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Building your own gaming handheld? (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by Amaterasu@lemmy.world to c/hardware@lemmy.world

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Many build their own PC. Nowadays there are quite many models of handhelds but most are plagued with at least one of these problems:

Too bulky

Low Performance

Poor Battery

Poor screen

I'm not sure a Steam Deck 2 or 3 or 4, etc... mini, with efficient battery will be launched some day.

With the SteamOS I was starting to think if maybe I should try to build my own handheld.

Assembling all the parts available out there, re-purposing discarded devices parts.

Is this some kind of stupid idea? Not looking for validation, I'm just looking to learn if others tried.

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[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

First off: These devices aren't "built from parts" at all, but have a custom designed mainboard containing all the relevant parts. So unless you are a total crack PCB designer with access to parts you usually don't get in single quantities (like GPU chips), you won't be able to build something on the level of a commercial handheld.

Second: All the things you listed are a balance. Improve one, lose out on another.

Make it slimmer and you lose battery and cooling (and thus performance).

Make it perform better and it will become more bulky (cooling) and you will lose battery performance due to higher energy consumption.

Increasing battery life either increases bulk (larger batteries) or reduces performance (more energy-efficient components with less performance).

Improve the screen and you will lose battery life (better screen need more energy) and performance (more pixels to render equals fewer FPS).

You can strike a different balance than the Steam Deck, but you won't be able to improve everything all at once.