The Future Problem With Handhelds

A video discussing the inevitable problem handhelds will encounter in the future.
If you want to support the channel: ko-fi.com/major_trenton
Background music: KilikaBeats • Final Fantasy X LoFi M...
#handheld #switch #steamdeck #asusrog #gaming #battery #major_trenton

[@major_trenton]

Thank you to everyone that viewed this! I never thought it would get this many views, it means so much!

[@maxxpls]

great video, high quality, u deserve more subs, good luck on your youtube journey!! i wish you the best

[@crybabydie1]

Your Welcome.

[@crybabydie1]

I think there is a sharp release of handheld gaming, because they are on the precipice of releasing a new better battery. I've heard talk of a Sulphur based battery that could have greater power storage and output. I guess only time will tell. I currently use steam deck and have a 4 year old 20000 mah battery pack from when I had switch. It has a little more than half capacity or(3/4 capacity) vs if it were new, but it extends the playtime of the steam deck fairly well.

[@muteloch2798]

This is all compounded by most people having no idea how to properly preserve the long-term health of batteries. They aren't supposed to kept plugged in, charging at 100%. The failure to prevent overcharge plagued early laptops. Notice most new Apple and Samsung devices have a safety in the settings to prevent charging above 85%. On the flip side, it's battery torture to go below ~20%. Oh yeah, and charging a device while drawing a significant current also ruins batteries.

[@p.g.944]

The thing is that a lot of car manufacturer are looking for a more efficient way to store electrical power for the evs, if a breaktrough happens, it would be first for them and then it could spread to other areas like handheld

[@dungeonseeker3087]

Science is more than capable of making batteries that hold more energy per mass than current tech, its simply a matter of safety. Would you want to walk around with a literal potential bomb in your pocket?

[@Skylancer727]

But it won't give what you think it will. If they find a way to store more power, it's at the same weight. But they could also reduce the battery size to keep the same range at high efficiency. I mean if they do just keep it heavy and add more energy it just means a more expensive battery and longer charging time, something people already dislike about EVs. So you could either have a similar priced car with better efficiency giving a few more miles, or one with more range but longer charging times. Looking at gas cars, it's clear they'll stick to the latter. Just look up the fuel economy of any car and no matter how inefficient the car is, it still has a tank for 500-600 miles. Likely EVs will do the same thing.

[@reaperaf9511]

Idea... Battery banks. Basically, removable and rechargeable batteries for cars. That would possibly solve the ev battery issue... As for modern handhelds, same idea. Basically returning to the old Gameboy with AA batteries.

[@Skylancer727]

@reaperaf9511 replaceable batteries will never take off with EVs. There's too many issues of who flips the bill if it fails, how do people pay for them, designing a battery with active cooling that can be removed, and designing contacter pads that won't quickly wear out. It's just completely unfeasible.

[@reaperaf9511]

@@Skylancer727 good points there...

[@RonaldBrowen3]

One overlooked problem with such short battery life, is the number of cycles you are putting that battery through, and the higher discharge rate. You are gonna kill the battery SUPER fast. I had a steam deck, and I sold it within a few months for that reason. Super short Battery life, and knowing that the battery health is gonna go out the window super fast. If it only lasts 1-1.5 hours of heavy use out of the box, soo it will be 45 Minutes to an hour as that battery degrades. That will be noticeable within as little as a year with daily use

[@HappleCraft]

I've had my steam deck for almost a year now, and yeah the battery isn't enough but I've never had any problems with it. Even something like cyberpunk 2077 lasts several hours, and I'm not usually playing for super long between charges. While this is an issue, it won't necessarily affect every user.

[@user540000]

It was always like this. You can have a machine designed for battery life or for max performance. In the 90s that meant a gameboy or a color machine like gamegear or even nomad that ate batteries. now its lower power switch or any of these handheld PCs. Even if they came out with a new battery tech with triple the energy density, at the high end someone would just be trying to cram a gtx4090 in there and it would still get 2 hours battery life.

[@flamestoyershadowkill6400]

but then there heat comes into the question

[@thefallenfaith1986]

I'm glad that someone finally mentioned the Sega Game Gear. I've got a feeling that the youtuber who made this video is a younger millennial or a zoomer, and he never had to deal with a handheld from the nineties that ate traditional Duracell / Energizer batteries. The Game Gear / Nomad / Lynx were expensive back then, but the cost of batteries to play one of those for a year were arguably more expensive than the handhelds themselves.

[@naruhearts1]

Along with the battery/life degrading over time especially with them going full throttle most of the time, most likely will be un-usable in about 5 years, phone batteries get pretty bad after 3. They need to make one with easily swappable batteries. Those smaller handhelds in particular.

[@cadethumann8605]

At the very least, they should have customer support where one can send their device over to have a part (in this case, the inner battery) swapped out.

[@user-vi4xy1jw7e]

You can with the Steam Deck

[@cadethumann8605]

@user-vi4xy1jw7e I don't know. Doesn't that involve taking apart the device which would void your warranty?

[@happerexyt9952]

​@@cadethumann8605no not really heck valve let's you get into the device. As they have ifixit and incorage you to do it

[@cadethumann8605]

@happerexyt9952 I'm not exactly sure how it works. Is there an official way where you can send your device and they fix it for you? I do not feel confident in taking apart a complex and carefully-put together device (I'm still a fledgling when it comes to understanding computer technology. Hell, even if I was adept, this looks really intimidating for me to handle).

[@jimbothefuzzy]

After reading the comments, I feel like I need to weigh in a bit with some things that are often over-simplified, forgotten, or misunderstood. First, there is a law in the US (possibly more) that you cannot take a battery on a plane if it's over 100Wh. Which is why you see laptops cap out at 99Wh, because anything more would not be allowed on a flight that lands in the US. That has good reasoning, mostly due to the volatility of lithium. And I don't think that's going to change until we've completely replaced lithium batteries and every one ever manufactured is disposed of. Since that's not going to happen anytime soon, we need to look at the silicon. And there's a fundamental misunderstanding with ARM being more efficient, and the Apple Silicon has made that worse. The biggest advantage of ARM is that it can downclock further than x86. This means that having a very tiny load on the system draws a lower minimum amount of power. But games are not a minimal load, which eliminates a lot of the advantages of ARM. Which is where the confusion around Apple Silicon comes in. Apple Silicon isn't just ARM. Apple added a lot of accelerators for the tasks most commonly performed on a Mac. Accelerators are dedicated hardware that do one thing very well, and are literally useless for anything else. So if you're not using that accelerator, it's wasted space on the chip. That's part of the reason Vulkan performance is so poor, comparatively. Since Apple doesn't have the same level of control over Vulkan that they have over their own graphics libraries, they can't optimize silicon around it. There are some benchmarks out there that deliberately avoid all the accelerators on Apple Silicon. And the performance is very similar to the closest equivalent AMD chip. If you want a better understanding of accelerators and why they're important, you can look into why all the crypto miners switched from GPUs to ASICs as soon as they could. It's the same principle. Saying "Developers just need to optimize" is also a lot more complicated of a topic than people understand. One example would be requiring 16GB of VRAM instead of 8GB. And there was a decent amount of time when you could argue that the PC was an inferior gaming platform to the consoles. And mostly because of core count. That finally ended with Ryzen being released, and hopefully we never find ourselves in that situation again. The VRAM optimization is best explained with the example of someone working on a project that requires two different materials. They cover their workbench in material A. They cut out the part they need for their current step and set it to the side, then shove everything else into the garbage. They then run to the store, buy up enough of material B to cover their workbench. They cut out the part they need, then shove everything in the trash and go back to the store to buy a workbench worth of material A. Which sounds like a better idea: Speeding up how quickly you can run to the store, or just buying a second workbench? That's the difference between more memory and faster memory. The single most wasteful thing you can do in computing is move data. And the increase in how wasteful it is proportional to distance isn't linear. It's worse. That's why Apple put their RAM on the CPU package. Which also improves efficiency. And there's a lot more things like that when it comes to hardware and software. And that's before you factor in what the OS is doing. One other thing people forget in comparing x86 to ARM is instruction sets. There's validity to both, depending on what you're doing. But one advantage of more complicated instruction sets is their ability to optimize specific instructions even further, and combine what might be a multi-step process into a single step. So it's not "ARM good, x86 bad." The issue is a lot more nuanced, and even a lot of programmers don't understand it. Partly because they never need to do the level of optimization that would require them to understand it. Everything is tradeoffs, and ARM vs x86 is one of those. It takes a huge amount of work to optimize for ARM and x86. And if developers are already having trouble optimizing for just x86, imagine making them do at least twice as much optimization work. One solution might be FPGAs, or a similar technology. In theory, you could add an FPGA to the CPU package and specifically optimize it for each game. It could literally change how it's wired and what hardware features it has based on what game you play. With something like Ryzen, you could have a normal chiplet and a FPGA chiplet, with the FPGA taking most of the load and the normal one handling what has the lowest amount of inefficiency for that particular game's optimizations. Sorry that's so long, but there's a lot of misunderstandings out there, and I guess I needed to vent a little. At the very least, I hope I've given people a rough idea of what's going on, and an idea of what to look into for a better understanding. There's a lot I haven't even touched on, but I didn't want to turn this comment into a doctoral thesis, so I'll leave it there.

[@major_trenton]

Thank you for all the information! I obviously do not have your expertise on the subject, so I appreciate you explaining this in detail.

[@julhizantwo2277]

ARM based handheld are a thing (not just switch) and it last much longer than intel atom or x86. All we need are any developver dare enough to support translation layer from x86 to ARM with small performance loss.

[@KeeganWall]

obviously it wouldnt be small performance loss once you consider how the first arm CPU was ably to run on 0.1 Watts. could be one of the best computing tradeoffs.

[@redcrimson1028]

Good point

[@jondonnelly4831]

Apple is attempting this, they providing a lot of help to port over pc games and just recently got no mans sky which runs great in a m2 macbook air, but the air is not a light machine anymore and its a long way from having enough games. Some dev said that it was do to no vulkan api in mac, so the cpu translates well enough but gpu translation to metal hits performance hard. I hope Apple sort it. Diablo 3 and wow run lovely.

[@AnonymousMan-yd8wc]

I'm actually confused as to why you are mentioning an Intel Atom/32-Bit CPUs? Those were phased out for the most part years ago. The only computer with an Intel Atom is the Eee PC my Grandma uses. Let me tell you, that thing is horrendously slow. Even then I think that's only a 32-Bit CPU, but I could be wrong. It could be one of the newer 64-Bit CPU models. Edit: I think Intel might have brought back the Atom... I am genuinely surprised as its specs are actually ok. I only remember when Atoms were hot pieces of garbage that literally couldn't do anything in terms of computing power.

[@julhizantwo2277]

@@AnonymousMan-yd8wc i put atom just for joke. Long time ago i saw and try it on android phone maybe Asus zen. Not gonna lie it could be a portable heater

[@FMeister94]

Also remember a lot of these battery materials need to be mined or recycled. They are rare or else they are in someone drawer unused or in a skip. Better tech almost seems inevitable to just cause other problems

[@gridline]

Fiddling with the Steam Deck to improve battery life opened my eyes to this and made me appreciate the Switch a little more.

[@troy1993]

this is why people saying the steam deck and switch need a 1080p screen are wrong. 720p is just fine for how small the screens are and the battery would be destroyed even more at 1080p. I think the next switch should still have a 720p screen. But do 1440p or even 4k docked.

[@AnonymousMan-yd8wc]

@@troy1993 I agree. 720p is just fine. 1080p is ok but for the most part drains some more battery.

[@Psevdonim123]

The thing is, a lot of people probably won't play such an expensive machine out and about (I know steam deck is on the cheap side, but it's still $300 for the base model, not really a pocket change for most people), those types of handhelds are good for playing during travel, where there might be an access to on outlet, or bringing it with you to a friend's or relatives house, where you can always plug in. Laptops can also do that, but they are less practical for gaming (unless you're playing some strategy game or whatever). Same goes for Switch, Nintendo didn't expect you to play Bayonetta 3 during the whole one day of camping session without stopping. The instances when you are going to stay for a long while without an access to an outlet are not that often anymore, and when they do occur, it's probably in a place where you wouldn't want and/or be able to play anyway.

[@KingRoturix]

$400, not $300 😅

[@Psevdonim123]

@@KingRoturix yeah, it's $399 I messed up a bit

[@happerexyt9952]

Well a switch is 300$ and the games cost a pretty penny. So the deck wins in money spent in a switch and like 10 games is about 1000$ since a game is now 70$.

[@Refreshment01]

The Switch Oled lasts about 5 hours playing its more demanding game. A deck 1 hour. Conclusion? Buy a laptop.

[@jase276]

I own a Steam Deck and a Nintendo Switch. I have never used either outside. Always use em in bed. A few times I've brought the Switch to play with friends a few times but it was always indoors somewhere. Bringing the Steam Deck anywhere is a nightmare because you need to be connected to the internet to do anything with it, it isn't that practical

[@omelfilip]

In my personal opinion I see two main issues with handheld PC consoles. The biggest issue in my opinion has less to do with the hardware and much more to do with the fact that many PC games were simply not designed and optimized for handheld portable experiences, in turn being much more taxing on battery and other hardware limitations compared to games that have been developed to take advantage and make of the most of portable hardware. The second issue I have is even if a particular game runs well on the system, many PC games are not designed with the whole 'pick up and play' approach to gaming. It's something that sticks out in the marketing of many of these devices that I find a bit odd, showing these consoles running AAA games. Yes it's cool that these handhelds can run Witcher 3 for example, but if I'm on the bus and have ten minutes to kill, it's not exactly practical to whip out my steam deck, load up Witcher, play for a handful of minutes, and then suspend the system and pack it up when it's time to go. I'd much rather pull out my 3DS, play a game or two of Mario kart, and then forget about the game when I fold up the 3DS and go without having to worry about the battery draining while it's suspended or potentially losing progress on my game. Handhelds like the Switch, a 3DS or Vita, have the upper hand regarding these issues in my opinion. The games on these handhelds for one are designed to deliver the best possible performance given the hardware they run on (even though they might not be the prettiest games out there), and many of the games on these handhelds allow players to effortlessly pick up and put down their games on a whim. I want to emphasize just how important I think pick up and playability for handheld consoles are, it's a type of gaming experience that only a handheld can deliver, and I truly believe this is where handheld gaming shines the most and the direction handheld PC consoles need to do a better job at catering too.

[@GoofyPoptart]

Nah this isn't it....with the Steam Deck more and more games get looked at all the time and keep getting optimized mostly all games if not designed for pick up and play have no issues if they do then whatever there's work arounds cause of the community/plugins. Your second reasoning is stupid no one is going to play for 10 min that's why you don't play the Steam Deck on the bus and play it at the location instead duhhh....by the way once you set up the Steam deck like all the games/emulators I understand that's time consuming but once you do then it's a pick up play right away situation like the Switch but some people don't have time for that so I can't really say much on your last arguement but in the end they should stop being lazy and make time....all your arguements are stupid and I combated them you people need to use your head's more.

[@GoofyPoptart]

Stop catering to 2017 hardware the ASUS and the Deck and whatever else are the future and they're here to stay Nintendo need's to do better if anything no excuse there's not a Switch 2 yet I don't wanna hear it.

[@omelfilip]

@@GoofyPoptart the switch is an infinitely better handheld than the current generation of portable PCs. The games, the amount of storage the games use, and battery life are all much more practical on the switch.

[@knowledgeseeker4116]

Well.....Here is another perspective about triple A huge games on the go. Let's say if you on Vacation, a long airplane ride, A extended stay at a hospital waiting room etc So you pull out your laptop 💻 or portable monitor with gaming console to game because you have an hour plus to get gaming in but you need a desk, booth or table to put your laptop and mouse on or monitor on but they are all occupied or not available on the long bus trip.....With the handhelds you can sit Indian style, in a 💺 chair, on the ground, on a toilet etc you don't need table support to play and with a portable charger or two you can game for hours on a long bus trip. I like the form factor of gaming heldhelds so much. I can quickly wrap up my gaming session and tuck away my portable quickly if needed. Heck if your portable is small enough you don't even need a backpack. The convience is sooooooo awesome IMO

[@omelfilip]

@@knowledgeseeker4116 all those are fair points, but I am personally rarely in those situations. And if I ever am in those situations I'd rather not worry about making sure my portable chargers are all fully charged, packing them and cables, then going through the steps of plugging in the handheld some how just to keep my portable handheld charged to last my trip or stay at the hospital. I'd much rather rely on the convenience of something like a Vita or 3DS since they're far more convenient considering portability, battery life, and the fact that many of the games are designed to be pick up and play friendly, something most PC/Console games don't really cater to. But that's all my personal preference.

[@joshuagaspar5946]

Amazing quality here, instant sub and hope to see you rise!

[@telsan4291]

Another current workaround has been the development of fast charging although that assumes you have planned your route to include the ability to have mains power connection and carry around a usually pretty heavy fast charger… or even carry like a 45/65w portable charger (once again heavier than a more common 18-20w version).

[@IraShowy]

That's why I picked up the steam deck, and a battery pack, the hardware is more efficient running at lower watts and the steam OS like consoles OS are designed to play games more efficiently. Windows 11 has too much bloat ware. So there needs to be a Microsoft windows handheld OS for there to be better competition.

[@jondonnelly4831]

Win 11 is fine when you tweak it properly, there are guides to strip out apps, turn off services and apps to customise it nicely. Microsoft should really work on a lite or core editition. Now that they almost own activision blizzard they could easily make a steamos competitor.

[@ArcheWhatzitGonnaB3]

It's not an issue of battery capacity or hardware, the issue is because of developers. Any battery larger than 5000mAh would have negative effects on the portability of a handheld console. Games are being released every other day that require 4 cores, 8 threads, 4.0GHz, 12GB ram, and a video card that matches these specs too. Just because we can use all this power doesn't mean we should, that's just piss poor optimization. PSP: 200-333mhz cpu, 16-32MB ram, 1200-1800mAh battery, 4~5TDP, with a TDP of 4 we should expect 65~97 minutes of gameplay and yet it lasts 3~5 hours on average. Magic? No, it's because devs had strict guidelines to make a game run on the console, and just because the device CAN handle running at max CPU/RAM usage doesn't mean the device SHOULD run at these speeds. Devs have gotten far too lazy now that consoles are catching up to PC specs, they see their game running on a PS5 maxing out and dropping frames in some areas and think it's just fine. Anyone who claims anything remotely similar to "limitations of hardware" is just refusing to optimize their software. Just having this video open in a web browser, not even having started loading the video yet, is using 400-600MB of ram (chrome is the former, Firefox the latter). That's 25-38 times more ram than is required to play GTA on a PSP.

[@major_trenton]

This is true, you definitely bring up valid points.

[@168original7]

Developers are not going to optimise for the stem deck. It is pc first and foremost games that are designed to be plugged in. You can say it is due to devs being lazy not the case, games themselves have better battery life on the switch than these handhelds, because the switch is one console that devs have to optimise for with special ports.

[@ArcheWhatzitGonnaB3]

@@168original7 Are you trying to argue with what I said? You seem to be reading what I wrote incorrectly and agreeing with me. I said that devs are lazy because they don't optimize their games period. They do the bare minimum to get it running on a console and leave it at that, they put even less effort into optimizing their games for PC. Yea sure, games on the switch run fine, and they get decent battery life, but not long ago every handheld was like this, it's not a new thing.

[@168original7]

@@ArcheWhatzitGonnaB3 pc games aren’t targeted to be as efficient as possible running at low wattages. If they were games would overall look a lot worse on the platform. The issue isn’t developers per say, you are expecting mobile grade battery life playing games not designed for that hardware. Mobile games are more optimised for battery life compared to pc games the steam deck is running.

[@168original7]

Also these chips and devices are more power hungry period compared to a psp, they are running hd video speakers that are better and use more power and displays that have to pump out higher quality video. As well as diminishing returns. People are greedy and want more stuff as time goes on, that is why phones have become more complex and battery life has diminished, especially when you have a higher end phone. People want better and better stuff but that only goes so far, you will end up reaching a pleatau at some point wether you like it or not. And handhelds in a sense have already dome that. And other issue is that games even phone games themselves use more cpu power than psp games as they are more complex, but this isn’t usually preceved that they do that much. It isn’t really an optimisation issue when you need a lot more power for marginally better graphics and more complex games as time goes on. The issue is people just want more stuff and static hardware (in this case these handhelds) can’t keep up with that desire. These browsers and apps have a lot of time saving features that past browsers never had and that uses up more ram and cpu power. People in general just want more stuff faster and better. And as that happens a lot more recorses will be used to achive that result.

[@TheThorns]

reminds me of the Sega game gear days, that thing ate batteries so fast!

[@madarasoun3018]

You're absolutely right. I'm using RoG Ally and I can say I want this handheld performance with 3hrs playtime session. Hopefully we getting there soon.

[@andrzejos7003]

On Steam Deck i get 3-4 hours. ROG Ally have in theory everything better than Steam Deck, but it's worse in critical areas. Valve build Steam Deck a little smarter. Of course ROG Ally is a great device, but ASUS thinks of it more like a typical PC, not a efficient handheld.

[@BAB2K11]

And here I was feeling bad for missing out on these… I’ll wait for the next ones

[@traphousegamer1906]

Great video with so many great points made! I wish your channel the best of luck and you have gained a subscription

[@major_trenton]

Thank you so much!

[@rodneyrodriguezsoberal5522]

this is why I love the switch. big games last 5 hours at the lowest 4. at least the oled model. and my ps vita has around 4 hours. the switch is so comfortable to me and easy to take anywhere

[@martinthomas2520]

The problem is more exacerbated by the fact that most of us are PS Vita/3DS owners and the batteries are showing signs of age already…..

[@telsan4291]

I also considered buying the ROG ally however that battery life is also off putting as it need to run at 25w for any real benefit over the steamdeck. I do love my steamdeck though as in comparison to all other windows based gaming handhelds it is superior in battery life tests using lower wattages. As an action/FPS fan played through all COD last gen campaigns at 60fps using 12w as well as Wolfenstein series, Crysis, far cry, Deus Ex series. Currently playing Fallout 4, medium/high settings, 40hz at 11w and get 3 hours of battery, it’s amazing. I would really suggest getting a steamdeck if you haven’t already. Just replace the SSD and you will have the best and most cost effective pc gaming handheld you can get right now. You won’t regret it :)

[@monkeyninja707]

Great insight

[@wyattalexander4041]

Very good topic ! I agree even my laptop battery is like horrible if I’m actually pushing it hopefully we just get a super battery!

[@IraShowy]

Make more interesting tech/history/documentary/thought provoking videos/guessing what the future may look like in a particular industry, based on the past. You know how to cover all your bases effectively, which is awesome. Best of luck on your KZbin journey!

[@major_trenton]

Awesome ideas, thank you!

[@sboinkthelegday3892]

Take cues from GTV Japan, the gold standard.

[@inujoshwa89]

Your format is cool.......love your bgm *****Subscribed****

[@JT-hg7mj]

Bad take. The problem is that we demand Triple AAA games on the go. This is not feasible. Hand held gaming should have less hardware requirements, akin to indie games now. Compare the graphics of GBA to PS2. Now compare the graphics of Steamdeck to a ps4. There is the main problem

[@cynbloxy]

AAA is way better than indie

[@JT-hg7mj]

@@cynbloxy Triple AAA titles should move away from ultra high graphics in handhelds

[@smidlee7747]

@@cynbloxy Triple A titles have better graphics and make better movies but often just average game play. Triple A does NOT mean it's better than indy titles. Remove the movie from Uncharted 4 and the Last of US as best you are only an average shooter. I was surprised to learn just how fun Vampire Survivors was. I like movie games but they often don't have the best game play.

[@etlttc353]

@@cynbloxy no

[@LamontJohnson23]

As chipsets become more advanced, and continue to shrink die sizes, efficiency will increase. The future is brighter than you think, even with minimal battery improvements. Just look at the advancements of the 6800 vs 7800 series APUs.

[@abeidiot]

it's how semiconductor technology has always evolved so the entire video's point is kind of wrong

[@LamontJohnson23]

Oh, look at the Steam Deck OLED validating my viewpoint while crapping on yours.

[@Gagnismathr]

I think ARM processors will be the future of handhelds (look at the phone market or macbooks) the speed/power is just better ...

[@bmwissa]

Never found it to be a problem with my switch. Rarely am I ever several hours without an outlet and at the same time have so little to do I would be playing games on the go. And for those cases a high output powerbank would work well.

[@WilliamMullaney]

Wow! Great video! Ur channel is gonna blow up very quickly if u keep this up dude!

[@major_trenton]

Thank you, that means a lot!

[@WilliamMullaney]

@@major_trenton of course man, I just started not long ago and have recently just now been seeing some progress! But that kind of quality ur videos have.. its not a matter of if, but a matter of when u blow up!

[@dycu]

There will be a law in Europe for mandatory removable and replaceable battery on all electronic including phone. I hope this law come to America/Canada. Still using my LG G4 with extended removable battery as a media player (prime, youtube, crunchyroll, disney plus, etc). I hope the next Switch have it.

[@thinkboi8981]

absolutely underrated

[@dawoodwilliams3652]

Imo to get the best out of these handhelds in terms of battery life, is to lower performance expectations a bit, don't expect it to perform at the same level of a desktop or console, cap it at 30fps and stick to 720p with low to medium settings(or a mixture of the two) In bigger games, and lower the screen brightness, you'll get at least an hour or two extra out of the device, and always keep a good powerbank on you at all times when traveling with the system. For me personally when I get one, I'll probably only ever play at home on the couch or in my bed.

[@darth_hylian]

Sometimes they upgrade the base models and improve battery life (or other things) in later revisions. They did this with the Switch so getting the first batch of a console or handheld may not always be the best idea

[@RusticRonnie]

I always say, that buy it once it makes sense for you. If you always wait for the next better version you will never get the thing you want. But if it seems like a deal breaker now, then wait.

[@Skylancer727]

But they did this by making it more efficient, if you make it more efficient it means you can also push it harder. His stance mainly was that cranked the battery life is terrible. Yes efficiency makes it last longer at the same performance, but you still need to sacrifice quality for battery. It's paradox, you can't overcome it. If you seriously can't handle the trade off because it irks you, you should probably be considering streaming. I personally far prefer native, but considering many of these handhelds already have horrific input lag, it's not as big a loss as you think.

[@Dwayneff]

I'm going to regret it when Switch 2 comes out, and if it's a home console? I'm not buying Nintendo's next console if it's not a handheld like the switch.

[@thefallenfaith1986]

I bought my Switch in 2020, paying an extra one hundred dollars for it on eBay... it's a regular old version 1 Switch. And I still got a good deal for the time, because Switches were selling for 600 dollars or more then. That's exactly what I wanted. Why? Because they can be modded without having to open them up and solder a special microchip inside of them. The OLED version and the version with the increased battery life need modchips installed in order to hack them, and mine did not.

[@darth_hylian]

@@thefallenfaith1986 oh yes very nice 👌 That's the reason why I sold my first gen Switch. Someone else wanted it for modding and I used the money to buy an OLED. Earlier editions are always a better choice if you're trying to modify

[@evanbrent23]

Great video. Part of the reason new macbook are very popular is because of the battery life. the apple designed silicon (m1, m2) are very power efficient

[@deusprogrammer_thekingofspace]

How do you only have 7 subscribers? This video was great! Good show! You've got 8 now. Don't give up!

[@capulini]

It's a new channel.

[@RusticRonnie]

@@capuliniwait… when you create a channel you aren’t immediately given 1mil subs

[@MohdAsif-Alpha]

I appreciate the effort here👌💯! You and i are on same page! But i will get eventually of the other handheld, hopefully switch 2 changes the game next year.

[@HE360_Games]

They need to come out with solar powered handhelds.

[@JerichoTheCity]

I know you don't go outside enough to make that worthwhile.

[@UltimateMoralizer]

It would be nice if there were handhelds with battery that lasted 20 hours, not 2 hours. I definitely see that happening in the future. Give them time. Technology is always improving. They’re slowly getting there. The legion go is very good, but it has a few flaws.

[@goodsalsa]

This video is really well made out for somebody with 81 subscribers! Remember me when you're famous :)

[@nycz4411]

thats why arm is the future

[@pzmurphy]

Really good video!

[@magnesg1459]

And that's why the Switch X1 is severely underclocked for longer battery life. They are long time handheld makers so they know what they're doing.

[@snowythecolaaddict]

You have entered the algorithm congrats :)

[@wakaras]

your editing is too good for guy who has 60 subscribers. You need MORE subscribers !!

[@RaxonXVI]

The problem is the technology for batteries isn’t advancing as fast as the rest of the technology in these devices and even then they’re being rushed out so fast getting well made and optimized handhelds takes to long and they don’t wanna take the time to make them that way and the era of that optimization ended with the 3DS and the Vita (the have no need for a cooling system and amazing battery life) but this is why i also don’t think Nintendo’s next system will be the big jump people are expecting because battery life is something they do prioritize and is one of the reasons the switch is the way it is idk the rush to get the “most” powerful devices out as fast as possible and not caring if it’s actually ready it’s also an issue with consoles and PCs look how massive the Series X and PS5 are or the fact the gpus keep getting bigger and bigger and need their own cooling systems now but people don’t wanna slow down to do things right it is what it is I guess somewhere a long the way people only care about numbers and not about the experience itself

[@eduardorivera8996]

While I agree with the second half of the video I do think battery life is not the main selling point of a handheld. To me it’s being able to move around the house, playing in bed, share the couch with my wife etc where a laptop would be too intrusive and awkward to move around.

[@nathanlamaire]

Well, 40 Wh is a good chunk size of battery for portable devices. If you calculate it with smartphone standards, it translates to 8000 mAh, which is very beefy. However, the processor itself sips up a lot of power and just isn't good enough to keep up because of high power demands. There are two solutions in common. First is simple, increase battery size. However, keep in mind that when you increase more capacity, even if everything is the same (size, weight, etc.), you increase the risk of fire hazards. Simply put, you are entering the bomb territory instead of safe-enough battery-powered device. Sometimes it's just not all feasible. Second is very difficult to achieve but could worth the effort, rebuild the entire architecture. It was the thing that Intel was proposing as x86S, which will try to remove legacy components from the processor, and instead introduce user-level or emulated libraries instead of trying to carry on everything in single chip. This helps drastically on power consumption since there will be less power requirements on the chip itself. However, there will be much greater risks of 'old' games will no longer be compatible because they run on older architecture, and emulation turns out not working (in fact, 16-bit games cannot run on 64 mode, but it can on 32 bit and below and that's why you can run some DOS games on Windows XP 32 bit but not 64 bit). I don't know if it's a good sacrifice or not but it's still very interesting strategy that would help a lot on handheld devices.

[@ArcheWhatzitGonnaB3]

The 40Wh people talk about isn't really all that much, Steam Deck uses a 5200mAh battery at 7.7v, I'd assume the ROG uses similar. Considering the benchmarks for battery life people are throwing around showing things like Elden Ring at 1080p in 25W mode lasting 1:03 means that while the CPU(therefore the GPU since it's integrated) is capped at 25W, there's a 34% battery life loss (or 13W unaccounted for) somewhere, which is more than likely due to the ram operating at 6400Mhz.

[@gsharpshooter80]

Moral of this video, “You’re a liar!”

[@nugzmedallion8929]

I mean, I personally bought a Baseus 65W 30,000mAh power bank specifically to use with my ROG Ally/Steam Deck(/Phone if I need it for that). With that, I don't have a problem playing on the go without access to an outlet for 3-5 hours depending on the game I'm playing. The power bank in question can charge the Ally from 0 to 100% twice and still have a little juice left over. Obviously not as optimal as having a battery inside the thing that can last a few hours, but it's better than nothing.

[@franciscomuler6069]

But you gotta admit this is a huge step up. Lets say I dont have a pc or gaming laptop This is still a good option to get started, even if I have to keep it plugged in to play games without getting a ps5

[@stelanso]

this is a great video and describes my worries about these things perfectly. the battery and the fact that these things come out more powerful and power hungry every week puts me off. im just waiting for nintendo to make the switch 2 so i dont have to worry about any of the tdps and watts and all that extra stuff. just a solid handheld with 5 hour battery life and dedicated optimised games

[@VinceCarter755]

Bro is straight up fear mongering. It's like saying why buy a laptop if the battery is just gonna die. No shit it will eventually but people have use cases that warrant it. Nintendo isn't going to magically solve batteries. If you want to play on the go just buy a handheld. Dumb video.

[@alexq2930]

Please, back in the day the Sega Game Gear used 6 AA batteries, thats a lot of money in batteries and it lasted 2 hours and we didnt care. Now you have only to charge it.

[@f0nd004u]

The way these are designed to be used is with a high-rate battery pack, or in a vehicle. I have an 81Wh battery that I use with the steam deck. If the devices themselves had large batteries they wouldn’t be comfortable to use. But they definitely don’t need the wall. This has been an issue with gaming laptops for their entire existence and no one has cared, they’ve just gotten more and more popular as time has gone on. Using game technology that is less resource intensive for mobile is normal.

[@Swux]

great video

[@Seasonednuts-iv5gd]

Best thing to do is to have a removable battery

[@Lagosta777]

true, but knowing the industry and how it prices things, buying 2 extra batteries would probably be the cost of a new handheld.

[@Seasonednuts-iv5gd]

@@Lagosta777 yeah but if you think about it. It makes a lot of sense you could always swap the batteries since charging tech gotten so good nowadays

[@shytut]

I've never had an issue with Steamdeck battery in a year of use. I don't use it for long gaming sessions. I use it for transiting, quickly jumping in on a game and stopping.

[@redwalkie3552]

Good video bro. I think they must use OLED screens too. In comparison it's more expensive, but OLED technology uses less power, and if the OS of the firmware let me change colors by myself, some games you can play in black&white to save power consumption.

[@justinwilliams1127]

I've been lucky. I play Fall Guys with my wife and some friends, and the Deck usually alerts me of a low battery right around the time I wanna wrap up. It's actually been able to curb my want to game all day. Lol

[@zeballer9230]

Worth noting that the steam deck does do this already when it comes to being efficient at lower watts. So much so that it outpaces the rog ally in when playing games at the 10-15 watts range.

[@gamearts6746]

Only 10 watts not 15 watts.

[@DalazG]

There is a solution and it exists right now... the only issue is the cost. Graphene is considered a wonder material good for so many things including high density batteries that are lightweight, fast charging and have longevity. It's also environmentally friendly Until we have enough companies willing to take financial hits to bring down the cost, well be stuck with lithium

[@Neptune8]

If I play a graphical heavy game like Witcher 3 or Skyrim on max graphics settings on the switch, my battery lasts less than 4hrs from a full charge. I also have the OG switch and one of the first batches with the crappy battery. When I was a kid I loved the handheld consoles growing up so I’m happy technology has advanced enough that products like the steam deck are available but seriously we have cars running on batteries why can’t we have a console with a large enough battery to last 7-10 hours per full charge and make it easily replaceable (like cell phones from the 90’s-00’s ), when the battery gets old recycle the old one and buy a new one. A product like this could last a decade easily

[@Joftar]

Solid state batteries are on the horizon

[@SonplaysMinEcraft]

The DS and PS Vita had games that were custom made and pushed them to the limit usually without sacrificing battery Now portable consoles are expected to run home console quality games which they were never meant to do past 7th gen

[@sebastiancolon701]

The day battery banks arent required to keep one of these devices powered. I'll consider it

[@9ALiTY]

I remember hearing about new graphene batteries years ago, still no where in sight tho

[@andrewharmon5843]

One of the reasons I liked the steam deck is I am a semi big indie gamer. Most indie games get me around 5 hours on the deck, and since they aren’t super intensive, I am 100% happy lowering the screen refresh rate to 40 for those games

[@NickyShadow99]

FIY: That bit about efficiency is why Nintendo hardware still uses ARM processors. They're exponentially more efficient than x86 processors. If you want more proof, see Apple's new M-series of processors. I'm not a fan of their software, but damn if their performance and efficiency isn't some of the best in the business atm.

[@calculateddeclination5534]

Yeah, in order for my 3d games to last 4 hours 30 minutes at most I gotta put everything on low settings. Still looks pretty good but being able to have that kind of battery life on max settings would be nice.

[@aliananza1990]

got a pretty compact 20,000 mah 65w powerbank i can clip to the back on my steamdeck with this clip on thing i got on aliexpress. I just lay it on my lap and play for like three times the battery life. Still much better than using a gaming laptop on the go.

[@mexicanlucky]

If you have the time to play 5+hours a time and want hadheld just get a switch. If you're like most people you just have 30minutes to 1hr and the deck/ally are perfect.

[@christianr.5868]

Arm architecture is a lot more power efficient than x86. Its why macbooks can have over 8 of battery life while outperforming a steam deck. If devs choose to support arm on pc more. It would be feasible for handheld pcs to use arm processors as well. Giving much longer battery life

[@hanspeter24]

nice video bro keep going

[@Vibrantly_Monochromatic]

Love the ps mobile gag

[@monadomaster2007]

This is one of the main reasons why those people saying that “modern phones are better that the switch” are wrong. I mean, yes, modern phones have way better chips, therefore better graphics, but really, that’s all, everything else make modern phones simply useless when compared to any handheld, not only the switch. And when I say “everything else” I mean really everything else, like the cooling system; phones do have a longer battery charge life, but they don’t have a cooling system, making them totally inefficient to play, even with medium-performance games you can’t get a single hour (this is my own experience) without having to let the phone naturally cool down, besides cooling systems cost a lot of energy, thus, a handheld console needs a lot of energy to maintain the good performance. This is just a simple example. This is why I don’t usually play my switch in handheld mode. PD: I don’t consider myself an expert or anything, just saying in case I made a mistake 👍

[@user-oi7ls9ix2s]

One of the possible solutions is to use ARM SoCs. I mean, that’s how smartphones and some laptops are this efficient: check out the M-series SoC on the new MacBooks. Then the problem would be the compatibility of basically every game for PC.

[@jumafuse]

Just looking at modern ARM designs like the Apple M1/M2 line made to be x86 compatible, they use 1/10 of the power consumption of an equivalent x86+Discrete GPU for a similar performance, is honestly a no brainer to go to an ARM. Sadly the only available ARM chips design with that goal in mind currently are Apple ones. No mayor chip manufacturers have anything like it as far as I know and Intel and AMD want to sell their x86 chips.

[@julioau]

I never got a 1 hour cycle on my Deck... I'd estimate the least I've gotten is 2-2.5 hours which is way longer than I can play in one sitting, though of course better battery life is always welcome ;)

[@VOAN]

I say these aren't portable gaming handhelds like the Switch but just mini gaming PCs that offered the benefit of portable play. They aren't design to play games on the go but to have portable computing on the go. If they are portable gaming handhelds, all games would be optimized with their hardware in mind and not the other way around.

[@waltonks8172]

I wouldn't point out the battery as the biggest cause of the problem; that is only the surface issue. To solve a problem, you need to look at its root, not just its end. The most significant problem lies in the system architecture of both hardware and software. These handheld devices are using an inefficient x86 architecture that was never meant to be used on a small handheld device. Unfortunately, the majority of the gaming ecosystem will stick with x86 architecture because it's currently the most powerful architecture, without considering efficiency. Similarly, the softwares are designed to run at the highest performance the system could possibly provide. By the way nowadays smartphones last actually longer. You can play visually beautiful graphics games smoothly on these device more than 10 hours straight on low power mode. Sadly majority of the smartphone games are disappointing and you can blame the market for that.

[@flamestoyershadowkill6400]

also x86 is what is required for a large amount of software compatibility without emu issues

[@supercheetah778]

More efficient display tech will help battery life too.

[@Luodai235]

Well we have solid state battery now from toyota. This will go into phones and handhelds, so expect a double in battery life soon with no increase in size.

[@wilcoxtam810]

Handhelds exist for a quickplay and next to a power source. It’s expected that players have a life outside of gaming

[@Midori_Hoshi]

Not only have we not improved from lithium ion batteries, it's a big step backwards from using AA or AAA batteries because we can't easily swap em out and recharge it. I remember the long series of Game Boy handhelds, and generally speaking, you could get something like 20 hours on a couple of batteries. Carry a small pack of 4 batteries with you and you have another 40 hours available. It was wonderful. Why in the fuck would I buy any of these horrible modern handhelds that are not only too big to be portable, but only last an hour or two at best? It's useless. If you can only use them at home, then just make them consoles.

[@crayzcubing]

Solution: portable battery pack.

[@joshuasim8019]

I imagine that when our mobile consoles get mature enough, we'll have swappable batteries again, as were able to charge the depleted one while swapping to a full one.. And of course, a larger battery pack 😇

[@thatoneguywhowatchesyouwhe2801]

honestly the switch oled has godly battery power, it last at least 4 hours even with a big game like tears of the kingdom

[@paulojamesminimoisaac7858]

big game? thats a 30fps game with sub 720p resolution, its not that big specially if you compare to console/PC triple A games lol when it comes to visuals

[@thatoneguywhowatchesyouwhe2801]

didnt ask but okay. literally if you want to get good battery life out a handheld like the steam deck you have to play it at 720p 30fps and reduce the visuals lmao, no matter how big the game is.

[@168original7]

Yea, it is a bit depressing, above 7 watts and the fan gets loud as crap too, not to mention mamy games play at 30fps and below at sub 720p on the steam deck too @@thatoneguywhowatchesyouwhe2801

[@deshawnjimerson659]

It’s perfect for me I can’t ever play longer than an hour at a time if that

[@Ubugome]

Battery life has ALWAYS been the biggest problem with every device powered by a rechargeable battery, because it's still the piece of tech that lags behind everything else. Not only will the battery depreciate over time, but you have to deal with the inconvenience of charging the battery for hours after it has depleted and optimizing your play sessions around the battery's capabilities, as well as your free time. The industry still hasn't corrected itself when it moved away from replaceable (rechargeable) batteries. Every time the gaming and tech industries brag about the latest software, hardware, peripheral, etc. I laugh my ass off, because I know that the one thing that hasn't improved is the same thing they never give any amount of bragging rights to - rechargeable batteries.

[@Jokerxeno1]

personally if you are playing for more than 5 hours without a break and that is a problem. Even 3 hours should be enough for a healthy lifestyle

[@gelmir7322]

I wouldn't say it's niche. drones for example demand need portable, energy dense, lightweight batteries. And drones are being promoted as standard platform of choice for next generation industries and services like logistical services, engineering and surveying, law enforcement, entertainment, etc.

[@LuisPerez-5]

Most who buy these things use it at home because they don't want to sit in front of a PC monitor for long, so usually play it plugged in or close to a plug. Or to play a but in bed or something. What you are saying is true but the speed these APUs are developing that future you talk about is closer than you think

[@ryananderson8576]

is this why Dell never gave us the Alienware UFO

[@KyudoKun]

Another solution I can think of is that PC/laptop manufacturers should stop releasing a Switch clones altogether since they're already have products like Gaming laptops. If the battery is the problem, it wouldn't be feasible to sell this types of products since buyers would still use it while plugged in near the power outlet. It will also defeat the purpose of being a handheld device if you cannot use it outdoors for longer periods of time. Unlike the Nintendo Switch, all the games that have been published in that platform were all purely optimized both performance and power wised. Which is why the system can last up to 4-6 hours depending on the games you play, which is mind blowing. I think what I'm trying to say is that the games on PC should stay on PC and should not be adapted to handheld hybrid. The PC games were optimized for the greatest common denominator which is high end PCs, not handhelds.

[@user-vi4xy1jw7e]

I feel like most people are playing these handhelds on their bed or couch. They're not really "on the go" as much as they're just not tied down by a monitor or TV.

[@aes1373]

Either battery tech has to improve or COS's need to become more efficient. Now we're definitely on course for the latter, but I feel X86 will never truly be as efficient for a long playing session. ARM could be the answer but that requires a massive push from devs to both make new games and port the previous ones, and as far as gaming goes I cant see if they will? Apples new porting tool can maybe give devs incentive but thats on MAC. I think Microsoft needs to be the one to create the incentive. But they're ARM endeavours aee underwhelming at best.

[@moomah5929]

I don't think battery improvements wouldn't be welcomed across the board. Any mobile device lasting longer or lasting as long as before at higher performance would be appreciated. Better efficiency is not really solving this problem as it doesn't mean high end performance will be running at 15W or less per hour. Today's high end performance (mobile only, else even a 7840U is far from being high end) might be by that point, but it won't be anywhere near high end anymore. ARM SoC are more efficient but then we have the problem of software compatibility and I would hate having to use Android or iOS on such a device. We also need better ways to story energy from renewable sources as these are already producing too much energy at certain times in Summer, overloading the grid, if they wouldn't shut down solar farms and wind parks, but not enough in Winter. Btw, I own the SD but also a GPD Win 4 and am still interested in ARM devices. The Anbernic RG505 with custom OS (still Android though) is lasting up to 20h by using the low power mode that can handle emulation up to PSX.

[@GamerJP30]

My biggest problem with current handhelds is that they don't feel anywhere near as portable as handhelds from the past in terms of their form factor.

[@Refreshment01]

At least the Switch fits in a pocket still.

[@GamerJP30]

@@Refreshment01just barley

[@Refreshment01]

​@@GamerJP30 The Switch modularity makes it quiet flexible to transport. It fits well in normal sized pockets when you remove the joycon. The joycon then can be distributed conveniently in other places. With dress pants the switch fits in the pocket & joycon in front pocket of shirt for example. Thanks tothis the switch is even more pocket friendly than the Lite version.