Steam Deck

Much of the "slider" form factor died out early for a very good reason.

The simple reality is that the more moving parts you put on something, the more parts there are to break. It's why phones became boring rectangles, hand-held gaming devices became slightly less boring rectangles, and why physical buttons were phased out of mp3 players, phones, etc...

Physical things cause complexity. Complexity increases warranty claims.

I think the main factors for the size of the Steam Deck and other similar handheld PCs are the size of the APU and heat dissipation. You'd get some serious performance degradation if you went much smaller. Even the Nintendo Switch is a similar size.

I think I would still stick to the current form factor. Repairability and comfort are of greater concern to me at this stage in my life than pocketability.

I used to have one of those. It's was definitely neat, and managed to survive a while, but I don't think it's a good idea. The biggest issue with something like this is that it adds more moving parts, which in turn increases wear and tear. For the screen to move, you'd need to either use a ribbon cable, or have weird contact points that only work in certain positions. Both of which aren't great. Ribbon cables flex for a bit, but eventually tear, meaning no screen. The goofy contacts is slightly better, but eventually the sliding mechanism may go out of whack and now it isn't making contact correctly.

I'd rather have better hand grip and ergonomics than small form factor. I used to play on my PSP and DS/3DS all the time, but yeah nowadays the Steam Deck is the best for my hands

Low profile circle pads for joysticks aren't bad at all IMO. Some people dislike them. Depends on the person.

I don't think I would want a Steam Deck in this form factor. The current Deck honestly feels like the perfect size for me. Not too big to be unruly, not too small to be uncomfortable. I totally understand the appeal of a pocketable device, but I've come to realize that I really just don't have a need for a device that portable and would rather have something bigger. A device this small wouldn't have the same number of inputs and would greatly compromise on comfort. That's mostly a me thing, though. Plenty of people want smaller handhelds, so a smaller handheld PC could probably find an audience.

I would love an Android smartphone that's like this. Not a gaming-centric device like a Retroid Pocket, but something that could be my daily driver smartphone while also offering physical controls for a quality gaming experience. Basically the Xperia Play, but modern. It would be far less cumbersome than carrying around a gaming device in addition to my phone, making it much more practical for me.

Never held a psp go in my hands, but from the videos I've seen it looks horribly uncomfortable

I'd love something closer to the vita I think, I don't need the slide mechanic it's just something else to break. Pocketable steam deck, hell yes.

It's a terrible idea even though I love it lol.

Technology isn't there yet.

There's certainly handhelds in the PSP go form factor already, but they use much smaller OSes than the steamdeck uses, and still have to make sacrifices usually.

Like you'd probably just get a quick-boot to a retroarch variant for emulation and thats the entirety of the OS you'd get.

It needs the space for battery and cooling.

Nah I'm happy with mine just as it is. Really curious about the Deckard tho

There’s already a few gaming handhelds with a sliding screen. See below:

https://ayaneo.com/product/AYANEO-SLIDE.html

I own a psp go. I think a chunky (thickness) and larger one would be interesting. My psp acts as a clock when docked which is cool. But I think slide is dead as people have said. The buttons on psp are very thin. Certainly be hard to do trackpads etc.

There's a ton of those out there and they don't offer a lot more than what the steam deck can already do.

The thing I love the most about the Deck is having full size controllers on a handheld device, something that neither the Vita, PSP or Switch couldn’t gave to me. So, for me, this idea won’t work.

I liked the 3ds stick, but with the metal mod. The stock rubber one could not handle smash bros. The psp one wasn't quite to my liking and I couldn't get used to it. I didn't have any mod for that though.

Maybe recessed normal sticks could work too because the device would still have to be fairly thick. It sounds like a nightmare to design, assemble, and repair though.

The PSP Go form factor was a MASSIVE FAILURE for a reason. It received heavy criticism for the unintuitive and uncomfortable feeling.

So what do you think?