergonomic. Plus, the native optimization from Steam OS is just unbeatable to me.
You forgot to add the PS Portal.
PS Portal is a demo handheld for PC games 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣🗑️🚮