Yes, but most aren't able to be used like a laptop/desktop PC. You can't install any software from outside the official repository on a Xbox or Playstation whereas the Steam Deck is just a handheld laptop with Linux as the OS.
Everyone in the replies here is sleeping on the raw emulation power of most people's phone, doubly so if you're willing to bt sync a controller to it. I've got a significant percentage of the SNES and PS1 libraries playable on mine.
i agree with you, figuring useful and fun UI using touch and swipes is a real challenge. but ive never seen someone whip out a bluetooth joypad for their phone in public.
Sega Dreamcast. It was ahead of its time, at the time. GD-ROM (1.2Gigs of data in an era of CD), Dual pressure sensitive triggers, modem, ethernet adapter. Even the memory card was a portable minigame device.
It was the last console of extremely unique games, most of which were absolute bangers. Rez is still one of my absolute favorite games of all time. Space channel 5, crazy taxi, jet set radio, shenmue, seaman, chu chu rocket, power stone, techromancer, and many many many others.
I couldn't convince my parents to buy me one when I was younger.
Now I'm an adult and the Mrs. Won't let me buy one either
EDIT: it's a joke people. I just don't have a TV that will connect to one and I have way more pressing money matters on my hands than buying very old consoles and trying to make them work. Seriously though, it looked wicked when it came out, well ahead of its time, then seemed to die off despite being (at least on paper) one of the best consoles available. RIP Sega consoles.
I think I'm in the minority, but PS3. It was the most powerful console of its time, it released The Last of Us, Uncharted, Gran Turismo and a ton of other classics and the PSN was free to use.
It also had my favorite game of all time on it - Littlebigplanet 2. The custom levels people made were insane.
I mean, you can't neglect the prior 2 PlayStation generations. Gran Turismo started on ps1 with the first two, and the next two on PS2. Besides that, great entries like the first three Spyro games, Jak and Dexter, Ratchet and Clank... And let's not forget just home much freaking staying power the PS2 had! Was still getting new games alongside Wii, Xbox 360, even the PS3
That's fair about the staying power, but I prefer playing Multiplayer so the PS2 and 1 never hit the same (I did play them a lot as well though - I had the OG Gran Turismo, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, Duke Nukem: Time to Kill, Metal Gear Solid and a bunch of others for PS1, and I had NFS: Underground 2, Gran Turismo: A-Spec, Medal of Honor: Frontline and a bunch of others for PS2 as well). I do respect how well they did, but I really enjoy multiplayer (and the PS2 multiplayer didn't do it for me)
GameCube. Because I have fond memories of it in my childhood. I prefer it over PS2 because it properly supports 4 player games (without any extra gadgets).
Smash Bros. Mario Kart. TimeSplitters. All excellent couch multiplayer games. Even Metroid Prime 2 had quite fun multiplayer.
Really depends on your definition of best. I think the PS2 and the Xbox 360 were the last great consoles, they're the best in my book but they obviously aren't too common anymore.
I would say the Xbox 360, tho I never really owned one. I feel it was maybe the most polished modern console, the most friendliest, worked offline (obviously), was easy to hack and MS didn't really made a fuss about it. an x360 was accessible for everyone, even for the less fortunate peeps around here central-eastern and eastern europe. hacked or not, ms had a nice market here and the xbox brand was pretty stable.
The PS2, the og Xbox (though it really was a PC), the Game Cube, Wii, Wii U, and of course the 8 and 16 bit era consoles are also great candidates one by one.
The one you enjoy most. In my childhood it was NES, SNES, Gameboy. When got older it was the XBOX then the 360. I enjoyed the Wii as a yound adult for the party factor. My kid got gifted a switch from grandparents and we enjoy it as a whole family. We got the kiddo a PS5 last year because they love Spiderman. That works really well and has about every game I'd want to play. I also stream games from my PC to my TV. I'm spoiled for choice, I don't think any one of them is significantly better than the other. Consoles do have a big price edge these days thanks to GPU price gouging.