Seeing a few of the early reviews being mostly the same and how Valve says the software isn’t ready yet.
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Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence now does it haha.
Nope, and yet somehow it’s reassuring that my initial take seems to be holding up, that the Linux software shims are going to be a weakness.
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I wonder if arm emulation of x64 games is feasible and would result in lower TDP with equal performance.
As soon as the windows drivers are available I’m probably just putting Windows on mine anyway.
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Phil having a Steamdeck to play all this time, doesn’t hurt the chances of a portable Xbox, at all.
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imo if xbox ever decides to do a handheld, they should base on it on whatever the switch’s successor is in terms of performance and ergonomic design. had a chance to use a steamdeck recently, and that thing is unwieldy lol.
I use my GPD XD as an xCloud machine on the regular, and it works remarkably well. Better than I was expecting, given the age of the hardware. But I suppose that’s part of the point of streaming, that it reduces the hardware requirements to the point that most anything will do.
That’s exactly why I think a xCloud only device makes so much sense, they could spend big on the screen, battery and 5G/Wi-Fi module to make it best in class while having it small and light because they don’t need a honking big APU with all the cooling required, just for 900p 30-60fps gaming with 2-5 hours battery life.
xCloud only device would be able to last so much longer as it won’t be doing the local processing so it’s the same usage or a little more battery life as watching Netflix. You won’t need to upgrade often either because the it’s the hardware in the data centre that is powering the experience, for example they could have RTX3090s powering your games on the device, imagine streaming 4k60 games with RT on the go.
Good luck playing competitive fighters, shooters, or racers on a streaming device at 120hz.
Perhaps by 2030 latency will be low enough to be unnoticeable at 120hz.
Also such a device can’t play your existing digital library nor the entire Gamepass library. So from a content POV it’s also compromised.
IMO, until the previous two issues get resolved, Xcloud’s mass market appeal use cases are sampling many games at once, trying a game before buying, and playing a next gen only game on Xbox one.
Streaming has too many compromises right now to be a viable alternative to native gaming.
Like who in their right mind would prefer Stadia over a gaming PC.
Likewise, for streaming portable over a native portable.
DF review of steam deck is out and they have made an interesting comparison with PS4. Which I think could tell us about the possibility of native xbox portable.
A PS4 level handheld is only now possible at the end of the PS4 generation itself (keeping in mind it really isn’t at 1080p but 720p) So Xbox need to figure out how to do it in middle of this generation for xbox series s. Which I find impossible to do so from just SoC’s architecture point. We need a battery revolution for it to happen. So that the possible headset could arrive in middle of this gen. Otherwise it would only be possible at the end of this series generation and there is no point in that.
I also don’t think that super resolution could help out here. Because series S is already struggling and Super resolution is required to save series S itself.
Offcourse, miracle could happen and in next two years AMD may have the same series S performance in a 15 watt TDP SoC. But that’s highly unlikely to happen. That’s like 1/3 or 1/4 of power targets.
It is disappointing but we need to look for other solutions now.
Maybe xbox or xbox studios in particular could support other handhelds on market and give us the experience of a true Gamepass + Xbox on an handheld experience.
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Or we can do a Xbox One portable that’s half the power of the Series S. Plays Xbox One games natively better than Xbox One, and can receive next gen patches / ports.
Also has fps boost for certain Xbox One games, same as Series S.
It’ll be a test of waters and a stop gap till the real Series S powered successor.
Steam deck is already doing that… So you have your portable already… Just need Gamepass on it now
Steam Deck plays Xbox One games natively? 
I want a portable to play Warzone, Halo, newest COD, and all the Gamepass titles.
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Not native xbox apps… There PC ports I mean
Installing Windows 11 sounds like a pain in the ass and probably mess up the battery life.
A portable 2-3x stronger than Xbox One with same tech as Series console has bigger mass appeal than Steam Deck.
More powerful. Bigger library of native games. More AAA third party games support. Gamepass. Xcloud ready. 1080p screen. VRR and/or HDR support.
*Chef’s kiss.
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Day one for me
But that console can’t be a reality unfortunately… Even steam deck is just a 720p version of PS4.
Streaming or handheld PC is the only option
One more thing is possible, third SKU in series consoles. A native 720p version of series S console with at max 12 CUs
But unsure about it because it could add problem of having multiple sku. That’s why handheld PC is a better route.
It would be day one for everyone… But that day will never arrive this gen unfortunately
And how many money would Microsoft lose on it? Keep in mind that even Steam is heavily subsidizing Steam Deck and we have yet to see how the market will react to it. Not to mention with all these shortages going we have to deal with production capacity too. Series S, Series X. For some other portable we will have to split Series S yields into 2.