Gaming on the move

Nintendo SwitchNintendo hit it out of the park when they created this beauty You can use the Nintendo Switch as a home console on your tabletop and as a handheld The Switch has several innovative games many of which are familyfriendly Unfortunately it isnrsquot officially available in India though they are available for purchase for a fairly reasonable price on several online outlets There is also a newer version with an OLED screen for better battery life and improved colours The console has a massive collection of games you can buy online or from videogame retailers like Games The Shop You can buy the latest OLED version of the console for around R30000 on AmazonAYANEO 2AYANEO was one of the first few pocket gaming PCconsole successes It uses PC chips and hardware to create a portable gaming device The AYANEO 2 comes with a customised Windows installation They have upgraded the hardware to feature a 6th generation AMD Ryzen 7 a full HD display fingerprint sensor M2 SSD DDR5 RAM WiFi 6 a headphone port dual mics and Bluetooth 52 The console is basically a Windows machine that you can easily plug into a display and use as a machine Unfortunately it isnrsquot something you can buy directly from a store In India You have to import it andat 1099Nintendo Switch LiteNintendo always does this with any of their portable consoles they will cut all the unnecessary corners in a device and then launch a lite version The Lite version of the Switch sheds some of its functionality preserving only its core handheld nature You canrsquot detach the controllers the screen size is a bit smaller at 55 inches compared to the 62 inches on the original Switch The battery life is also a bit less and you canrsquot directly connect it to a TV to game This reduced functionality comes with a significant price reduction You can buy the Nintendo Switch Lite in India for around Rs 18000 not from Nintendo directly thoughSteam DeckIf you want to leverage your colossal Steam library on a portable PC gaming handheld Steam Deck is the device you need to get It has a custom AMD APU which is less powerful than the newer ones in AYANEO 2 and Asus ROG Ally However unlike the Windowswielding Ally and AYANEO the Steam Deck uses Linux and is designed to play most of your Steam games natively It can also be used as a PC but again it runs Linux and not Windows There is a good reason for this Windows is very resource hungry and as such lowers gaming performance So while this device lacks the hardware specs compared to the newer devices it is optimised to run the games without issues Valve launched the Steam Deck in 2021 and is only now slowly making its way out of its exclusive availability in the EU USA and Canada region The official Steam Deck website now lists many Asian countries with more on the way It starts at 399 which is very economicalAsus ROG AllyAsus teased this device on April 1 this year and many people thought it was an April Fool joke However the device was launched last week with a custom AMD chipset It features a 7inch Full HD display with 120Hz refresh rate 16GB DDR5 memory 512GB storage an audio jack a USB TypeC port a MicroSD slot a Fingerprint sensor WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 52 It weighs 608 gm and will be available in the US from June for 699 There is no word on availability for India or the pricing yet it will likely be launched here tooiPadTechnically this isnrsquot a gaming device but an iPad is a great onthego gaming device yes itrsquos better than your phone The most significant difference is the real estate Having that extra screen space improves your gaming experience and a bigger screen is always more immersive Apple Arcade is also a great deal with some decent AAA titles for a onetime small subscription fee Which iPad to choose is purely based on your other requirements they are all excellent for gaming even the iPad Air I would personally go in for the basic iPad but if you are going in for other functions and are looking for a laptop replacement it would make sense to buy one with an M1 or M2 chipset You can also link a controller to it if touch controls are not your thing