Been thinking about getting a steam deck. Talk me in or out of it. I’ve got a desktop, but thinking something handheld would be good when I want to sit on the couch. What are your favorite and least favorite things about your steam deck?
Been thinking about getting a steam deck. Talk me in or out of it. I’ve got a desktop, but thinking something handheld would be good when I want to sit on the couch. What are your favorite and least favorite things about your steam deck?
I have to preface this with the fact when I read the announcement for the deck, as a primary linux gamer, I could not believe my eyes and felt as if whoever came up with the specifications had me specifically as the target audience, so I might be a little bit biased. With that said:
Positives:
There are relatively very few things you can’t do if you are dedicated enough, meaning games/software you can install or devices you can plug in, etc. That comes with the domain of being a pc based on foss software, but it has almost no competition on the cheap, powerful, affordable and well supported handheld space.
Trackpads. The fact that there are multiple pc-handhelds that have come out and continue to do so, with almost none of them including them is mind-boggling to me. They can provide tons of input types, and I’d consider most games developed for mouse/keyboard to be nearly unplayable without them.
It’s perfect for many types of games that you may own on steam/gog/itch that you might not want to play on a desktop. For example, I would never sit on my desk to play Celelste or Ori and other platformers, but they were a delight on the deck. In effect it opened up new genres for me, given that I’d never get, for example, a switch.
Emulation powerhouse. Given the potential to play almost everything that can be emulated, combined with the ease of installation and the possibility of cloud saves, on a handheld, makes it a one stop shop for you emulation needs.
Negatives:
On the hardware side:
I got the noisy delta fan (which I hear may not necessarily be an issue on currently shipped devices), and it can get a bit grating if you play in a silent room.
The device, being on the bulky side, can get tiring on my wrists in certain positions, mostly when I hold it up on the same level or above my head.
The battery can be short for demanding games, but that’s physics for you.
On the software:
A few annoyances left and right, with minor bugs, and things misbehaving. I’ve had it for over a year now and most of my original issues have been fixed. Now we’re waiting for the long-awaited version 3.5 to fix some stuff, and to add proper language support for non-english on the desktop environment side, which I consider a pretty glaring omission.