Microsoft's gaming handheld really does sound like the Xbox Deck that solves all our problems
If Microsoft actually pulls this one off, the world of handheld gaming consoles could be forever changed, and its goals are certainly ambitious.
The state of handheld gaming PCs is a lot different today than back when the Steam Deck was initially introduced. Aside from all the hardware and specs drama, your choices essentially come down to one of two segments.
Your device is either power-efficient and performant enough to actually let you get a few hours of gameplay on the go, but it runs SteamOS or some Linux variant, making it only usable with a subset of games, and locking you out of some of the biggest titles. Or, you get what’s essentially a mini Windows laptop that pretends to be made for gaming, but you miss out on the transformative features of SteamOS and Linux, and the battery life they enable.
At CES 2025, we're starting to see the two realms merge, but Microsoft has its eye on what could be the next evolution of that marriage.
Microsoft has made several comments in the past about its intent to build a handheld console. But is that going to be a pocket-size Xbox, a handheld Windows device or something altogether different? Well, it sounds like the answer isn’t clearcut.
Microsoft’s VP of next generation, Jason Ronald, spoke to The Verge following an AMD and Lenovo event at this week’s CES 2025. Ronald revealed what many of the people who follow the handheld space have suspected for a while; that Microsoft wants to bring the seamless, console experience of Xbox to Windows, not bloat the former with programmes designed for desktop and office use.
“We’ve been really innovating for a long time in the console space, and as we partner across the industry it’s really about how do we bring those innovations that we’ve incubated and developed in the console space and bring them to PC and bring them to the handheld gaming space,” said Ronald.
How that is going to manifest remains the real question, however, and Ronald certainly wasn’t eager to share specifics, which is quite understandable considering the development timeline of the mysterious Xbox handheld.
“I would say it’s bringing the best of Xbox and Windows together, because we have spent the last 20 years building a world-class operating system, but it’s really locked to the console,” he added.
There’s great significance to this particular event, too, that’s worth keeping in mind. This is where the Lenovo Legion Go S was announced, which is the company’s second-generation handheld that runs SteamOS, positioning it as a direct competitor to the Steam Deck, and the first third-party one of those to use Valve’s modified Linux operating system.
It’s not likely that the Xbox handheld will run SteamOS, or dualboot between Windows and Linux. What’s more likely to happen is that Microsoft will have, hopefully, fine-tuned the Windows experience enough for it to make sense on a handheld. That’s certainly what Ronald suggested.
“We’re focused on really simplifying that and making it much more like a console experience,” Ronald said of the Windows experience on handhelds. “Our goal is to put the player and their library at the center of the experience and not all the [Windows] work that you have to do today.”
Ronald rightly pointed out that the Xbox OS is, at the end of the day, a variant of Windows, so the idea of making that console experience work on a different device isn’t outlandish or even impractical. The good news is that we’re going to start seeing some of those efforts later this year, likely well before we get a look at Xbox’s mysterious handheld.