What Are The Best Nintendo Switch 2 Alternatives?

Introduction

The Nintendo Switch 2 is right around the corner, and there’s a lot to get excited about. Not everybody is sold on the console, however, and the hefty price tag makes it a tough pill to swallow. 

Fortunately for us, we live in a much different atmosphere than in 2017 when the original Nintendo Switch launched, and there’s much more competition on the market. Now, we’re wondering if the Switch 2 is the best value for your money, or are there more cost-effective alternatives? Can you get a more powerful handheld for the same price? 

The Handheld PCs

Steam Deck

The most obvious competitor to the Nintendo Switch 2 is the ever-growing in popularity Steam Deck. Released back in 2022, Valve’s Steam Deck promised gamers a way to play all of their favourite Steam games portably. And they delivered - mostly. 

Whilst not every game on Steam is playable on the Steam Deck, there is a continuously growing list of games that you can play. Not just old games, but new releases such as Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remaster, Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, Split Fiction, and so much more. So why would you choose a Steam Deck over the new Nintendo Switch 2? 

Well, let’s start by looking at the games. There is a massive library of video games to choose from, readily available from the Steam Store page. Games that have yet to be announced (and I’ll be honest, I’ll eat my shoe if they end up on the Switch 2) for Nintendo’s next console, such as The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered and Baldur’s Gate 3. 

Now, you could argue that there are games available for the Switch 2 that won’t be available on the Steam Deck (Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza) – and I agree. But the library of games available on the Steam Deck massively outweighs the games that will be available at launch for the Switch 2. Even video games that will be available on both systems (Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, etc.) will no doubt be better off played on the Steam Deck, outside of power capabilities, price is one of the biggest hurdles. 

It’s no secret that Valve loves a sale on Steam, renowned for its seasonal sales, you’ll easily pick up a game on the cheap. I managed to pick up Left 4 Dead 2 during one of these sales for £2. 

But before I get distracted and start listing all of the amazing deals I’ve secured through Steam, let’s look at Hogwarts Legacy.

Hogwarts Legacy will be available at launch on the Nintendo Switch 2 for £49.99 and promises to come enhanced for the Switch 2, including Joy-Con 2 mouse sensor support. 

On Steam, you’re looking at the same price of £49.99, but with the Steam Deck coming with the benefit of being a portable gaming PC, we have sites like CDKeys, G2A and Kinguin as options to purchase product keys. We’ve written extensively about these sites to figure out if they’re legit and safe to use, with everything we’ve found to suggest they’re good to go. 

A quick look at CDKeys shows us that we can pick up Hogwarts Legacy for the low price of £9.99. That’s a massive 80% discount! You can purchase product keys from CDKeys, enter them on Steam and download. With the game's prices out of the way, let’s take a quick look at the Steam Deck options and specs.

The most comparable option to the Switch 2 would be the lower-end option of the Steam Deck (256GB). The Nintendo Switch 2 comes with 256GB of base storage and a 7.9” LCD screen. It does beat out the Steam Deck in certain aspects, such as a slightly bigger screen and a higher resolution output (the Switch 2 can output 1920x1080), and it’s hard to gauge the CPU, GPU and RAM of the Switch 2 as Nintendo never really indulge us with that information. 

However, the base Nintendo Switch 2 comes in at £395.99, and the lowest Steam Deck option is £349, making it significantly cheaper. Plus, the Steam Deck comes with a better battery life, with the Switch 2 only capable of 2-6.5 hours of gameplay compared to 2-8 hours on the Steam Deck. 

If you were to go for the mid-range Steam Deck, it’s a different ball game entirely. It comes in at £479, but you’re getting a HDR OLED screen which provides deeper, more vivid colours, a longer battery life with 3-12 hours of gameplay, a slightly bigger screen than the LCD Steam Deck and double the storage space. 

ROG Ally

ASUS’s answer to the growing popularity of the handheld PC market, the ROG Ally, has proved a more than capable alternative to the Steam Deck, which comes with benefits that the Steam Deck doesn’t have. Running on Windows rather than SteamOS, the ROG Ally has the massive benefit of having access to Xbox Game Pass, which is highly regarded as the best deal in gaming. 

For the low price of £9.99, you’ll gain access to a massive library of over 300 high-quality games that includes Avowed, Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, brand new games on day one, an EA Play membership, Riot Games benefits and more discounts than you can count. 

With the ROG Ally not tied to any brand like the Steam Deck, it has more than a few storefronts available to purchase games from. This means you can easily download Steam, Xbox, Epic Games Store and GOG directly onto your ROG Ally and access either your existing library or start one. With so many different options available to purchase your video games, we get a wider range of deals to choose from. Let’s take a quick look at Cyberpunk 2077. 

Much like the Steam Deck, the ROG Ally will allow you to purchase games from product key resellers. We managed to find Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition for £33.17 as opposed to the price of the game on Switch 2, which is £59.99. That’s a saving of 44%. 

With that being said, is the ROG Ally worth picking up over a Steam Deck and a Nintendo Switch 2? Let’s take a look at the specs. 

The ROG Ally is an impressive piece of kit with a much more robust operating system to work with than the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch 2. You get the option to use PC Game Pass (£9.99), which is an incredible deal, and if you already have Game Pass Ultimate, you already have access to PC Game Pass. 

The downsides are the price and the battery. It’s much more expensive than the Switch 2 and has a worse battery life. So whilst you can pick up games for much cheaper than games on the Nintendo Switch 2, you are paying almost double the price for the console. 

Lenovo Legion Go S & MSI Claw

These last two options are very similar to the ROG Ally in terms of operating systems and accessibility options (multiple storefronts, for example), so let’s cut straight to the exciting stuff and look at what’s inside these machines. 

Coming in very similar to the ROG Ally with a lower price point, the Lenovo Legion Go S is a solid handheld gaming PC. You can claim all of the benefits of multiple storefronts to purchase games from and have all of the other accessibility options available for a Windows device, provided you don’t purchase the SteamOS version. 

So, if the Nintendo Switch 2 purchase is looking less and less likely, the Steam Deck is too restrictive, and the ROG Ally is a little out of your price range, it’s worth looking into the Legion Go S.

On the opposite side, the MSI Claw is on the higher end of the price range. It features all of the benefits of the ROG Ally and Legion Go S but has much more impressive tech under the hood. That tech comes with a hefty price tag, making the Switch 2 look more appealing (in my opinion). 

The Cloud Streamers

Logitech G Cloud

Leaving the world of handheld gaming PCs for a moment, cloud streaming has become more and more popular over the last few years. There once was a time when we laughed at services like OnLive and systems like the Google Stadia, now we champion the Xbox Cloud Gaming service. One company that has jumped on the cloud streaming trend is Logitech. 

For the price of £329.99, you could get your hands on a system that has access to services like the Xbox Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA GeForce Now. These services require a separate subscription charge from £9.99/month. The benefit of streaming means you don’t actually run anything directly from the handheld, meaning no need for storage space, no need to get bogged down with confusing tech specs and a longer battery life. 

The Logitech G Cloud has a battery life of 12+ hours and a screen size of 7”, which is nothing to make fun of. Obviously, the biggest downside of cloud systems is that you need a constant connection to the internet. You won’t be able to play any video game without a strong internet connection. If this is an issue, maybe cloud streaming systems aren’t for you and won’t make a cheaper alternative to the Switch 2. However, if access to a decent internet connection isn’t an issue, they’re definitely worth looking into. 

PlayStation Portal

A new addition to the PlayStation family, the Portal is Sony’s answer to the growing cloud streaming market. Undercutting the price of the Logitech G Cloud and having a slightly bigger screen at 8”, you can pick up the PlayStation Portal for £199. 

However, the downside of the Portal is the fact that, well, it only works with PlayStation (shocker). Whereas the Logitech G Cloud has access to Xbox Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA GeForce Now, the PlayStation Portal only has access to PS Plus. For £13.49, you’ll get access to all of the cloud streaming games available on PS Plus Premium, including hundreds of PS5, PS3 and PS2 games. Whilst this system has been the cheapest we’ve looked at so far, we can go cheaper. 

The Phone Controllers

Finally, the last alternative to purchasing a Nintendo Switch 2 is actually sitting in your pocket, you’re holding it in your hand, or you’ve just remembered you’ve left it in a different room. It’s your smartphone. 

Your smartphone is more than capable of streaming video games, you can simply download the required apps and enjoy. I personally stream video games off my iPhone quite regularly via Xbox Cloud Gaming and have been continuously impressed. The first question that may spring to your mind is, “Do you have to use the touch screen?” and the simple answer is no. You can pick up products like the Backbone and the Razer Kishi (both priced at £99.99), which turn your phone into a portable gaming device. 

I’ve been using the Backbone for the past few months and absolutely love it; it’s comfortable to use, and I’ve never run into input delay. It works exactly like you think it would work, just by looking at it. Essentially, your phone becomes a screen with controllers on the side. Much like how the Switch 2 looks in handheld mode. If you’re interested at all in cloud streaming your video games, this would be the option I’d recommend unless you are against playing games on your phone and would prefer a separate device. 

Conclusion

As stated at the beginning of this article, we live in a different world now than when the original Nintendo Switch was released. With so many options available, if you don’t want the Switch 2, whether you’re not happy with the console price or the video game prices, you don’t need to pick it up if you want to experience Switch-style gaming. 

If you’re interested in saving even more money on video games, we’ve written extensively looking into gaming subscriptions and which one is worth the money and whether or not product key resellers like Kinguin are legit.