SMACH Zero, A SteamOS Handheld Official Specifications Revealed

Looks interesting to me. Especially since it has HDMI out and Bluetooth connectivity. That means it should be able to double as a Steam Link, right?

It could work. At 720p, a SoC should have enough power to get playable framerates so long as not all the bells and whistles are turned on in demanding games. Of course, much will depend on the state of the Catalyst driver upon this device's arrival. Ultimately, the price will play a big role in the success of the machine. There is a threshold (around $200) for handhelds, and if the price is above the threshold, the device will fail, plain and simple. It happened with the 3DS, but Nintendo slashed the price quickly enough to save the system while it was floundering and it took off shortly after the price cut. It happened with the Vita and Sony didn't cut the price nearly quickly enough and the Vita is effectively dead... on life support at best. Simply put, if this device is too expensive, it will fail.

I don't have faith in it. As someone who already plays in a low powered device, I can say for sure that even for indie games it is too low powered, even if it was using Windows with the Catalyst driver in DirectX games.

For indie games like Geometry Wars and Outland, my notebook is already struggling to maintain 60fps in low settings at 720p. Only really simple games like Bleed can be played at 60fps all the time.

For for more sophisticated games like L4D2 or Borderlands, forget it.

If their explicit intent is to use it as a device for streaming from a real game computer, it will work. But the battery still will be a concern, since even cheap tablets with ARM CPUs can't pass a few hours without recharge.

I absolutely love the Castlevania games on the DS, so I could see myself getting this to play games like Chasm, Mystik Belle, and Slain!, provided that they are good games. I doubt that they will be too demanding considering that they are pixel art games.

This would be good for stuff like 2D platformers, the kind of stuff I don't bother with nowadays with all the games around, but would certainly play them on the go!

Quoting: MGOidI don't have faith in it. As someone who already plays in a low powered device, I can say for sure that even for indie games it is too low powered, even if it was using Windows with the Catalyst driver in DirectX games.
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If their explicit intent is to use it as a device for streaming from a real game computer, it will work. But the battery still will be a concern, since even cheap tablets with ARM CPUs can't pass a few hours without recharge.

I don't know what the perf of the graphics chip is like but I think it will be able to play a lot of games with low graphics settings.
Battery concern is legit though - probably won't manage more than 4 hours at best with CPU/GPU at 100% even if they slapped a 4Ah battery across (inside) the whole device.

There are definitely heaps of games in my game libraries that don't require my gaming PC's muscle so it'd be nice to play on the go - although personally I've rarely played much on the go and just read usually (the last gaming dedicated device I had was a gameboy brick haha, not including my android phone and tabs running GBA/PS1/PSP/NDS emulators that I rarely use). Would personally not get this and go for a higher end Vulkan graphics card in the future =P

this is going to an interesting piece of gear, not sure if i'd care to buy it, but with vulkan the performance of this device will be a lot better than any other handheld at the moment. of course it depends on the games that are designed for vulkan at the time of this device's release and the price point. but with the steam link idea, if that works, this would be interesting. it'll have to be a wait and see sort of item...
now if it can make my coffee in the morning then we might have a deal.

I'd like to see an Nvidia version of this, but I'm having my doubts that Nvidia has an x86 SoC in the works.

You know Intel could do it though. They already have everything this device could use.

A small device like that would need less resolution, so I think than even if it uses AMD most of the SteamOS games will run there. Looks like a good idea. And I hope than AMD drivers will be in a better shape from here to the next year.
Since its and standarized hardware maybe they will be able to define which games will run on it and which wont (something than steam machines cant do)

Steam should offer arm builds of its client, in my opinion. And games too :-)

The steamboy could be interesting, especially if there are emulators pre-loaded with it. I could see myself playing those emulators, as well as simple platformers on it. But I don't think PC games are designed with energy usage in mind, I am afraid that even the simplest platformer might be an energy sink. Well, they will probably conduct some testing, and adjust the performance governor (or at least show an option to do so).

I don't see how Bluetooth might be useful, apart from earphones. But USB OTG... Just imagine connecting four controllers to it and playing splitscreen :-P