Considering the number of great PC gaming handhelds that have been released over the past year, it's hard to imagine that Valve's Steam Deck was the only mainstream gaming handheld not too long ago. Now, plenty of PC gaming giants have entered the space, such as Asus, MSI, and Lenovo. There are also the more niche brands cooking up unique gaming handhelds, like Ayaneo and OneXPlayer.

While it might seem like the market is cluttered with handhelds that all look and feel the same, that isn't exactly the case. Each mainstream PC gaming handheld — we're talking about the ones from Valve, Asus, MSI, and Lenovo — has a standout feature that separates it from the competition. Let's take a look at one thing that each of the following PC gaming handhelds gets right, and that others should take note of.

Steam Deck OLED

It uses an OLED display panel, which is a must-have feature for some

The Steam Deck is the most popular gaming handheld around, and Valve released a new model with an OLED display at the end of 2023. For the most part, the Steam Deck OLED is the same as the regular Steam Deck, with a few improvements like faster RAM and HDR support. Just by including an OLED display panel on the Steam Deck OLED, Valve has managed to differentiate its PC gaming handheld. Of the five handhelds on this list, the Steam Deck OLED is the only one to feature an OLED screen. It doesn't have the highest resolution, the biggest screen size, or the highest refresh rate. But the deeper blacks and richer colors offered by OLED technology is enough to make the Steam Deck OLED the only handheld option for some buyers.

Asus ROG Ally

It has the best blend of performance and efficiency

The Asus ROG Ally was not without issues when it launched, but one thing about it is indisputable. It has the best performance of any PC gaming handheld on this list thanks to the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chipset that powers the ROG Ally. The interesting part is that the Lenovo Legion Go is also powered by the Ryzen Z1 Extreme system-on-a-chip. But as our testing confirms, the ROG Ally handily beats the Legion Go in performance, and it's also ahead of the Steam Deck. To this day, if you want the absolute most power in the handheld form factor, you'll go with the ROG Ally.

Honorable mention: the ROG Ally might have the best design of any PC gaming handheld available for purchase today.

Lenovo Legion Go

The display's resolution and refresh rate are unmatched

At first glance, you might be tempted to think that the Lenovo Legion Go's removable controllers are its killer feature. However, after closer review, the Legion Go's best feature is its display. Of the handhelds on this list, Lenovo's Legion Go is the champion in three crucial display specifications: screen size, resolution, and refresh rate. The Legion Go's 8.8-inch IPS display has a resolution of 1600p and a refresh rate of 144Hz. If that wasn't enough to win you over, the display is extremely bright, sporting a peak brightness level of 500 nits. It might not be an OLED panel, but the Legion Go gets everything else right in terms of the display.

Honorable mention: the Lenovo Legion Go's removable, Nintendo Switch-esque controllers are one-of-a-kind (but not necessarily good).

MSI Claw

Hall effect joysticks bring the probability of stick drift developing near zero

The MSI Claw's best feature is found in the handheld's joysticks, since they use Hall effect technology. Essentially, these joysticks register movement through magnets rather than analog methods. As a result, the likelihood of MSI Claw joysticks suffering from stick drift down the road is drastically decreased. The chance of that happening is basically zero, in fact. Stick drift would be a big issue on a PC gaming handheld, where the controllers are built into the device. It's worth noting that the Lenovo Legion Go also uses Hall effect joysticks; however, those joysticks are built into the Legion Go's removable controllers, which have been described as cheap-feeling and ergonomically-bad.

Honorable mention: the MSI Claw is the only handheld powered by Intel Core Ultra, but the jury's still out on whether that's a good thing or not.

Steam Deck LCD

Great battery life and power efficiency

While most people would consider the Steam Deck OLED a better buy than the LCD model, there is one caveat to consider. The OLED display on the Steam Deck OLED draws more power than the LCD variant, meaning that it has slightly worse power efficiency and battery life. So, the Steam Deck LCD is still the battery life king of PC gaming handhelds. Every minute of battery life is valuable on power-hungry handhelds, and that's why the Steam Deck LCD still has an advantage over its competitors. That's true even in 2024 when the Steam Deck OLED exists.

I'd love to see these features in a single PC gaming handheld

The companies designing the above PC gaming handhelds each prioritized different features when creating their devices. Right now, you should choose which handheld to buy based on your individual preferences. If you value simplicity, efficiency, or an OLED display, go with a Steam Deck or Steam Deck OLED. If you want the most power or best specs, the Asus ROG Ally or Lenovo Legion Go are the right picks. There's also the MSI Claw for people who want Hall effect joysticks and the Intel Core Ultra chipset. I can't help but wonder what a PC gaming handheld would look like if it pulled all of these products' best features into a single device. Hopefully, Valve, Asus, Lenovo and MSI will all learn from each other when designing their next generations of handhelds to make improvements across the board.