If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED
The Undisputed King
Nintendo Switch
The Best (Nintendo) Upgrade
Nintendo Switch OLED
Best for PC Gamers
Valve Steam Deck
The Best Upgrade for PC Gamers
Valve Steam Deck OLED
It feels like a distant memory by now, but right before the Nintendo Switch launched in 2017, it seemed like portable gaming was on its last life. Mobile games had gobbled up huge portions of the market, and most modern games required a lot of power to run on devices like the Nintendo 3DS. Fast-forward to today, and there are more ways to take your games outside the living room than ever.
This is a bit of an odd category because, to be quite frank, many of the devices currently on the market aren’t very good. Valve’s Steam Deck kicked off a wave of manufacturers looking to compete with the Nintendo Switch, but many of their offerings are rushed, buggy, or just not a great way to play games. A few have risen to the challenge, and I’m comfortable saying that there are finally some good options to choose from. I’ve spent dozens of hours testing as many gaming handhelds as I could get my grubby hands on—these are the best.
Be sure to check out our other gaming buying guides, including the Best Retro Gaming Consoles, Best Mobile Game Controllers, Best Steam Deck Accessories, and Best Switch Accessories.
Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.
-
Photograph: Nintendo
The Undisputed King
Nintendo Switch
It should go without saying that Nintendo takes the top spot in the category it more or less reinvented. The original Switch (7/10, WIRED Recommends) does it all. It puts Nintendo’s first-party titles into a handheld that gets great battery life (most of the time). Pop off the Joy-Con controllers to play with the screen propped up on the kickstand, or put the screen into a dock to play on your TV.
You probably don’t need to be told that the Switch is a great Nintendo console, but if you’re still on the fence six years later, it’s worth mentioning it has become a great indie games console. I’ve personally spent more hours playing Stardew Valley on this than Mario Kart 8. While the Switch’s hardware is low-powered even compared to the previous generation of PlayStation and Xbox consoles, it’s a great platform for third-party developers to bring over their library of older or less graphically intensive games to give them a new lease on life.
-
Photograph: Nintendo
The Best (Nintendo) Upgrade
Nintendo Switch OLED
The original Switch is a fantastic device, but it has a couple of minor flaws. The screen isn’t the best quality, and its flimsy kickstand isn’t super sturdy and can break easily. Fortunately, both of these are fixed with the Switch OLED (8/10, WIRED Recommends). This one comes with a bigger 7-inch screen (while only making the handheld itself slightly bigger), plus a reliable kickstand that spans the entire width of the console. It also has 64 GB of built-in storage instead of the 32 GB on the original. You probably don’t need to upgrade if you already have a Switch, but if you’re looking to get one for the first time, this model is only $50 more and you get a lot of extra bang for those few extra bucks.
-
Photograph: Valve
Best for PC Gamers
Valve Steam Deck
The Steam Deck (5/10, WIRED Review) had some issues when it first came out, but after a barrage of updates and nearly two years on the market, I’m comfortable saying it’s the second-best way to take your games outside the house, behind the Switch. It has all the buttons and control sticks you’d expect from a typical controller (making it compatible with most games that have controller support), plus a pair of touchpads that help approximate a mouse when you need finer control than thumbsticks can typically provide. Every button is customizable, so if a game wasn’t designed to run in handheld mode, you can still make most of them work.
Despite using a compatibility layer to play Windows games on a custom Linux build, the vast majority of games in your Steam library run exceptionally well on the Steam Deck. (We have a guide on how to find compatible games.) That includes a lot of AAA titles you wouldn’t expect to work on the relatively low-powered processor. Don’t get me wrong, you probably won’t be playing Starfield on this thing, and most high-end games will need to use the lowest graphics settings, but I’ve spent a shocking number of hours using it to play titles like Doom Eternal that I thought I’d only ever be able to play on my desktop PC.
-
Photograph: Valve
The Best Upgrade for PC Gamers
Valve Steam Deck OLED
Like Nintendo, Valve launched an updated version of its portable console called the Steam Deck OLED (7/10, WIRED Recommends). It has a minor spec bump and, as you might guess, an OLED screen. Most notably–beyond the much better display–it comes with a 50-Wh battery, instead of the 40-Wh capacity on the original. While the Steam Deck gets surprisingly good battery life for lower-power games, heavy AAA games can drain it pretty quickly, so this is a nice improvement. The OLED model also supports Wi-Fi 6E, which is both more future-proof and helpful for downloading all those huge games.
Right now, the only Steam Deck versions that come with the OLED screen start at around $100 to $150 more than those without, depending on the model you’re comparing to. It’s a mildly pricey upgrade, but if you can spare the cash, it’s worth it.
-
Photograph: Sony
For PS5 Streaming
Sony PlayStation Portal
The PlayStation Portal (7/10, WIRED Review) comes with some caveats. It doesn’t let you install games and play them on a handheld. Instead, it’s a device solely dedicated to streaming games from your PlayStation 5 onto its 8-inch LCD screen. That means to use it, you need the console and a solid Wi-Fi connection in your home. (You can play it remotely away from home, but the quality will vary based on your internet connection.)
That might be worthwhile for some people. I played Spider-Man 2 at my partner’s place despite the PS5 sitting back at home, and the experience was surprisingly comfortable. At $200, the Portal is considerably cheaper than other handhelds on this list (if you ignore having to own a PS5 for it to work). It’s not for everyone, but for the people it’s for, it’s great at its job. Just know that it’s hard to find it in stock.
-
Photograph: Lenovo
The Best Windows-Based Gaming Handheld
Lenovo Legion Go
We’ve put off the Windows-based handhelds as long as we can, but it’s finally time to address the elephant in the room. A lot of manufacturers have tried to build a Steam Deck competitor that runs Windows. The main flaw is … well, they run Windows. That means extra bloat that gamers don’t need, a battery that drains way faster than it would on a purpose-built gaming device, and a ton of user interface jank that makes it a nightmare to navigate to your games.
With all that in mind, the Lenovo Legion Go (5/10, WIRED Recommends) is the best attempt we’ve seen at this so far. It has two detachable controllers, similar to the Switch. Its innovative “FPS mode” bridges the gap between controller and mouse input, and it even has the same wide, sturdy kickstand as the Switch OLED. There are two USB-C ports—one on the top and one on the bottom—so you can plug it in no matter how you’re playing. Since it runs Windows, it can technically run any PC game, not just the ones on Steam.
-
Photograph: Nintendo
Honorable Mentions
Gaming Handheld Honorable Mentions
There are a ton of other gaming handhelds on the market, and many are either streaming-only devices or Windows-based handhelds, neither of which are particularly easy to pull off. These aren’t our top picks, but they’re still handhelds we’d recommend over anything else.
- Nintendo Switch Lite for $200: The Switch Lite (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is the cheapest version of the Switch, but not by a ton. It lacks detachable controllers, and you can’t dock it to play on your TV. This is for portable gaming exclusively. If you’re fine with that, then you can save a little money with this version, but if you want to play with separate controllers or on your TV–or if you’re just unsure–then it’s probably worth spending a little extra on the regular Switch or Switch OLED.
- Asus Rog Ally for $700: We were pretty harsh to the Rog Ally in our review and for good reason. It has the same jank as other Windows-based handhelds. However, we’re keeping an eye out to see if this one goes on sale. It technically has better specs than the Steam Deck, and if you can get past the interface weirdness (and play near a charging cable), it’s a solid option at a lower price. But to be clear, this scraped into our honorable mentions by the skin of its teeth, so it better be a really good sale.