Hopefully I didn't miss anything
have an Anbernic, the OG switch with a bunch of games, and a ROG Ally Z1E, I often take the Switch and Anbernic with me so they get some love, but its just luggage weight, all I touch is the Ally!
Comment has been collapsed.
Nice. I have an Anbernic myself (RG353M model), but I let my brother use it instead, since I prefer access to PSP which it is unsuited for. He is content replaying PS1 games he grew up with along with old Pokemon games.
Comment has been collapsed.
honestly i spend more time playing balatro on my phone than i do using my steam deck. the deck is great for when i am away from home for long periods visiting family but i always have my phone ready for a short balatro session
Comment has been collapsed.
While I may have spent a good amount of time playing on my Steam Deck, I don't think it outweighs the Vita play time quite yet.
Then again, I don't even have a home PC. (lol)
Comment has been collapsed.
I tend to not bring stuff with me but when I di it is either the switch or the 3DS
Comment has been collapsed.
I have a Vita that I play on when I don't have access to my computer.
Comment has been collapsed.
Whoo, Vita. Still got one, but rarely use it. While the size isn't an issue, placement of the analog stick has resulted in me moving it attempting to use buttons. I played most of the games through a PSTV instead.
Comment has been collapsed.
I really loved my Vita. Its sad what Sony did to it. I find the size rather nice even today and while I also love my Deck, I´d prefer the Vita-format for actual on-the-go gaming. Thats why the GPD Win 4 has a lot of allure to me (see picture below), but its too pricey just to use it as a secondary handheld PC.
Sadly my Vita nowadays is just collecting dust and I consider selling it... apart from very fond memories, I'm mostly held back by a little treasure of mine: A rare copy of Final Fantasy X (and only X, not that combo pack) signed by Uematsu. While I´d never sell that, its feels a bit bad not to be able to actually use the cartridge anymore...
Comment has been collapsed.
The most gaming I did on any handheld was probably old Nokia phones! the S60/Java games.
I have a Steam Deck but I never use it, I do not find it very comfortable to use. It's heavy, the buttons are tiny, the d-pad is horrendous, the controls are too close to the edge for my taste. I like the idea of it, but haven't turned it on in a few months.
I really was never a fan of handhelds in the past, I never owned a Game Boy or anything like that when they were contemporary. I have a collection now of old consoles & handhelds but collecting is a hobby in and of itself, more so than actually playing them.
Comment has been collapsed.
It totally is heavy. I have a pillow I use to get it perfect gaming height. Also, it pairs pretty easily with controllers, so we put it on the TV sometimes. It's definitely not for everyone.
I think the GBA and larger screen DS are my favorite size.
Comment has been collapsed.
Weight is definitely an issue that keeps me from picking up one of the PC based devices myself. I prefer to use lighter systems over anything like that.
Comment has been collapsed.
Standard laptop is the closest option (if one may call an Alienware gaming laptop standard).
Comment has been collapsed.
Well, when I say standard, it isn't hold and play, you just unfold it then place it down somewhere to use, be it a table, bench, lap, etc. Still more portable than my tower PC though.
Comment has been collapsed.
More portable than my Aurora R15, too. Of course, the sneaky buggers came out the new Area 51 offerings after I bought the R15, so no budget for the new shiny.
Comment has been collapsed.
More portable than my Aurora R15, too
if Alienware keeps coming up with bigger laptops they're going to need to outfit them with an actual spaceship propulsion system.
They're great laptops though.
Comment has been collapsed.
I bought the Steam Deck because my kid was bogarting the Switch, so I'd say equal use. We pull out the 3ds for some games (pokemon, Kirby). The DS and GBA come out more rarely, but there's some really good games I still need to play on those.
Currently playing Sable on deck, and Animal Well on Switch.
Comment has been collapsed.
Had to google what "bogarting" means because it's the first time I've seen that word :P
Comment has been collapsed.
Nothing to do with humphrey bogart. :x
Street language these days. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Comment has been collapsed.
TFW even the people with kids now use words you don't know.
Fuck you time, I was never meant to get old.
Comment has been collapsed.
Might be age, but I think it's just English being my second language, there's loads of less common words I've never heard or read and have to look up.
Comment has been collapsed.
eh, it's probably a very American term, I've never heard it's use here in NZ.
Comment has been collapsed.
It is. Although we also use it in Canada but definitely north-American.
and it actually does refer to Humphrey Bogart because he was often seen in movies holding a lit cigarette but not smoking it. "Bogart" became synonymous with just holding something without really using it when others could.
It's kinda silly I guess but it definitely was popularized by the stoner era after a song regarding not passing around joints was in the movie Easy Rider.
Comment has been collapsed.
The last thing I regularly gamed on that was portable was the Atari Lynx 👴🏿
Comment has been collapsed.
I actually had one of those with one game, not sure how since it wasn't actually released here. Chips Challenge was with it.
Comment has been collapsed.
https://evercade.co.uk/cartridges/atari-lynx-collection-2-cartridge/ ;)
And Evercade is a nice light portable (and home) system not mentioned.
If you bought all game cartridges so far (like me) that's 1500 euro on games. :x
Comment has been collapsed.
I find it hard to believe there's more people here carrying a steam deck around for daily gaming at work during break or the park with friends vs a phone. Even if it's just match 3 or sudoku.
For me it's a phone, not that I "game" much on it, just when I'm that bored and got nothing else to do when I'm out.
Comment has been collapsed.
The question wasn't what our most used system is while on the commute, it's just generally asking what our most used portable system is.
Comment has been collapsed.
That's why I found it hard to believe. The title is "what is your most commonly used portable gaming device?", so maybe some people don't have computers and use a steamdeck as their main pc, but voted on it cause it's also portable? Otherwise there is no way a phone would lose to this. Maybe it loses in the sg charts tho.
It's not about commute alone, but wherever you go somewhere, a phone is in your pocket. 99% of the time you'll take a steam deck with you when you travel between locations, sleepover, something of the sort. Never in my entire life did I see someone pull a steamdeck or a switch out of their pocket. Granted about 15 years ago I used to see people carry around a 3DS or something or a tamagochi like 20/25 years ago, and back then mobile gaming wasn't as prevalent.
So maybe the concentration here of steam users is so big that they ditched all mobile games all together and do not play any at all or extremely rarely while outside(kinda my case, I rarely play mobile games, maybe on a work break I'll do a sudoku) and instead whenever they go somewhere they take a steam deck with them because I guess it's not inconvenient for them to carry a steam deck around. I however find it inconvenient to carry it around unless it's in a backpack and I'm going on a trip and staying somewhere I don't have my own separate pc, case in which I usually bring my laptop and steamdeck, so I can play games on both.
I see hundreds to thousands a people a day, and go on break with many people a day and I could count on one hand how many times I've seen someone with a steam deck, switch or alternative console(including a 3ds) in the past 10 years, but I see mobile gamers every day play all kinds of gatcha games, rpg games, and old people playing match 3 games, brain games, gambling games, etc. on their phones.
So to me, the ratio to phone gamers vs steam deck users in the wild is like 99/1. Granted, Delta did say after "Feel free to share your preferred system and some games you like to play if you wish." which maybe opened it up for a lot of people to just pick whatever they think is the better portable platform, to which I'd also say a steam deck if I had to choose, or a laptop, depending on the situation. Heck we live in a time where you can carry around a mini case with a 5090 in it and a projector or a mini monitor.
Maybe if you're taking a long bus ride or something of the sort every day it makes sense to have time to spend on it, I drive everywhere so that's also out of the question for me.
Comment has been collapsed.
The title is "what is your most commonly used portable gaming device?",
maybe people here don't consider popping a sudoku for 5mins on their phone "gaming"
Never in my entire life did I see someone pull a steamdeck or a switch out of their pocket.
becuase you've never seen me! xD
Comment has been collapsed.
Cant say much about "most people" but for me personally: I do have a decent gaming-rig and still the Steam Deck nets ~70% of my gaming-at-home time. Its just very convenient for short-burst sessions with the standby and I can play anywhere I want. In bed, in the kitchen, on the toilet, on the balcony etc.
Before the Deck, the Switch took a similar spot and I bought a lot of games for it that I already owned on Steam for years, because it was the best way to finally play them.
Also: When looking at the numbers, don´t forget this is just a certain part of the SG-crowd voting here, not general populace.
Comment has been collapsed.
who ever thought steam deck is the most common portable on steam gifts forums? crazy right?
Comment has been collapsed.
I voted for phone because I don't feel confident calling a laptop a portable gaming device, the thing needs a table to be used comfortably for more than a few minutes, the few times I tried using it on bed I quickly gave up. I do have an old (almost 15 years old) netbook that I actually used for gaming on the bed since it's much smaller and lighter than a standard laptop, but that thing is way too outdated hardware-wise nowadays and stuck on Windows 7, last time I used it regularly was about 3 years ago and it basically was only good for (really) old games and very lightweight stuff like pixel graphics 2D platformers and visual novels, even HOGs were a no go due to its odd resolution.
When it comes to playing things on the phone I tend to prefer things that play well with the touchscreen, like puzzle games or point and click adventures, anything action-y is a pain, to the point that I bought one of those bluetooth controllers for phones with the clamp thingy but ended up only using it with emulators and eventually it became my laptop's default controller.
Now, back in the day I spent an embarrassing amount of time gaming on my old flip-phones, I'm probably one of the rare gamers with an extensive knowledge of J2ME games. To this day I still consider Wolfenstein RPG to be my favorite RPG because I loved the almost self-parody tone of the writing in that game and just how well it blended into the mechanics, Id Software cranked the funny up to eleven for that one, also it had a surprising amount of text and lore for an Id game.
Comment has been collapsed.
SteamDeck
Although I will play stuff on my Kindle and on my phone from time to time.
Comment has been collapsed.
The only game I played on my phone in the past 4-5 years, is Sudoku.
On the tablet I occasionally try a game but it rarely lasts even two or three days.
The Deck is my go to hardware. I don't use it every week by now but it's never far away. And it replaced everything else, I haven't used my Switch even once since I got a Deck.
Comment has been collapsed.
I have my laptop at work if that counts though I rarely game on it then
Comment has been collapsed.
A Switch if I had one lmao
The most recent portable console I have is a 3DS XL (the fancy gold zelda one =w=), and I occasionally go back to it, though usually regular DS games. Mostly Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing. Once in a while I get readdicted to mobile games on my Chromebook, though, but haven't played any in a good several months. Usually Idle merge games, plus a cat sudoku one.
Comment has been collapsed.
I do play some generic games on my phone which probably eat up way too much time from my day, but I am voting for steamdeck, since I dont consider the generic phone games as "gaming"...
Steamdeck mostly though for travelling and sofa when I have to watch my daugther or spend some TV Time together with wife. After moving to the new place and setting up home office I finally have a place for my big screen and PC. So when possible I do try to game on that... the small steamdeck screen in the end does not give the visual satisfaction a big screen does though... But I also set up a projector which I use from time to time for gaming, so I may have spoiled myself a bit.
Comment has been collapsed.
if were going off most time spent
nintendo 2ds and SD card
$80 for 2ds $15 for sd card 2ish$ for screen protects 2ish$ for silicone case
friend helped me get every single game on it. best money i ever spent in my entire life
last year and this one that would be steam deck with ruffly 2100+ hours since i got it
right now playing coral island with 197 hours on said game
Comment has been collapsed.
Steam Deck and other handheld PCs are really great (I would love to have something like this years ago), but when it comes to portability I still love my good old PSP. Holds up pretty well for a nearly 20 year old device and easily fits into a pocket.
Comment has been collapsed.
I only have a laptop computer, that is used for everything - work and entertainment alike, but I wouldn't count it as portable =)
For really portable gaming I use Anbernic 406v, it's a great device that's both big enough to play comfortably, and small enough to be portable. I can play on the go, while commuting, or at any time when I have 5-10 minutes to kill. At the same time, it fits into a pocket of a loose-fitting clothing (can't do that with steamdeck or switch), and is almost imperceptible when walking around with it.
What I love about the dedicated gaming device is that it forces me to focus only on one thing at a time, gaming. No distractions from messengers, or endless scrolling through feeds - just focused gaming sessions, and on best gaming generations as well - 406v is powerful enough to run everything up PS2, with PS2 being full-speed for majority of games (but not all, some are just too demanding). Having this slice of history in your palm is great!
Comment has been collapsed.
Sounds like a decent model. I have an older Anbernic myself which is mostly limited to PS1 and some DS games, PSP is a bit much for it. Fortunately I have a Retroid Pocket 5, that is much better for later games. Even tried a couple of Wii releases on it to get an idea of how well it would run them.
Mostly play older releases or Android games on it though. :P
Comment has been collapsed.
As long as you enjoy it, it's valid =) I installed netflix on mine, and sometimes use it as an emergency screen in a situation where my phone wouldn't be applicable. Also, having a 4x3 screen, it's perfect for older content, like tv series or cartoons. Great immersion =)
Comment has been collapsed.
I have an RTX 3060 laptop but have barely used it for gaming ever since getting a Steam Deck in December 2022.
Comment has been collapsed.
Never got into portable gaming, although a have a few older devices like DS and such.
I guess I don't need the handheld when I can hook my controller up to a laptop and enjoy a bigger screen (and a better posture).
Besides, I can't justify the price of a handheld. No sir.
Laptop is my only active "portable" gaming machine, but I play equal amounts laptop & desktop lately (love cloud-saves when they work).
Comment has been collapsed.
90% of gaming time, no matter is it portable or not, I'm using Steam Deck. I'm satisfied by Deck for 90%.
Comment has been collapsed.
Have only Steam Deck and I use it a lot, best hardware purchase I have ever made. Currently playing The Hundred Line on it and enjoying it immensely. Fun fact is that the game has some problems with crackling sound on PC, but it's perfect on Deck.
Comment has been collapsed.
With the SteamDeck and other such systems so popular now, I thought I'd see how users here prefer to game away from their home PC.
Feel free to share your preferred system and some games you like to play if you wish.
Comment has been collapsed.