Why My Desktop PC Is Actually a Handheld

July 24, 2026

I’ve been a Mac user for a long time. But that started to shift once I got serious about game development.

Back in college, we used iMacs for all of our design classes and I was slowly won over by their quality and reliability. As a die-hard Windows user growing up, I finally relented and got a MacBook for my personal computer. 15 years later, I’m still firmly in the Mac landscape.

Then, a couple years ago, my friends all pulled together to gift me a ROG Ally for my birthday. It had been a long time since I’d had a Windows computer, and diving back into that world has been eye-opening as a game developer.

At first, the Ally was just a way to play some games with friends (PC-only titles like REPO, Core Keeper, and Far Far West). But the more I got into modern games, it dawned on me that porting the mobile version of Wildwood to desktop would take more than just redoing the interface and adding keyboard & mouse support. It needed a reimagining.

Desktop games are built around a different set of expectations than mobile games. Mobile games are typically played in between events (commuting, waiting, etc.), while desktop games are the event. The player is dedicating their time and attention to the game, resulting in increased space for things like gameplay depth, increased play session time, and world-building.

As development continued, I increasingly reached for the Ally for testing new features in Wildwood. It’s now comfortably docked on my desk and hooked up to an input switcher. I can easily swap between using my Mac and the Ally with the press of a button when I need to.

And the more I use the Ally in this format, the more I’m convinced: this IS the future of desktop PCs… at least for me.

I can’t wrap my head around the redundancy of having a Mac and a Windows laptop, but having a Mac laptop and a Windows handheld that can also be a desktop? Now that’s a setup I can get behind! Especially for game development.

I’m still a Mac fan, and it’s my preferred environment for doing development and design work.

But for games at home and on the go? The Ally wins.