What's the market for a (non-hacked) device like this, when the Switch and the Deck already exist? Surely the appeal of a handheld is that you can bring it with you on the train, airplane, etc. What am I missing?
In conjunction with GeForce Now, it's better than the Steam link in a few ways for my use case: better screen (1080p and slightly bigger), quite a bit lighter and easier to hold, no fan noise, no heat, much better graphics (since it's not running on a local APU, but a 4080 in the cloud). At the time, it was also significantly cheaper than the Steam Deck, although that's gotten cheaper over time too. There are also a bunch of similar $200 ish streaming Android handhelds if price is the primary consideration.
There are a few downsides, though: Its control inputs are way cheaper than that of the Steam Deck and it feels like crap and has no gyro input. It can't run local games (obviously) except cheap Android junk like Torchlight Infinite. It's co-developed with Tencent, which means China is probably spying on all your games (and your Google login).
But overall... it's fine for what it is? I mostly just play Path of Exile on it (and hopefully Diablo 4 soon) before falling asleep in bed.
I actually got a Steam Deck at one point, tried it for a couple days, and then sold it. It just wasn't as ergonomic as the GCloud for casual play. It was a pain waiting for the OS to update, games to patch and then slowly load, etc.
But you're wrong about the gyro input. I have it working with Yuzu -- I am very happy with it, and am running Steam on Bazzite (https://bazzite.gg) inside Proxmox.
Does this mean you can pass the gyro controls onto Steam Link or GeForce Now or some such? I have no interest in retro games, but it would be awesome to use gyro aiming for shooters...
I can do it for Yuzu (there's a note on the post). Right now Steam Link doesn't support it. Moonlight says it does, but I haven't gotten it to work with any Steam game (or at all, really). I suspect that would only work in Windows, but haven't bothered to try.
As far as local games, if you're into retro gaming the G-Cloud is also powerful enough to play PSP games at 2x or 3x resolution (as well as anything else you can find emulators for up to and including the PS1 and N64 generation of consoles). I got a G-Cloud around when it first released and still use it quite a bit for both emulation and streaming, though I use Steam Link to play games running on my desktop instead of GeForce Now.
Supposedly, the market for it is people who want to play their PS5 but can't because somebody else in the household is occupying their TV. But that begs the question of why they wouldn't just go buy a bedroom TV instead and move the PS5 into the bedroom?
Other possible markets would be people trying to collect a complete set of PS5 accessories and people impulse buying it without thinking about whether it'd actually be useful. Of course the people buying it right now are mainly the scalpers and Sony likely produced very small quantities to ensure it'd sell out and get them positive press.
> But that begs the question of why they wouldn't just go buy a bedroom TV instead and move the PS5 into the bedroom?
I like the shows my wife watches but not always enough to want to dedicate my full attention to them. I'll often play the Switch while side-watching Downton Abbey type shows with her.
The Switch library has limited interest to me though so something like this provides more options.
Multiple vendors with multiple new models per year, different quality and price levels. Some come with Linux based systems others with android or even Windows. So you can choose between a selection of models for roughly 50-100USD, 150-300 or from a section that is even more expensive than a steamdeck but also provide more on some or all fronts for they bigger price tag.
There are some devices that are basically the same concept, just in new generation, but there are also many that are more unique. The space seems to require it, button layouts or screen ratio / resolution play a mayor role how well the emulation experience is, but there are so many different consoles over the years that they can't just do one thing fits all, especially if they want to keep it a handheld or sometimes pocketable. There was just a windows device released with clamshell dual screen design like the DS, but thicker to run basically everything on a modern AMD Windows setup.
The portal wasn't an unknown device in that bubble, bc some people use there emulation handhelds for streaming, as in in-home streaming or like the nvidia shield, cloud gaming streaming, often Xbox game pass these days.
There is a whole section of controllers that make a smartphone a portal/switch/steamdeck like device, by holding it in the middle and connect via usb c, lightning or Bluetooth. There is a good set of emulators for phone, snapdragon is quite good in emulating switch for example, but there is a also next to streaming, android native games that support controllers or apps that produce virtual touch inputs to map the controller.
There is also a scene that makes handhelds like the DSi, psp, vita, etc emulators who work quite well if you want to put in the effort to set it up.
I recommend retro game corps on yt for a start, he doesn't do quick bait or mind numbing flash cuts.
