The biggest difference between then and now is that the switch was the first handheld that could reasonably play (some) full scale open world console games. Any handheld trying to compete before that effectively needed games specifically developed for it with limited scope. There wasn’t really the vibrant PC indie scene for easy ports to low spec hardware either, and the Switch was also the first to really court those.
These handheld PCs are pretty much the first time there’s competition with a big library to be a real alternative. Before now, it would have also taken partnering with studios to convince them to port games to your device.
The biggest difference between then and now is that the switch was the first handheld that could reasonably play (some) full scale open world console games. Any handheld trying to compete before that effectively needed games specifically developed for it with limited scope. There wasn’t really the vibrant PC indie scene for easy ports to low spec hardware either, and the Switch was also the first to really court those.
These handheld PCs are pretty much the first time there’s competition with a big library to be a real alternative. Before now, it would have also taken partnering with studios to convince them to port games to your device.