CHARGE DEPLETED

PORTABLE GAMING’s a broader church than ever – are laptops still relevant?

- Phil Iwaniuk 

Playing our PC games anywhere other than a dedicated room full of beige machinery was, not so long ago, a profound and supremely challenging undertaking. It meant carrying around not just the discs of the interactive wonders we hoped to sample in a train carriage or car backseat, but also a gaming laptop whose cooling fans could drown out a fire alarm.

Portable gaming once referred to this very specific thing: a laptop with high specs which you could, in a pinch, use to play games on. Providing the sun wasn’t too bright or you wouldn’t be able to see the screen. And there was an available plug socket at all times. And you didn’t mind being responsible for the sound of an Airbus A380 jet engine idling while you played. Thankfully, technology caught up to our demand for gaming in the wild and found more ways to package up that proposition than is strictly useful. Handheld consoles. Mini PCs. Smartphones. Tablets. Gaming-focused smartphones. And now, portable PC gaming’s final form, the Steam Deck.

HIT THE DECK