Microsoft allegedly puts development of Xbox handheld on hold
Microsoft is said to have been working on an Xbox handheld as a competitor to Steam Deck for some time. According to a report, development has now been paused.
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Microsoft has paused the development of its own Xbox handheld. This was reported by WindowsCentral magazine, which has already written several times about the as yet unannounced device. Microsoft intends to continue the development of the Steam Deck competitor at a later date.
According to WindowsCentral, the background to the decision is the software: before Microsoft launches its own hardware on the market, the company wants to better optimize the Windows software for use on handheld PCs, according to the report. This would also be important because Valve is currently preparing its SteamOS for independent devices.
SteamOS with performance advantages
The Legion Go S handheld PC from Lenovo is the first device that can be officially operated with SteamOS or Windows. It can be purchased in two different versions, but SteamOS can also be retrofitted to the Windows version. A comparative test by YouTuber Dave2D, which is currently making waves, shows significant performance advantages of SteamOS over Windows.
On identical hardware, games run on the SteamOS version with significantly better frame rates: "Cyberpunk 2077" achieves around 59 FPS on SteamOS, while it only achieves 46 FPS on Windows – SteamOS alone therefore offers a performance increase of almost 30 percent. In other games tested, the performance gap is smaller, and further tests need to confirm the differences.
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In any case, Microsoft should work on conserving resources on handheld PCs and thus free up more performance for games – otherwise, SteamOS could establish itself as the standard solution for such devices. It therefore seems sensible to concentrate on software improvements first.
According to WindowsCentral, the Xbox handheld that has been put on hold is not the cooperation with Asus that was announced a few weeks ago. The Asus device, code-named Kennan, will therefore still be launched this year.
(dahe)
