Switch price, PC experience? Great reviews for PC handheld consoles priced at 2,000 yuan!

With the release of Steam Deck and the continuous improvement of mobile processor performance, PC handheld consoles have gradually entered the attention of players in recent years. As a cross-border combination of handheld game consoles and game laptops, these products not only have much more radical performance than Switch, but can also seamlessly connect to players' existing PC game libraries, and are even compatible with community content such as mods and modifiers, bringing Steam Having games in your pocket is no longer a dream.

Although it looks great in theory, existing PC handheld consoles also have many shortcomings, the most important of which is that the overall price is relatively high. The Ryzen 7 6800U launched by AMD last year has remarkable CPU and GPU performance, but the hardware cost is not low. In addition, the cost of high-speed memory, SSD hard disk and mold opening necessary to achieve core display performance has led to many domestically produced Ryzen 7 6800U. The price of PC handheld consoles is already close to the level of mid-range all-in-one laptops.

For comparison, currently the only mainstream handheld console - Nintendo Switch, the OLED version is priced at less than 2,000 yuan, the battery life version is priced at around 1,600 yuan, and the Lite version is as low as 1,200 yuan It’s about 100 yuan, which is not proportional to the cost of PC handheld consoles. This situation makes people want to ask: Is there no cheap PC handheld game in this world?

(Source: Nintendo Switch)

That’s not the case. Today we are going to review these three PC handheld consoles for you: AYANEO 2021 Pro, GPD WIN 3 and 64GB version Steam Deck, these products are priced at only about 2,000 yuan on the second-hand market. After playing games legally in the office for so many days, let’s take a look at what these three products can do.

Appearance design

As usual, we start with the appearance design of the product.

At first glance, the AYANEO Pro 2021 with a black and white body is obviously the most eye-catching product among them. However, the ruthless years have made its body slightly yellow, and the workmanship of AYANEO's early products is even more difficult to resist. The seams of the product shell are very obvious, and the volume buttons and power button on the top of the body are not prominent enough. They are easy to spot at a glance. You can see the level of ingredients.

(Photo source: Made by Lei Technology)

Let’s take a look at GPD WIN 3. As the relatively older one among the three manufacturers, GPD’s product design is indeed somewhat different. , with a relatively compact body, a symmetrical handle and a sliding keyboard design, the input experience is much better than the other two. However, the rough seams of the shell, the loose left and right shoulder buttons, and the touch keyboard that sometimes doesn't work, still remind you that this is a "factory" handheld machine.

(Picture source: Self-made by Lei Technology)

As for the Steam Deck, the machine looks like a standard "brick" in appearance. To put it nicely, it is called industrial style. To be honest, there is almost no design. However, in terms of workmanship, Steam Deck may be the most organized among the three products. The shell is tightly fitted, the buttons feel solid, and the processing of body details is the most complete among the three.

(Source: Ray Technology Self-made)

Next, we put the three products together, and it is easy to see that Steam Deck＞AYANEO＞GPD WIN 3. If you add Switch and Switch Lite for comparison, the front size of GPD WIN 3 is similar to that of Switch Lite, the front size of AYANEO is relatively close to that of Switch OLED, and the Steam Deck is undoubtedly the largest of the three products.

(Photo source: Made by Lei Technology)

Of course, these three products can only be compared with the Switch in terms of front size. In terms of body thickness, the three products Compared with the Switch, they are all outstanding. Among them, the GPD Win3 equipped with a sliding keyboard has visually surpassed the two Switches. The Steam Deck has thickened the handle part to ensure the feel, while the AYANEO is the relatively thinnest product.

(Photo source: Made by Lei Technology)

And this is not the most exaggerated thing, the most exaggerated thing is their weight. GPD WIN 3 weighs 557 grams, AYANEO weighs 623 grams, and the Steam Deck weighs 669 grams. For comparison, Switch Lite weighs 275 grams, and Switch OLED only weighs 398 grams. In other words, the lightest GPD among them weighs as much as two Switch Lites, which is a big pity for a handheld machine.

Game test

In terms of hardware configuration, the GPD WIN 3 we have is equipped with an 11th generation Core i5-1135G7, four cores and eight threads, 2.4GHz main frequency, and the GPU is 80EU Xe core display; AYANEO is equipped with Ryzen 7 4800U, eight cores and sixteen threads, 1.8GHz main frequency, GPU is 8CU Vega 8h core display; while the Steam Deck is equipped with a customized APU based on Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architecture, and the CPU part is four cores and eight threads , 3.5GHz frequency.

(Photo source: Self-made by Lei Technology)

Before the actual game, we first tested the three models with benchmark software. When the power consumption is limited to 15W and the power supply is connected, AYANEO's CPU score is very outstanding, and the RDNA 2 core of Steam Deck obviously has excellent graphics rendering capabilities.

Of course, unlike Steam Deck, AYANEO and GPD have the ability to unlock power consumption. With a power consumption of 30W, the GPU running score of GPD WIN 3 has been significantly improved, and the multi-threading performance of AYANEO has been fully released, and the power consumption and heat of the whole machine will also soar.

(Source: Ray Technology Self-made)

Entering the game test, we will test the performance of the three devices at 15W, and the performance of AYANEO and GPD at 25W.

In "Cyberpunk 2077", we chose Steam Deck image quality. The three devices were unable to play normally under both power consumption settings, which shows the depth of CD Projekt's optimization skills. Even after lowering the image quality, the three devices can still only run between 30-40 frames, and the experience is not good.

(Photo source: Made by Lei Technology)

Let’s take a look at "Far Cry 6" again. At full low image quality, AYANEO and GPD are basically unable to play this game smoothly, even if they are adjusted The high power consumption of the whole machine can only play at about 35 frames, but the Steam Deck can reach about 48 frames without any settings.

(Source: Ray Technology Self-made)

In "Shadow of the Tomb Raider", we adjusted the three handheld consoles to the highest resolution and low image quality, AYANEO and The base frame rate of GPD is about 30fps, and after adjusting the power consumption, it can reach about 40fps, while the Steam Deck can remain at about 45fps.

(Photo source: Made by Lei Technology)

In terms of racing, we specially selected an old racing game that has not passed Steam Deck certification-"F1 2020" for testing. As shown in the figure, because it has not been optimized, Steam Deck can only run to about 60 frames natively. However, this performance is already due to AYANEO and GPD under the same power consumption, and is only slightly inferior to their performance under full power consumption. .

(Picture source: Lei Technology Self-made)

The last one is the Sony exclusive game that everyone loves - "Horizon: Zero Dawn", AYANEO and GPD under low image quality It stays at around 30 frames at most, and you can still play it for a while. Although Steam Deck can run up to around 55 frames, it has a sudden crash problem. I hope the official can fix this kind of problem as soon as possible.

(Source: Lei Technology Self-made)

In general, thanks to the power of RDNA 2 core display, Steam Deck has almost formed a rival to the other two in terms of game frame rate. The crushing of products. Interestingly, although various brands of domestic PC handheld consoles have successively launched models equipped with Ryzen 7 6800U processors, their performance under the 15W power consumption limit may not be as good as that of Steam Deck.

Actual experience

For handheld consoles, in addition to the game frame rate, the overall hands-on experience is more important.

Let’s take a look at the system first. Although both AYANEO and GPD use Windows systems, there is still an obvious difference in the level of software focus between the two. AYANEO has its own customized game library software AYASpace and a complete supporting front-end AYA Quick Setup, allowing players to easily customize their own game library and adjust power consumption, fan, brightness and other settings in a timely manner during the game.

(Photo source: Self-made by Lei Technology)

As for GPD, although the production time is long enough, the software experience has never kept up with other manufacturers. GPD does not have its own customized game library software or configuration front-end. Although users can achieve similar functions through third-party software such as Playnite/Somatosensory Assistant/Power Control Panel, the ease of use is definitely not comparable to the built-in applications.

(Picture source: Lei Technology Self-made)

Steam Deck uses its own customized Steam OS system. This handheld system is customized based on the Arch Linux system, which is a perfect fit in terms of experience. With the usage habits of the controller, you can even quickly pause the screen/resume the game progress. Although there are network problems with product activation, in every sense, Steam Deck is a product closer to the meaning of a traditional handheld console.

(Photo source: Made by Lei Technology)

The next thing is the feel. Among these three products, the one with the worst feel is the relatively small GPD WIN 3, which is unreasonable The key layout allows the player to place the overall center of gravity lower when holding it. The flat back of the fuselage and the angled sides of the fuselage add a lot of pressure to the ring fingers and palms of both hands. Not only that, because the machine has a keyboard and mouse mode switching function, the handle will malfunction from time to time, which is very frustrating.

As for AYANEO, although the whole machine feels relatively normal to hold, the rocker movement range is too narrow and the use of dome shoulder buttons is still very uncomfortable. AYANEO also suffers from intermittent handle failure. The problem requires players to make adjustments on their own to return to normal. This kind of excitement after repeated tossing may also be an indispensable part of PC handheld consoles.

In terms of button and joystick experience alone, Steam Deck should have the best feel among the three products, and the linear triggers also provide the best speed control. The problem is that the body of the machine is too big, which means that some players with smaller hands cannot handle both joystick and button operations. The left and right touchpads are not useful in most games.

(Source: Self-made by Lei Technology)

In terms of vibration feedback, the rotor motors used by GPD and AYANEO are enough to make hands shake, while the linear motor used by Steam Deck is too weak. , the performance of the three products is not as good as the Switch's HD vibration, so it is difficult to find a balance point.

As for the sound performance, all three machines can only be heard.

Of course, when playing PC games with such a small body, heat dissipation is definitely a problem. According to the actual measurement, the three products do not generate much heat at 15W. The heat of the fuselage is mainly concentrated on the back and the air outlet. The increase in fuselage temperature has little effect on the grip position of the handle. However, after adjusting to 30W, the body temperature of GPD and AYANEO will rise rapidly, and the fan noise of GPD will even become a bit harsh, seriously affecting the gaming experience.

In terms of battery life, the battery size and charging power of the three products are as shown in the picture. After actual testing, when playing light games, the theoretical battery life of GPD and AYANEO is between 2 and 3 hours, and the Steam Deck can reach more than 4 hours; when running heavy games at full power consumption, GPD and AYANEO can The battery was drained within an hour, and the Steam Deck, which has relatively conservative power consumption, naturally lasted longer.

(Picture source: Self-made by Lei Technology)

As for the standby power consumption, the standby capability of the current Windows system is obvious to all. Both GPD and AYANEO often encounter false standby or directly fall asleep. In this case, only the Steam Deck can experience a standby experience similar to that of the Switch. When the room temperature is 25°C, after one night of standby, the Steam Deck loses about 3% of its power, and the game state can be restored immediately after unlocking, giving a great experience.

Summary

To sum up, if you want to experience a PC handheld game in the 2,000 yuan range, then Steam Deck is indeed the most ideal choice at the moment. The relatively neat body design, host-level system experience, more powerful graphics performance and relatively reasonable overall power consumption make this product the one with the fewest problems and the most worry-free use during this period of time. model.

It is worth noting that the Steam Deck we used in this test only has a 64GB hard drive, while both GPD WIN 3 and AYANEO Pro 2021 version are equipped with 1TB hard drives. In other words, if you want to get a more normal experience, you must purchase a large-capacity SSD or a large-capacity TF card for capacity expansion. Domestic manufacturers are indeed much more generous in terms of hard drives and memory.

不僅如此，目前Steam Deck的許多優勢都建立在Steam OS的基礎上，而Steam OS本身是無法運行exe程式的，這意味著許多辦公室軟體、生產力工具和Galgame都無法正常運行。除非你給Steam Deck刷上Windows 11系統，但這樣它就會變成一台GPU效能嚴重偏科的便攜電腦，玩家將要面臨兩難的局面。

那麼在最後，我推薦購買這些PC掌機嗎？

在我看來，如果你的目的是暢玩3A遊戲，那麼說實話個人是不太推薦入手的，即便是這幾款產品裡最出色的Steam Deck，在運行3A遊戲的時候依然會犧牲畫質和幀數，再加上相對笨重的機身，在便攜性上實在不盡人意。如果你只是想在通勤路上打發時間，那麼Switch顯然會是一個更好的選擇。

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