AOKZOE are the latest to attempt a Steam Deck rival with the AOKZOE A1

The resolution seems high. I think 720p is sufficient for a handheld. Less taxing on the GPU, but still looks good on a display designed for that resolution.

On another note, I do like that SteamOS seems to be "proliferating in the wild". Wider adoption of SteamOS in pre-built gaming PCs, regardless of form factor, is a good thing in my view.


Last edited by CyborgZeta on 29 June 2022 at 11:44 am UTC

The resolution seems high. I think 720p is sufficient for a handheld. Less taxing on the GPU, but still looks good on a display designed for that resolution.

It's a bigger display though. 8" 1920×1200 should look really nice, should be a closer target for existing games, and was what I was hoping for when the Steam Deck was still the Steam Pal. But obviously GPU requirements make it tough to achieve. I wouldn't be tempted by this, though, even if I weren't getting a Steam Deck, because it's got the janky asymmetric sticks. It does appear to come with a kickstand, though, which is nice.

The resolution seems high. I think 720p is sufficient for a handheld. Less taxing on the GPU, but still looks good on a display designed for that resolution.

It's a bigger display though. 8" 1920×1200 should look really nice, should be a closer target for existing games, and was what I was hoping for when the Steam Deck was still the Steam Pal. But obviously GPU requirements make it tough to achieve. I wouldn't be tempted by this, though, even if I weren't getting a Steam Deck, because it's got the janky asymmetric sticks. It does appear to come with a kickstand, though, which is nice.

Does it? Now that I have a Steam Deck of my own, I think its display is pretty damn big. Why anyone would want a even bigger display on what's supposed to be a handheld is beyond me; these things aren't meant to be laptops. Plus, as you pointed out, graphics requirements make it difficult to take advantage of the higher resolution display.

To each his own though. I'm perfectly content with 720p (yes, I know the Deck is actually 1280x800) on a handheld device.

I guess everyone and their mother now wants a slice of Deck's pie.

This project seems rushed to me. Shipping in 2 months on a device there's very little details about.

They may list SteamOS as supported but I wonder how much it actually supports it. With the Deck you have pretty much complete control over the device's hardware. How much of that will be true on this device is yet to be seen.

Also Full HD on a 8" display seems like a potential battery drain and performance killer. This is something else Valve did better by going with 800p right away.

Also Full HD on a 8" display seems like a potential battery drain and performance killer.

How is it going to kill performance if you just set a game to 720/800p? Battery is a good question though.

Can't complain that there's competition.

Also Full HD on a 8" display seems like a potential battery drain and performance killer. This is something else Valve did better by going with 800p right away.

This is what I am thinking.

1920x1200 on an 8" display is ridiculous anyhow.

Seems fishy.

I was watching the Elden Ring demo for a minute . . . is that a guy talking? Because it sounds like my car giving me directions.

I think the only real hope for competitors to the Deck is based on the fact that although the Deck is selling really well, it has only one sales channel. It's a big channel, but the point is if some competitor can get their stuff on retail shelves or Amazon or something, where the Deck just doesn't exist, they can operate almost as if they weren't competing with anyone.

I always get a sentiment of "us vs them" when the Steam Deck is covered in these articles. Rightfully so, perhaps, since Valve is the first company to really put the effort to support Linux handheld PC gaming. But I wouldn't call the competition's prices "ridiculous". The price point of many of these devices is not so bad once you factor in some hidden costs in the steam deck. If I had to choose I would say I still prefer the deck overall, but not by much. It's not like competition is 2x more expensive as some make it out to be.

When compared to the Steam Deck, GPD and Aya Neo ship similar hardware, but their machines often come with 1TB storage and a screen protector. If you factor in the cost of a 500GB SD card plus the d-brand screen protector that's easily an additional 100 bucks on top of the $650 of the high-tier deck. And there's also the dock hasn't been released yet, but I bet that's going to be another $80 on top at the very least. All things considered, that's slightly over $800.

If we're talking about the cheapest Steam Deck model, now that's an entirely different thing. But I've seen too many people complain about the price of the competition while getting the highest tier of the steam deck because "64 GB is not enough" to be a bit skeptical once I hear those comparisons.

GPD Win 3 shipped for $900 during the indiegogo campaign with screen protector, 1TB SSD and **dock included**, so if you're going for the "full premium package", you can really see how the Deck is not that much cheaper, all things considered.


Last edited by setzer22 on 29 June 2022 at 3:20 pm UTC

because it's got the janky asymmetric sticks.

It's a little hard for me to see so I could well be mistaken (and hope I am), but they also look an awful lot like Nintendo Switch sticks, which are misdesigned such that they break super-easily if you breathe in their general direction. If they're using aftermarket Switch sticks (and some of these handhelds do - it's the only flaw of some of the ARM-Linux Anbernic handhelds, for example), then you'd have to open this thing up to replace the sticks every handful of months.

because it's got the janky asymmetric sticks.

It's a little hard for me to see so I could well be mistaken (and hope I am), but they also look an awful lot like Nintendo Switch sticks, which are misdesigned such that they break super-easily if you breathe in their general direction. If they're using aftermarket Switch sticks (and some of these handhelds do - it's the only flaw of some of the ARM-Linux Anbernic handhelds, for example), then you'd have to open this thing up to replace the sticks every handful of months.

It's an Xbox controller layout style. The joysticks are asymmetric with the A, X, Y, B to the upper right and an actual D-Pad to the lower right. Sorry the images are so big. I couldn't figure out how to resize them with this forum code.
!Xbox Controller

!Switch Joycon

It's an Xbox controller layout style. The joysticks are asymmetric with the A, X, Y, B to the upper right and an actual D-Pad to the lower right. Sorry the images are so big. I couldn't figure out how to resize them with this forum code.

That ok. I do know what type of layout it is (and I favour it personally) - I was just referring to the physical stick parts themselves.

I agree it seems super rushed... If Valve expects a lot of 3rd party hardware vendors jumping in they need to start a verified process, so junk companies don't make SteamOS look bad. Just to clarify I don't mean they should block other vendors, but have a list of tested hardware from vendors they trust for us customers.

How? SteamOS is open source and can potentially be slapped onto any hardware out there.

I always get a sentiment of "us vs them" when the Steam Deck is covered in these articles. Rightfully so, perhaps, since Valve is the first company to really put the effort to support Linux handheld PC gaming. But I wouldn't call the competition's prices "ridiculous". The price point of many of these devices is not so bad once you factor in some hidden costs in the steam deck. If I had to choose I would say I still prefer the deck overall, but not by much. It's not like competition is 2x more expensive as some make it out to be.

When compared to the Steam Deck, GPD and Aya Neo ship similar hardware, but their machines often come with 1TB storage and a screen protector. If you factor in the cost of a 500GB SD card plus the d-brand screen protector that's easily an additional 100 bucks on top of the $650 of the high-tier deck. And there's also the dock hasn't been released yet, but I bet that's going to be another $80 on top at the very least. All things considered, that's slightly over $800.

If we're talking about the cheapest Steam Deck model, now that's an entirely different thing. But I've seen too many people complain about the price of the competition while getting the highest tier of the steam deck because "64 GB is not enough" to be a bit skeptical once I hear those comparisons.

GPD Win 3 shipped for $900 during the indiegogo campaign with screen protector, 1TB SSD and **dock included**, so if you're going for the "full premium package", you can really see how the Deck is not that much cheaper, all things considered.

It is more accurate to say that the Steam Deck's price is ridiculously low. Any of the ~1k handhelds that are coming out have only a fraction of the Deck's input options. A motherboard with a display and an xbox controller attached isn't a 1:1 match for what the Deck has.

un professional presentation, the company appear from nowhere... and the name is quite bad.
not inspiring confidence, but i hope its a real project not an scam, for the sake of anyone puting money into that thing.

yeah not a surprise mobile real games machines have been popular again since the switch still doesnt appeal to me but my uni days are behind me so when get time to game am always at home with my desktop but for younger gamers can totally see the appeal

They appear to be lacking a lot of the buttons/controls the Steam Deck offers. Ie, no digital aiming input is a big one. They will have to undercut the Steam Deck considerably to make up for this.

They didn't showcase anything Linux. IMO if they ship with Linux which I see unlikely it will be a sub par experience with serious problems.
I hope they aren't thinking that they can just slap SteamOS and sell it like how they do with Win11.


Last edited by mr-victory on 30 June 2022 at 7:07 am UTC

Also Full HD on a 8" display seems like a potential battery drain and performance killer.

How is it going to kill performance if you just set a game to 720/800p? Battery is a good question though.

in 2 ways:
1)layman customers using the native resolution without knowing they can have an better performance by limiting the resolution (or maybe thinking more = better aways)

2)the screen may draw more power than an lowres screen, but that is just my speculation.