The best Steam Deck alternatives (when you can’t get Valve’s handheld)

In the absence of a much needed upgrade for the Nintendo Switch, Valve’s Steam Deck has proved to be the biggest hit that the handheld gaming space has seen in years.

Unfortunately, demand for SteamOS-powered portable has quickly exceeded supply.  Getting your hands on one in Australia was never easy to begin with, and it's hard to know if or when Aussie gamers will be able to buy one either directly through Valve or a local retail partner. Thankfully, if you’re in the market for a Steam Deck alternative, there are plenty of possibilities out there worth exploring.

The Aya Neo Pro is pricier than Valve’s Steam Deck, and it runs on Windows rather than the more streamlined SteamOS. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a lean and mean machine that’ll play PC games on the go, it comes equipped with the specs to get the job done and a design that, while not particularly original, appears to be surprisingly robust given the lack of a mainstream manufacturer.

Under the hood, the Aya Neo Next runs on an AMD Ryzen 7 5825U and 16GB of RAM. While those specs aren’t exactly cutting edge, they come complemented with a solid 1TB of SSD storage and a 7-inch IPS display. So long as you’re happy with keeping the resolution relatively low or are keen to use the hardware here for emulating older titles rather than new releases, the Aya Neo Next is a more than acceptable alternative.

The ASUS ROG Flow Z13 doesn’t have the Switch-like form-factor of the Valve Steam Deck, but it does have specs that promise to make it just as good, if not even better, for PC gaming on the go. 

Under the hood, the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 comes kitted out with either a Ryzen 9 or a Intel Core i9-12900H processor paired up with a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU and up to 16GB of RAM. While those specs are felt when it comes to the asking price, the ability to jump into graphically demanding titles like Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 as you please is a possibility that’s hard to pass up.

Like Aya Neo Pro, the ONEXPLAYER is another third-party Steam Deck competitors that comes in at a higher price, but promises to be a little more confident and capable where it counts.

While the ONEXPLAYER isn't too different from the Aya Neo Next when it comes to specs, it does offer a little more room for customisation. While the handheld has, based on the website, what looks to be a slightly less polished design overall, buyers get the option of going with a larger 8.4-inch screen or a version kitted out with Intel’s i7-1195G7 processor. If you can’t get your hands on the Steam Deck and can afford to stretch your budget a little further, the ONEXPLAYER is definitely an option worth considering.

Ayn’s first handheld, the Odin, was an Android-powered rival to the Nintendo Switch. The company’s next effort in the space, the Ayn Loki, has the Valve Steam Deck in its sights.

At a starting price of $489, the Ayn Loki is slightly more affordable than both the ONEXPLAYER and the Aya Neo Next. However, the flipside of that is that the hardware inside the handheld is a little more modest and the design is a little more barebones.

The Ayn Loki arrives armed with an AMD Ryzen 5 6600U processor, 8GB of RAM and just 128GB of on-board storage. It’s also got a smaller 6-inch LCD screen. Still, depending on what you’re looking to play on it, there’s a chance this could very well work as an affordable alternative to both the Steam Deck and its many imitators. 

If you’re excited by the convenience of the Steam Deck but less than thrilled by the price, one alternative worth considering might be Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming. This service is included as part of a Games Pass Ultimate subscription, letting you stream games to an Android or Windows device over the internet in the same way that you stream video via Netflix. You can even stream to iOS devices, provided you're doing so via a web browser.

While your mileage with Xbox Cloud gaming may vary based on the quality of your NBN or 5G internet connection, as well as the kind of games you’re keen to play, it’s definitely an option worth investigating. Paired up with a high speed connection and an accessory like the Razer Kishi or Backbone, and the end experience here isn’t all that far from what Valve are offering with the Steam Deck.