Since Steam Deck arrived on the scene just two years ago, it’s found itself up against countless competitors made by mainstream manufacturers and comparatively bitesize brands alike. Now, yet another company fancies a go at crafting its own handheld PC but it’s probably one of the last you’d expect to jump into the ring. Welcome to the party, Antec.
As you’ll glean from reading our Steam Deck OLED review, it’ll take something special to truly challenge Valve’s handheld. The likes of ROG Ally and Legion Go have proven worthy alternatives but their advantages come with a higher cost. Antec doesn’t appear to deviate from this strategy, but it at least looks more poised to deliver a compelling system than MSI Claw.
According to The Liberty Times, Antec has entered a partnership with handheld manufacturer Ayaneo to craft its own device: Core HS. However, this isn’t a bespoke design, and is instead an Ayaneo Slide in all but name. Given the positive reception Slide received upon its initial release, we can only hope that this move will help increase worldwide availability and reduce costs.
We can expect to see Core HS make it to store shelves come June and July of this year. The handheld will reportedly target the $600-900 price range, suggesting that Antec will release multiple configurations. How it’ll stack up against the likes of the ROG Ally X, though, is something we’ll need to wait in order to find out.
With AMD Zen 5 core and RDNA 3.5 graphics architectures just around the corner, the handheld market is about to get a big shakeup. It’s unlikely that their advent will prompt an imminent coming of the Steam Deck 2, but devices from competitors should at the very least put pressure on Valve to make a move.