I have doubts that it would work well on the majority of older phones. I would think that the lack of a sizable memory pool would really be a hindrance to performance, let alone performing well for games. Hell, even on the Steam Deck, I have had to use Cryo tools to increase the page file to expand available memory in a couple of games to avoid crashing problems.
As for retro gaming, there are countless emulators already available on Android that work quite well. I can even play PS2 games on my phone surprisingly well.
There are tons of modern indie games that would work great on a phone. Modern does not mean performance hog necessarily. Silksong would be great. I bet a lot of people would love Stardew Valley on mobile. Hades II would probably be good. There are tons that would be amazing.
I play a good amount of games from my Steam library on my Android phone. A Snapdragon 8 elite phone. Pretty much things start becoming viable for old indie games on the Snapdragon 865 and then for bigger PS4 era PC games, 8 Gen 2 is about where it becomes viable. Then 8 Elite and Elite Gen 5 , solid performance but not great compatibility because of immature graphics drivers
One thing is that small phone OLED displays look good at 540-720p. Real nice for games that support 21:9
Oh for sure, but I don’t think phones that have Snapdragon 865 or higher/equivalent aren’t exactly the norm for older phones people just have lying around in a drawer. Regardless, ARM support for SteamOS is great news, IMO. Really opens up a lot of possibilities for stronger phones.
Imagine taking an old phone out of the junk drawer and suddenly having another Steam Deck.
Even really old smartphones would work as a portable retro console.
I have doubts that it would work well on the majority of older phones. I would think that the lack of a sizable memory pool would really be a hindrance to performance, let alone performing well for games. Hell, even on the Steam Deck, I have had to use Cryo tools to increase the page file to expand available memory in a couple of games to avoid crashing problems.
As for retro gaming, there are countless emulators already available on Android that work quite well. I can even play PS2 games on my phone surprisingly well.
There are tons of modern indie games that would work great on a phone. Modern does not mean performance hog necessarily. Silksong would be great. I bet a lot of people would love Stardew Valley on mobile. Hades II would probably be good. There are tons that would be amazing.
I play a good amount of games from my Steam library on my Android phone. A Snapdragon 8 elite phone. Pretty much things start becoming viable for old indie games on the Snapdragon 865 and then for bigger PS4 era PC games, 8 Gen 2 is about where it becomes viable. Then 8 Elite and Elite Gen 5 , solid performance but not great compatibility because of immature graphics drivers
One thing is that small phone OLED displays look good at 540-720p. Real nice for games that support 21:9
Oh for sure, but I don’t think phones that have Snapdragon 865 or higher/equivalent aren’t exactly the norm for older phones people just have lying around in a drawer. Regardless, ARM support for SteamOS is great news, IMO. Really opens up a lot of possibilities for stronger phones.
The 865 is 6 years old. That is very much old phone in a drawer category.