Handheld gaming consoles have their merits, but it’s fair to say that they fall short of full gaming rigs or even powerful laptops in most cases. However, you can mitigate most of the weaknesses of a handheld with these 5 accessories, which transform it into a pretty good desktop equivalent.
5
A Mechanical Keyboard and Mouse Offers Precision
Most handheld consoles have pretty good controls, but let’s be real: there are some games that need a mouse and keyboard to play comfortably, and you’ll never have the feeling of a complete gaming rig without these accessories anyway.
Most gaming handhelds, like the Steam Deck and ROG Ally, support both wired and wireless keyboard and mouse connections. From the cheapest Bluetooth option from Walmart to something snazzy like the Corsair K70 PRO TKL, you’ve got no limits in this department.
There are plenty of great gaming mice to choose from as well, so go all out and pick your favorite. Whether its affordability or quality you prioritize, these accessories will make a huge difference in the versatility of your gaming handheld.
4
A Portable Monitor and Kickstand Frees Up Your Hands
The small screen of a gaming handheld is great for portability. It’s not so great when you want to sit at a desk and really get into a hardcore gaming session, especially if you want to use a keyboard and mouse with the device. There are two ways to get around this: a portable monitor or a kickstand. A good kickstand frees up your hands, improves ventilation for your handheld, and most importantly, doesn’t cost much at all.
If you want a bigger screen to play on, that’s where you’ll need a portable monitor, which can cost you around $80-$120 if you stick to budget options. That’s still much cheaper than most gaming monitors, and these lightweight, thin screens usually support 1080p at 60Hz minimum. Connecting one to your device via USB-C is simple, and quickly multiplies the screen size available to you no matter where you are. Some portable monitors also come with cases, speakers, or kickstands of their own.
3
An Xbox or PlayStation Controller Offers Remote Control
For some games, I prefer the feel of a controller in my hands compared to a mouse and keyboard setup. The good news is that the ergonomic flagship controllers of both Xbox and PlayStation are natively compatible with most handheld gaming consoles via Bluetooth or wired connections. In fact, you don’t even have to go for the real deal: cheaper alternatives like PowerA or Logitech controllers should work just fine as well.
Regardless, having the option to use a controller with your handheld goes a long way, making it an even more versatile machine, and most importantly, giving you the ability to play it from your couch if you ever hook it up to a TV with a dock or a USB-C to HDMI adapter.
2
External Storage Gives You More Room for More Games
If you get a handheld with lots of storage space, such as a 1TB Steam Deck, you may not need to do this. But video games are getting larger all the time, and you may still need some more space if you want your gaming handheld to feel like a full-blown rig. You don’t need to get any internal upgrades to tackle this problem: an external SSD or high-speed flash drive is more than enough.
Storage space is constantly getting cheaper, and you can even net a 512GB SSD for around $30 if you know where to look. Newer drives also support USB 3.2 Gen 2, so you’ll get fast speed comparable to internal storage too. Needless to say, a bit of extra external storage is fairly cheap and an easy way to get more room for games, mods, and other media.
Another option is a small NVMe enclosure, into which you can slot a spare M.2 drive (or buy one).
1
A USB-C Hub With Power Delivery Connects All of Your Accessories
If you do want to transform your gaming handheld into an experience that competes with a desktop, you’ll need to plug a lot of different things into it. You’ll probably need more ports than the handheld actually has to offer. To solve that problem, you need a USB-C hub with power delivery (often referred to as a dock when in “stand” form).
This is pretty affordable: for around $30-$50, you can get yourself a multi-port USB-C hub with power delivery passthrough, HDMI output, USB-A ports, SD card readers, and Ethernet.
It’s everything you need to connect your handheld console to almost any accessory, and the power delivery passthrough means it can keep the console charged as you’re playing as well, eliminating any battery concerns. Just make sure you find a hub that supports both 60W power delivery and 4K@60Hz output if you want to maximize the potential of your setup. Otherwise, you might be limited even if your other accessories are capable of higher performance!
Related
The Best Steam Deck and ROG Ally Docks of 2024
Sometimes you just want to play your PC games on the big screen.
Ultimately, there are some limitations to the performance of a handheld gaming console no matter what accessories you pair with it. On the other hand, with cloud streaming from companies like Nvidia improving, there may come a time when you can play almost any game on a handheld on max settings, and having a few good gaming accessories for a Steam Deck or Lenovo Legion Go S will be just as good as a gaming desktop.
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