Handheld gaming PCs are in big trouble and it's not a surprise to see what's responsible

Date:
Thu, 26 Mar 2026 01:00:00 +0000

Description:
The memory crisis is still a major issue with PC hardware, and handheld
gaming devices may be in serious danger if the AI boom continues apace.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from
us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was
successful An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Handheld gaming has been in a great place for a few years, ever since Valve launched the Steam Deck in 2022, kicking off a raft of portable gaming PCs appearing in all manner of incarnations.

Since the Steam Deck muscled onto the scene, Lenovo , Asus, and Ayaneo have all been busy launching new handhelds, offering a wide variety of options
from lower to higher-end devices. Some have struck a nicely affordable chord, although many have been criticized for being overpriced. Valve's Steam Deck was (and arguably still is) the most popular among all the handheld gaming
PCs on the market, giving gamers an easy way to dive into portable gaming for a reasonable price. Article continues below You may like There's only one way Valve can save the Steam Machine from the RAM crisis The ROG Xbox Ally X is seeing multiple price hikes? Color me surprised The RAM crisis is so bad this new gaming handheld costs more than an RTX 5090 (Image credit: Siberian Art / Shutterstock) However, the situation with handhelds is swiftly changing, and not for the better. The AI boom has meant that prices for RAM and storage
have skyrocketed, and the crisis is seemingly getting worse on a daily basis. Notably, Ayaneo had its Next 2 handheld gaming PC poised to go sale, with pre-orders open and shipments scheduled for June 2026. Unfortunately, those pre-orders are no longer available, as the company has been forced to suspend sales for the new device due to rapidly rising component costs.

While Ayaneo is arguably a niche brand, one that pushes for higher specifications in a handheld that can provide gaming laptop-level
performance, it's not the only company that has seen its line-up of handheld devices impacted by the ongoing memory chip crisis. And it doesn't look like it'll be the last, either. The AI boom might destroy handheld gaming PCs (Image credit: Sergey Nivens / Shutterstock / Valve) At this rate, handheld gaming PCs are in grave danger of gradually being phased out, at least as a mainstream force. We've reached a point where device manufacturers are struggling to keep up with the cost and lack of availability of RAM and storage, and consumers simply can't afford to pay entry-level desktop gaming PC prices for portable devices. All this is a direct result of the AI boom. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our
trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Ayaneo's case is a telling example here, with the company admitting that hardly any profit has been made from the Next 2 handheld pre-orders taken
thus far, as the overall cost of production has risen so much.

Another prime example of the chaos being sown with handhelds is Valve's
recent announcement that the Steam Deck OLED will be out of stock intermittently, and unsurprisingly, this is due to memory and storage supply issues.

The RAM crisis represents an increasingly difficult situation for Valve in particular, with the Steam Machine still in the pipeline for a launch in 2026
and that has already faced a delay, once again, due to said crisis. What to read next Valve's Steam Deck OLED is out of stock for the exact reason you think The RAM crisis may be complicit in the Steam Deck OLED's US stock shortage High-end PC gaming is in big trouble, thanks to AI and RTX 5090 price hikes are prime examples (Image credit: Shutterstock / Blan-k) The affordability problems caused for both manufacturers and consumers are a recipe for disaster when it comes to handheld gaming PCs. The longer the AI boom continues, with data centers grabbing huge slabs of memory for AI tasks, the worse things will get for handheld production costs.

Ultimately, it all comes down to a nasty price to pay for consumers, who will be faced with ever more expensive price tags for handhelds that were already creeping into unaffordable territory even before the AI boom struck.

All this threatens to stall the progress that handheld gaming PCs have made since they grabbed their share of the limelight following the success of the Steam Deck. Previously this market was mostly dominated by niche brands like Ayaneo or Ayn, and those days could return if the RAM crisis continues to make life miserable for handheld manufacturers, and consumer interest declines.

There are some tentative signs that the AI bubble could burst, notably with OpenAI putting the sword to Sora , and you never know what's around the next corner it's not all doom and gloom.

However, I worry that even after the bubble eventually bursts however long that may take it could be some time before the supply of components normalizes. Predictions from analyst firms make that clear enough.

Hopefully, though, this component storm won't be raging for too long, and handheld gaming PCs will manage to weather it. That does, of course, remain
to be seen, and unfortunately matters are looking pretty rocky right now. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the
Follow button!

And of course, you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/gaming-pcs/handheld-gaming-pcs-are-in-big- trouble-and-its-not-a-surprise-to-see-whats-responsible


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)