A new vision for portable Windows gaming

The PC gaming handheld market has really taken off since the Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally first showed up. Now we’ve got Lenovo Legion, MSI, and other brands all throwing their hats in the ring with their own approaches to portable PC gaming. The underlying concept is straightforward: jam a PC chip, a screen, speakers, and gamepad controls into a handheld device you can throw in your backpack, so you can have all the power you need to run your favorite PC games right in your hands.

Of course, the design has to stay fairly portable, and that’s where you start hitting trade-offs. Along comes the TECNO Pocket Go, an “AR” handheld and glasses combo that dares to rethink the entire formula. I’ve spent a few days playing around with it, and the Pocket Go is definitely asking the kinds of questions that could shape the future of these gaming handheld devices, even though the answers it provides to those questions aren’t on point yet.

When I first saw the TECNO Pocket Go, I thought it looked like a jumbo-sized Xbox controller, and that comparison is pretty spot-on. It’s definitely bigger and thicker than your everyday gamepad, but that’s because it crams an entire Windows PC, along with a battery and cooling system, into its body.

Despite its heft, it still lands at just 550 grams, which is notably lighter than some other handhelds like the ASUS ROG Ally X (~680 grams) and Steam Deck OLED (~650 grams). I’m guessing that’s because those devices also have to cram in a touchscreen, resulting in a slightly elongated shape, whereas the Pocket Go can keep a more traditional, if slightly bulkier, controller-like silhouette.

There’s also a large fan tucked inside, connected to three copper tubes for cooling. You’ll hear it spin up even if you’re not pushing the device to its limits, but I didn’t find it too distracting overall. TECNO has included two USB-C ports, a 3.5mm audio port, and a UHS-II microSD card reader, so there’s no shortage of connectivity.

In terms of looks, the plain black color scheme with neon green accents feels both understated and futuristic, and I can see it blending in nicely with most gaming setups. The removable back cover is also a neat touch, letting you swap out the battery without messing with any complicated screws or panels.

I’m glad that TECNO went with Hall effect analog sticks and triggers here since they’re usually more durable and help avoid stick drift. Naturally, you also get the usual ABXY buttons in an Xbox layout, which made me feel right at home the minute I started playing.

Unlike most gaming handhelds, the Pocket Go does not include a built-in screen. Instead, TECNO wants you to connect it via USB-C to a pair of AR glasses (officially dubbed AR Pocket Vision). TECNO calls them “AR,” but I’ll admit that name might raise your hopes in the wrong direction. There’s no actual blending of the real world with digital objects here (so no Pokémon running around your living room), nor is this a full VR immersion. It’s closer to wearing a mini projector rig that beams a virtual screen in front of your eyes.

Style-wise, these glasses rock a futuristic visor look. They don’t try to pass as normal eyewear, and I think that makes them look even cooler. They weren’t too heavy on my face, and I could wear them for a decent stretch before feeling any pressure. My wife, however, felt that they pressed down on her temples, so comfort might vary from person to person.

I haven’t really used other AR glasses so I’m not sure how other devices handle it, but the Pocket Vision glasses don’t fully block out the outside world. In fact, they let in quite a bit of your surroundings (maybe that explains why TECNO decided to label them AR…).

For me, it was a bit jarring at first, but once I got into the game, I stopped noticing it so much. The downside is that it’s not particularly immersive if you’re craving a theatre-like experience that shuts out all distractions. Personally, I would’ve liked a bit more of that cocooned feeling when I’m gaming, but hey, at least I could fetch a snack without removing them.

Inside the AR Pocket Vision, there are two 0.71-inch micro OLED screens that deliver 1080p resolution at 60Hz, and you can adjust each lens with myopic adjustment wheels so you can dial in your optical prescription if you’re nearsighted.

The glasses can deliver a 215-inch screen equivalent viewed from 6 meters away. To me, it sounded like I was about to dive into my own private IMAX, but the 215-inch screen size equivalent is true only if you’re sitting 6 meters — or basically across a large hall — from a screen. In practice, I’d say the image feels more like sitting a couple of feet away from my 27-inch desktop monitor.

On the plus side, the colors are vibrant and punchy (thanks, OLED!), and the text is sharp enough that reading in-game menus or navigating the Windows UI never gave me a headache. The glasses also feature a pair of built-in speakers, but they leak a lot of audio into your surroundings, and the sound quality isn’t all that impressive either.

The promo material TECNO provided also talks about some sort of vibration feedback in the glasses to boost immersion, but I honestly didn’t feel any buzzing while using them. I’m guessing it might be subtle, or maybe it just didn’t trigger in the games I tried.

Lastly, TECNO mentions that the glasses use a six-axis gyroscope to track head movements. Typically, head tracking can help AR devices pin virtual screens in a fixed spot in the real world or let you look around a virtual environment by simply moving your head. But I’m not entirely sure what TECNO is doing with that feature here because the Pocket Vision’s screen just goes wherever my head goes, anyway.

Even in games, I couldn’t get my head movements to control the camera POV or let me look around. Maybe there’s room for adding something like that in the future.

The Pocket Go uses an AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS APU, which is an 8-core processor normally found in notebook PCs. You can pair that with either 16GB or 32GB of LPDDR5-6400 RAM and storage options going up to 1TB of PCIe Gen4 SSD. There’s also a Radeon 780M iGPU baked into the chip. Spec-wise, it sits somewhere in the same ballpark as the AMD Z1 Extreme found in the ROG Ally X and Steam Deck, although the Z1 Extreme is specifically tuned for handheld gaming devices.

I’m no expert on PC hardware, but I ran the Cyberpunk 2077 in-game benchmark at 1080p with High texture quality, and the Pocket Go returned an average FPS of less than 30fps. In terms of real-world performance, I was more than happy with how smoothly the Pocket Go could run games like EA FC 24 and Forza Horizon 5. If you’re hoping to crank out 120FPS in 4K on Cyberpunk 2077, that’s not happening.

The Pocket Go’s cooling fan revs up almost as soon as I launch a game, and it does a respectable job of keeping things cool. While playing FC 24, the Pocket Go got warm to the touch after about 20 minutes — no surprise there — but after that initial heat-up, it seemed to stay at that level without ever getting uncomfortably hot. Gameplay-wise, I didn’t notice any significant performance drops during long sessions. Occasionally, I did see a few frame dips during graphically intense cutscenes, but it wasn’t bad enough to spoil the fun.

I had a similar experience with Forza Horizon 5. While it wasn’t on the highest graphics preset, everything still looked great, and the controls felt responsive. Cyberpunk 2077, on the other hand, seemed to stress the hardware the most, with a bit of choppiness whenever I was driving through dense city areas or caught up in frenetic combat.

Since the Pocket Go runs on Windows 11, it’s basically a shrunken-down PC that can run any PC game using gaming platforms like Steam, Epic Games, EA Play, etc. And if you’re really old-school, there’s nothing stopping you from manually installing all sorts of Windows games or apps. It’s also worth noting that you don’t have to rely on the AR glasses at all. You can plug the Pocket Go into a regular monitor via either USB-C port, connect a keyboard/mouse, and use it like a regular Windows PC.

The Pocket Go ships with a 50Wh battery, and while that’s not too shabby on paper, gaming can drain it pretty fast. I started a session of FC 24 at full charge, played for about 65 minutes total, and by that point, the battery was down to below 10%. The performance took a noticeable dive only after the battery dropped below 15%, which basically forced me to plug in.

The good news is you can play while charging, thanks to the dual USB-C ports. The included 65W charging brick does a decent job of refueling the Pocket Go in about 90 minutes if you’re not using it. But if you’re playing and charging simultaneously, the battery will still trickle down — just at a slower rate.

One thing I’ve come to appreciate about the whole “handheld plus AR glasses” concept is just how ergonomic it can be compared to devices that have a built-in screen. With the AR glasses, you’re not constantly holding a screen in front of your face. Instead, you can kick back with your neck and hands in a comfortable position — sit upright, lay down — and have a gigantic display beamed right into your field of view.

Plus, without a screen taking up precious space and weight, TECNO can technically put in beefier internals or a bigger battery than other handhelds can afford.

Another good thing is that the Pocket Vision AR glasses can be connected to devices other than the Pocket Go. Think smartphones, a Nintendo Switch, or another PC — basically anything with a compatible USB-C video output. I tried hooking them up to my Samsung phone and ended up with a large display to binge on YouTube during a train ride.

Navigating Windows without a touchscreen is… not fun

The biggest caveat with going screenless is that, well, you don’t have a touchscreen for those times when you’d usually just tap the screen to navigate menus. On top of that, Windows was never really designed for gamepad-only control. TECNO’s tried to smooth this over with custom button mappings, letting you move the cursor and interact with the UI, but it can feel clunky in practice. Sometimes, the buttons do exactly what they’re supposed to; sometimes, they don’t.

There’s also TECNO’s Pocket Box software, which aims to make Windows more console-like, but it’s still a little rough around the edges. I had to use a wireless keyboard and mouse just to connect the Pocket Go to Wi-Fi and install Steam. For actually playing games, the built-in controls are fine, but if you’re hoping to do anything else, a separate keyboard and mouse are almost mandatory. I wish TECNO had squeezed a small touchpad onto the controller’s top surface, given all that extra real estate.

Being different is good, but being better is… better

You’d think ditching the built-in screen might free up space for a massive battery, but sadly, TECNO only packed a 50Wh battery into the Pocket Go, which is only good for an hour of gaming. Granted, that’s roughly on par with other handheld PCs — but those devices also fit in a display. ASUS already managed to fit in an 80Wh battery in the ROG Ally X, so it’s a missed opportunity to differentiate the Pocket Go by slapping in a bigger battery.

Finally, there’s the question of cost. Right now, you can back the Pocket Go plus Vision Glasses bundle on Kickstarter starting at about $869, which gives you 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. There’s also a $1,049 option with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Those prices are already higher than those of other handhelds like the ROG Ally X ($799.99 at Best Buy) or the Steam Deck OLED ($549 at Manufacturer site).

However, TECNO claims that once the Kickstarter ends, the retail price could soar to $1,699 for the bundle, which will make the Pocket Go tough to recommend. You could just pick up any other gaming handheld that does include a built-in touchscreen and throw in a pair of AR glasses for a similar “big-screen” experience on the go, and it’ll still cost much less than $1,500.

As someone who hasn’t touched a portable gaming handheld regularly since my PSP days 15 years ago, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the TECNO Pocket Go. I’ve never really been tempted by the idea of a PC gaming handheld because gaming on tiny screens just doesn’t appeal to me. But after spending time with the Pocket Go, I have to admit — it’s caught my attention.

What makes the Pocket Go truly stand out is the big-screen experience. Whether it’s gaming, multimedia consumption, or even sneaking in some work, the combination of the Pocket Go and the Pocket Vision glasses offers a visual experience other handhelds can’t touch. Sure, you could technically hook up similar AR glasses to other gaming handhelds, but that’s an additional cost on top of the already high price of those devices.

There’s also something inherently appealing about the fact that you’re essentially getting two separate gadgets. The Pocket Go and the Pocket Vision glasses can both be used independently, serving different purposes beyond just gaming together.

That said, the Pocket Go’s screenless design does come with its own set of compromises. The most glaring one is navigating Windows with a gamepad, which is as clunky as it sounds. With no built-in screen, it should also have packed a much larger battery to stand out from its competitors.

The TECNO Pocket Go is an ambitious first attempt at rethinking the gaming handheld. It solves some key pain points, offers great flexibility, and shows TECNO’s willingness to innovate. But like many first-gen products, it might not be the wisest purchase just yet, especially at its potential retail price.

Still, I’m excited to see what TECNO could do with a second iteration of the Pocket Go. If the company can iron out the rough edges and offer more practical benefits to justify its unique form factor, it might redefine what we expect from gaming handhelds in the future.