Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Handheld Gaming in 2025 - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

Go to http://shadyrays.com and use code FUNNY to get 35% off polarized sunglasses. Thank you for the support! Run of Show - - Start - Housekeeping - Handheld gaming in 2025 - KEY FACTORS TO CONSIDER - Opening stating for 2025 Handheld Gaming - Our Recommendations - Retro emulation - Ads - Handheld gaming PCs - Dedicated streaming devices - Mobile add ons -  FaQs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Monday, June 16th, 2025. Of course, I'm your host, Tim Geddes. I'm joined today by the Master of Hype Snowbike Mike. What up, Tim? The Big Daddy himself, Greg Miller. Hello, Tim. And joining us remotely from Sunny San Diego. It's the best voice of video games, Paris, Lily.

Hello, Tim. How you doing, Paris? I'm doing fantastic, sir. You've been out there? You've been doing so much in the last couple weeks. Like, we, Greg got to go down to SGF, but we all had to stay here. You were running around. We saw you.

everywhere, man. That was so cool to see. Oh, yeah, man. I've literally been around the world and back. He's been globet. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. But finally, I feel like I can take a mini break, but excited to be here. I always miss you guys. Me too. So this is going to be a very good one, everybody. Of course, we are talking about a lot of what you're seeing on the desk. But what is that? You'll have to wait and see in just a second because this is the kind of funny games cast each and every weekday. We get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch,

and podcast services around the globe. If you'll love what we do, please support us with the kind of funny membership. You can get it pretty much anywhere you are, whether it's YouTube, Patreon, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. You can get the membership to get our shows ad-free and a daily exclusive Gregway. For a chance to be part of this show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go.

So if you have any questions about handheld gaming in 2025 or suggestions, Thoughts, reviews. We are at 11-person business all about live talk shows. Games Daily covered the imminence Donkey Kong Bonanza Nintendo Direct that I'm incredibly excited for. Can you believe Paris is a 5 out of 10 excitement on this? I mean, well, that's fair. Get out of here. What do you got to get monkeys?

All right? So anyway, is the 5 of 10 because you can grab me, man. Because you don't care about Donkey Kong or because you can't. I love Donkey Kong. So, you know, I went to the L.A. preview. Like, you went to the New York one. and I played it there and it just didn't do it for me, man.

I think I need to see more. So far, me and you are the only people I've heard that aren't like, oh man, it was the best guy ever played. I was pretty like, we'll see. I'm ready to go eight for it. If we don't even know what the team is, assuming we know that it's Nintendo EAD. I'm hopeful, but I'm waiting for this direct

to show me some more. After this, Greg and Nick are torturing Joey on the kind of funny podcast. Is it just the three of you? That's right. That's amazing. Oh my God. I decided what I'm going to do. It's time for annual employee review. Oh, okay. Wait, wait, are you? Oh, man. I'm reading this all wrong. Whatever. The stream is the start of Donny Dog Week. Come watch some crash. It's going to be me and Barrett playing Crash Bandicoot. Can't wait for that. It's been too many years since I've played Crash Bandicoot on stream. If you're a kind of funny member, today's Gregway is 14 minutes about if Dooms Day will show up in James Guns, D.C.

Thank you to our Patreon producers Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Delaney Twining. Today we're brought to you by Shady Rays. We'll tell you all about that later. For now, I'll start with the topic of the show. Tats, Tots, Tots, Tats, Tats. It's handheld gaming in 2025. A couple questions I pose to myself, correct?

To try to, like, give context to the conversation here and what we're even talking about. Because what is handheld gaming in 2025? I feel like back in the day, it made a lot more sense. It was just, oh, it's a Game Boy. That's it. You know, but that was a long time ago. Since then, portable gaming, handheld gaming has taken many different forms. So why would you want a handheld gaming device?

The categories I came up with were modern PC gaming, modern console gaming, retro emulator gaming, modern retro emulator gaming. That I'm counting like PlayStation 3, Wii U, you know, where it's like, it's retro, but it's not old school Super Nintendo and all that stuff, right? Like it's stuff that hurts us to call retro, but it is. And then game streaming. So whether it's cloud streaming or remote play or things like that. Am I missing anything there? Those seem to be the big reasons you'd want a handheld gaming device. And I know this is going to get an eye roll, but I think it's worth of the conversation.

We are missing mobile gaming. We are missing an iPhone and iPad. I do think that there are still a lot of people who are playing a lot of games there. Whether they be, I'm doing Resident Evil on my iPhone or I'm playing whatever the new cookie clickers. So like app-based gaming then. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. There. So key factors to consider within that are compatible game collection slash storefront. So for example, Nintendo Switch, you're locked to Nintendo Switch games and that's it. Whereas most of the devices, whether it's more portable emulation devices or things like the ally or the Steam Deck, you have choices of different stores, different operating systems to allow you to get into them, different workarounds.

but that's the whole conversation there. Then it's, is this for travel or is it for a second screen experience? Meaning, is this something that you want to be portable? Just because it's handheld doesn't mean portable necessarily. Or is this something that you want a second screen on your couch while watching TV or while someone else watches TV or whatever?

Then the quality of the screen. You know, there's a lot of different screen tech these days, whether it is OLED displays or aiming for higher refresh, rates and there's different reasons to want one of the other of those things. Then portability overall in terms of if it's going to be a portable device, how portable is it? Because yes, the Steam Deck's portable, but it's a lot less portable than this guy, the premium U-wide brick. And then Price, of course, is another major factor to keep in mind with all these things.

I think the last one is versatility. Like, are these devices able to be good enough at other categories, even if they're not the best? and there is a better device for X, Y, or Z. But this one's good enough at all of them that it's an easy recommendation to, if you just want one thing, go with this, you know. Sure. So with all that, any opening statements about the state of handheld gaming in 2025, Paris, Lilley? I think Microsoft with Windows has an opportunity to really dominate that market for everything that you were just talking about.

Windows is the dominant operating system. Windows allows you to have anti-cheat so you can play games like Fortnite and Call a Duty. Windows allows you to have multiple storefronts, whether it be Xbox, Steam, GOG, Epic, Ubisoft on down the line. Obviously, what we got to see last week is them trying to iterate and have a true Windows handheld experience that's easy to use. press the power button you're into your games you're able to play them have the multiple stores we talked about the emulation piece of this obviously windows is very friendly with that as well they're not there yet

I'm going to be crystal clear on that. There's still work that they need to do to get there. I think right now, clearly Nintendo with the Switch too kind of dominates the handheld market. We're seeing the sales numbers out there. I would say behind them what Val was done with SteamOS. But Linux has its limitations, which is why I think Windows does have an opportunity if they can kind of shore up some of those sore points that they have right now. But I'm excited for the future of handheld gaming because I do think there is a market there. I think everything that you listed out about it, the fact that I can play my AAA PC games on the go when I'm traveling, I can cloud stream them at high quality as I'm sitting on my couch, you know, through my internal network, things like that. Excite me for the future of where handheld gaming is going. We're almost there, I think, but there's still work to be done.

Mike, I actually don't know about you in handheld gaming at all. Like what are your thoughts on in general and let alone 2025? Yeah, I'm more the person on the fence about handheld gaming here probably on this panel. I feel like I am surviving an onslaught of everybody having a handheld gaming device now or announcing a new one that I should go purchase. I am just overwhelmed on the TikTok shop of all these different emulators that are trying to get sold for $70 to $100 plus dollars. And so for me, handheld gaming has kind of come really fast on these past couple of, of years where before it was clear.

This is the Game Boy. I like the Game Boy. This is my Nintendo 3DS. I get that, right? I think the Nintendo Switch really nailed the handheld for me after, of course, the PSP and Vita, which I loved and enjoyed. But the Switch nailed what a handheld to me in this new generation should be, right? It is a at-home console and then it can be picked up and on the go for that versatility and that portability. And so for me now, I look at my Switch and it's like, okay, well, they nailed that.

Like that is where I go to, but I am someone who plays in a lot of different ecosystems and I kind of want my games to come with me. And I've always had a dream of X, Y, and Z, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Steam, all coming with me somewhere, right? And so now I'm a little overwhelmed by how much options there are and the worry that if I invest X amount of dollars into something, I'm going to be left behind or I'm going to miss out on something or it's going to become e-waste, my favorite word, Tim Getty's in three to five years where, no, that's not viable anymore.

We've moved past that, right? As an Xbox fan, we've come hard off of the Xbox Series S. And I know for me and Paris will tell you, not many games were really held back by that, but there was way too many new stories of the Xbox Series S is holding it all back. They can't make games for this. Oh, this game's not releasing there. And so I worry about handhelds being the same way of like, if I invest this, now this game won't run on it or this game runs so poorly on it.

not worth it. And so I'm a little more on the fence about that. I think portability as well as a fun conversation we'll have here throughout. But yeah, I'm more of the apprehensive of like, I'm ready to commit, but I don't know which one to do because there's too many. Greg Miller. Hi, Tim. How are you? I'm great. How are you? What are your thoughts on handheld gaming in 2025? What a time to be alive. You know, I think we're very lucky in me in particular since I'm a little older than most people. Well, not older than Paris. Come on.

No one's that old. But the idea that, you know, I've talked at length about the fact that all the nerds like me grew up and kind of took over the world in some very bad ways. But in some great ways, right, in the way of like all these superhero movies we get and all this cool shit and how popular video games aren't, da-da-da. But the fact that handheld gaming is where it is in 2025 is so special to me. As someone who's always loved handheld gaming, right?

Game Boy was my first Nintendo anything. I was a Sega kid, and then I had to beg mom for that. She said there's no way I'll ever spend $100 on a video game console, and then Antel bought it for me. And then, you know, from there it was into Game Gear, and it's been on every other stretches you go to PSP, DS, 3DS, etc. You wouldn't have to go through all this, right? But especially when I came to IGN in 2007,

and you'd sit there and review all these different versions of games and really find usually, and I'm talking about, like, you know, cross-platform, when they're trying to do like a time, high-in or a thing or a wrestling game or a sports game. Find the handheld version to be so less than. You know what I mean? Not be able to. I'm not talking about exclusives or something like elite beat agents or Luminus or whatever, right?

But like you're getting into these games that were designed for the handheld of their choice and what they were and that's good but as we've seen this industry coalesce right and become a man, games cost so much money. We can't afford to take chances. Handheld

gaming as we knew it in 2007 could never exist like it does now. And rather than it go away, it really open up to, hey, gamers want to be able to play their games everywhere. You know, I joke around obviously all the time about the Vita and the PSP. And, you know, I just, I BS'd B-Sed, Blue Skyd, Tim, that, you know, Vita crawled so that all of these handhelds could run. But for real, like, hats off to Nintendo. Thank you so much Nintendo for, with the Switch 1 going like, we are going to make this thing. It's the one Nintendo system.

There isn't a handheld and a console anymore. It's just one. And the fact that people ran to that for as underpowered as it was and we're like, I want this. And that PC manufacturers took notice, PlayStation took notice, Xbox took notice. So now we are, hey, let's solve these problems so you can get a good enough experience in a handheld form factor that you can somehow compliment your other devices. Like, I am so thrilled right now where we're at, let alone where we're going to be in six months a year, two years, five years, ten years, when suddenly like this isn't even. a conversation anymore. It's just all ubiquitous and it's, you know, streaming 4K, whatever the hell it is. I don't know. Tim, I'm right there with you. I mean, we are living in such a great time

in terms of portable gaming devices, handheld gaming devices on the PC and console side. Like, I feel like because of how handheld devices are, they're kind of an area in tech that cares about the tech of it, I think more than most because it has to have the hardware to be able to run the games, but also a screen to be able to display them, but also a controller to be able to to have the inputs, right? So the combination and ingenuity required for these devices, I think requires them to really like push things forward and come up with like new standards that everyone can then learn from each other. And it reminds me a lot of thinking about just controllers and like, all right, there wasn't a D pad until there was. There wasn't an analog stick

until there was. And then there becomes these kind of like standards that are set of we need shoulder buttons. We need this many face buttons. And you know, if a controller came out for a new system and it had 20 face buttons, guess what? They're not going to be used because games need to be made for every single device. So they have to be homogenized to a certain level. So because of that, I think we're at a great spot now with looking at even the devices out the desk where there's more similarities than differences. And I think that overall, we're in a great place that no matter what your needs are, you'll

at least get a good enough version if you're willing to spend the money. And I think all of that is only going to get better and better over the the next couple of years, but I think that we are firmly in a present where it's here. This is happening. And it's not a, oh, man, this is going to be so great in a couple of years. It's going to be, oh, it's just going to be better. And I really do think that we're at the point with handheld gaming that we were with the, I'll say, iPhone 10, when it finally went full screen, right?

And it's just like, ever since then, it's like, cool. The phone tech's being upgraded. But at the end of the day, the iPhone X is all you. need, you know? And sure, an iPhone X in 2025 is maybe unacceptable, but like, in terms of what it needs to do, it has all those functions. And

I only use iPhone because I've only had iPhones, but Android as well, whatever, the equivalent when it went full screen, must have been like the Samsung S freaking 12 or some shit, but like The cookie cutter, cookie don't shut up. Whatever the hell it is. My point being, I feel like we're already at that point.

We're at the convergence points. The smartphones hit a decade to go now because we're freaking crazy old. But I think handheld devices on the small side are perfection. And on the higher end side, I think with the help of cloud streaming are essentially that perfection. But without that, we're just a couple years away from being in a perfection place. Having said that, the moment we get there, the hardware for consoles and PC is going

to be higher anyway. So we're always going to be chasing that high to some extent. 100%. Yeah. I want to get into a bunch of specifics. of what we use and our experience with things. And if there's products that we don't like, Paris, what are your kind of, if not daily drivers?

Like, what are the handheld devices you stand by? Steam Deck is probably my number one handheld that I use. I just prefer through the hardware and obviously the user interface that Steam OS has. And I have enough of the games I like to play on my Steam library that it makes it pretty accessible for me. after that would be the Switch. I mean, clearly from the Nintendo games that would be able to play on that. I do have, and I never get these names, right, but I have the Rogue Ally, the original one. Yeah.

I actually dual boot that with Steam OS and Windows right now just to go back and forth. It is my least use because of the user interface of Windows. I'm just not a fan of it currently. Obviously, they're working on that to fix it as I already talked about. but Steam Deck would be my primary. Mike, what about you? Do you have any? Steam deck and the Switch.

Of course, I go to where my collection of game catalog is, where I've spent the most money, where I want to be able to play those games anywhere. And so right now it is Steam with the Steam deck, and it is the Nintendo Switch. I am looking forward to this Xbox partnership with the ROG ally to see if this is going to be for me. Because, yeah, that's where my big base of game library is.

And so I'm hoping for the best. But yeah, right now I enjoy the Steam Deck. whenever I played and then the Nintendo Switch 2. Greg. Hey, how are you, Tim? I'm good. Yeah, I mean, it's a toss up depending on what I'm reviewing or playing. If I'm playing something for funzies, it's usually going to be the Rogg Alli X. It has, you know, I got it all set up in January, and it has dominated my year in terms of what I play. It's made me an Xbox gamer, thanks to Xbox game anywhere, right?

We're at that point right now. It comes around, it's a year and a half. you know, that's kind of like the blood moon or whatever, where I go, man, I should really be into no man sky. And I start a new fucking thing. And I do the new fucking things. Every year. Every year and a half. I really like, and then eventually I'll play for, you know, 10 or 20 hours. Then it's really going to want me to do like a bunch of, hey, go craft all this stuff.

I'm like, I don't want to make fucking factories or whatever. And I'll stop. But this is the first time where I was like, wait a second. You know, I went to read download on place and I was like, wait. open up the Xbox app on the Rog. There it is on GamePass. There it is Xbox game anywhere. Download it here. Download on the

exit home. Be all set, right? And then if I'm doing PlayStation stuff, also review stuff, it's going to be on the portal. So right now, right, it's interesting because you figure it was all Rog and the run-up to Switch. Switch drops. We play a bunch of that. And then, of course, as Paris already said, we are reviewing

Death Stranding 2 on the beach right now. You can look for our review one week from today on the kind of funny games cast. Wow. where Jerica Hannah is flying herself out here to be on the panel and review it alongside us from JK. Games. But, you know, now that I'm doing the Death Stranding grind, I'm out playing my portals on every night at home, of which I have two. I have one for the office and one for home because the portal so much. Yeah. Yeah.

So it really comes down to what I'm playing at that moment. Obviously, with Switch 2 being so hot right now, I'm excited to get back to that after this. But again, now I got to do the Snowman Sky thing. You got to go do it. You got to go get lost, right? Is this the time it clicks? And I play 300 hours. Never.

It never happens. Yeah, I am very lucky that I'm in a position that I get to try out so many of these things. And also, like, anyone that's listened to us for a while knows, like, I am obsessed with this type of tech. And I care deeply about every factor that we mentioned I care about. So while I am on a forever quest to find the one device to rule them all, I definitely learned that just doesn't exist. And when I care as much as I do about each of the verticals, I want the best for each verticals. So because of that, I actually run a ton of different devices

for different reasons. And even sometimes, a specific reason, PlayStation comes to mind when I'm streaming a PlayStation game, it is a question for me of, am I going to use the portal or am I going to use my Steam Deck OLED?

And it comes down to, for the game I'm playing, do I care more about the haptics and ergonomics of the portal, which is perfect in my hands? Or do I care more about the OLED screen that is just that much better than the portal.

In addition to running cloud streaming significantly better than the PlayStation portal does when you get everything all tinkered in. But the other ones I want to give a shout out to for sure, because of course the Nintendo Switch 2, that's the best single device

if you just want to keep things easy and you're a Nintendo fan. It's a no-brainer. You know things are going to work and the things that are going to work are your Nintendo games, both modern and go back to NSO. Great ways to play at this point.

A very sizable library of the vast majority of Nintendo's history you'd ever want to actually play. But that is not at this point something I could be like if it's your only gaming device, the Switch 2, because we just don't know if the third party support's going to be what I expected to be, but it's still a little too early for that.

But on the handheld side, like the old school emulator side that I care a lot about, to me, the crem de la crem, it's the Retroid Pocket 5. This thing shaped like a Vita, but bigger buttons, uh, beautiful OLED screen. Like one of the nicest screens I've ever seen. And this thing can go all the way up to like PS2 and all that easy.

PS3 and that sometimes hit or miss or whatever. But if you dial things in, you can get it going. But in addition to all that, it streams great. Like this could be a PlayStation portal replacement. Oh, interesting. Most devices can be as well.

So I absolutely love this thing. What is that using to play remote play? Is it doing the chikey like on Steam? Chiaki for deck. Similar things. There's a thing called Moonlight that you can use. Like there's a lot of just, streaming platforms that are real dialed in

because the people making these apps and programs are doing it for the specific reason. So it's like they're really tuning it in. It's an interesting one where just the other day our friend Tommore from GameSpot had put up a BS. That's a blue sky to him. He was out there BS in about how the remote

or the portals never worked for him for remote play. It's always this. It's always up a while. And I have the complete inverse where for me on my deck when I was using my deck before the ROG and now with the ROG when I use Chiaki or Chiaki Chiaki Chiaki I never get a great connection out of it I get a lot of artifacting I just and I don't think of the visuals look as sharp as on my portal

which is a weird one and so it's just a flip where I feel like I've been burned enough that I'm always going to stick to pay out with the PlayStation device it very much is an iPhone versus Android thing of the PlayStation Portal it does just work once you set it up I mean in it's very specific in your house it just works you can take it farther if you want to but on the other side the more time you spend tinkering and dialing in on all the specific like internet data stuff. It's a much better experience. But you have to do that stuff. And it does require a lot more bullshit.

Like honestly. But my favorite thing, my use case for this one is being in the bed. Like it's just so small, being able to remote play my systems. Like it's awesome. You're just small things in the bed. I am.

That's true. I got him. Paris, I saw you ready to jump in there for something. Oh no. I was just going to mention. I forgot to mention the portal. What you guys were talking about.

I used a portal. obviously as well for PlayStation games when I'm just sitting out on the couch and playing whatever. It's it's a great device. Ironically enough, I had a lot of issues when it originally came out with the Wi-Fi. It was very spotty in my house. But ever since they did that update last year, it's been great, been pretty flawless. Yeah. So I want to kind of go through different categories. And I kind of came up with my list of what I think based on extensive experience with these things are some things I would recommend, but I definitely want you guys to jump in

and if you don't agree with what I'm saying, or just add to it. Can you have so many retroitroids? So you have so many retro, retro devices, like retroids. How often are you using those? Well, for different reasons, all the time. So like I'm saying, like the Retroid Pocket 5, I use all the time as a streaming device.

Okay, okay. So this goes back to the different use cases. Yeah. Is it the best for streaming? It's not, but it works great. And I'm only saying it's not. it's still like I'd say eight out of ten great. It's just, it's not as

amazing as when the portal is fully working or when the Steam deck OLED's like down the hell in. But it's for the portability. Like having this thing like being able to lay down and it never there's no fatigue at all. Yeah. So I use this and it's so I mean like. So what is

this? Is this like TikTok shop where I'm getting hit with like things that are clearly like the Soldier Boy console where it's like clearly fake. We've just stolen all these games. Where does this kind of fall in my handheld, like, legitimacy, I guess? I had the handheld emulator devices at the end of this.

I'm sorry. We can start there because I do think... It's just being really nice. I think that there's, like, the least necessary to say here, because in my opinion, I'm right there with you. There's way too much noise out there. And there will always be. These are companies that are going to iterate every single year,

maybe multiple times. They're having devices for so many use cases if you want to screen, DS type emulation. If you want clamshell, if you want horizontal, if you want vertical, there's just so many factors at play. There are a couple different hardware manufacturers

that I would say have like kind of risen to the top. There's Odin, there's A and Neo. There's just a couple different ones. But I personally really, really, really love Retroid when it comes to the higher end devices. So how am I getting the games on this? Allegedly.

Okay. No, but that's what this is. What I'm talking about, here, it's a very alleged situation. Okay. But what's interesting about that is you just get the SD cards, you can get your games, you put them on, and it's very, very simple

to set up. You watch a YouTube video, 10 minutes, next thing you know, you're playing games, and it's great. Does require tinkering. It is Android. I went in there like a child and frozen. I'm sorry. I was just trying to start in any game. But again, I use this one mainly for the streaming and stuff. But the

Retroid Pocket 5, it's $220. $220. Oh, wow. This is this. Well, I would say it's on the higher end. I would just say that's a higher end, but you do get the quality of the screen. Oh, it's amazing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the thing is, Andy's not here. I wish he was because in addition to the retroid pocket five, which I would highly recommend at this level, if you're this interested in it,

is the retrooid pocket flip two. Um, he's one playing vagrant story on it. Exactly. He's talking about it. No stop. Kevin, you could bring that one up.

I'd say that that's like the equivalent system to this. It's $10 more. But it has a clamshell design that's very appealing to a lot of handheld. Yeah, a lot of handheld game. He's got the purple game cube you want, right? Now, this is, see, this is what I'm talking about, the portability I like, right? It's like right now, I bet you didn't know that in my pockets.

Oh, this guy's got something. I've been holding on to just Game Boys. I love it. And, of course, I have your Vita. You know? Look at how portable this is, right? We've lost the world where I can just slide this in my pocket, go to somebody's house, play it on the low key, you know what I mean?

All of a sudden, Greg's got bags on bags for this. That's at bags. I've got to have so many bags, but yeah, I like the portability, Tim, but I also am someone who fumbles the bag when it comes to going on to online websites and starting to download things allegedly. Yeah, okay. Well, I mean, allegedly I know some guys that can help you get that. But the thing about this, though, is people are saying that, yeah, this goes up to about

the PS2. It can, like, flawlessly, if not actually definitely better run at like four times resolution PS2 games. Yeah. Which is super nice. And then the same goes for the flip two. But again, I'd say these are by far on the more premium side. Very unnecessary, but for personal experience, I would recommend it.

If you want something that's very entry level and you're inundated with the TikTok shop, like this looks like Soldier Boy bullshit, what's going on. The thing is, it is bullshit, but it's the right thing. Like they have hit a point that like there are so many companies that you're seeing that like, yeah. For $74, they got a game catalog on this thing. They'll be sent to my door tomorrow. If you are interested in this, but you're like, I don't know. know that I really want to commit.

The best advice I can give you is the Miu Mini V4. Okay. This is one you're going to see on TikTok every goddamn day for $54. You get this guy. It's the cutest little thing. Oh, you got it. Are you kidding me? It's so small.

This is like, it's literally uncomfortable for me because my hands are a little bigger, but it is as portable as you could possibly get. It solves all the problems that you just had. Like, this is the type of thing you just throw into your bag and just have it with you at all times to be able to just play some games when you're waiting and a lot. or whatever it is. This... A little small.

It hurts my hands. Yeah, exactly. But I'm saying this is like the budget. I'm not sure I want this to be my entire personality, but like I'm interested in dabbling. What's cool about this is you buy this from Ali Express. It comes with an SD card filled with games. Okay.

I don't know. I want to say I don't understand the legality. I do. It's not. So I'm going to be knocking on my door, too? Yeah, yeah. So it's a weird experience because you'll get this SD card with thousands of games and most of them are just copies of each other or whatever.

And if you're down to just sift. through the bullshit. You'll be able to play Mario 1, 2, and 3. You know what I mean? Like, they're all there on these things. I can do that on my graphing calculator. But anyway, I love this guy just for its like sure entry level. But if you're more interested, if you're like, I don't need to go super

high end, I don't need it to be like the most modern thing, game streaming and all that. I just want to play legit retro games. I could not recommend this guy anymore. The trim Ui brick. This is $85. So a little more expensive than the Mew, but it's so much bigger.

to be like the perfect level of it. It's still incredibly small and portable. Yeah. Nicest screen I've ever seen for this type of system. And the buttons feel great. Like it's, and also the colors and stuff. This is a very premium product for its price, $85.

And yeah, it's more of a traditional Game Boy style. Very clean. Yeah. And I love it. Okay. I like the look of that. Yeah, yeah.

So those are the little old school emulator devices. I will also say to end this bit, if you have a steam deck or have interest in the modern gaming side of this conversation, you could just have a Steam deck or a Rog ally and accomplish all of this. So if you're trying to minimize purchases or minimize anything, you do not need all of the things. Of course. But if you do value that sheer portability, form factor, all of that,

there are definitely great reasons to be interested in these things. And while there are a bazillion of them out there, there are only a handful of them that are really, really worth. looking into. And I think that these are some great starting points there. I want to get more into less me talking and more. This is great. The other devices. But let's do that after a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Shady Rays. Get ready for the season ahead with quality shades built to last. Our friends at Shady Rays have you covered with premium polarized shades that won't break the bank. Shady Rays is an independent sunglasses company offering

a world-class product rated five stars by over 300,000 people. They have hundreds of options to choose from, so you're bound to find the perfect pair to match your style. If you don't love your shades, exchange them for a new pair, or simply return, worry-free within 30 days. There's no risk when you shop. Their team are always there to have your back with personal and fast support. Y'all know I've been outside a lot playing Pokemon Go,

and it's such a great experience wearing Shady Race when I'm out and about looking dope. exclusively for you, Shadyrays is given out their best deal. Head to Shadyrays.com and use code funny for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. Again, go to ShadyRays.com, use code funny to get 35% off polarized sunglasses. So now we're back. Let's talk about handheld gaming PCs.

Yeah. Greg? Yeah. You, the top level I would say is there are many. players in this game, whether it's the Legion Go and its iterations, the the Rajalai's, the Steam Deck, there are definitely many players

in the game. But I would say after the experience that I've had with all of them, it really kind of comes down to two leading ones currently. And that is the high end, which is the Rog Ally X coming in at $900. Or the Steam Deck OLED that comes in at $550 or $650.

But the note there is, I would recommend the cheaper one. The The difference there is the amount of storage space you have. You can buy a cheaper SD card to solve that immediately. But the other difference is the more expensive one has an anti-glare screen, and this does come down to preference. But me and the majority of people that I know prefer the cheaper one because the anti-glare lessens the brightness of the OLED screen.

So I think it's a better screen experience with the cheaper one actually. So that's good to. know. But then the one to keep your eye on is the Xbox Ally X. We don't have pricing information on that. We are going to expect that the higher quality one, which the one I would go for is going to be about 900, 800 if we're lucky. But I do want to hear your thoughts really on your experience with the Ally X. Sure. Yeah. I couldn't be more into it, which is definitely the opposite of what I thought. As everybody knows, I am allergic to PC gaming, usually because of the minor complications that come along of a driver or direct decks or etc, et cetera, et cetera.

So when Steam Deck originally got announced, you know, and finally went live for everybody to buy, I went and pre-order right away and it took forever to get one. But it seemed like the perfect device for me because it was, hey, it's just this Steam OS interface. You're not getting into Windows unless you want to go do that. You can just use this as a Vita game machine, whatever. And I did and I had my Steam deck and I enjoyed it quite a bit, but the problem I found with it was that it just was Steam. and Steam is not a platform I have history with, nor is it one that I use outside of the machine.

So then I started talking on shows and bumping my gums about the fact that what I really would like is the ability to throw it up there and I don't want to hook up on PC because I'd be back into my PC problems. And as I would complain about this, so many people are like, Greg, what you're describing is the Rog ally, X or Rog ally, right? And so I looked into that and I had hit them up years ago, actually, about getting me and Bless review units for just the original ally when it launched.

But as lo and behold, as all this started, they hit me back up and were like, hey, sorry we missed this, we would be down. We'll send you and bless Ally X's. And so when I jumped into Ally X, I had heard so many people have the problem of, ah, it can do more and it can run Xbox and he can run all the different launchers,

but it's Windows, which I don't like and X, and I was like, well, again, I hate PC gaming and stuff to that effect. Yeah, as Paris said earlier. No, I'm just raising my head. Amanda, yeah. And so I was very much prepared to turn on the Rog ally, have it be comparable enough to Steam Deck that I was like, okay, cool, I'll stick with Steam.

And it's been the exact opposite, where for me with the Ally X, like the touch controls on it, I feel are better in terms of a mouse movement and double-cliff. I guess it's more natural than I feel like my Steam Deck's touchscreen ever was. It seemed like for me with trying to get into Windows-Z parts of it, even when I boot it into Windows-E mode and then have to move around, I connect the mouse and I connect the keyboard so I can,

go in and do whatever allegedly thing I need to do. I think the big thing for you there, correct me if I'm wrong, but it is the fact that it's Linux and it's not Windows. So it's, I think less the touchscreen and it's just more the experience of double clicking and all that stuff. Yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly.

Just different enough that it feels uncanny Valley Windows. Yes, exactly. And so, like, it just wasn't giving me the experience I wanted, where as soon as I got this and swiped up and put in my codes and went in, like, I was like, holy shit, this works so well. Again, to, you know, boot into my rug and go in there and have it just be all,

my desktop is just game icons from uh steam sure from the xbox app on pc from my battle net things it's like all my games are there granted it's a windows uh you know interface which i'm looking forward to what they what i got to play what paris got to play down at sgf when we used the xbox ally x right and having that streamlined xbox interface to it but the performance size is better is better than my steam deck uh the ability for xbox uh game anywhere to you you know, send these codes back and forth. So it is that, you know, my Expedition 33 saves there. Blueprints is there.

You know, I'm playing a vow. It's there. Oblivion drops and I'm playing it on both places. And again, yeah, there's performance sacrifices, of course. But it's good enough on the little screen to then when I get to the big screen, keep it going, right? That's what I want. Let alone, again, how good it is at remote playing the Xbox when I do want to jump in there and when I was tinkering with Outer Worlds or when I was doing something to Starfield. And to come off of, you know, the Xbox presentation we just had.

had even if I wasn't all in to find out what the ally X will be. These games are games. Everything we saw is game anywhere. So it'll be the exact same situation here of having this. Like I'm so happy with this device that yeah, like I said, it's eclipsed. It's my most played platform this year for sure. Yeah. Paris.

I am the opposite of Greg. Whereas I don't like the Windows interface. Like I even saw someone in chat bring up Armory crate. Yes, it is there. And you can access multiple stores. stores and do all of that. I don't know if you remember years ago. We even did a review on X-Cast of the original Rogue Ally.

And while I love the fact that that gets me access to Xbox, the Xbox store, GamePass, things like that, the UI just wasn't what I wanted in comparison to what essentially is big picture mode that you get on SteamOS. That has just been my preference. I'm with you, Tim, that I actually prefer the Steam Deck O'Dlet. That is my preferred handhead. held device. I just like it. I like the interface. I get my access to those games. But the limitation to it is, I can only play my Steam games on it. Whereas what Greg is talking about,

I now have access to multiple digital stores on the Rogue Ally and Ally X and all the different iterations of it. Whereas I can play Steam if I so choose. I can play my Xbox games, Battlenet on down the line, which is what I talked about at the top. That's why I think what I got hands on with last week shows the potential. of what the Windows OS can be on these handhelds, whereas the UI is more intuitive. I don't have to tinker around. I'm just in that experience.

I have access to all my digital stores in one place. I want that. That's what I want. I was encouraged by what we saw last week by that, but to the point that I was making before, they still got some work to do. They know that, obviously, and they're still iterating on it.

But as we sit here today, like you said, you're Linux averse in a way. I maybe I'm just used to or whatever. I prefer it. I just prefer it right now. I just think it's the more user-friendly interface to be able to play my games. I feel like I turn it on. I'm instantly into playing my games.

Whereas on the Rogue Ally, yes, there are instances where you just turn it on and I can jump in and play games. But I also feel like there's some additional hoops that you have to jump through. Updates come in. It's forcing me to the desktop. It's not as intuitive. I can just use the joysticks and the buttons to completely navigate through everything. Whereas obviously that's what Microsoft is working on now to fix that. So we don't have to worry about that anymore.

But we'll obviously have to wait to see once the the rogue Xbox ally X. By the way, why are they not calling the white one the ally S? It was right there. Yeah, that's honestly, that is like such a good point. They're like, yes. I don't do you think the S has a good? I don't think it's got goodwill behind it. I mean, so I think it's easier to be like, it's the ally X and we already have the

allies. So you understand that to a degree. And also only people are going to talk about it. It's more bewildering, I think, of like having so many people I saw were like, oh, man, the white one looks dope. I'm like it's the weaker one. Like you're not going to actually probably want to get that one. You're definitely not.

Exactly. So it's that idea of it. Oh, man. But to the point, I do feel like Asus makes great hardware. I like the, I have the original ally and obviously you have the ally X, which I know improved on it even more. and what we got to hold, putting those grips on that new one makes a world of difference as far as comfort goes. So I am very excited to see what they'll eventually get to this holiday with the OS paired with this hardware.

So I'm definitely excited to check it out and review it potentially or whatever. But like I said before, I think Windows has a grand opportunity staring them in the face right now. If they can get this right from a UI standpoint, obviously we know this thing is not going to be cheap from a price standpoint. point, but the fact that I can get all my PC digital stores on one device would give it an advantage over the Steam deck in my personal opinion. And get them in easily, right? Because obviously you can jump the hoops to make it happen. I know, I won't save you in the comments that'll come out on that one.

Yeah, that's all interesting. I think the other, you know, wrinkle that you and me heard about Paris and saw, you know, it's such a controlled test of beta stuff, basically. For the Xbox Ally X, you know, we keep talking about the interface and, you know, okay, it's this version of Windows. but it is this idea that they keep saying, right, of booting straight into this is keeping a bunch of Windows bullshit offline. So they're not using up the memory, not using up the CPU doing it. I'm very excited to see what that brings in terms of battery consumption power, what the games look like.

You know, being able to use those resources in a way that isn't me just having a portable PC in my hands. And that to me is the most important thing that I'm looking forward to. Like, I do not currently own Allied, but I have had pretty good experience with it, a good time experience, with it at least to be able to say this, but I have a lot of experience with the Steam Deck OLED and just starting and ending here, OLED to me is such a differentiating factor that I will nine and ten times choose the OLED device over an even more powerful device or an even better device or whatever just because I care that much about how I perceive the quality of that screen. Having said that, it's undeniable that the Roggalli X is more powerful and

can run games better than the Steam Deck. The problem is at this point, the Steam Deck, the Steam deck is more optimized and the Steam system it uses is more optimized to play games. So at the end of the day, the experience overall needs to be improved for that multi-hundred dollar difference to, I think, be something that I would recommend over the Steam deck, especially when we're talking about the OLED screen as well. But then there's the thing about resolution. The resolution of that screen is better. And that is another thing of like, do you want that, though, when we're talking about a system

that needs a battery and needs to be. be able to power all of that. So I feel like right now when it comes to where we're at with the ally and we're at with the Steam Deck OLED specifically is what I'm talking about. I feel like I love my Steam Deck OLED. I really like the ally, but I'm not in love with either. I really feel like there is like a perfect storm that we're getting closer to. Unfortunately, it will not be the Xbox Ally X because that's also not OLED and I understand

why. But I do think that at the very least, we are seeing a step where Windows getting its big picture mode that they're doing already. I'm happy that's happening because I feel like we are steps away from that experience actually being what it needs to be, but not having all the Windows things run in the background. That is the type of steps that we need to start taking. Like Paris was saying the anti-cheat and having everything in one place.

Like Xbox and Windows, if they take it as seriously as I hope that they are, really is positioned to take over a much, much bigger slice. of the market share than they previously have, but it's going to require commitment to it, and it seems like they're doing that, but the big difference to me is like, we look at this, and handheld gaming console, it's like, that's

Nintendo, Switch 2. It's a gaming console that's handheld. We need to stop thinking about the Xbox and the Rog Ally as a portable Xbox. It's a portable Xbox PC. And I feel like that until they, and this is a problem of just the marketing, there's so many brands with

Xbox, and as well. So it's like extra branding on branding. Until there can just be one system where Xbox console games are just playable on PC via emulation or something, we need to just start thinking about this as Xbox PC handheld. And I think that's going to be a tough sell for them. But once they get over that hurdle, it's theirs to win. So stick with me for an annoying conversation. Do you think that's what they're building to now? Rather than us sit here and obviously go through the hundreds of thousands of games

that aren't play anywhere and aren't this. That conference at SGF where they showed both the Ally X and we're like, hey, every one of these games is starting it's this Xbox game anywhere. To me really strikes the core that in a very marketing whatever way, but like to them it seems like what they're about to launch

with the Ally X is a, for lack of a better term, new console. It is a new skew, but it's going to be supported and like this has a launch lineup in quotes of games we just announced, let alone how many games you might not think about backwards are Xbox gaming. You're like, No Man Sky, like I'm talking about, or Avowed, or

Elder Scrolls, you know, I'm talking about. Like, there's, there are so many, there are glaring omissions as I found out the hard way. But like, I do wonder if we're, especially for the, the amount of people are going to come in here and already know what this is and know what they're buying. We're talking

that about like mainstream gamers to a degree and are they even Xbox gamers? And then would they be coming in and playing whatever really specific old RPG and not even old but you know what I mean yeah I mean I think the answer is yes like they will and I because like that's the thing when you when this is an Xbox is their entire thing but the reality is this is an Xbox PC like yeah I'm with you that this is just their new standard and it's good and it's awesome and I want this all to work and I believe in it but the problem is there is a difference between Xbox console and every everything else is

that's an Xbox and you can't kind of market that this is an Xbox if there is an asterisk to that that, well, technically it's not the actual main thing that people think of of, hey, my Xbox is backwards compatible. It has my entire library. It has all the stuff. This is an Xbox. Well, it doesn't have all those things. And it's like, that's the problem. When I'm talking to my friend Curran, trying to who loves Xbox, Halo is one of his favorite franchises. And I'm like, oh, yeah, like, Xbox is the easiest thing to jump into now. Pretty much any device, you don't even need to buy something. Buy a controller and you're going to be fine. And then he starts to ask me questions and I'm like, well, not this and not that. And it's like, the moment you have to do that. He's like, all right, well, it's not an Xbox then. And again, we're getting there. Yeah. But what about when he's buying that handheld for the new Halo and that's future proof? And then when he goes into this

OS and he goes to the old Halo and the button goes from play to stream, is he going to pay? I mean, granted, the stream quality sucks. Maybe then it's a different conversation. There's the wrinkles too at write a remote play to your Xbox and all this. Like, it strikes me as this is a conversation somebody was having

on Games Daily. Someone in this room, Maybe it was blessing. Maybe it was Raj. Maybe it was Andy. But there was this conversation of how oftentimes we all think up these hypothetical situations of, but it'll be a mom in the Walmart line. She won't know the difference between Switch 1 and 2. And we really make a mountain out of a molehill for something that might not happen.

Like, I don't know if this is it. But I think we're looking at a $900 handheld Xbox. I think you would do enough research before you pull the trigger. But while that's true. The problem. Yeah, go for it. Paris. I just dying to jump in on this. I don't think we're making a mountain out of a molehill because the problem is third party in this sense. Like I said it on on a previous show, but they need to do a better job of messaging this thing throughout the summer leading up to the launch because there is some confusion about is this an Xbox cons is this an Xbox that can play all my console games or is this an Xbox that can just play the PC game?

And we know this is this is playing your PC games or anything that's quote unquote play anywhere enabled. But there is the layer to this of your legacy console games that are third party more so than first party. Because I think for the most part they've done a pretty good job of getting their first party games to be playable, you know, on the PC side of things. And obviously we know moving forward, everything will be first party. But what about third party? So, you know, it seems to me their next gen strategy is going to be. that we're going to bring all of that stuff via some kind of emulation or whatever

to whatever their next-gen console is. I don't think they're going to leave the old games behind. But to the mom that goes out and buys this thing, this November, let's say, I think they do need to make sure that the messaging is clear that not all of your Xbox digital library is going to be playable on this. So, yeah, I do think that's an issue.

for them because if you just watch that trailer during the showcase, it implies that you can play everything on it. And it's just simply not the truth. So I do think they need to talk about this more. I do think they need to have a clear distinction of these are PC games. These are Xbox Play Anywhere games. If it is not play anywhere enabled, you cannot natively play it on this device. You potentially could cloud stream it. Obviously, if you got Game Pass or whatever the requirement that you would need for that, but it's not 100% console games and especially third-party games

where I think is the biggest gap that they're going to have moving forward with this. Yeah, I would say it's less the mountain out of a molehill of the moms, the general consumers. I'm thinking about it more from the perspective of wanting to believe in Xbox's business strategy and I feel like currently where I'm looking at it,

there's so many wins and successes, but there's just so many things that they're just tied down to because of choices they made that I feel like what they're building with this Xbox interface OS, whatever you want to call it. Let's just call it Xbox OS for this conversation. Sure.

Xbox OS coming to the Ally X and eventually, hopefully coming to PCs, like Windows, gaming devices and having that be a much better experience than the current Xbox app is, but then having an identical OS on the Xbox console, that needs to be the goal. That has to be where we're at. And I think that the easiest thing is, oh, that's what NextGen will be,

where the console more than ever literally is just a PC that's in your living room with that boot up, big picture mode, whatever it is. But the question is, is there a way for them to do that on Series X? Is there a way for them to get that going sooner? Because if they solve that problem and can figure out a way with back and pat and all that stuff to have this be a non-issue, because it is now all the PC side of things, even if it is the console box itself, that has to be the goal. It's just I think we're a little too far in now to reverse decisions made and to reverse the fact that the hardware is the hardware. It's out there now and I just don't know if that's going to be possible. Am I on to anything there, Paris? No, I think you're nailing it as far as that goes because, I mean, I don't know what conversations you had, Greg, during there,

but the few engineers that I got a chance to talk to after we went hands on, you know, they aren't explicitly saying backwards compatibility and all this, but it is heavily implied. this is they clearly need to figure that out with this new strategy. Obviously, Phil Spencer himself, even when he had the interview last week as well in the Xbox podcast, talked about how this is the most integrated. The Xbox team and the Windows team has ever been in the history of Microsoft. So clearly, and I mean, obviously, Sarah Bonn is leading this four compatibility team and all that. So if you start putting all the puzzle pieces together, they understand that they got to bring

these games forward with this new strategy. You can't say this is an Xbox, but only 30% of your games are playable on the device. It needs to be 90%ile, you know, if anything, moving forward, if your new strategy is we don't care what device you use to play our games, then I need to be able to play my entire digital library or the vast majority of my digital library on whatever device I is. And cloud streaming is a band-aid for that. It has to be native moving forward. If this is what you're trying to accomplish. So, excuse me. Yeah, I think you are onto something and maybe they're being a little more aggressive right

now with the marketing because obviously they got a new device coming out. But this is also why I say be crystal clear in your messaging on what it is today versus where you're trying to get it tomorrow. Yeah. I think that, yes, this is clearly the goal for next gen, whatever the Xbox is, to be able to play everything natively, whether I'mulation or whatever. I think, yeah, to your point, I don't, I think the genie's out of the bottle on that. I just feel like, be crystal clear on your messaging, of course, and I understand that we're

going to say, well, it says this is an Xbox. I feel like you can never get your entire messaging in one statement. I do feel like the direct and when they ran through it was very clear, like, this is, this is your Xbox because it's native, it's streaming, and it's going to be cloud. Like, we have all these things in there options. Even when Mike had the interface up a second ago, right, which is the same. interface we have on the handheld, right? Where it is, here's your home, the games, or your home, then the game pass, your library,

cloud gaming. Like, that's really this thing they're trying to get you into right now, where again, throw the mom out of it. I think if current, for some reason, heard that it was an Xbox and pulled the trigger on $800 and got it, I still think there, he's going to maybe do a Google search or something, but I still think it would be easy enough to differentiate it. Like, oh, oh, okay, that sucks, but whatever. The differentiating is one thing, but I mean, it sucks.

Yeah, 100%. 100%. It's not so much the like, oh, we got a power through this. We do got a power through. I'm there, but yeah, I feel like it is more just like a, it all just comes back to the fact that there is Xbox and there's Xbox for PC. And we know that, but that's the thing that they need to be clear about. And I think at this point is impossible for them to be clear about when there's also Xbox

Game Pass and it's multiple forms and Xbox Play Anywhere and XCloud and all these systems that if you know what they mean and how they function with each other, it all makes sense. But when you hear this is an Xbox and Xbox play anywhere, you expect it's just going to work. And then when you're like, oh, well, it's just going to work, but unless it's this, this, this, or this, it's like, that's not. That sucks. Right. When on the Steam side, it just works because it's Steam and it's dialed in there.

So like, again, I'm just saying this of like, the dream is there. And I do think that we are marching towards it. Like, clearly Xbox wants that to be the case. but to Paris's point, he's made a couple times, like the Windows gaming side of things has never had to take itself that seriously, especially combined with Xbox. Them collaborating closer than ever is the best news possible.

Like, they got to figure this shit out, or else it's always going to feel like it's divided. There's Microsoft Windows gaming, and then there's Xbox, and that can't be the case. Xbox has to be the definitive best way to play the games for most people. Yeah, nothing more demoralizing than turning on my Steam Deck and being not Steam Deck compatible, right? and so on the Xbox side,

where I want everything to just come with me and be playable. Yeah, I don't want to keep asking questions or seeing my favorite titles not on that list. Moving on from the actual dedicated handheld gaming PCs, we got game streaming devices. There are things like the Logitech GCloud, which Paris, you've used that, right? Yeah, I've used it before.

Yeah, it's a nice device. I wouldn't recommend it just because there are so many other devices similarly priced or higher price that I'm like if you're into cloud streaming I would just get that upgrade yeah um because I think it's like three hundred dollars which I think is a little high for a system with a display of that quality and all of that um but the PlayStation portal I think is actually a very easy recommendation for PS5 gamers that um aren't looking for something that is portable like in a travel perspective but just wanting something for the couch it's an excellent machine, you can get it refurbished for like $120 fairly often.

Oh, nice. And yeah, it has all of the pros of a dual sense controller. It has a beautiful screen that's not OLED, but similar to the Switch 2. It's a very nice screen that I won't complain about. I just won't give it the utmost props. And it works great. And the battery's awesome because you are just streaming. But yeah, I think that this is a very worthwhile device that even though I have quote

unquote better devices to stream from with the stream deck OLED, I oftentimes find myself reaching for the portal. This one has the most comfortable handles that I like. I like the form factor this one. This one reminds me of playing a PlayStation with the screen in the middle. I love this. I am someone

who loved that switch fix where it was, hey, just grab a controller. We're going to clip it on there and you're going to be playing. I'll always be, hey, give me the controller first and then the screen on whatever I need to play with. And so this is like the closest out of all the handhelds that we've had in the office where I go, oh man, this is like the form factor I want here.

Yeah, I mean, I love the portal, obviously shocking no one for as much as I've talked about it and as much as I use it. But yeah, like I, the downsides to the portal, right, are this stupid ass decision to only allow the pulse headsets to work with it as terms of wireless. Why can't you just do Bluetooth? What do we? Why playstation? Why would you go and get in the way of this? Answer being, of course, they know that only enthusiasts will buy it and they'll probably buy the extra headset as well. Sure, I could plug in headphones, but who's got a headphone case?

table in 2025. Not me. I got I got AirPods in my pocket at any point in time. Let's just roll with AirPods should work with this a thousand percent. Yeah. But other than that, yeah, like I, again, I know this is always a back and forth mileage will vary. Like my internet, my house is great. My internet and the office is great. I've never had, I've rarely have had a problem. Sometimes, you know, we got the, uh, I got the internet arrow in the bedroom, right? And sometimes gentle hang something in front of it. I got to move that out of the way to get a better connection. But that's about it. You know what I mean? Like, I love the guy. damn thing. It's great. And again, I think even if you take my raw consumption out, I think the

majority of the time, I'm usually playing something on a PlayStation 5, unless it's a review and I'm really locked in trying to like make sure I'm seeing it all right. I'm playing on the portal just to get it done, have some fun. Yeah. Get up there on the couch, you know, catch it in bed, go to bed. Love the portal. Highly recommend it. One downside is it is obviously exclusive to PlayStation's ecosystem. Like you can only play PS5. Of course. Backers compatible cloud games or whatever on it. So you are locked there. But I think an upside. It is just PlayStation. So it is dedicated.

It is just going to work. You're not, you don't need to tinker with anything. It's just going to play your games. If your internet works, it's going to work and it's awesome. Paris, your thoughts on the portal.

Yeah, I mean, I love it for everything that we've already talked about. It's just that you're locked to the PlayStation side. And again, yeah, it's crazy that it does not have Bluetooth. So you can do other headsets on it.

But I think it's a great device, especially since they've updated it. Yeah, like I said, I've had virtually no issue. with it at all. It's nice that you can now, you know, stream some of the PlayStation Plus games as well on the device. I'm actually excited to see what the portal two will be. Will that wind up being just their all in one device where they add native gameplay to it? Obviously, you can still stream

stuff at the same time. But I think this being the 1.0 of it, yeah, it's great. The future of all this is so interesting, right? Where it was that the rumor forever of like, oh, the Xbox is working with Rog on a PC thing, but then they're also working on their own thing. And then, of course, Jez came out right before SGF and said, that's dead. They're just going all in on this,

dead for now or whatever. You know, is that true? Is that false? Who knows? Then the rumors that PlayStation's also working on a handheld that would be a portable PlayStation as well. Very interesting, because, of course, that I'm right there of like,

I love my portal. That's what I'd really want. A PlayStation I could take on the plane. This is always about when I'm disconnected, taking my game, you know, I had a lovely Father's Day weekend, of course, We woke up Saturday morning. Jen's like, guess what?

We're taking a surprise trip. There's all this stuff going on, dot, to da da, da. And I was like, yeah, I can't wait. And then I was, though, like, I am trying to review Death Stranding, but it's like, I'm not going to pack a PlayStation 5 and drag this to nor am I going to go to whatever hotel Wi-Fi we have and do that. Instead, I packed the switch and I did what everybody does.

I got too drunk and didn't even play it. That's the best part of that hell, yeah. Yeah, love the portal, though. But sticking with the game streaming stuff, I do want to, again, shout out, the Steam Deck OLED, which I think is absolutely incredible. The OLED display pops so much and the ability to tinker the internet settings to your heart's extent of need is a beautiful thing because my God, when you get it working,

like it looks so damn good and it takes advantage of the higher Wi-Fi speeds. And I love it. It does have more problems. There are more times where it won't work as compared to my portal. But when it does work, which is the majority of the time, it's an amazing experience on this thing. And also it's not limited to PlayStation. I mean, here's the biggest shout out actually for the Steam Deck.

It's PlayStation and obviously the Xbox streaming and all of that, PC streaming, Steam streaming, but the biggest thing is G-Force now. If you are interested in G-Forse now, it is, I mean, I cannot recommend the product enough, especially on the high end. It can be a little expensive, I think, at the highest end is $20 a month. And you're just getting access to games you own. in other places, but more and more we're getting different devices,

whether it's in the home theater side or portable that can play G-Force now, and you are playing a 40-90 version of Expedition 33. And playing Expedition 33 on my Steam Deck natively, and then playing in G-Force now, it's like, this is absolutely insane. And also it saves on battery life. Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Yeah. And then the other thing with streaming that I do things important, on both the streaming side and the, the retro gaming emulation side, just your phone. Phones are like one of the best mobile gaming devices possible. And yeah, so I did,

if you have an Android, you fully do whatever you want. If you have iOS, you now have Delta, which allows you to emulate some old games. But on both the iOS and Android side, you can get streaming apps for pretty much all the major systems except Nintendo being able to stream via remote play on PlayStation or on Xbox or Steam or G4 now, even like all of those things.

Um, but Kev, I put some phone accessories that I just wanted to bring up real quick. Because there's the, the backbone one, which I would highly recommend. Uh, I think that this is a very nice entry level, um, quality controller that just works as much as it needs to. And is a fantastic experience, uh, remote playing games. Yeah, I've been, I, before the portal rolled around, I was in before we really got into these, uh, PC handhelds that could remote play. Like, I was backboning for years. I think even as far as IGN, is that right? Or is that too early?

I think that was the early days. It's been a long, long time using many of these different iterations. The backbone's fantastic. Plug and play, pop in. And then, yeah, it even has like Armory Create its own little system that will take you to. Games and apps that are compatible so you can run through and do it. Adoor, indoor the backbone. They just put out that backbone pro that I don't have much experience with because it's come out in a time where we have other stuff.

Yes. So a couple quick things, Neo A.O. She's saying retroarch is also on iPhone now, too. I would highly record. Retroarch is the way to go for emulators pretty much across every system and it's awesome that it's on iOS now. Paris, what's your experience with this backbone? Oh, yeah, I was actually just holding up right now. I have the Xbox version of the backbone as well.

Yeah, it works great. And they have, you know, they have their Xbox button on it. So it takes you right into the Xbox app. You got the backbone button takes into that experience as well. But yeah, it works pretty well. I like it. I love backbone. The controls are for the.

this type of device, I just think is industry best. They're the most comfortable and easiest to use. Yeah, it's great. I will say there's the backbone pro that came out recently that Greg was just talking about. I also have one that they sent and I've been playing with it. I love it. It is just the backbone, but better. It's bigger.

It's more comfortable, more features. Back buttons, right? Yeah, it's awesome. I really, really love it. It's $170 and I could not recommend that to anybody. Sure. Like this, it just gets to a point. that it's like, ah, man, like that's very, very, very, very high price for what we're getting here

because I would also say that as much as I love my phone and I love what it can do and how powerful it is, it is not having played with all my other systems. It is not my recommended streaming device. Like, it works for sure, but there's something about the way that, like, text is displayed on a phone screen that just reads different than like on a steam deck. And maybe it's the size, but There's just something about it that I don't know that I would recommend going this high price for the gaming streaming side of things. But even I would recommend the original backbone for 100. I feel like that's a more fair like if you're going to dedicate to this is your thing. But if you just want to dabble, the 8-bit dough ultimate mobile gaming controller, very similar idea, but it's $50.

Okay. And Kevin, you can bring that one up to the Amazon link there next to Backbone Pro. very similar concept 8 bit though are incredible when it comes to just high quality very cheap peripherals and this is another example

there are limitations to make sure you're getting ones that are compatible with your phone and gaming devices but you got your options here and if you want to go even cheaper and you just want to play Pokemon Emerald for the thousand times

there are these phone emulator button cases I don't have any one specific one I would recommend you can just go on Etsy and people 3D print them all. Kevin, if you can go to that, the next one there. The idea is it's just a case and then you can flip it around and then use the buttons. It's a Bluetooth controller for you to be able to play games

on your phone like it's a Game Boy. It's awesome. Like it's such a cool thing. I would say this is definitely the most entry level thing. If you just want to, again, the majority of people that emulate games and they did some polls and like ran stats on this. Yeah.

Like the vast majority are literally just playing the old Pokemon games. So if that's what you want to do and that's why you're trying to buy one of these devices, chances are you can just do it on your phone and buy a little case and you'll be fine. That's all that I have there. Does anyone else have anything they want to recommend or bring up? I always end up getting asked again and again. Remember I get my bags from sFbags.com. That's Waterfield Away.

Sorry. Waterfield designs. Not weird. Yes. They're a SF company. here that does bags for laptops and tech and all the stuff and they've been committed to gaming for a long long long time if you go to sfbags.com kev uh i found them a city slicker for the vida i think was my first one from them they've been around that and i still every time buy the city slicker

which is what you see right there uh with the white top there as it was going up and down but they have one uh back order right now for switch two i love these things uh you know usually when i do it eventually somebody like oh my god seventy nine dollars you know hundred twenty nine dollars for switch two they are premium and I've never ever had to replace them and they are cushy as hell and they take great care of the units so I have no problem throwing that out of these are definitely premium products but I'm right there with you they are they're worth it if you care about that stuff these are beautiful they get compliments all the time from non-gamers even like it passes all the test takes really great care of the systems and yeah I I haven't yet tried their magnetic cases but I'm very excited I saw somebody wrote about another review that was getting kicked around with their Raga ally case that looks cool Yeah, so excited for those. The one thing that I wanted shout out in terms of handhelds portable gaming is the X-Real AR glasses. They've been sponsoring us a lot. It's one of those dream sponsorships because it's a thing that I legitimately love.

Kevin Freakin loves more and more people here. I'm convincing, like, y'all just need to see you to believe. But it transforms your handheld gaming experience tenfold. You have a theater with you on the plane, incredible quality. Plug it straight in the steam deck and goddamn you're having a party. I could not recommend them higher for people that are interested in wanting a giant screen anyway you go. Oh, he had a bone. We got a bunch of super chats.

I want to get to here. CJ Splitson says dope jersey, Mike. Thank you. Danny Tortelli says the real handheld gaming question in 2025 is where's our new Tomogachi? I don't know about Tomogachi, but they're released a new Digimon things every goddamn week. man celebrating this anniversary, that anniversary and held monster people are eating right now. Tomogachi's rule.

Yeah. Remember when you used to not feed it or clean it and they would just keep beeping and your mom would be like where the fuck is that beeping coming from? And you're like that Tomiconti's lost inside of this home. It's like once we had a Furby and the Furby was up in my parents attic and every now and then would make noise and they're like, where is that coming from? The guy that's the Furby we forgot about.

Matt Sanders. We forgot about. Ben Sanders says one of these tech manufacturers has to revolutionize battery tech in order for handhelds to really take off. The batteries is a really interesting thing because I obviously would dream of batteries being so much better. Cloud Streaming does help with that stuff. But I'm actually, as a kid that grew up with the PSP and all that stuff, it's like, I can't believe batteries can last as long as

they do for the high-end gaming that they're doing. For sure. The options you have to kind of like help with that stuff. But yeah, battery tech, unfortunately, I feel like we're kind of stuck. I don't think that's going to get much better. What are we getting out of your two consuls of choice here? on your steam deck, how much are you really getting? I mean, the steam deck for me in terms of battery is a tough thing to answer because... It really depends on what you're playing. And also, like, it lasts for my flights. Like, that's kind of been my big thing.

I haven't done, like, an international flight yet with it. But, like, any time I'm flying, I haven't had... I haven't had to worry about battery a single time. But that's in a very controlled situation where I'm planning my trip accordingly. And I do have a power bank with me that can solve that problem where necessary, which I think these days that to me is, I guess, the battery tech. It's so easy to just have a portable battery. I have that brick out of the time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rogg ally, how far? Same. I mean, it's the same as Tim where again, rog's usually my lifeboat, right? Where it is, all right, I'm playing on the couch, and then I'm going to go downstairs and play on the big TV or I'm going to go to bed. So it's not like I'm putting in these marathon sessions.

When I flew back this last time from Montreal, I must have used the battery because that's such a long flight, but I played fall in New Vegas the entire way. And it wasn't, this was my criticism of the Switch 2, where it was this horror story of like, went to LA for SGF and then I started it in the lounge and by the time I was leaving on, I'm like 50% and then on the plane it died.

I was like, fucking hell, you know what I mean? Now granted, that was just not what I expected out of the switch at that time. Also, maybe I didn't do the battery cycling bullshit they want me to do or whatever. I haven't had that with the wrong, but again, I'm usually expecting that. James McGill says the 10-year time capsule podcast reminded me

of when we thought handheld gaming was dead and cell phone games were going to kill dedicated devices. Crazy stuff, man. industry is hard to keep up with. You never know where you're going to go and what's going to happen. What Nintendo's going to do to revive it. Xbox says to Mike feeling overwhelmed. Most handhelds use the same three to four chips.

So performance is similar. Sure, RAM may be may differ, but what you're really choosing is preference screen battery, ergonomics, money, UX, etc. He nailed it, yeah. And this is the thing that Paris and I got when we went and saw this behind closed doors, right? Of them, you know, they were talking about the silicon chip, right?

of like this is being, we're trying to future proof with what we have so that we can use AI upscaling, whatever the heck, the tech is that go on, that'll hopefully make this device, the ally X, able to hang in there longer than the others, but who knows? Yeah, this Xbox Rogg ally should be the one for me, right?

My worry is just like, yeah, I'm putting away a little nest egg for that to hopefully splurge on that at the end of the year. But then Tim always brings up the screen and I'm like, fuck, like when am I getting that OLED? You know what I mean? It's going to be a long time, man. I think it's going to be a long time.

This concession is made. So Aces actually, because they had another stream too where they talked about, obviously, the partnership with Xbox, and they specifically talked about why they didn't go with OLED. And it came down to a couple things. VRR price, that's why they didn't do it. It would have, not astronomically, but it would have greatly raised the price of the device if they tried to do OLED out of the gate.

So, and they're clearly trying to get this thing. as cheap as they possibly can, but even with that, we know it's still gonna be pretty expensive. Yeah, hate that. Get it. Hate it. Fix it.

Bejadre Bernardo says in the future, will handhelds be the low bar of entry like Xbox Series S for the next gen? Or will handhelds be the only next gen console? I think that we're already kind of at a point that it's kind of just options. I don't think necessarily, especially on the Xbox side,

that it's going to matter much next gen. I think that it's just what is the version an entry point of the Xbox experience you're getting. The PlayStation side is very interesting where I'm still not convinced they're ever going to have another dedicated handheld. Like I do think that Cloud Streaming might be their future there. Do you believe the rumors that they're doing a portable handheld PlayStation or whatever? Not really.

Like that's the thing is like I feel like I don't know what a Portal 2 is going to look like. I don't even know that they need it necessarily. Like I think that they're serving the audience that they have. And I think PlayStation function differently where I don't have faith in them being able to get their games really. running on a handheld device in the same way. But maybe I'm wrong there. I think it's the same thing is that a lot of these and what Steam Deck probably thought it launched, too, just of like, we've already sold all the PlayStation 5s and PlayStation 5 pros we're going to sell to Greg and people who are like Greg.

So if we make a portable PlayStation that's the power of the PlayStation 5, not even the pro, and we want, like, idiots like him will buy it because they want this experience. and as slow as I imagine the PlayStation 6th generation will kick up is just generations kicked up. I can still see me getting use out of that, let alone remote playing or something for it. I feel like that's the idea of like it's another way to sell a $300, $400, $400 device to someone who would give you the money for it. Let's set our expectations reasonably.

Let's let's have it for PlayStation, I'm sure. They say let's have it be another success like PlayStation VR was and like Portal was, which were two devices that PlayStation was openly like, holy shit, these sold a lot better than we thought I was going to sell. expect that. Let's make another VR O-Fuck. Oh, fuck. Z Drake says, P-SP-2 is very real. I'm a U-I-U-X

designer and I saw the job spec. It's one of those where I have no doubt they're working on it. Does it ever come to market? Yeah, I'm there too. I just again, I feel like we'll get something. We'll get a follow-up to the portal that'll have more features, undeniably. I just don't see a future in which PlayStation. I mean, I don't see an imminent future in which, like, next gen, there's going to be a PS-6. I guess that's my thing.

The PS6 is not going to be a handheld device. Kyle says, Great Assault here reported pricing for the Xbox Allies are 500 and $800 and pre-orders in August. That's exactly in line with what I'm expecting, Paris, right? Yeah, I mean, if I saw that rumor too, that would be the ideal. I'm just, I'm just bracing for the worst, 900 and 600. But yeah, if it's 8 and 5, I think that would be ideal. AK says

Favorite setup has been retro slash indie games native on the deck Big games remote playing off PS5 Series X so the SD doesn't get hot and battery lasts forever Yeah I will say the best overall device In my opinion is the Steam Deck OLED

Just because it checks the most boxes The one problem there is Ease of use of getting to your Xbox games but you still can do it There's still ways around it Yeah CalP 97 says switch two will obliterate everything in its path.

You're a Nintendo gamer? Yes. If not, no. Mark Lopez says, I currently have a Steam Deck wish listed on my wedding registry. Nice. Awesome, dude.

What are some drawbacks gamers should know of from the Steam deck? I mean, like I was just saying, it's like, it's not inherently, easily compatible with the Xbox ecosystem of things. There are workarounds to make that happen, though.

Question for you, Tim. Or at the panel, I guess. Does anybody have, experience with these docs. I mentioned, they mentioned in the presentation for the Ally X, and then I talked about it

as a talking point, like the ROGXG mobile dock that boosts things. I don't have experience. Mobile combines the power of the external GPU with expandability with a thunderbolt

dock and puts into an extremely portable package boasting up to an NVIDia, G4s, RtX, 50, 90, laptop, GPU. This portable mobile is like,

I mean, as all in as I am on the rock and I expect to be on the I'm like, should I buy this? And like that. I mean, my thing is yes and no, because I don't think it's going to get up to the quality of your Xbox series X. You already have that on your TV. If you didn't have an Xbox series X, depending on price, I'd look into that.

But if you, your use case is playing Xbox games on this thing. Well, I feel like your Xbox is going to be better than it. Fair enough. And then, yeah, in terms of Steam, other downsides of the Steam deck, I don't absolutely love the button placement on a lot of things. a lot wider than I want it to be. I just has a whole unit. And brand new games are not going to run perfectly on it. We're not going to run on it in most cases.

But it's not just, oh, man, every game that comes out, you can play on this. Unless you're down with Cloud, in which case, that is the case. You can play anything on it. Well, Steam Deck 2 with Half Life 3. It's happening. God, that'd be awesome. We have Street Shadow saying, we've seen what everyone else is doing. but with strong moves of Sony dipping into the space,

what do you want them to do in the space? Competitive pricing and seamless console to handheld experience. I mean, yeah, that's the dream, but I don't think that's a reality at all. Personally, as a PlayStation gamer, like, I'm happy with the portal. 100%. Give me OLED. OLED and Bluetooth support,

and the portal is essentially perfect. Yeah. Well, Dasher says, I love what's happening with the handheld space, but I still have a hard time playing anything, but small games on them. I get major fomo when playing, for example, a cyberpunk on anything but my T-E.

that's my life too. For me, it's always the big thing of, it's rare for me to start a big game on a portal or on a portable. It's rare, it's rare for me to finish it or do a big story beat on it. It's usually the, all right, I'm in the minutia and I'm grinding and I'm doing the thing that's not, it's not, you know, A to Z. I'm doing the MLNOP. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I'm right there with you. Choked a second. I was good. I got scared about the old. I was like, I'm like, I'm like, yeah. I mean, that was me with follow. Fancy 7 rebur.

Yeah, right. It's like, I, if I was in a story beat or anything for that, I was like, I'm playing on my TV. But like when it was just more grinding or mindless kind of like get from point A to point B, that's portal time. Yeah. Kyle says, Valves also positioning Steam OS is the big thing versus the deck itself. If they drop an ally with Steam OS, why by the worst Windows one? I mean, because I'm hoping that what you just said about Steam is exactly how Windows handles it. That they focus on Xbox OS is the thing instead of any one device itself.

Like, that's when this is an Xbox. becomes reality. And we'll get there. CJ Splitson says, how does Mike feel about the new strategy as an Xbox console guy? Yeah, we brought that up of just being able to play anywhere.

I'm someone who is living through that, right? Of like seeing that happen in real time of a lot of my games now are play anywhere and I can play them on the PC and on my Xbox when I make that one purchase. And I'm really happy with that. That is some of my hesitations of, as Tim brought up, right,

I am that one weirdo that has such a big catalog that I'm going to click on the one and it's going to be like, hey, not playable on this handheld. I'm going to go, oh, that sucks. And then I kind of lose the steam on that, right? Similar to the steam deck when I boot that up and it says, ah, it's not steam deck verified. I kind of go, yeah, that's too bad.

And I move on, right? So, yeah, for me, I'm enjoying the moment. I really love the messaging and the vision of what they want to do. We are right there. I am someone who has gone from day one to, hey, put all my games on cloud. Well, it's only game pass, right? I live through all these caveats that Tim brings up. and it's like, yeah, those are all like moments where you kind of stop and question,

well, what is the next move for me as a gamer here? And it seems like they're getting closer and closer. My dream is, yeah, my whole catalog is on cloud gaming. It is on my ecosystem of PC, mobile, and console. That is where we're heading to. And I think we'll get there soon enough. Kyle says the Game Sur G8 Galileo clears all these for $80. It's another similar thing to the backbone or the 8-bit-o ultimate game controller I was talking about.

I don't have personal experience with it, but from what I hear, it is another excellent option for you. Street Shadow says, Tim, you should check. Oh, damn it. Something's getting in the way. There we go. Tim, you should check out the news about PlayStation offering a low-power mode for games, hints at the ability to run a game on a handheld. Haven't heard about that. That'd be awesome.

I think that is the one thing everyone's trying to figure out now is like scalability. of just having modern games be able to run on their high end, but also on a acceptable low end across all the other gaming handhelds that are still, we have to remind everybody a very, very, very small part of people playing games anywhere, period. But obviously everyone's hoping that that grows. But we're talking about a handful of millions of people at this point that can currently even care about this stuff.

100%. Logan Jensen says, my advice for anyone thinking about a Steam deck, it's actually very easy to customize. Y'all, I'm a moron living in Kansas. Thanks, Greg. And if I can swap my M2, install emulators, external storefront, Steam Xbox, stream Xbox, and PlayStation, than anyone can.

There we go. Thank you so much for your super chats today, everybody, and for hanging out with us for this episode of The Kind of Funny Games Cast Pairs. Thank you for joining us as well. Always a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I got to come up to the studio, man.

It's been a minute. You sure. I miss you. Welcome. Anytime. Let us know in the comments below, what handheld gaming devices you currently have or are interested in having. And if not, what are your issues? What are you waiting for to get ironed out before you are going to dive in and joins the

millions and millions of people? But stay tuned. We're about to do a stream. No, no, no. You got Joey Noel's Employee review. Great, great. She's going to love that. And then the stream is going to be me and Barrett playing some crash bandicoot.

Until the next time, love you all. Goodbye.