Gaming laptops have historically presented a tough balancing act, often falling short on portability, raw power, or battery longevity. While recent models strive for equilibrium, the advent of powerful gaming handhelds like the Xbox Ally X has starkly exposed these inherent compromises.
The Asus Xbox Ally X isn’t the first, nor necessarily the top gaming handheld (many still favor the Steam Deck OLED), but my recent experience reviewing it, coupled with testing the Razer Blade 14 gaming laptop, truly underscored the strengths and weaknesses of both portable gaming form factors.
Battery life is perhaps the most glaring difference, and where laptops could significantly improve by taking cues from handhelds. During standardized PCMark 10 gaming tests, the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X impressively lasted just under three hours. While this might not seem extraordinary, it’s over an hour more than any gaming laptop we’ve tested under identical conditions, often tripling what most laptops achieve. (Of course, both device types can extend battery life with optimized settings, but these are based on our consistent benchmarks). A visual comparison of battery performance further illustrates this point.
Naturally, a critical distinction is the sheer graphical power. Most gaming laptops, including the Razer Blade 14 with its formidable RTX 5070 GPU (drawing over 100W), boast significantly faster performance than even the most potent handhelds. For instance, the Blade 14 achieves an average of 97 frames per second in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with Ultra settings. In stark contrast, the Xbox Ally X’s Radeon 890M GPU peaks at 35W, managing only 49 frames per second at 1080p on medium settings, and relies heavily on FSR upscaling (balanced) to boost its effective resolution. Another graphic showcases the Cyberpunk benchmark results for both devices.
While a gaming laptop with a comparable GPU would theoretically offer better battery life, the issue extends beyond just gaming; non-gaming battery consumption is also a significant concern. For everyday desktop use, the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X achieved an astounding 17 hours and nine minutes in PCMark 10’s Office battery test. This dwarfs the best gaming laptop performance in the same test – the impressive Razer Blade 16, which managed eight hours and 28 minutes. Even the more compact Razer Blade 14 lagged significantly behind, lasting only four hours and 24 minutes.
Part of this battery predicament stems from the design philosophy of certain laptops. The Razer Blade 14, for instance, sacrifices battery capacity (61.6Wh compared to the Xbox Ally X’s 80Wh) for its remarkably thin and light chassis, which also houses a powerful discrete GPU. This compromise is understandable but highlights a broader trend: even larger, more robust gaming laptops often feature only moderately sized batteries, frequently falling short of the 160Wh airline limit. While some limitations might be flight-related, many manufacturers simply aren’t maximizing available battery space. For the Blade 14, a simple increase in thickness and an additional 100-200g of weight to accommodate an 80-100Wh battery could dramatically enhance its overall usability by doubling its battery life. Gaming handhelds have demonstrated that users are willing to tolerate a slightly bulkier device if it delivers superior performance and endurance. A ‘chonkier’ Blade 14, in my opinion, would be a runaway success. This isn’t just a Razer issue either; similar models, like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025), also struggled with poor battery performance.
Another significant advantage for gaming handhelds stems from their use of integrated graphics, unlike most gaming laptops that rely on discrete GPUs. The Xbox Ally X, for instance, features an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme CPU with an integrated Radeon 890M GPU. The Razer Blade 14, however, combines an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU with an integrated Radeon 880M GPU and a separate Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 laptop GPU. This hybrid setup enables gaming laptops like the Blade 14 to achieve vastly superior game-processing power, as evidenced in the performance benchmarks.
Yet, this pursuit of both raw power and extended battery life necessitates a constant switching between the discrete and integrated GPUs. This handoff process on gaming laptops is often far from seamless, significantly impacting the user experience. While Windows automates this switching, ensuring the appropriate GPU is utilized when launching a game, the transition itself can be jarring. It often results in noticeable pauses, a blank screen, program errors, window resizing, and overall disruption to your workflow. Furthermore, for applications like Photoshop that leverage GPU acceleration, or for less demanding games that run perfectly well on integrated graphics, users are forced to manually configure which GPU to employ for each individual application. In stark contrast, a system with a single, capable integrated GPU offers a truly ‘it just works’ experience.
Of course, gaming laptops retain many advantages, including larger displays, impressive performance, and the inherent utility of a built-in keyboard and trackpad, ensuring they still hold a vital place in the market. Some of their current drawbacks are even software-related, with the Xbox Ally X benefiting from its optimized Windows environment for better battery life. However, when viewed purely as dedicated portable gaming devices, they can sometimes feel like they’re missing that ‘something extra’.
This context highlights the profound significance of the impending Intel-Nvidia collaboration, which promises to integrate Nvidia graphics directly into Intel CPUs. This partnership isn’t just about Intel finally achieving integrated GPU performance comparable to AMD’s (which currently powers the latest Xbox, PlayStation, and many handhelds). More importantly, it heralds a future where gaming laptops can potentially shed the cumbersome, problematic GPU switching technology, streamlining the user experience.
Developing such advanced integrated chips is no trivial feat. AMD already offers a remarkably powerful integrated GPU in its Ryzen AI 9 390 Max chip (codenamed Strix Halo), featured in the Asus ROG Flow Z13 (2025). This chip can achieve over 50 frames per second in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with high settings. However, its limited adoption across devices points to the challenges and expense involved in its production.
Nevertheless, if this heralds an intensified competition between AMD and the Intel/Nvidia alliance to develop even more potent integrated GPUs for future gaming laptops and handhelds, the outlook for both categories is incredibly promising. Perhaps, next time, gaming laptops will also come equipped with substantially larger batteries. For up-to-date recommendations on a variety of gaming handhelds and laptops, from budget-friendly options to high-end models, comprehensive guides are available.