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This article is compiled from IGN US related content, originally written by Shuka Yamada, translated by Tonkotsu Ramen, edited by Kamui Ye, and may not be reproduced without authorization.

The year 2025 seems especially important for handhelds. After years of silence due to the rise of handheld games and Sony’s withdrawal, the handheld market is finally enjoying a renaissance due to the rise of portable consoles and gaming PCs capable of playing high-quality games on the go.

The most important of these handhelds is the Nintendo Switch 2. Launched in 2017 as a retread after the failure of the Wii U, Nintendo’s handheld resurgence began with the launch of the Switch, which went on to sell 150 million units over the next seven years, was backward-compatible with the Wii U library, and featured two of the best Legend of Zelda titles of all time. With the Switch 2 expected to launch in the first half of 2025 for the next-generation model, all gamers are expecting Nintendo to come up with something deep and good. They most likely won’t be too aggressive though, they just need to keep what they have so far.

The Switch 2 doesn’t seem like it’s going to be too technologically revolutionary, more of an evolution on the previous generation machine. It will be backward compatible with all games from the first-generation machine, and the form factor will be similar to the first-generation, which was released in 2017. However, while not much has been officially released, there have been a lot of tidbits leaked from various sources.

Current rumors claim that the machine will feature an 8-inch LCD screen, with handheld mode supporting 1080p resolution and dock mode capable of outputting 4K upsampled footage. The Joy Con, the slide structure of the current version of the Switch, has been ditched in favor of an electromagnetic attachment. The chip is an NVIDIA T234 mobile processor that outperforms the PS4 and Xbox One. You might even be able to use the Joy Con as a mouse!

While I personally love the Switch’s OLED screen, there’s no denying that better LCD screens are coveted, and this machine is likely to be a huge seller over the next few years. The only question now is whether or not the Switch 2 will be successful or competitive in today’s market, which is packed with handheld competitors.

Along with the success of Valve’s home Steam Deck, we saw a slew of handheld gaming PC announcements at CES this year. Many of the devices are upgrades from the 2024 models, and manufacturers have been able to iterate hardware faster than Nintendo has been able to in nearly a decade for a console generation. So can the Switch 2 repeat its success in 2025?

As the era of the original Switch draws to a close, will a new era begin?

For the first few years of the Nintendo Switch’s life cycle, there was no competition on the market. Other electronics manufacturers had basically abandoned the handheld market altogether, leaving the market share to handheld games and the successor to the Nintendo DS handheld.

The explosion of the Switch has put to rest the conclusion that gamers don’t like handhelds. Everyone loves the experience of playing anytime, anywhere with the addition of modern display technology, and Nintendo’s genius design has helped. Home console? Handheld? I want them all!

However, success led to imitators, and in 2022, Valve launched the Steam Dec. It was a handheld gaming PC that cost a little more than the Switch’s main model, but it managed to piggyback on Nintendo’s handheld craze and bring a completely different gaming experience to the table, with PC gamers being able to take their Steam libraries on the go.

The Steam Deck is similar to the Switch in many ways, with a resolution of 1280×800, and the base Steam Deck is only slightly more expensive than the Switch OLED version. The difference is the ability to play the Steam library of games, and because it doesn’t take children into account, it has a heavier profile and better ergonomics.

While the Steam Deck 2 is nowhere to be seen yet, and likely won’t be until after 2026, Valve’s machine is still in high demand and has many competitors. There are a number of handheld gaming PCs running Windows, most notably the ROG Ally X and GPD Win 4, which have all the features of a Windows PC, plus access to the Steam Epic Games Xbox GOG and itch io stores, as well as other apps and services.

AMD is bringing the new Z2 chipset in 2025 to give these handheld gaming PCs better performance and longer battery life, making them a strong competitor to the Switch 2.

Who are the competitors?

The biggest news in the new handheld market comes in the form of the Lenovo Legion Go S, a newer, slimmer machine based on last year’s Legion Go, which ditches the detachable controllers in favor of a unibody design, doubles its memory to 32 GB, and features a 120Hz refresh rate screen.

Most interestingly, the machine is available with both Windows 11 and SteamOS. It can be used as a third-party Steam Deck or as a machine that’s up-to-date with the Windows ecosystem. You can also choose between the Z2 Go chipset or the older Z1 processor, with prices ranging from CNY 4,390 to CNY 5,344 for different configurations.

The next generation, the Legion Go 2, is also expected to launch this year, and will be built with the latest AMD Z2 Extreme processor and double the battery capacity. Judging by the fact that the Legion Go lasts only 12 hours now, a bigger battery would be very useful indeed.

Acer Nitro Blaze 7 handhelds

Elsewhere in the manufacturer’s lineup, Acer’s Nitro Blaze will launch as an 11-inch screen handheld with a 2560×1600 120Hz screen that dwarfs the Switch’s screen. The machine will cost around $8,790, though, and is as heavy as it sounds. MSI’s Claw 8 AI is an upgraded version of the Claw. With an Intel Lunar Lake chipset, an 80WHr improved battery, and an 8-inch 120Hz panel, it retails for about $6,590. The machine launched last year to a mediocre response, and the new model has a lot to live up to.

The $6,499 ROG Ally X made our list of the best handheld gaming PCs last year, thanks to its 80WHr battery, 1TB of storage, and excellent handheld gaming performance, as we noted in our review. With more RAM than the original Ally, faster memory, and double the battery capacity, the Ally X is capable of holding up for more than an hour of even modern gaming. The Ally X can last more than an hour even when playing modern games. ASUS hasn’t officially announced a next-gen model for 2025, but the Ally X won’t be short of an audience in 2025, and will probably see a new generation in the second half of the year.

Who are the handheld winners of 2025?

These powerful Windows and Steam OS handhelds have some key advantages over the Switch 2. But these handhelds are largely priced over $3,000 and are focused on stacking up good-looking parameters, leaving the lower-priced market with a larger audience to Nintendo and other less powerful devices.

Compared to the Switch ecosystem, these handheld PCs have more powerful processors, higher resolutions and frame rates, and the open Windows ecosystem means that multiple gaming platforms can be used and more games can be played. Even with Steam OS, there are over 70,000 games on the Steam platform itself, compared to thousands on the Nintendo Switch. So it’s worth remembering that the Switch, for all its great titles and first-party exclusives, has a much smaller lineup of games to play in comparison.

However, Windows 11 wasn’t designed with handhelds in mind, so it’s not the ideal interactive system for a handheld gaming PC either. Nintendo’s operating system has a clean and dedicated beauty to it, which is one of the things that drew gamers back to handhelds in the first place.

The new Switch will likely lag behind many handhelds launching in 2025 in terms of hardware parameters. It won’t have the power of an expensive processor, and it won’t be able to run 3A PC games. But a better handheld experience, with base station mode and AI upgrades sampled to help with graphics, should make up for some of the performance shortcomings. Because the Switch focuses on the sub-$3,000 market and Nintendo’s own games, I don’t think any of these handheld competitors pose much of a threat to the success or sales of the Switch 2, which I think will be the best choice for most gamers in 2025.

The Lenovo Legion Go S is probably the best machine for PC diehards or gamers with too much money to spend, especially since they have a SteamOS version for those who don’t want to pour over Windows 11. Until Steam Deck officially launches, this may be the best machine to carry your Steam library with you.

SteamOS is no longer exclusive to Steam Deck.

In the Windows handheld segment, reviews are a little more difficult. I don’t hold out much hope for MSI’s latest handheld, and while Acer is making waves in the 11-inch handheld market, its size will probably only fit in the hands of a very small number of gamers. I should still recommend the Legion Go S for Windows, or Asus’ ROG Ally.

Ten years ago, handhelds seemed out of reach. But now the market is exploding, with no sign of stopping for a while. Whether you want a Steam library you can take anywhere, a Windows handheld, or the more powerful Legend of Zelda, there are plenty of handhelds to choose from, and there’s only one real winner in 2025, and that’s handheld gamers!