You may have seen gaming console devices such as the Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally and wondered how they compare to something like a Nintendo Switch. Devices like this might look similar to the Nintendo, but overall they are very different.

A device such as the ROG Ally is more an entire handheld gaming PC running Windows rather than just a handheld gaming console. With the ROG Ally, you have just as much capability as a standard computer, minus some keyboard and mouse functions and hardware limitations.

Much the same can be said about the Steam Deck, with some pretty important overall differences. Instead of running Windows, the Steam Deck runs Valve’s own operating system (Valve is the developer of Steam and the Steam Deck) that is based on Arch Linux. That system is called “Steam OS,” and is capable of being used as a normal computer running Linux with the KDE Plasma desktop environment.

On the other hand, Valve also developed their own environment for the Steam Deck which they call “gaming mode.” Gaming mode is Valve’s user interface that was made for normal use of the Steam Deck, having specific functions for the controls of the console.

Handheld gaming has come a very long way over the past five years. With the release of these devices and similar ones, the user case of handheld gaming has become more relevant as well, with the ease of taking along a very capable device wherever you go, thus allowing you to play any game available on most computers. Hardware limitations, too, have become less of an issue over recent years. Overall, handheld gaming has been around almost as long as gaming devices have been, more or less, but lately the devices are being taken ever more seriously.