It's just too darn big for its own use case in my opinion. I don't want to bring such a behemoth around with me and when I'm not away from home I have my desktop which I don't have to hold up to use. For the occasional on the go gaming I find things such as those tiny retro gaming handhelds far more practical.
Which have a similar phenomenon of bringing old games back to life due to the limited specs of such devices. The Retroid pockets and Anbernics are the best at this in my opinion.
Do you mean for the use cases in the article or in general? It certainly is big but it is a remarkable device and works exceptionally well. I'm shocked how well Valve did (just in general, they nailed it and are executing well). I bring the SD a bunch of places, quick resume is awesome, the screen is great, powering games isn't an issue. I suspect it may get smaller later but even the Switch now seems too small and there are lots of add-ons to extend it so your hands aren't cramped up.
The use case of playing a game outside the house. I find that even the switch lite to be far too big for this, but at least it fits in a bag a bit better. The Sony Vita was probably the perfect form factor in my opinion.
Obviously those things can't play modern PC titles on low to medium settings, but that doesn't feel particularly necessary to me.
Hah, I want one because I don't want to buy a big-ass desktop PC. Basically I want keyboard+mouse PC gaming without buying a desktop. It seems ideal for that.
But I agree, it looks super chunky for something that is meant to be portable. I would consider the Nintendo Switch about the maximum size for something to comfortably travel with, and the Steamdeck is 250g heavier and bigger in all dimensions [0].
It's "portable" but as someone looking for a gaming computer for a 9 year old, ideal in a lot of ways and certainly preferable to handing him some giant, ugly Windows box or teaching him how to navigate Linux (which I hope he'll do over time with this)
> I would consider the Nintendo Switch about the maximum size for something to comfortably travel with
I don't understand why. The SD fits in every bag I take with me. Unless all you travel with is a purse? Then I guess sure, it's too big. But the SD being 250g heavier and it being larger than the Switch are all positives for me. It has such a solid feel and the sides are more ergonomic in a way that makes it more comfortable to use than my Switch ever was.
I'm glad you describe it as a positive! It's still at the top of my list.
The Switch fits flat down in my backpack. The Steamdeck would probably not fit in the same way. I haven't had a chance to handle one though. But personally I find the Switch already borderline annoying to take.
Typing this whilst waiting for a flight with a fully packed bag for what it's worth. On its own it would be fine, but once you add a drink bottle, toiletries, a laptop and chargers it adds up.
The Steam Deck has an excellent travel case. If I were needing to travel with it, I would find a way to attach the travel case externally to my bag. That way, it wouldn't impact what can be packed already.
It fits in my personal item (a small messenger bag), in its case, along with good noise-cancelling headphones. There's space for the other stuff I need (a small bottle of water and a snack), but not a jacket, which I have to wear or tie to the strap. I don't think any personal item-sized thing is going to have space for it and headphones a laptop (I put my laptop in my carry-on, which is usually either a 20L backpack or a 40L ultralight rollerboard). Its case has space for a charger and since my phone and headphones are USB-C as well I can just stick with it. It won't be flat like your switch.
I don't think I'd try strapping it to the outside of any bag, even though the case it came with seems quite good. I think it would be unwieldy.
Despite of that, Steam Deck is much more comfortable to hold than Nintendo Switch. I have both and my hands feel sore after holding the Switch for a while - no such effect on the Deck. It does take up more space in a bag though.
>I would consider the Nintendo Switch about the maximum size for something to comfortably travel with
I have pretty severe hand pain after prolonged use of switch. Getting case with big grips definitely helps, but then switch gets much bigger.
While prolonged use of deck is also noticeable, it's much, much less taxing on hands. Or so i feel. Probably because it's more comfortable to hold due to size and built-in grips?
It's not a pocket console, it's a backpack console. In terms on consoles, It's like moving from a desktop to a laptop. Laptops won over desktops, even when the laptop rarely leaves the house, because it offers free movement amd choice of location.
Compared to gaming on a laptop, the steam deck works better and is more flexible in more locations. The quick suspend feature, though it doesn't work with every game, just extends this convenience by making it easy to pickup and put down.
There's definitely a space for pocket gaming, but that faces stiff competition from phone games.
I think this gets it exactly right. I’ve taken the deck on trips where I have room in the suitcase, but I wouldn’t take it on my daily commute. But most of all, I’m just with it on the couch. Even though there is also a nice big tv right in front of it, the instant on / instant suspend makes it great for 5-10 minute chunks.
I bought a deck mainly for the working suspend. I have an AMD based desktop that I run Arch Linux on, and suspend didn't work on it for most of 2022. Bug fixes have since trickled into the mainline kernel, and there's AMD employees and Valve contractors productively participating in issue tickets.
I'm travelling at the moment (like, backpacking for 6 months). I find it perfect - it fits into my day bag no problem.
I even have a portable monitor, and an external keyboard and mouse. Hook them all up with a USB hub and I have a "proper" desktop gaming setup that fits into my backpack no problem.
agree with the other replies but also one thing to add: the gaming market in PCs is still mostly in the big screen world. They couldn't go too small or risk making the games too small for what they were designed for. The magnifier feature is not something you want to perform all the time. I imagine they did some AB testing and I firmly believe they landed on a good compromise.
The SD has basically the minimum display size for useable retro PC gaming. For PS1 emulation, you could probably get away with something the size of the GB Pocket, but PC games simply were never designed for small screens.
I guess the meaning of portable gaming is ambiguous. I took it to mean "wireless gaming" and it succeeds by that definition.
I rarely use the Deck but my girlfriend loves it. She prefers the handheld form factor for couch gaming. I just prefer my office chair to any other seat in my house which makes PC gaming more appealing.
For me the size is a major advantage. Traditional controllers are an ergo nightmare for me. The width of the controller means my hands are at a much more natural angle and the shape and balance of the deck is very well thought out.
The steam deck replaces gaming laptops for me. Gaming laptops have always been hot, noisy, and highly failure prone. The deck is downright dainty in comparison and doesn't require me to carry a mouse, controller, and clunky power brick as well.
That's fair, size versus capability is always a trade-off. It's also not exactly inexpensive.
I find it's just small enough, but I don't use it for every case. It's portable in the sense of being great to take with you on a plane or a trip; you wouldn't take it with you to work or school every day, I don't think. It fits in my personal item with good headphones, but there's not much space for something like a jacket. So I understand how the size excludes it from a lot of situations.
My current gaming is built around NVidia GeForceNow, Steam and the Steam Deck. I have all my bases covered and (almost!) all the games I want, "retro" and "current".
At home I have NVidia SHIELD devices on each TV. That's three rooms (one of which is on a gaming monitor with 120 Hz/HDR). I can play all my Steam (and Epic) games seamlessly on all three. They were $100 each and my founder's membership to GFN is $4.16/mo. The controllers were around $35 each as well. I don't strictly need three of them but I got them for symmetry. I like that I buy games on standard PC game stores like Steam, so if the service shuts down or gets crappy, I'll still have my games--it doesn't have the disadvantage that Stadia did. I had a PS4 and Xbone and I just never used them--I gave them away.
For the "very portable" case I have my phone. Its GFN client is great. I can use it with an onscreen controller in a pinch, or I have a Razer Kishi which is okay (standard thumbsticks and buttons). I also have a cheap Chromebook with a good GFN client I can use the play the same games. Of course, both these require good wi-fi or particularly good cell service. I've played on hotel marginal hotel wi-fi and on 4G/"5G" and that's about on the border between useable on non-useable.
Enter the Steam Deck. This covers the offline use case: planes, areas with bad wi-fi/wireless coverage. And it's still the same games with good hardware and good control. Ironically, what doesn't work well on it is GFN; but that's okay, because that's not really what I need it for.
That's the setup that works for me, and it works very well. I'm not a "hardcore" gamer and I don't own a PC at all. So for me, it is definitely portable enough for its use case.
There are various disadvantages that people might not like (besides the Steam Deck being pretty big, as you point out):
Game Selection: Obviously, this is a tradeoff with any gaming platform; not every game is available on Steam. With my setup, it's even more narrow: not every game on Steam is offered on GFN; and not every game on Steam works on the Steam Deck. There are some games I own that I can't play on the Deck; there are some games I could buy for the Deck that I couldn't play on GFN (I don't buy those games). There are still hundreds of games of every stripe available, so this doesn't faze me. It's true I can't play GTA:V, but that's probably the only game I really "miss".
Game streaming: I'm told input lag makes this not an option for "serious gamers." I'll believe them. For me, a "non-serious gamer", I detect no input lag. GFN isn't completely seamless and the fact that you're interacting with a Windows VM can be kind of clunky. No problem for a nerdy type, but there are a couple of rough edges for a consumer (for example, when launching a game you may need to interact with the Steam application in the VM to launch it, or sometimes it launches by itself; sometimes you need to invoke an onscreen keyboard and mouse input method to interact with a game launcher or close windows).
It also means your Internet access needs to be up to snuff. When it is, streaming is fine. In the past, I'd run into lag/jitter problems even when the problem wasn't on my end; that seems to have been fixed and I don't experience that a...
Obviously Proton is a big part of the Steam Deck's success, but I firmly believe it would be a flop if it weren't for Steam's input mapping tools. I can play so many games that are keyboard+mouse only because of mapping hotkeys.
I'm not sure by what measure it failed. I'm certain Valve wasn't trying to turn the Steam Controller into a household item. It was a reasonably popular niche product and as a dogfooding item it was a wild success for the development of Steam input, which is a core reason why the Steam Deck works at all.
Steam Machines were a miserable failure with nothing to show for it. I don't buy the "guilty by association" argument though. People liked, bought and used the Steam Controller. Steam Machines never even remotely reached that point.
Whether the Steam Machines were successful or not is besides the point with regards to whether valve intended it to be successful (they clearly did because they pushed very hard for it at the time) and the Steam Controller having been part of the pitch.
Lots of things that arose from their steam machine project were more successful than the steam machine, including:
- the steam deck
- funding various Vulkan projects
- funding Proton development
- general Linux experience for gaming getting better (many many patches that were funded)
So it’s not really meaningful to differentiate their intent just by the popularity of their product. The steam machine and the steam controllers were meant to be the every day console and valve certainly invested a ton into trying.
1. It’s an accessory that was an extra purchase when many alternatives existed. So it was competing for mindshare from people who either were using keyboard+mouse, or could also buy a console controller and connect it up. Unless you already researched it, there was no surface reason to own one for many people.
2. Low availability. You couldn’t just find it in any retail store. So you already needed to be aware of it to want it, and then be willing to wait for delivery. So it had a higher bar to cross.
3. Comfort was a big one. Some people loved it. Others hated it. It was too big for many people, and too cumbersome for others. I personally thought it was one of the worst controllers I’ve owned and I have very large hands.
4. The touch controls mapped poorly to many games. If you did buy one, it was really hit and miss how well it worked for your games. A lot depended on either putting in the time to map it out or hoping the community had something.
It just had too much going against it. Which is a death blow for a product that can’t exist by itself and has competition (even if it does more).
The steamdeck in comparison sort of exists in its own niche and is a complete product.
5) Most halfway-recent PC games that are any good to play on a gamepad are made with X-Box controllers in mind—button maps readied and all, truly plug-n-play—and 360 or XBone controllers are readily available and even very cheap (in the case of used 360 controllers, especially). This has been true so long that they're practically the "standard" gamepad for PC gaming, if you're gonna bring a gamepad into the mix at all, with the main kinda-successful exceptions being retro controllers for use with emulators. If you want the boring and relatively-cheap thing that's also the least likely to give you any surprises or irritations in the next 5+ years, you just get an X-Box controller, so Valve's controller had a real uphill battle.
This is a key point that undermines the rest of your argument. Controller support is practically a given today, but when the Steam Controller launched in 2015 there were _a lot_ of games on Steam (even AAA console ports) that were mouse/keyboard only.
[EDIT] To clarify, I mean games that lend themselves to gamepad controls to begin with have tended to support X-Box controllers really well for about that long, and I'd bet that's most of what PC gamers want to do with gamepads. They want to play GTA games or Red Dead on a gamepad—most of them still prefer keyboard and mouse for first-person shooters or isometric RPGs or strategy games or what have you. The market for people who want to replace the keyboard & mouse on games that are best played with a keyboard & mouse is surely much smaller than the set who just want a gamepad as a supplementary controller for platformers and 3rd-person action games, or as the "poor (or space-constrained) man's" flight stick / steering wheel—that larger market is already pretty well-served by cheap used X-Box controllers.
I think it was a combination of a lack of both a proper d-pad or right joystick. With only one missing, I would have recommended it more, but with both missing, it only works great for a certain sub selection of games, and while most of the rest are playable, they aren't a great experience with it.
For the games I used it with, it was great, probably the best Dark Souls controller I ever used by turning the right track pad into a simulated trackball. But without a d-pad it ruins it for most fighting games, joystick FPS are kind of shit without a second joystick as there is no more muscle memory to rely on, and it lacks the speed needed for any serious RTS games.
That leaves racing games, and surfing the web.
It does make an amazing remote mouse for watching shows and stuff from my computer while not sitting at it, but that certainly doesn't drive sales. And the one joystick is has is absolutely phenomenal, the smallest deadzone out of any joystick controller ive used and it is super sensitive and precise, which would have been really great if there were two of them. And the haptics was pretty great in my opinion for racing game.
I have one, but only used it a couple times. Don't remember it being a game changer for me but it's been so long since the last time I touched it that I can't remember now what it was like to use it. I'll have to find it and give another try
I had one, and really wanted to like it. I found the controller very comfortable in my hands. But, I could never make the touch pads useful for me. I tried different configurations, I tried intentionally practicing with them. But to no avail. For me, they were never more comfortable, intuitive, or accurate than dual-sticks. But, they were so central to the controller that they effectively _had_ to be used.
Because it was weird. Lots of "you'll get it once you try it" products fail because they can't convey what their value proposition is. On top of that, their market was already limited to PC gamers who wanted a controller (which was already a comparatively small market at the time), plus were willing to go with something non-standard that they'd have to tinker with to get working.
Valve lost a patent case against SCUF and Ironburg over the back paddles. Which sucks, because the main value proposition of the SC wasn't the back paddles but the haptic touchpads combined with the customisation. It would be nice if Valve would make another SC and pay the licensing fees.
I remember people clowning on the Steam controller at the time, but I used it for many games (having to, at the time, manually map the controller inputs) and it was perfect for me. The dual trackpads that I could map to become radial controls, touch controls, whatever I wanted was awesome (I was really in to Elite: Dangerous at the time). I think a lot of gamers just don't have the time or motivation to tinker and customize the thing for themselves. Also, a lot of games didn't handle the Steam Controller's rapid input doubling/switching between mouse and gamepad.
Who else is feeling ancient after realizing the "old games" this article refers to are games from 2011 and 2010? (but, thankfully, also one from late 90s)
Ten years is a long time, but it's interesting that we've reached sort of a plateau in videogame design. I mean, look at 1982 vs 1992 vs 2002. Technology continues to advance, but we're still making the same kind of 3D games, so that a kid today could go play those games without any real trouble.
> A pretty relic of the past, I was so surprised to find that it runs perfectly on the Steam Deck in 2022, better than it ever did at launch. I was able to find a new appreciation for the aspects of the game that stuck with me when I was a teenager, like the game’s inimitable cel-shaded art style, evocative of the same graphic novels The Darkness 2 is based on.
Got me.
I was like "The Darkness 2? Relic of the past? Huh?".
I remember playing The Darkness 2 on a GPD Win 2, another handheld PC released ~4 years ago, and remember how surprised I was at the performance at the time even with only integrated graphics. It still serves me well to this day for the kinds of games I play, so I might wait for a hardware refresh before upgrading to a Steam Deck.
I've been going though my older games to figure out which work, especially if they're well suited to controller-based play, and reporting them in the forums. I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Turns out there are a _lot_ of games like that, and it's good to see them being promoted on "Great on Deck" when they get through validation, or even seeing the yellow (!) beside them.
Playing old games is the main reason I'm excited for these types of handhelds. It's also why I may not be getting a Steam Deck versus similar alternatives.
The lower-spec handhelds by Abernic and Retroid, for example, can handle lots of emulation, Half Life 1, Counterstrike 1.6, Unreal Tournament 1999, as well as OpenMW. None of these depend on Steam or Proton.
The higher-spec Steam Deck, at 2-3x the cost, comes into play for newer titles. For me, that's Fallout 3/NV/4, STALKER, Metro, Oblivion, Skyrim, Dark Souls, and Elden Ring.
The Steam Deck doesn't depend on Steam or Proton either, FWIW. If you want to throw Lakka or another homebrew emulation OS on it, it should work out-of-box.
That being said, I get the appeal of other/simpler handhelds for retrogaming. The Steam Deck's real party trick is a powerful GPU at a decently low wattage, which will go mostly unappreciated playing Symphony of the Night.
The proprietary stuff is all firmware. It runs open-source GPU drivers and everything else is mainstreamed in Linux. So if BSD has the drivers, you could theoretically run it.
> Playing old games is the main reason I'm excited for these types of handhelds.
Same! An often unspoken benefit to playing older games is that they are a good deal less taxing on the hardware, allowing you to stretch out the battery life. I love it.
Would recommend those interested in older games also look into EmuDeck. It is a really polished experience, combining a range of emulation tools with good default settings.
I've been having a tinker with BBC games too (not integrated with EmuDeck currently) and, after some minor tweaks to the code and config, managed to get quite a useable setup with BeebEm. Will see how feasible it is to upstream in the new year.
Glad I saw this in this thread, I have never heard of emudeck. I've been using retroarch from the steam store, and while it works it is missing a lot of emulation options
It would be fascinating to see install stats on emudeck - I haven’t seen a single steam deck without it installed so far and I’ve met quite a few users “in the wild” now.
They don't do that anymore. They offer subscriptions to curated lists of games. You used to be able to purchase old games from Nintendo, but now you can't. (At least on the Switch)
That is not necessarily legal. Nintendo's lawyers for example have the view that a copy made dumping one of their games is a copy that violates Nintendo's copyright.
In the United States, that view doesn't have legal precedent. It could be argued, but in the past American courts tend to rule in favor of the personal freedom to archive software. Emulators have gotten a protective shield ever since the Bleem! lawsuit, and ripping physical media is a practice grandfathered in to the ownership of digital paraphernalia.
You're correct to highlight that it's not explicitly legal/illegal, but at least in America things are pretty cut-and-dried.
It's been a while, but ISTR that their argument was essentially that backup or archival copies are unnecessary due to the reliability of their media and hardware, therefore any purported backup or archival copies must actually be for an infringing purpose.
I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure there's no "unless the copyright owner or an affiliated party claims you don't need to" clause in the backup/archival exceptions.
While I'm ill-equipped to properly analyze that comparison, I'd generally be wary of generalizing from rulings about music recordings, which get special treatment under US copyright law. They're even represented by a distinct category, "phonorecords", explicitly excluded from the definition of "copies".
The Steam Deck is effectively a portable PS4/Xbox One, and it has blown me away in how great the user experience is. I played through more games on my Steam Deck this year than on my powerful gaming PC.
I've been debating getting a SteamDeck. On paper it's a perfect linux 'laptop' replacement. I get to game if I want. Connect it to a dock, KB+M, monitor and you have a portable computer. However, I am never 'away' from home.
I don't have a commute where I spend hours sitting idle wishing for something to do. A possible usage; when I take the kids to the park I spend a decent chunk of time interacting with them. So out of a 1-3 hour excursion, I'd get maybe 0.75-1.5hrs of usage. And that's not every day.
I WANT one. I just can't justify that kind of expense.
The fact that you can play it resting on a couch vs desktop gaming on a home office chair justifies the expense for me personally, but you might not be that lazy.
But couch gaming is so much better with a lighter device in hands and a TV hooked to a PC. I, too, want a Deck but can't justify the waste because my cute little htpc is much, much faster. Not that it needs to be, 90% of the time. Nothing fancy. Mostly 8 and 16-bit stuff.
That said, the deck is almost cheaper than the 5800u tomtom sort of sff pcs on aliexpress. Everything considered, it's not a bad product at all. I fear its future looks brighter than that of my index
Briefly looked at something like a Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kit for htpc, until I realized that the Deck will be useful for the 2-3 flights I take every year as well, so for now it still has higher priority on my wish list.
It's in the price range of an used old leasing laptop. About comparable to the cheapest supermarket laptops that can run mid-range games.
But it's portable and can dock to your existing display/keyboard/mouse setup when needed.
I haven't booted up my (old) Windows gaming PC since I got the deck. It's just so convenient to pick up and play. And when the kids/SO call, I can just hit suspend and go see what's up. When I get back, I turn on the SD and continue exactly where I left off.
WAY easier and more practical than leaving my gaming PC on pause for multiple hours. (Not all games let you save anywhere you want).
Stop reading productivity blogs. You do not have to be productive 24/7. Downtime is important. Do you think going to a concert, or dinner with friends, etc is wasting your time too? It sounds like a deeper problem than just the video games.
Exactly. I used to think the same way when comparing myself to some of my friends who don't play video games much, then I realized they filled their downtime with stuff like Netflix or Youtube instead of video games.
Video games waste time. TV wastes time. Reading wastes time. Watching movies wastes time. And so on. It's not any more a waste of time than other things that aren't work.
Also, there's plenty of games that are shorter or can be played in short sessions if you are too busy for long sessions.
find a game that's more than a shooter. some are truly art, and culturally significant works.
do you like a mystery, newtonian space simulation, beautiful music and visuals, and being driven by your own curiosity instead of a game on rails?
check out "Outer Wilds"
i similarly find it hard to play games myself. this game came on a recommendation and instantly became the best game i've ever played. and in the vein of wasting time, this game transcends "video games." it's actually a masterpiece. i recommend going in with no knowledge, just give it a shot.
Outer Wilds is a profound, thought-provoking work of art.
A tip anyone encountering this comment: If you like Sci-fi, story-based, exploration games -- Just buy it. Just go play it. Don't read a single review. Don't look at YouTube videos. It's the type of game that you can truly only experience once, and the less known before entering that experience the better.
Also, play on Controller -- The game has a lot of spaceship flight which is pretty frustrating on keyboard/mouse.
I must third this. It's been a year since I played it, but the words still escape me. I don't know how to recommend it.
The only flaw of this game is that it is necessary to play it to experience it properly. It is not an accessible medium for those who are unfamiliar with games. This is a shame, because it is a legitimately thought-provoking and transformative piece of art.
Outer Wilds is currently on sale for $15 on Steam.
I would first reflect on what gets you "hooked" to the point you feel guilty. For me, League of Legends was VERY addictive. My mood for the evening would change depending on how much I won or lost and I always wanted to queue up for "just one more game" even if I had another commitment in 30-45 minutes. So for me, dropping online team-based competitive gaming was the right move.
I would look into games that let you start/stop whenever without any issues. These fit best into (I presume) your adult life, without having the classic "I can't pause this right now" moments. I recommend Stardew Valley if you want something very laid back (and it works on nearly every system) and then one-player games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher 3, Portal if you want some story, puzzle, action. Each is award-winning and has deep gameplay but also easy enough to approach (if you have a background in gaming as you mentioned).
Some stuff in your brain is better processed in the background without you actively thinking about them.
Playing games, reading, watching movies etc. lets the active part of your GTFO of the way and let the background processes run without interruptions.
Active breaks are also an option to combat any guilt. Just decide that "I'm going to play a game for 30 minutes", then it's not wasted time - you scheduled it =)
Some of my most memorable conversations with my friends in the last couple of years has been talking about games. I've spoken at length about how Witcher 3's writing mirrors real relationships, how Cyberpunk's quests and endings have impact that wouldn't be possible in any other medium, how Return of the Obra Dinn gave a totally new experience that also made me rethink how I learn, and surely many other conversations I've forgotten.
I can’t think of a single game in my library that doesn’t run on Linux today. The only exceptions are games with anticheat issues of course, but those likely run perfectly fine too.
I’m not saying incompatible games don’t exist, I’m sure they do, but they’re definitely the exception rather than the rule now.
The Age of Empires II remake doesn't work well for me unfortunately: it runs, but when trying multiplayer, you can play for 1 minute, then it gives sync error
Multiplayer is the sad part for Linux these days, except for the more cooperative type of games like Terraria, Factorio and Satisfactory where it works well.
To fix AOE2:DE multiplayer all you need to do is extract UCRTBASE.DLL from a VC++ redistributable to avoid desyncs-- here's a repo that has a script for it: https://github.com/ardba/proton_aoe2de_mpfix
I think some multiplayer protocols still don't work under Linux. Directplay from Microsoft is still broken for older games like Freelancer [1]. Single player works just fine.
My Deck ownership is at a point where I don't even buy a game if it's not either Deck Verified on Steam or gold/platinum on ProtonDB.
I also prefer games that have cross-platform cloud saves so I can play longer sessions on my Xbox or PC and continue from the exact same spot on the Deck when I'm on the go. I think I can finally finish Witcher 3 this time when they added cloud saves, I don't need to have 3 parallel games going on different platforms.
The quick pick up and immediate suspend are the killer features for me. The Spouse Acceptance Factor is pretty good for a device I can play with on the couch and be semi-present. Instead of me taking up the TV or being in my own dark corner playing with my gaming PC.
I've finished more games during this fall on the deck than my PC during the last two years.
> The Spouse Acceptance Factor is pretty good for a device I can play with on the couch and be semi-present.
I even get away with playing in bed as a "kill time until I feel sleepy" activity. Nothing else other than browsing a phone has reached this level of acceptance.
(I must admit I do have an unusually tolerant partner...)
> The quick pick up and immediate suspend are the killer features for me.
Yep, this has been the killer feature for me too.
When playing a game involves closing out some other stuff, starting up steam, starting up the game, waiting for it to load, loading my save, waiting for it to load, playing for a bit, saving, exiting to the menu, exiting the game, etc... there's a certain minimum commitment of time involved.
When I can just tap the power button and get dropped back in the game where I left it, and when the next distraction comes up just tap it again (in a menu, in a cutscene, anywhere) and put it back down... suddenly all those little 20 minute chunks of dead time where I'd be doom-scrolling the internet can turn into gaming time.
Even when I _am_ sitting at my desk, I often just dock my Steam Deck and play with a controller on my monitor instead of firing up the game on my PC because it's so convenient. (The fact that it also doesn't heat my office up to 85 degrees like my PC is a bonus as well.)
Well for the record, this has been standard functionality for mobile consoles in the past - both Playstation Vita and Nintendo Switch have the same instant suspend mechanics. Not sure about the TV-connected consoles as I never had one.
With the Playstation 4, you can put the console in sleep mode and resume from where you left off. As long as you don't switch to something else (another game), it will stay in the background.
As a grown ass adult with children, I have no time to sit through several hours in a single shot. So this has been invaluable.
This is almost exactly my experience. I'm the type of person that's not great to shop for gifts for because I mostly buy the things I want and am minimal in what I want. My wife knows this, though, and just told everyone to buy me Steam gift cards for Xmas now that I have my Steam Deck.
My only complaint right now is that, for some reason, it seems like my cloud saves on Steam also saved the configurations for some games so my graphics settings always revert to the settings saved on the Steam Deck, even when I play on my PC. Titanfall 2, for example, crashes when I open it on my PC the first time after playing on the Steam Deck but then restarts and runs fine afterwards (albeit with the settings from the Steam Deck). Changing the graphics settings back words until I play again on my Steam Deck (which lags horribly until I reset the settings back to Steam Deck defaults).
I didn’t realise Steam Deck was capable of playing Titanfall 2. I loved that game (coulda used more giant robot battles, though!). How well does Titanfall 2 play on Steam Deck?
It plays really, really well. So well, in fact, that I played it and beat it on the Deck and then played it again on my PC hooked up to the TV. Great game, great experience, and (as they advertise) great on Deck.
Oh, that's great to hear that Titanfall 2 runs on Steam Deck (apart from that crashing/over-syncing problem).
I'm guessing you own the game on Steam and not from EA/Origin? Are you using the base game or Northstar? If Northstar, did you have more trouble setting that up than on your Windows PC?
Yup, Northstar lets you self-host multiplayer servers for Titanfall 2, with non-standard game modes, settings, and map rotations. And with the Northstar client (modded TF|2 app) you can access a server browser for Northstar servers, so you don't need to go through the official servers at all.
Northstar first got really popular in a period when the official Titanfall 2 servers were extremely unreliable - you'd either be stuck matchmaking forever even with a supposedly large number of players online, or you'd start a game with 12 players and be lucky to have 3 or 4 of them still connected by the end. Most people blamed the problems on DDoS attackers, and although the game developer Respawn acknowledged the problems, they never really delivered a server-side or client-side fix for them. So, the only enjoyable way to play TF|2 on PC was with Northstar.
I did the math when I preordered my Deck last year, it was cheaper to get the max version of the deck than it would've cost me to upgrade my gaming pc to a reasonable level. Even with the official dock and dbrand case + screen protector it was still less than a GPU would've been :D
>I've finished more games during this fall on the deck than my PC during the last two years.
I can say the same, but about single-player games. I play games very often (you can call me addict if you want), but every time i get to my PC i always get dragged into some coop/multiplayer game by my friends. While with deck, i can just drop to bed, fire up some game i've been delaying to play for 5 years, and finally complete it. Almost without distractions.
Well it isn't single-purpose, you can get browser, discord, spotify, irc or anything just by swapping to desktop mode... But i'd rather use my phone or pc for that and leave deck for games.
Also, on steamdeck subreddit i saw people using it as their main PC (not much power, but definitely more than enough for majority of day-to-day tasks, especially with external monitor). I recall motorola razr (android one) had dualboot (android + ubuntu), and when plugged to external monitor you was able to use it as a small PC. But due to pretty weak hardware back in 2011, this idea never took off.
huh, I have all but IRC in steam mode though, just gotta add them as an "External Game" to steam while in desktop mode and it becomes available in steam mode
FWIW, the Steam Deck is literally the device I've been waiting for my entire life since I first played a computer game.
I mostly don't use it as a handheld. More as the "living room console for the kids" and as the "portable friends/family" device, in that way that e.g. the Switch advertises (but supports stuff like the Jackbox games)
We should have had "gaming device that is also an actual general purpose computer" a long time ago, but I"m glad it's here now.
I'm really hoping for a Steam Deck that completes the original Valve idea of a console-like experience.
Basically I'd be perfectly fine with the Steam Deck hardware in a small box without the controller, battery or display. Just power button and usb-c for power/data, and maybe even integrate the Steam Dock[0] hardware in the box with the extra connectors (USB ports, HDMI, Display Port, Gigabit Ethernet).
Same. The only reason I bought the Steam Dock for it was so that I could pop it in and switch my game to the TV. 90% of my playtime on this thing is on-the-go. It took the concept of the Nintendo Switch and actually delivered on it. Now, my Switch sits in a drawer and the Steam Deck is my go-to.
I get the aesthetics of wanting something like that, but I feel like the Deck plus the dock (I didn't wait for the "official one," the third-party one is fine) is close enough? Isn't the functionality technically identical, if slightly clunkier? 4 Xbox controllers and I'm good to go.
I'm looking for a lower price here, not just functionality.
If they can shave off 100€ or more off the price doing this and maybe even allow people to use full size M.2 SSDs it'd sell like hotcakes. Nvidia Shield but one that can actually run games, not just stream them.
100% this! The games I play on the steam deck are completely disjoint from the games I play on the desktop. I hadn’t anticipated that at all and I actually get more utility out of the steam deck than I had anticipated!
The big draw for me is playing while traveling, its the primary reason I own a switch. Reading that offline play is still not that great of an experience, even for games that don't require always on.
PSA for those who bought into the early generation of humble bundles: if you still have the emails or download links, those have codes for the steam store where you can punch them right in and the games get added into your steam library.
I did this recently and a fair number of the old games Just Worked on the steam deck.
Thanks to the idea that i’ll own a steamdeck at some point, i am buying hugely discounted old games. Till now i was playing some vendor-locked free games or simulations. Idea of having all my steam library in the future is exciting. Hope Valve won’t go down anytime soon.
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[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 165 ms ] threadWhich have a similar phenomenon of bringing old games back to life due to the limited specs of such devices. The Retroid pockets and Anbernics are the best at this in my opinion.
Obviously those things can't play modern PC titles on low to medium settings, but that doesn't feel particularly necessary to me.
I mean, then the SD isn't for you, no? Just get a Vita or one of the modern indie pocket gaming handhelds.
But I agree, it looks super chunky for something that is meant to be portable. I would consider the Nintendo Switch about the maximum size for something to comfortably travel with, and the Steamdeck is 250g heavier and bigger in all dimensions [0].
[0] https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-deck-vs-nintendo-switch/#secti...
I don't understand why. The SD fits in every bag I take with me. Unless all you travel with is a purse? Then I guess sure, it's too big. But the SD being 250g heavier and it being larger than the Switch are all positives for me. It has such a solid feel and the sides are more ergonomic in a way that makes it more comfortable to use than my Switch ever was.
The Switch fits flat down in my backpack. The Steamdeck would probably not fit in the same way. I haven't had a chance to handle one though. But personally I find the Switch already borderline annoying to take.
Typing this whilst waiting for a flight with a fully packed bag for what it's worth. On its own it would be fine, but once you add a drink bottle, toiletries, a laptop and chargers it adds up.
I don't think I'd try strapping it to the outside of any bag, even though the case it came with seems quite good. I think it would be unwieldy.
I have pretty severe hand pain after prolonged use of switch. Getting case with big grips definitely helps, but then switch gets much bigger.
While prolonged use of deck is also noticeable, it's much, much less taxing on hands. Or so i feel. Probably because it's more comfortable to hold due to size and built-in grips?
Compared to gaming on a laptop, the steam deck works better and is more flexible in more locations. The quick suspend feature, though it doesn't work with every game, just extends this convenience by making it easy to pickup and put down.
There's definitely a space for pocket gaming, but that faces stiff competition from phone games.
I even have a portable monitor, and an external keyboard and mouse. Hook them all up with a USB hub and I have a "proper" desktop gaming setup that fits into my backpack no problem.
I can just plug it in to any hotel tv with an HDMI port and play full PC games.
I've had a fantastic time playing Dwarf Fortress on the Steam Deck as a passenger in a car, as well as Team Fortress 2 in bed.
I rarely use the Deck but my girlfriend loves it. She prefers the handheld form factor for couch gaming. I just prefer my office chair to any other seat in my house which makes PC gaming more appealing.
The steam deck replaces gaming laptops for me. Gaming laptops have always been hot, noisy, and highly failure prone. The deck is downright dainty in comparison and doesn't require me to carry a mouse, controller, and clunky power brick as well.
I find it's just small enough, but I don't use it for every case. It's portable in the sense of being great to take with you on a plane or a trip; you wouldn't take it with you to work or school every day, I don't think. It fits in my personal item with good headphones, but there's not much space for something like a jacket. So I understand how the size excludes it from a lot of situations.
My current gaming is built around NVidia GeForceNow, Steam and the Steam Deck. I have all my bases covered and (almost!) all the games I want, "retro" and "current".
At home I have NVidia SHIELD devices on each TV. That's three rooms (one of which is on a gaming monitor with 120 Hz/HDR). I can play all my Steam (and Epic) games seamlessly on all three. They were $100 each and my founder's membership to GFN is $4.16/mo. The controllers were around $35 each as well. I don't strictly need three of them but I got them for symmetry. I like that I buy games on standard PC game stores like Steam, so if the service shuts down or gets crappy, I'll still have my games--it doesn't have the disadvantage that Stadia did. I had a PS4 and Xbone and I just never used them--I gave them away.
For the "very portable" case I have my phone. Its GFN client is great. I can use it with an onscreen controller in a pinch, or I have a Razer Kishi which is okay (standard thumbsticks and buttons). I also have a cheap Chromebook with a good GFN client I can use the play the same games. Of course, both these require good wi-fi or particularly good cell service. I've played on hotel marginal hotel wi-fi and on 4G/"5G" and that's about on the border between useable on non-useable.
Enter the Steam Deck. This covers the offline use case: planes, areas with bad wi-fi/wireless coverage. And it's still the same games with good hardware and good control. Ironically, what doesn't work well on it is GFN; but that's okay, because that's not really what I need it for.
That's the setup that works for me, and it works very well. I'm not a "hardcore" gamer and I don't own a PC at all. So for me, it is definitely portable enough for its use case.
There are various disadvantages that people might not like (besides the Steam Deck being pretty big, as you point out):
Game Selection: Obviously, this is a tradeoff with any gaming platform; not every game is available on Steam. With my setup, it's even more narrow: not every game on Steam is offered on GFN; and not every game on Steam works on the Steam Deck. There are some games I own that I can't play on the Deck; there are some games I could buy for the Deck that I couldn't play on GFN (I don't buy those games). There are still hundreds of games of every stripe available, so this doesn't faze me. It's true I can't play GTA:V, but that's probably the only game I really "miss".
Game streaming: I'm told input lag makes this not an option for "serious gamers." I'll believe them. For me, a "non-serious gamer", I detect no input lag. GFN isn't completely seamless and the fact that you're interacting with a Windows VM can be kind of clunky. No problem for a nerdy type, but there are a couple of rough edges for a consumer (for example, when launching a game you may need to interact with the Steam application in the VM to launch it, or sometimes it launches by itself; sometimes you need to invoke an onscreen keyboard and mouse input method to interact with a game launcher or close windows).
It also means your Internet access needs to be up to snuff. When it is, streaming is fine. In the past, I'd run into lag/jitter problems even when the problem wasn't on my end; that seems to have been fixed and I don't experience that a...
Failed might not be appropriate, it's still plenty usable in my opinion.
Both those products were meant to be mass adopted, and the steam controller was meant to be the best input choice for both of them.
Lots of things that arose from their steam machine project were more successful than the steam machine, including:
- the steam deck - funding various Vulkan projects - funding Proton development - general Linux experience for gaming getting better (many many patches that were funded)
So it’s not really meaningful to differentiate their intent just by the popularity of their product. The steam machine and the steam controllers were meant to be the every day console and valve certainly invested a ton into trying.
1. It’s an accessory that was an extra purchase when many alternatives existed. So it was competing for mindshare from people who either were using keyboard+mouse, or could also buy a console controller and connect it up. Unless you already researched it, there was no surface reason to own one for many people.
2. Low availability. You couldn’t just find it in any retail store. So you already needed to be aware of it to want it, and then be willing to wait for delivery. So it had a higher bar to cross.
3. Comfort was a big one. Some people loved it. Others hated it. It was too big for many people, and too cumbersome for others. I personally thought it was one of the worst controllers I’ve owned and I have very large hands.
4. The touch controls mapped poorly to many games. If you did buy one, it was really hit and miss how well it worked for your games. A lot depended on either putting in the time to map it out or hoping the community had something.
It just had too much going against it. Which is a death blow for a product that can’t exist by itself and has competition (even if it does more).
The steamdeck in comparison sort of exists in its own niche and is a complete product.
This is a key point that undermines the rest of your argument. Controller support is practically a given today, but when the Steam Controller launched in 2015 there were _a lot_ of games on Steam (even AAA console ports) that were mouse/keyboard only.
[EDIT] To clarify, I mean games that lend themselves to gamepad controls to begin with have tended to support X-Box controllers really well for about that long, and I'd bet that's most of what PC gamers want to do with gamepads. They want to play GTA games or Red Dead on a gamepad—most of them still prefer keyboard and mouse for first-person shooters or isometric RPGs or strategy games or what have you. The market for people who want to replace the keyboard & mouse on games that are best played with a keyboard & mouse is surely much smaller than the set who just want a gamepad as a supplementary controller for platformers and 3rd-person action games, or as the "poor (or space-constrained) man's" flight stick / steering wheel—that larger market is already pretty well-served by cheap used X-Box controllers.
For the games I used it with, it was great, probably the best Dark Souls controller I ever used by turning the right track pad into a simulated trackball. But without a d-pad it ruins it for most fighting games, joystick FPS are kind of shit without a second joystick as there is no more muscle memory to rely on, and it lacks the speed needed for any serious RTS games.
That leaves racing games, and surfing the web.
It does make an amazing remote mouse for watching shows and stuff from my computer while not sitting at it, but that certainly doesn't drive sales. And the one joystick is has is absolutely phenomenal, the smallest deadzone out of any joystick controller ive used and it is super sensitive and precise, which would have been really great if there were two of them. And the haptics was pretty great in my opinion for racing game.
I have one, but only used it a couple times. Don't remember it being a game changer for me but it's been so long since the last time I touched it that I can't remember now what it was like to use it. I'll have to find it and give another try
I'm still kicking myself for not ordering a half-dozen of them when they suddenly went on super-sale on Steam (5€/pop or something)
First of all it really needed to secure sales early ideally preorders.
It needed to "just work" with games, like you said input mapping is huge part of that, also proton and "deck verified".
Valve brought all those things together.
I'm just surprised it was colaunched with HL3.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Lore
Got me.
I was like "The Darkness 2? Relic of the past? Huh?".
The lower-spec handhelds by Abernic and Retroid, for example, can handle lots of emulation, Half Life 1, Counterstrike 1.6, Unreal Tournament 1999, as well as OpenMW. None of these depend on Steam or Proton.
The higher-spec Steam Deck, at 2-3x the cost, comes into play for newer titles. For me, that's Fallout 3/NV/4, STALKER, Metro, Oblivion, Skyrim, Dark Souls, and Elden Ring.
The Steam Deck doesn't depend on Steam or Proton either, FWIW. If you want to throw Lakka or another homebrew emulation OS on it, it should work out-of-box.
That being said, I get the appeal of other/simpler handhelds for retrogaming. The Steam Deck's real party trick is a powerful GPU at a decently low wattage, which will go mostly unappreciated playing Symphony of the Night.
Same! An often unspoken benefit to playing older games is that they are a good deal less taxing on the hardware, allowing you to stretch out the battery life. I love it.
https://www.emudeck.com/
I've been having a tinker with BBC games too (not integrated with EmuDeck currently) and, after some minor tweaks to the code and config, managed to get quite a useable setup with BeebEm. Will see how feasible it is to upstream in the new year.
Nobody does it, torrents are the way people actually do it.
Nevermind that people would actually pay money to have legal, licensed, digital copies of both - but the game companies don't care or want the money.
You're correct to highlight that it's not explicitly legal/illegal, but at least in America things are pretty cut-and-dried.
I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure there's no "unless the copyright owner or an affiliated party claims you don't need to" clause in the backup/archival exceptions.
a) use the awful virtual keyboard to switch to joydyick mode and start the game
b) create a controller profile for every single game
I don't have a commute where I spend hours sitting idle wishing for something to do. A possible usage; when I take the kids to the park I spend a decent chunk of time interacting with them. So out of a 1-3 hour excursion, I'd get maybe 0.75-1.5hrs of usage. And that's not every day.
I WANT one. I just can't justify that kind of expense.
That said, the deck is almost cheaper than the 5800u tomtom sort of sff pcs on aliexpress. Everything considered, it's not a bad product at all. I fear its future looks brighter than that of my index
But it's portable and can dock to your existing display/keyboard/mouse setup when needed.
I haven't booted up my (old) Windows gaming PC since I got the deck. It's just so convenient to pick up and play. And when the kids/SO call, I can just hit suspend and go see what's up. When I get back, I turn on the SD and continue exactly where I left off.
WAY easier and more practical than leaving my gaming PC on pause for multiple hours. (Not all games let you save anywhere you want).
Also, there's plenty of games that are shorter or can be played in short sessions if you are too busy for long sessions.
The same applies to mental work too.
Rest and relaxation is part of the work.
do you like a mystery, newtonian space simulation, beautiful music and visuals, and being driven by your own curiosity instead of a game on rails?
check out "Outer Wilds"
i similarly find it hard to play games myself. this game came on a recommendation and instantly became the best game i've ever played. and in the vein of wasting time, this game transcends "video games." it's actually a masterpiece. i recommend going in with no knowledge, just give it a shot.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/
A tip anyone encountering this comment: If you like Sci-fi, story-based, exploration games -- Just buy it. Just go play it. Don't read a single review. Don't look at YouTube videos. It's the type of game that you can truly only experience once, and the less known before entering that experience the better.
Also, play on Controller -- The game has a lot of spaceship flight which is pretty frustrating on keyboard/mouse.
The only flaw of this game is that it is necessary to play it to experience it properly. It is not an accessible medium for those who are unfamiliar with games. This is a shame, because it is a legitimately thought-provoking and transformative piece of art.
Outer Wilds is currently on sale for $15 on Steam.
I would look into games that let you start/stop whenever without any issues. These fit best into (I presume) your adult life, without having the classic "I can't pause this right now" moments. I recommend Stardew Valley if you want something very laid back (and it works on nearly every system) and then one-player games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher 3, Portal if you want some story, puzzle, action. Each is award-winning and has deep gameplay but also easy enough to approach (if you have a background in gaming as you mentioned).
Playing games, reading, watching movies etc. lets the active part of your GTFO of the way and let the background processes run without interruptions.
Active breaks are also an option to combat any guilt. Just decide that "I'm going to play a game for 30 minutes", then it's not wasted time - you scheduled it =)
However, I must say modern games like Cyberpunk 2077 also run very well on Linux in Steam.
And I got the Steam Deck to thank for that, since more development on Proton and vkd3d was done for it!
I’m not saying incompatible games don’t exist, I’m sure they do, but they’re definitely the exception rather than the rule now.
Multiplayer is the sad part for Linux these days, except for the more cooperative type of games like Terraria, Factorio and Satisfactory where it works well.
https://www.protondb.com/ is your friend. Avoid purchasing games that ate not at least gold
[1] https://appdb.winehq.org/viewbugs.php?iBugId=4066
I also prefer games that have cross-platform cloud saves so I can play longer sessions on my Xbox or PC and continue from the exact same spot on the Deck when I'm on the go. I think I can finally finish Witcher 3 this time when they added cloud saves, I don't need to have 3 parallel games going on different platforms.
The quick pick up and immediate suspend are the killer features for me. The Spouse Acceptance Factor is pretty good for a device I can play with on the couch and be semi-present. Instead of me taking up the TV or being in my own dark corner playing with my gaming PC.
I've finished more games during this fall on the deck than my PC during the last two years.
I even get away with playing in bed as a "kill time until I feel sleepy" activity. Nothing else other than browsing a phone has reached this level of acceptance.
(I must admit I do have an unusually tolerant partner...)
Yep, this has been the killer feature for me too.
When playing a game involves closing out some other stuff, starting up steam, starting up the game, waiting for it to load, loading my save, waiting for it to load, playing for a bit, saving, exiting to the menu, exiting the game, etc... there's a certain minimum commitment of time involved.
When I can just tap the power button and get dropped back in the game where I left it, and when the next distraction comes up just tap it again (in a menu, in a cutscene, anywhere) and put it back down... suddenly all those little 20 minute chunks of dead time where I'd be doom-scrolling the internet can turn into gaming time.
Even when I _am_ sitting at my desk, I often just dock my Steam Deck and play with a controller on my monitor instead of firing up the game on my PC because it's so convenient. (The fact that it also doesn't heat my office up to 85 degrees like my PC is a bonus as well.)
As a grown ass adult with children, I have no time to sit through several hours in a single shot. So this has been invaluable.
It does drain the batteries relatively quickly while in stand by though
My only complaint right now is that, for some reason, it seems like my cloud saves on Steam also saved the configurations for some games so my graphics settings always revert to the settings saved on the Steam Deck, even when I play on my PC. Titanfall 2, for example, crashes when I open it on my PC the first time after playing on the Steam Deck but then restarts and runs fine afterwards (albeit with the settings from the Steam Deck). Changing the graphics settings back words until I play again on my Steam Deck (which lags horribly until I reset the settings back to Steam Deck defaults).
It's the first game that made first person wall running actually fun and easy to do even for a casual player like me.
Steam Cloud docs explicitely mention this:
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/cloud#1
> Avoid machine specific configurations such as video settings.
I'm guessing you own the game on Steam and not from EA/Origin? Are you using the base game or Northstar? If Northstar, did you have more trouble setting that up than on your Windows PC?
Northstar first got really popular in a period when the official Titanfall 2 servers were extremely unreliable - you'd either be stuck matchmaking forever even with a supposedly large number of players online, or you'd start a game with 12 players and be lucky to have 3 or 4 of them still connected by the end. Most people blamed the problems on DDoS attackers, and although the game developer Respawn acknowledged the problems, they never really delivered a server-side or client-side fix for them. So, the only enjoyable way to play TF|2 on PC was with Northstar.
I have some games in Steam, but actually don't like to use a PC to play games, so the steamdeck looks like a viable alternative.
Thanks for this!
I can say the same, but about single-player games. I play games very often (you can call me addict if you want), but every time i get to my PC i always get dragged into some coop/multiplayer game by my friends. While with deck, i can just drop to bed, fire up some game i've been delaying to play for 5 years, and finally complete it. Almost without distractions.
There is no web browser, Discord, Spotify, IRC or anything. Just you and a thousand games you promised yourself you'd finish some day =)
Also, on steamdeck subreddit i saw people using it as their main PC (not much power, but definitely more than enough for majority of day-to-day tasks, especially with external monitor). I recall motorola razr (android one) had dualboot (android + ubuntu), and when plugged to external monitor you was able to use it as a small PC. But due to pretty weak hardware back in 2011, this idea never took off.
A couple of times a year I think about whether I should ditch music streaming and pick up an old iPod
I mostly don't use it as a handheld. More as the "living room console for the kids" and as the "portable friends/family" device, in that way that e.g. the Switch advertises (but supports stuff like the Jackbox games)
We should have had "gaming device that is also an actual general purpose computer" a long time ago, but I"m glad it's here now.
Basically I'd be perfectly fine with the Steam Deck hardware in a small box without the controller, battery or display. Just power button and usb-c for power/data, and maybe even integrate the Steam Dock[0] hardware in the box with the extra connectors (USB ports, HDMI, Display Port, Gigabit Ethernet).
[0] https://www.steamdeck.com/en/dock
If they can shave off 100€ or more off the price doing this and maybe even allow people to use full size M.2 SSDs it'd sell like hotcakes. Nvidia Shield but one that can actually run games, not just stream them.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/wnaiq6/just_took...
I did this recently and a fair number of the old games Just Worked on the steam deck.