My 2 favorite gaming handhelds are on sale for Black Friday — save 25% on Steam Deck
SAVE UP TO $142.25: With these Black Friday handheld gaming deals, you can grab the Steam Deck ($269.95) and Backbone One mobile gaming controller ($69.99) on sale. Buy them both and save $142.25.
Handheld gaming is becoming my favorite way to play games. Don't get me wrong, I'll always love booting up one of my consoles and marveling at their beauty on my big 4K TV, but the convenience of being able to play in bed whilst cozying up under the covers or while taking public transportation is an absolute game-changer.
My two favorite handhelds at the moment? The Backbone One and the Steam Deck. (Yes, I also love my Nintendo Switch, I just have other non-Switch games in the rotation at the moment.)
And great news, both are on sale for Black Friday. The Backbone One mobile gaming controller is currently sitting at $30 off on Amazon (just $69.99), and the Steam Deck is $112.25 off at Steam's storefront ($336.75). You could buy just one, but I think there's a case to be made for having both in your repertoire — and if you buy both, you'll save $146.25 total. Not too shabby!
If you have even a marginal interest in gaming, you've probably heard all the hype about the Steam Deck, including from Mashable's very own reviewers. Basically, it's a handheld gaming PC. That may sound too good to be true, but it really is like having a decently powerful gaming laptop in the palm of your hand. Being able to play games on Steam without having to open up my dusty MSI laptop (no shade to MSI, mine is just very old) is a joy, and I find that I have much less FOMO with new PC releases. Now I can play most of them without any compromises, even without a dedicated gaming PC, and that's huge.
The Backbone One, on the other hand, has flown under the radar compared to the Steam Deck, but it serves an extremely important purpose in my gaming accessory collection: Mobile gaming. Not a lot of people embrace mobile gaming, and I don't blame them considering the excessive microtransactions and dearth of exclusive titles. But, if you ever plan on dabbling in mobile gaming, I encourage you to try one out, mainly because playing with on-screen controls just sucks.
The Backbone One turns your phone into a controller of its own and makes playing games feel much more natural. Owning one has also made my Netflix subscription far more valuable because they already have a sizeable collection of games on the mobile app that you can download and play. I just recently played through Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on my iPhone using Netflix, and I was surprised by how much fun I had. Consider me a mobile gaming convert, I guess!
And if you haven't tapped your shopping budget yet, check out Mashable's guide to the season's best Black Friday gaming deals.
Topics Black Friday Gaming
Dylan Haas is a Lead Shopping Reporter for Mashable, where he covers all things gaming, laptops, fitness, and shopping events like Black Friday and Prime Day. Before joining the team at Mashable, Dylan received a B.A. in Communications from Pace University and contributed to publications like Paste Magazine, Bandsintown, and others following a brief stint as a marketing and management assistant in the music industry.
