5 Of The Best Handheld Game Consoles That Are Cheaper Than A Steam Deck OLED

These days, there are a lot of different handheld consoles and PCs available on the market. Still, one device in particular tends to hog the spotlight: the Steam Deck OLED. When you look at the device's specs and the massive library of games Steam has available, it's not hard to imagine why. The handheld brings portability and convenience to tons of titles that, not so long ago, you would only expect to be able to play while tied to your PC or console.

But that convenience and innovation come at a cost. Currently, the cheapest Steam Deck OLED you can buy costs $789 new, according to the official Steam Deck website. That's just for the 512 GB storage model — if you want more space, then you can expect to drop $949 on the larger 1 TB model. Valve's handheld certainly doesn't come cheap, even if the Steam Deck OLED really is worth it. However, that doesn't mean that you're totally stuck if it's out of budget or out of stock. It's far from the only handheld worth your attention.

They may not be a direct replacement as such, but there are a few handheld consoles and PCs out there that can give the Steam Deck a run for its money. Of course, buying new consoles isn't ever that cheap — hence why you might want to wait to pick them up used or refurbished instead – but some options are still more affordable than others. And paying less doesn't mean that you necessarily need to skimp too much on performance, gaming catalog, or graphics.

You'd be hard-pressed to talk about handheld game consoles without bringing up a member of the Nintendo Switch family. The latest addition to the metaphorical Nintendo family tree is the Nintendo Switch 2, which offers a 7.9-inch wide color gamut LCD screen with a 1920 by 1080 resolution when played in Handheld Mode. It may not be an OLED, but it does have the Steam Deck OLED's screen size and resolution beat otherwise. And when it's docked, it can go all the way up to 3840 by 2160 at 60 frames per second (FPS) or 2560 by 1440 with 120 FPS. 

The Nintendo Switch 2 costs $449.99 on its own, or around $500 when bundled with either "Mario Kart World," "Pokémon Pokopia," or "Donkey Kong Bananza" on the Nintendo website. Admittedly, that's a lot of money, but it still costs a lot less than the Steam Deck OLED — even when accounting for the Switch 2's inevitable price hike in September. Don't be fooled by its lighter price tag; Nintendo's newest handheld still boasts impressive performance that can comfortably compete with the Steam Deck. Tests shared by Digital Foundry largely attribute this to both the Switch 2's built-in DLSS feature and the console's achievements while docked.

One notable difference between the Steam Deck OLED and the Switch 2 that might give you pause is evident when it comes to storage space. Even the smaller of the two Steam Decks offers 512 GB of space, while the Switch 2 only offers 256 GB. However, you can expand the Switch 2 up to 2 TB using a microSD Express card at an additional cost.

The ROG Xbox Ally is a handheld gaming PC that packs 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage, and an AMD Ryzen Z2 A processor into a portable package. As the name suggests, you can easily use it to access Xbox Cloud Gaming, Play Anywhere titles, and games installed on your Xbox, should you have one. That's not the whole story, though. Since the ROG Xbox Ally is also effectively a Windows 11 PC, you can use it with other gaming platforms and stores — including Steam. 

When you take a look at each device's tech specs, the Steam Deck OLED and the ROG Xbox Ally offer some similar features and specifications. For example, both devices offer 16 GB of LPDDR5 on-board RAM with 6400 MT/s and a 512 GB NVMe SSD for storage, and you can connect them to your TV or monitor. They're also both a similar size and weight, so they're similarly comfortable for taking on the go. One difference is that the Xbox Ally offers a slightly smaller, higher-definition 7-inch 1920 by 1080 screen, while the Steam Deck offers a 7.4-inch 1280 by 800 screen.

If you opt for the standard ASUS ROG Xbox Ally model, as opposed to the upgraded (and more expensive) ROG Xbox Ally X, then you can expect to drop $599.99, making it a couple of hundred dollars cheaper than a Steam Deck OLED. If you shop carefully, you also might be able to bag yourself three months of Game Pass included in the cost. Of course, things add up quickly if you keep paying for Game Pass beyond that time frame, but if you're mostly planning on using Steam, then you might not need the subscription anyway.

If you long for the days of dual-screen gaming, then the Ayaneo Pocket DS might be for you. This handheld console is a little different from some of the others on this list, not only thanks to its throwback design, but also because it uses an Android ecosystem and runs on a Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 chip. Although that means it works a little differently and has slightly different capabilities, it's still a capable system. Besides running mobile games, you can also emulate other consoles and enjoy cloud gaming — or, using something like Rocknix, you might even be able to access Steam directly.

The Pocket DS's upper lid houses a bright, 800-nit 7-inch OLED screen with full HDR, alongside a smaller 1024 by 768 LCD screen on the lower half. Unlike the Nintendo DS, both screens are also touch-enabled. There may not be that many games you'd instinctively use both screens with, but it's a novel way to play. Speaking of games, according to RetroDodo, the handheld can deftly handle 3D titles like "Diablo Immortal" and "Gears of War," alongside an assortment of emulated consoles.

Despite some features staying the same, such as the battery, Snapdragon SoC, and Adreno A32 GPU, the exact price and specifications you can expect from an Ayaneo Pocket DS depend on exactly which model you pick. An Ayaneo Pocket DS with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage will set you back $689. Or, if you don't mind paying $10 more than a 512 GB Steam Deck OLED, you can go for a Starry Yellow Ayaneo Pocket DS with 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage for $799. That's still $150 cheaper than the comparable 1 TB Steam Deck OLED.

The Ayn Odin 3 is another Android-based handheld, this time running on a Qualcomm Dragonwing Q8 processor. Despite the console's relatively small size — the whole thing comes in at around 9 by 3.5 inches and weighs less than 400 grams — it comes with full-size Hall-effect joysticks, a 6-inch AMOLED screen, and, depending on which model you choose, a surprisingly large amount of RAM.

Which of the four tiers of Ayn Odin 3 you pick dictates both how much RAM and built-in storage you get. The four tiers are called Base, Pro, Max, and Ultra, with each level offering more (and costing more) than the last. Ultra takes the title of the most intense tier, with 24 GB of RAM and 1 TB of Universal Flash Storage (UFS) for $519. Meanwhile, the other tiers scale from 8 to 16 GB of RAM and 128 to 512 GB of storage, increasing in price from $349 to $499.

Don't be deceived by the Odin 3's operating system. With the right setup, it can run a surprisingly wide range of PC games, including titles like "Monster Hunter World," "Blue Prince," and "Hollow Knight: Silksong," with few issues. And you can access Steam through the device, along with a diverse range of emulators. Your mileage may vary somewhat depending on what you like to play, with some titles dropping frames or struggling to load, but it's still a powerful device with big performance potential.

The Anbernic Win600 3050e Blue packs a surprising punch given its price. For $475 — or currently, $350 — Anbernic's answer to the handheld PC boom includes 16 GB of DDR4 RAM at 3200 MHz, a 1 TB SATA SSD, and an AMD Athlon Silver 3050e Dali APU processor. Both the SSD and memory are replaceable, too, meaning you could swap them out for other parts further down the line if you wanted a more custom experience or to replace any broken parts. You can also opt to run either Windows 11 or SteamOS on the Win600, bringing it a little closer to the Steam Deck. And much like most of the company's other gaming gadgets, you can use it to emulate select older consoles.

Compared to the Steam Deck OLED, the Win600 3050e is definitely less powerful, in part due to its choice of processor. So, if you want to play the newest, biggest, most resource-intensive releases on your handheld, then this might not be the device for you. However, you can still expect to run a relatively large range of different older and lighter-weight releases without too much trouble, particularly if you choose to knock the graphics down a notch to do so. According to tests shared by Droix.Net, while intensive AAA titles like "Cyberpunk 2077" can struggle significantly at higher settings, popular titles like "Hades," "PowerWash Simulator," and "Street Fighter V" run fine on lower graphics settings. So, at almost half the price of the Steam Deck OLED, it offers a respectable and relatively more affordable option for handheld gaming that could suit you perfectly, depending on your tastes and gaming habits.

There are a lot of amazing handheld consoles out there, so picking out a few highlights was tricky. To help with that, we chose a few things to keep in mind while narrowing down our options. First, and perhaps most obviously, we made sure that every handheld console we picked had at least one option available that was cheaper than the 512 GB Steam Deck OLED model. That means that we basically only picked handhelds that currently cost less than $789. Some consoles we picked had specific editions, variants, or upgrades available that would cost more, like the premium ROG Xbox Ally X or the 1 TB edition of the Ayaneo Pocket DS, but they all have at least one option that still costs less.

Then, once we had accounted for prices, we looked at each handheld's specifications, reviews, and capabilities carefully. We made sure to single out handhelds with reasonable processing power and storage capacity similar to the Steam Deck OLED models, and we checked out how they performed based on reviews and tests. Similarly, we were sure to look at user reviews on relevant sales platforms to make sure that people were generally happy with their purchases.

Something else we kept in mind was the variety of games each handheld could run. One of the joys of a Steam Deck is having access to Steam's massive library, so it was important to make sure that each console could also run a range of different games through cloud gaming, emulation, or natively. Not every console picked will be able to run everything a Steam Deck could, but you should still have plenty of choices with these consoles.