Why Gaming Handheld Prices Are Skyrocketing in 2026 (And What to Buy Before They Rise Again)
If you’ve been putting off buying a Steam Deck or an AYN handheld, the wait just cost you money. Valve raised Steam Deck OLED prices by as much as 46% this year, and AYN hit the Thor, Odin 3, and Odin 2 Portal with a second price increase on July 3. Both hikes trace back to the same problem: a global RAM and storage shortage that’s squeezing every handheld maker at once. If you’re shopping for a device right now, you need to know what’s happening and which handhelds are still worth buying before the next round of increases.
Steam Deck OLED Just Got a Lot More Expensive
Valve quietly raised Steam Deck OLED pricing across the board. The 512GB model went from $549 to $789. The 1TB model jumped from $649 to $949. That’s a 44% to 46% increase on a console that built its reputation on being the affordable handheld PC option.
Valve hasn’t put out a detailed public explanation, but the timing lines up exactly with the memory shortage hitting the rest of the industry. Steam Deck uses LPDDR5 memory, and that’s one of the component types getting squeezed hardest right now.
AYN’s Second Price Hike of the Year
AYN raised prices on the Thor, Odin 3, and Odin 2 Portal starting July 3, 2026. This is the second increase this year for these devices. Most models went up $10, but the Thor Max 1TB jumped $30.
| Device | Old Price | New Price |
|---|---|---|
| AYN Thor Lite | $249 | $259 |
| AYN Thor Base | $319 | $329 |
| AYN Thor Pro | $399 | $409 |
| AYN Thor Max 512GB | $469 | $479 |
| AYN Thor Max 1TB | $549 | $579 |
| Steam Deck OLED 512GB | $549 | $789 |
| Steam Deck OLED 1TB | $649 | $949 |
Odin 3 and Odin 2 Portal models all went up $10 across every configuration. Small compared to Steam Deck’s jump, but it’s still the second increase AYN has made this year, and it won’t be the last if the shortage continues.
Why This Is Happening to Every Handheld Maker
The root cause is a DRAM and NAND flash shortage that started hitting consumer electronics hard in mid-2026. DDR5 memory prices have roughly quadrupled in a few months. VRAM and GDDR memory are climbing too.
The demand driving this isn’t gaming. It’s AI. Data centers building out AI infrastructure are buying up memory chips at massive scale, and manufacturers are prioritizing those high-margin server orders over consumer devices like handhelds, laptops, and phones. Industry analysts don’t expect the shortage to ease until 2028 at the earliest.
That means every handheld that uses RAM (which is all of them) is exposed to the same cost pressure. Steam Deck and AYN moved first. ASUS ROG Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally line have mostly avoided US price hikes so far, but a price increase already hit Australia in February, and industry watchers expect the rest of the market to follow.
Which Handhelds Haven’t Been Hit Yet
A few devices are still holding their original pricing as of this writing:
ROG Ally and ROG Ally X pricing in the US hasn’t moved yet. Lenovo Legion Go 2 is also holding steady for now. Budget retro handhelds from Anbernic and Retroid have seen smaller, quieter increases rather than the dramatic jumps hitting Steam Deck and AYN, mostly because their component lists lean less heavily on the same high-end memory that’s in short supply.
That said, “hasn’t been hit yet” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Nothing about the shortage points to prices coming back down. If you want one of these devices at today’s price, today is the cheapest it’s going to get for a while.
Should You Buy Now or Wait?
If you were already planning to buy a Steam Deck OLED, the $789 and $949 prices are the new normal, not a temporary spike. Waiting for a price drop isn’t a realistic strategy right now. If budget is the priority, look at the standard LCD Steam Deck or a Retroid Pocket 5, both of which are still priced well below the OLED models.
If you’re set on an AYN device, buy before the next hike lands rather than after. AYN has already raised prices twice in 2026. A pattern like that tends to repeat.
If you haven’t committed to a specific device yet, ROG Ally and Legion Go 2 are your best bet for locking in a price before the shortage catches up to them too. Check current Steam Deck OLED pricing on Amazon to compare against official Valve pricing before you buy.
The Bottom Line
Gaming handhelds are getting more expensive because AI data centers are eating the world’s memory supply, not because the devices got better. Steam Deck OLED costs up to 46% more than it did earlier this year. AYN just raised prices for the second time in 2026. Every other maker is exposed to the same shortage, and it’s not expected to ease until 2028. If a handheld is already on your list, buying sooner beats buying later.