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 a Boeing 747 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

Steam's latest big project wasn't about changing the way PC gamers play games across the board. If we weren't resolutely stubborn consumers who comforted ourselves in the warm blanket of tradition, we'd have ditched the desktop PC as our primary gaming station years ago. No, that's a red line for us.

Componentry must be stacked within a rectangular tower full of only the drippiest of RGB fans, hooked up to a standalone display, and a mouse and keyboard must be waiting for us on a desk. That'll always feel like home to us, one suspects. The Steam Deck's just an additional part of that ecosystem. Plan B. The thing we pick up when we're going out, heading to bed, or simply can't be bothered to sit upright.