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Dissatisfied with gaming handheld market: YouTuber makes his own from old Lenovo Yoga laptop

YouTuber builds DIY ultrawide gaming handheld from old Lenovo Yoga laptop
YouTuber engineers ultrawide gaming handheld “DS Deck” from old Lenovo Yoga Laptop (Image source: Marcin Plaza)
YouTuber Marcin Plaza has once again spent the last three months working on a very exciting project. Fans of DIY engineering projects will not be disappointed with his latest video. Marcin was dissatisfied with the current gaming handheld market, so he built his own from an old Lenovo Yoga laptop. He also designed the controller from scratch using an Arduino Pro Micro.

Once again, DIY YouTuber Marcin Plaza presents a new very exciting project with a custom-made ultrawide gaming handheld. Marcin was dissatisfied with the gaming handheld market, and he doesn't like classic gaming controllers either, but preferring mouse input instead. So he embarked on a quest for a DIY handheld.

But Marcin had no idea at the time how complex the project would be, even more so than his previous one, when he fitted a mechanical keyboard to his Lenovo Yoga laptop. After all, Marcin was using the same Yoga laptop he bought for $50 with a cracked screen because he already had experience with the motherboard. Even so, the project took him three months to complete.

12.7-inch ultrawide display with very nice specs:

The first hurdle was to find a suitable display that was small enough but had the same connector as the mainboard. After a long search, Marcin finally found a suitable display, but an adapter had to be used. Despite many other possible reasons why the display and mainboard would not work together, Marcin was delighted that it worked straight away.

The 12.7-inch ultrawide display offers impressive specifications: 2,880 x 864 pixel resolution (237 PPI), 120Hz refresh rate and 100% DCI-P3.

YouTuber Marcin on the Quest for a small display to fit into his DIY handheld (Image source: Marcin Plaza)
YouTuber Marcin on the Quest for a small display to fit into his DIY handheld (Image source: Marcin Plaza)

Custom Gaming Controller + eGPU option?

The next step was to design the case, which is very time-consuming for a completely custom-made project. Then Marcin had to install a keyboard with a trackpad, controller buttons and shoulder buttons like on a Nintendo DS. 

With no manufacturer offering anything like this, Marcin had no choice but to build his own Controller from scratch using an Arduino Pro Micro. The keys on his first keyboard project are anything but tactile. The shoulder buttons, however, are said to feel surprisingly good. 

The interior contains original parts from the Lenovo Yoga laptop, such as the mainboard, trackpad, battery and hinges. Marcin also added a webcam.

The Lenovo Yoga 730-13's motherboard offers at best a 2018 Intel quad-core processor, 16 GB of RAM and an Intel UHD 620 iGPU. As many games will not run smoothly with this, Marcin teases a portable 'DS Deck' eGPU project for the next video. The effect on battery life is questionable, though.

YouTuber builds ultrawide gaming handheld DS Deck from old Lenovo Yoga Laptop
Image source: Marcin Plaza

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2024 11 > Dissatisfied with gaming handheld market: YouTuber makes his own from old Lenovo Yoga laptop
Marvin Gollor, 2024-11-25 (Update: 2024-11-27)