Having spent the bulk of my handheld gaming time with the Steam Deck, it was a bit of a shock last year to discover that PC gaming isn’t just possible on Android phones and retro handhelds, it’s powering on in leaps and bounds.
I’ve seen so many different games running beautifully, from older AAA titles like Tomb Raider and Prey (2017), all the way to more demanding ones like RDR2 and even Cyberpunk 2077 (no surprise that the last one is still an imperfect experience, as things stand…but it is possible!).
GameNative lets you play all manner of PC games on Android from GOG, Epic, and Steam.
I reached out to my friend Utkarsh, who is the lead developer of GameNative to ask if he wanted to share his story and let me interview him.
His background in development and gaming through to how GameNative started and is built, all the way to what the future might bring for his program. This is an interview on what I think might be at least part of the future of handheld gaming, and I hope you find this interesting:
For a minute or so anyway, until the SoC overheats and thermal throttles.
You’re going to need a bigger battery and a real heatsink+fan if you want real gaming out of it, at which point it’s going to start getting to Deck size…
It’s cooling, as soon as the phone thermal soaks it’s throttles down - phones can’t have a decent cooling system since they use power (fans EAT power), degrade water resistance and just add weight/bulk that most don’t want in a phone.
The handhelds you’ve listed aren’t phones. They’re handhelds that do in fact have heatsinks - they’ll work fine.
Again this isn’t anything against ARM, it’s the idea that a phone form factor with zero cooling considerations will somehow best a device with those considerations.
Here’s the thing: Game Native allows for this sort of emulation of PC games on those handhelds. Yes, it works for like 10 minutes on a normal phone with heavier titles, but these handhelds are easily half the size of a steam deck while giving comparable performance sometimes already on these devices. That’s what the conversation is really about I feel. I don’t think anyone would even want to to play cyberpunk on their phone.
To me this article definitely reads like the author and those involved actually think the opposite of what you’ve said; That phones will beat out any kind of handheld because why have 2 devices.
Granted i didn’t do more than a cursory look at it.
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For a minute or so anyway, until the SoC overheats and thermal throttles.
You’re going to need a bigger battery and a real heatsink+fan if you want real gaming out of it, at which point it’s going to start getting to Deck size…
Uhm look at the Ayn Thor and Odin 3. It’s pretty much on par in a way smaller form factor. ARM is a game changer.
ARM isn’t the reason why it won’t work for long.
It’s cooling, as soon as the phone thermal soaks it’s throttles down - phones can’t have a decent cooling system since they use power (fans EAT power), degrade water resistance and just add weight/bulk that most don’t want in a phone.
The handhelds you’ve listed aren’t phones. They’re handhelds that do in fact have heatsinks - they’ll work fine.
Again this isn’t anything against ARM, it’s the idea that a phone form factor with zero cooling considerations will somehow best a device with those considerations.
Here’s the thing: Game Native allows for this sort of emulation of PC games on those handhelds. Yes, it works for like 10 minutes on a normal phone with heavier titles, but these handhelds are easily half the size of a steam deck while giving comparable performance sometimes already on these devices. That’s what the conversation is really about I feel. I don’t think anyone would even want to to play cyberpunk on their phone.
To me this article definitely reads like the author and those involved actually think the opposite of what you’ve said; That phones will beat out any kind of handheld because why have 2 devices.
Granted i didn’t do more than a cursory look at it.