Microsoft's Xbox boss upgrades rumoured gaming handheld device from a hope to an 'expectation' but says it's years away from release

pcgamer.com:

It's official. Microsoft has upgraded its stance on the rumoured Xbox handheld gaming console from "we should" have one back in June to we're planning one. The catch? It's years away.

Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer told Bloomberg on Tuesday that «the expectation is that we would do something” when it comes to a handheld gaming device. Bloomberg says that Microsoft is working on prototypes and researching the market, but that Spencer says any retail device is still a few years out.

“Longer term, I love us building devices,” Spencer told Bloomberg, “and I think our team could do some real innovative work, but we want to be informed by learning and what’s happening now.”

Back in June, Spencer said, „when I look at Steam Deck and the ROG and my Legion Go, I'm a big fan of that space.“ Even earlier in March he said, „I want my Lenovo Legion Go to feel like an Xbox.“

So, while this latest statement is not an absolute guarantee that Microsoft will actually release a gaming handset, the Xbox chief has clearly been incubating the idea for some time and sees a major opportunity in that market.

Beyond that, the specifics are few and far between. But a launch in a few year's time would give Microsoft all kinds of possibilities on the hardware side. AMD has only just launched its latest Strix Point APU which is now appearing in PC-based handhelds, for instance.

But one of the disappointments of that chip is that it's based on TSMC's N4 silicon node rather than the latest N3 technology, which somewhat limits the performance that can be crammed into small form factors.

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

An Xbox handheld launch in a few years would likely allow the device to be based on N3 technology or perhaps even TSMC's N2 node. Suddenly, significantly more performance and maybe even better battery life will be possible.

Of course, it's not just AMD that Microsoft could call on to power the device. Despite Intel's