I didn’t spend a ton of time digging in, but I think the thing that gets the mainstream handhelds with AMD integrated graphics are the custom drivers. Maybe if a less mainstream device uses less custom components it’ll have better compatibility?
No judgement meant, but without understanding your use case it’s hard to make a good recommendation.
What you asked first: I have an Asus Ally X. I’m truly just like @strayce@Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org in that my purchase choice was influenced by the ability to use it with an eGPU. From what I’ve read, using an AMD eGPU with an Ally X is a recipe for frustration, but Nvidia eGPUs are fine. I never actually pulled the plug as my use case for the device changed after I started using it. It can absolutely be used as a full fledged PC, since it actually is one, and I’ve taken advantage of that a few times.
Musings on my pursuit of a convenient single device solution follow. You’re welcome to stop here. I’m not here to try to convince you of anything, only to share my own struggles. Maybe you’ll even be able to help me with them.
I’ve been chasing the promise of a convenient all-in-one device for a while now. Tablet form factor devices (surface pro, iPad, etc) are good as tablets, but propping them up on your lap with a keyboard is awkward. I’ve found that this limits where you can realistically use them. Sure, you can use a tray/lap table setup, but if you need to haul it around with you it starts to lose convenience. I’ve always fallen back to using these devices as tablets. It seems like using a handheld as a computer replacement would face the same hurdles when you’re away from your desk and add another one: the need for an an external display.
As for why I didn’t buy an eGPU for the Ally X, the most frequent time and place I use the Ally X is on the couch, next to my spouse as they watch TV, after my kids are asleep. I quickly realized I was self-selecting which games I play on it. I’m actively avoiding entire genres like real time strategy, which I personally enjoy a lot, because those games greatly benefit from a mouse/keyboard setup. I want a fast/convenient setup and break down. I don’t want to have to worry about gathering and stashing accessories. There’s also the reality of running on battery and heat dissipation. Keeping the Ally X in 13 watt “silent” mode results in 20 watts of actual power draw, very low fan noise, and ~4 hours of battery life. Its 17 watt “performance” mode is still fairly quiet and lowers battery life to ~3 hours. My spouse finds turbo mode too loud and you’re looking at 1.5 hours of battery life. Noise aside, playing while plugged in diminishes the convenience for me.
Despite a few false starts, I’ve still found myself stuck in the camp of portable device + laptop + desktop - although my desktop sees pretty infrequent use these days.
Like @strayce@lemmy.sdf.org my handheld supports an eGPU and can run bazzite. However it’s another mainstream unit. Personally, I got my handheld to be a hand held to play around the house using its built in screen. The onboard graphics have been more than capable, although I’ll admit that I play slightly older games.
If you’re looking for a less mobile setup and/or are more budget conscious, a used PC is probably going to be way better bang for your buck than a hand held with an eGPU. My gaming PC still packs a (used) 1070ti and shrugs off most games at 1440. Sure, I can’t max graphics in everything but with moderate settings I can still have very solid and stable FPS.
It’s probably a design patent, which is more style focused and helps prevent knockoffs.
I’m not an Apple fanboy, but arm based processors seem to be working out fairly well for them.
I own an Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x, which was one of the OG snapdragon x laptops released a (two?) and a half year(s) ago. It took a while for folks to get Linux to run on them and there’s enough of a barrier to entry that it’s still not very common. Most of the initial hurdles were due to Qualcomm bootloader shenanigans.
Same, but I do have some level of worry regarding portability. My solution isn’t local or self hosted, as I was looking for easy and works across Linux/Windows/Mac/Android/iOS. I do not look forward to needing to change to a new password manager in the future, but given the way everything seems to be going it seems likely that I’ll have to at some point.
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Spot on answer.
While I totally agree with you, it really does seem like we’re moving back towards the era of centralized committing, at least for mainstream computing. More and more “desktop” applications are really electron apps with a good chunk of the compute happening server side. That’s before you start to consider the many browser based word processing products, etc.
It depends who you’re trying to protect. Joe consumer doesn’t know what OpenWRT is.
Assembly is relatively straightforward, but sourcing all the components locally is likely getting harder and harder. Granted, for DoD contract reasons there’s likely a cottage industry that relies on government rules to keep things onshore. That’s part of the reason why we still have some made in the USA clothing.
This is worth a listen or a watch if you’re interested.
Not on a steam deck, but I did buy another PC based handheld.
As a Dad with a somewhat demanding job, I don’t get a lot of time on my gaming PC anymore. Having something that’s not squirreled away in a corner that turns on/off quickly has made it a lot easier game somewhat more casually.
I’m generally happy with the performance of my handled, but there is some tension between most of the steam games I’m trying to play on it and the realities of a hand held.
For example, many games on steam are designed for larger screens. Sure, they’ll render fine on a small screen, but things that were very obvious on a large screen can become harder to spot because the game designers could assume more real estate.
I also find myself gravitating toward games that were either built for a console or PC games that don’t require a lot of keyboard actions. For example, I’m presently playing through the original Borderlands after having last played it on PC quite a while ago. I don’t think I would attempt StarCraft II on my handheld though.
OnePlus still offers this one on some of their phones.
Check the post title ;)
Great read, with some amusing asides.
Shots fired!
We probably have the same model - the one with the big oval stand. Every once in a while I wish it was OLED and/or higher resolution, but it’s not worth the expensive or all the modern “features” such as these.
There are some Linux users with iPhones, perhaps that’s what they meant?
Apple is almost the tale of two companies.
From the software usability perspective, they have the “it just works” reputation and that might be true if you’re doing really basic stuff. I’ve found both windows and Linux to be much more user friendly if you want to do mildly advanced things.
Their hardware is generally pretty solid but comes at a premium, especially once you start talking about increasing RAM/SSD capacity. I have both a MacBook pro M3 pro and a Snapdragon X Elite Lenovo Yoga slim 7x. The 7x can give great battery life, but is much more inconsistent in doing so. On the other hand, the 7x has an amszing 3k OLED screen, has a removable m3 SSD, and you can upgrade to 32 GB of RAM for around $100.
What I find interesting is that a large swath of developers have macs. I get it for some use cases (ARM emulation on ARM vs doing it on x86), but it seems like it’s a bit of a status symbol for others.
Clearly you’ve never used a Mac. It wasn’t until 2024 that you could snap windows, they have a built in dark mode but the word processor that ships with their computer requires you to use a dark page template if you want black background/white text, and lord forgive you if you want to take a screenshot.
For passive, and even now some active loudspeakers, very much so.
Links for passives: https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy https://www.zaphaudio.com/ https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/speaker-kits/ (etc)
Active speakers are usually things like this and use commercially available parts with commercial software. But if you want you can build a DIY DSP and DAC and DIY amplifier. Note that there are tons of other designs for both available.
The DIY audio community is very vibrant. There are tons and tons of forums collaboratively iterating. You can build DIY headphones and DIY headphone amplifiers. Hell, you can even build DIY speaker drivers.
Anything I missed was not an intentional omission, lol.