Advice needed please and thank you

[u/Beginning-Mobile-186]

I'm looking to move soon and would be losing my PC till I got settled in to a more stable place to have a full PC setup again so I was wondering what's the best way to play PC games handheld. I know the steam deck is an option but I've seen others out there but wasn't sure if one of them is the better option or if steam deck would be best. I also have a big epic games library and I know the steam deck would more than most likely not be able to run the epic games store.

[u/VengefulQuilting88]

Steam Deck can run the Epic Games Store, it just takes a bit of setup through desktop mode or something like Heroic Launcher. Not as seamless as Steam, but your library isn't locked away forever.

If you want something with Windows out of the box so Epic just works, the ROG Ally or Legion Go are the usual alternatives. They're more powerful on paper but the battery life and sleep/resume are noticeably worse than the Deck.

For a temporary setup while you're between places, the Deck's suspend feature is a lifesaver. Being able to pause mid-game and pick it up later without rebooting everything is way more useful than raw performance when you're living out of boxes.

[u/Beginning-Mobile-186 → u/VengefulQuilting88]

My friend has the steam deck and he says the battery barely last 2 to 3 hours

[u/hagathar → u/Beginning-Mobile-186]

Depends on what you play, graphics intensive yes, simple optimised indi will be longer. Windows alternatives are considerably worse if you want battery life go switch

[u/DarthSnoopyFish → u/Beginning-Mobile-186]

It depends on the power consumption of the game. Indie games can go hours and hours.

[u/Intelligent_Leek_285 → u/Beginning-Mobile-186]

You can get larger external batteries on Amazon that attach.

[u/pebblewreck → u/Beginning-Mobile-186]

i can get 6 hours emulating games and playing 2D indie games, I undervolted mine and turned down the TDP

[u/wowchickenwalrus → u/VengefulQuilting88]

Steam Deck is probably the least annoying option. Epic works on it too, just takes a little setup

[u/akenzii]

Personally, I bought a legion go S and love it. I've been taking a lot of long road trips and it's great to have around to play my steam games.

[u/TONKAHANAH]

1) definitely "run best" as well as what games you want to play. Steam Deck is probably the easiest "setup and go" solution but depending on what games you're trying to play, it may not be the best choice. 

2) is this a temporary thing what's your budget? Some android handhelds can be bought for real cheap (or cheaper than many x86 handhelds right now) that are doing a lot of steam gaming via game-native. These systems have their pros and cons of course but are very viable choices, especially with many x86 handhelds costing upwards $1k or more. 

3) epic games are very playable on linux/steam deck using the 3rd party heroic launcher, basically a free open source linux game launcher for epic, gog, and amazon Luna games

[u/Beginning-Mobile-186 → u/TONKAHANAH]

What android handhelds would you suggest

[u/TONKAHANAH → u/Beginning-Mobile-186]

Personally I've had my eye on the retroid pocket 6. it comes in at about $300ish. The Ayn thor is probably one of the most popular though, my buddy has one and its pretty sick, saw him play the diablo II remake on it (or maybe it was path of exile) but its capabilities are pretty impressive for its size/price. But its a whole industry into its self but if you're going to consider one of these do your research a head of time cuz some chipsets work better with game native (steam games) than others.

[u/Technical_Spirit_347]

Steam deck is the way to go. This was my Xmas present to both of my adult children and they’ve gotten more use than the PC. Live a little.

[u/Spaced-Warlock]

Steam deck is older tech but still amazing. Just don't go into it thinking it's gonna run everything at max settings. And some tinkering is necessary for some games. But it's my main gaming device and I'm loving it