I was going to wait for the Steam deck 2, but I ended up with having some extra money and decided to get it and I am not disappointed. I do hope that I won the Silicon Lottery though when I decide to overclock it
One thing to mention is the community support just for this device is incredible with all the guides, mods & accessories that fixes some of the downsides of the deck. It is the one invaluable things a handheld could have to have longevity over any other handhelds in the current market despite the advances in hardware.
The good thing with the steam deck is you can have a underpowered pc or laptop that you use for regular daily activities and have a steam deck for gaming
Being a lifetime Windows user/Playstation owner the switch to Linux has been straight forward and easy to figure out. The fact I can have all my gaming history on one device from arcade to PS2 is next level. This thing is a trouble free next level wonder device.
The steam deck is far from perfect but so far it has to be one of my favorite handheld devices ever. Even tho I haven’t done emulation on it, just being able to play the games I like on it on the go or if I feel like not sitting in my room is awesome. I really hope valve can hit home with the successor.
Dude. PS2, Wii, Wiiu, Switch and anything below that is free gain. It is so nice to go back to older games, take em on the go and that suspend feature is a God send.
steamdeck is the godsent for travel and for someone who can‘t play games for long because of busy schedule( i play for an hour a day on my comfy ass bed)
@@voidvoidvoid7274 Yup, exactly...I heard GameStop will be doing refurbished Steam Decks too just not sure if that's just a rumor but definitely sweetheart Valve is doing this!
yeah my uncle lives in Aus. I told him to get one sent to my nan's his mum's and pick it up when he comes over. He is here now. Don't know if he did.@@francistaylor1822
I gave my Switch to my best friend for her birthday and I'm now emulating it on my Deck ! Suuuch a better gaming experience and my friend is happy AF !
Proton is absolutely magic. The steam deck is such a fun device, and my first foray into Linux. It made me a believer that Linux is the future that games need to thrive. It's also always a good day when Alex has an upload
@@pftburchell5197I am not super intimate with Proton either, but as far as I understand, Proton is essentially a layer between Linux and the application (game) that fools the game into thinking it's being run on Windows. Like a translator for Windows > Linux.
Some years ago I switched to linux for coding and day to day stuff. I always dual booted windows for gaming but tbh? I didn't boot windows since maybe a year now. Everthing just runs, I even play apex with 300+fps. All indie titles run flawlessly. Even games like hogwarts legacy are no problem at all. It mostly just works. The only two games that won't run are fortnite and valorant, which would be nice, but I'm not gonna have a dual boot just for those. I see reason for windows anymore.
linux desktop use will keep stay 3% they never win windows with millions distros. they should make linuxOS and let user choose theme(distro wallpaper and extras) in one installation media. one linux not distros. windows has linux bash its fine for me. linux is bash not desktop
I got my Steam Deck early in the past Spring and despite my PC being significantly more powerful, I haven't even turned it on more than twice since then. There hasn't been a single game I've not been able to play on it, and being able to mod New Vegas through MO2 including running LODGen and even editing mods in FNVEdit to perfectly customize whatever I want has all but made my PC unnecessary. I was not expecting for it to become a near total replacement when I bought it.
Seems like I could learn a lot from you. Maybe u could do some quick tutorials? Anyway. TTW has been an absolute blast, outside of like the 3 day installation lol
@@jeremiahjohnson2784 That is very kind of you to say, but I'm afraid that anything I know already is covered with tutorials. I've just been modding the Bethesda games for so many years that I've come to know the stuff like the back of my hand; if there is anything in particular you need some help with though I'd gladly try to offer some advice? I actually have never done a TTW run, and have had it in the back of my mind for years. My current New Vegas mod count on Steam Deck is 332 lol though a significant amount of them are individual weapon animation replacers; I don't use any of the big packs (with the exception of Hit's animations for Another Millennia) because I like the work of different modders for different weapons and went through all of the weapons for which animations have been remade and covered the majority of them. Getting all of the animations to work properly with Drop Mag, B42 Optics, Simplified Weapon Retexture Project, the Iron Sights Alignment patches, etc took forever though. I also edited the Wasteland Floral Overhaul and the Groundcover mods to get rid of all of the cacti with flowers on them, which involved replacing meshes with blanks and using FNVEdit. I also updated a bunch of stuff that is outdated; for instance I was stubborn and clung to Nevada Skies for years because I just love the Western Skies cloud and coloring effects, which you can fine-tune in the MCM while in-game, but was having issues with bright horizons and horrific looking early morning brilliancy. I switched it out for Desert Natural Weathers and the Redux, with Night Sky Tweaks and MoonlightNVSE and the result is staggering. Anyway I'm very happy with my current loadout, it took nearly 3 weeks of frequent tweaking everything to work together and I managed to get it to where I can reliably play at 50 FPS (60 in all interiors and roughly half the time in the open worldspace) while using NMC, Poco Bueno, Micro Clutter, and around 40 or so individual mesh and texture replacers (I used to use the Small Collection of Textures mod but nearly half of those included I very much disliked so I trashed it and manually replaced only what I specifically like). If I were to turn the grass draw distance down I'd easily get 60 FPS near constantly, but going any lower than where I have it now practically makes using a grass mod pointless. It crashes after about an hour or two of playing if I'm staying in the exterior, and I have not been able to avoid this no matter what I've tried, so I can only assume it is a memory issue with the texture replacers (despite each of them being downgraded to performance size or 1k with a very few exceptions of 2k). If I could lock in more stability I'd be in heaven, but this is with using Viva New Vegas as a base and all of the latest utilities and bugfixes, NVTF, the 4GB patcher, etc.
The Steam Deck is just great and of course you should buy in 2023 and also next years too. It's just important to not have wrong expectations. A mobile gaming device can of course not run new demanding AAA games with ultra graphics at 60 fps. That would be a miracle. But for that you have your power pc at home. But even new demanding AAA games are running at a minimum of 30 fps on the steam deck. And older or emulated games will always run perfect. So yes sure there won't be a better mobile gaming pc. You can just put all your favourite games on the steam deck and take it with you everywhere.
Here's my story on why I ended up with a Steam Deck purchased in May 2023. The ROG Ally had been announced, and reviews were starting to pour in. At the same time, Asus was under fire for their motherboards causing death to some CPUs, and their PR screwed up big time. That actually wasn't a big factor in why I chose the Steam Deck though. No, biggest factor why I chose the Deck over the Ally was for the following reasons: - I want to support a Steam Deck 2 - I want Valve to continue to make handheld Gaming amazing with SteamOS - Valve's approach to repairability is insanely good (You could technically assemble your own Steam Deck via iFixit) - A base Deck + Dock + 1TB SSD was cheaper than the Ally, and a tad more than the top Steam Deck. For those reasons, the Deck won. I'm not using it as my primary gaming device, but going forwards, I no longer am carrying a gaming laptop.
You're gonna be waiting a while. Valve ain't one for rushing to make new tech. Could even be a couple of years at min. It's selling well and they're trying to perfect software. Still performs very well. Just like there vr headset. Best bang for your cash. Good, specs,visuals and cracking audio. When launched, best in vr audio. Still ain't got an index 2 lol. Htc Vive have probably released 12 in that time lol.
I'm loving the steam deck so far! I got it like February/March this year and I haven't regretted it at all. I saved up to get the middle grade one, I put a few large games on it, and the rest is just emulation. I can mod Skyrim to my hearts content. I can take it to my training classes and use it with my dock, keyboard, monitor, and mouse to do my homework. I can take it anywhere I go, and play it however I want. I love how valve offers parts so you can fix it yourself. Idk why it isn't required for all companies to provide parts. I use this system more than my home PC, switch, and Xbox s combined. I'm just mesmerized at how much this little thing can do!
There's a noticeable difference between the iFixIt screen and the preorder one of the 512 gb . I noticed it was brighter, and the colors were better. Repairing it was a thing, it wasn't overly difficult and it wasn't easy. It was tedious and time consuming but if you follow the guide you'll be fine. The fact that there are parts available is just amazing. It was what convinced my partner to buy hers. It's wonderful that we can play coop games or different games while cuddling on the couch is just how awesome the Deck is.
It most likely isn't an anti glare screen. 512gb are not as bright as the 256gb cos of the coating. I may change mine. If I knew about anti glare, I would of downgraded my order. Pre ordered in mins lol.
Alex, you should've mentioned that the deck is great for those on a budget that doesn't want to spend $700-1200 on a handheld. I own a deck by the way and loving the hell out of it
even mid range android phones can run any game emulator up to and including the ps3 at 30 fps or better thats FAR better than the steam deck can do and last I heard one of those and a razor kishi dont cost anywhere near 1000 bucks... or steam deck's 500 for that matter...
@@aa-tx7th You can literally go on UA-cam and watch videos from this week of the steam deck running Cyberpunk 2077 on 40 fps on default settings without plugins (which greatly increase performance). But it can’t run PS3 games at 30? The switch can do that… Why lie?
The STEAM DECK is my go to as well. My office and rig see me less and it's now mostly a MSFS set up now. I love my Deck and would get the next gen without question. Every game that is Proton compatible works and others if you tinker, haven't had graphics hold any game back yet, Backlog killer! That bezel is definitely a 1st gen trait. Playing AAA and only lasting 1.5 to 2 hours isn't a problem I do not have game sessions longer than that anyway and if they are I just save/cloud save and continue on my rig.
I don't regret getting a steam deck. This device is absolutely phenomenal in my opinion. I've been following your guides on "how-to" anything steam deck and everything has turned out well for me. Thanks bruh!!!
I love my Steam Deck so much. As a Capcom/Sega/Retro gamer, its everything I want and much more. I really hope Proton becomes a bigger and better beast as the years go on so I can finally be released from the shackles of Windows. It's almost there!!!
The steam deck is a great handheld at that $400 and $530 price range. The Rog Ally makes the $650 model obsolete in my opinion but the power you get at the $400 price tag is Amazing.
@@jedinetwork9985 I get that and I don't have 100% faith in any company to look out for the customer. The thing that I am seeing with ASUS so far is they have been putting out updates that have been beneficial and they have been implementing changes that the community has asked for. They haven't been great with communication but they haven't been horrible they at least let people know they are aware of a problem but they are radio silent until they think they have a fix for it. If people like and buy the ALLY I suspect they will support it fairly well from what I have seen so far.
Buy a 64 gig version if you are willing to open it up and upgrade it to 512 gigs and beyond... buy a 512 if you really dont like the idea of opening it up.
@@ViestaI'd recommend getting a proper PC repair kit if you're going to take it apart. So you have the right screw driver heads, spudgers and tweezers. I put a 2TB SSD into my Deck a few hours ago and I have to say the IFixit kit made the whole process much much easier in terms of having the right tools, especially the spudger for getting the clips in the shell to unhook and the magnetic screw driver heads for the eight screws you have to take out of it.
It's been almost a year since the Steamdeck arrived at my front door. Considering that I'm in Western Australia, that's pretty important to me. However I've never had any luck with the official Holo/SteamOS. Currently running ChimeraOS and finding it to be the blessing I needed. I've been a Linux nerd for most of my life now. It's been an exciting ride, and a slow build.
Just want to give some advice. I bought one of these last week instead of the ROG ally. And 100% it was the best decision. If there are any setbacks theres always a solution. I mainly play emulators, euro truck sim, project zomboid and some classic games on the deck but then i use xbox cloud gaming to play hundreds of xbox games like gta online, halo, sea of theves, doom and all the fallout games. When it comes to pc games like modded gta RP, five days to die, garrysmod, tarkov and stalker gamma I use shadow PC which I spend £30 a month for. This allows you to have a full high end windows gaming PC through an application on your deck. Now the issue with cloud gaming is usually latency but the trackpad and gyro is an absaloute game changer. Aiming and shooting over cloud through the trackpad is so perfect and you can map all 4 buttons, trackpad buttons with any game too so if I play gta over xbox cloud gaming i only need to hold one of the back buttons and it auto turbos the A button so I no longer need to spam A to sprint. Little things like this is what sold it to me compare to the ally. Yes you can play more on the ally without the cloud but your restricted to joysticks only which is horrible when you compare to trackpads and gyro
Really poor ergonomics compared to the Steam Deck, rushed buggy design confirmed by lots of reviews, laggier interface, worse joysticks, some gaming sessions lasting under 45 mins compared to the Steam Deck running GoW at 1 hour and 30 mins and others up to 8 hours, susceptibility to stick drift compared to the Deck, less overall inputs compared to the Deck that feel much worse, much higher price point which could've been used to get you 1512 GB of storage if you've gotten the most expensive Deck and a 1 TB SD for it, worse case compared to Steam Deck's, no pause button like the deck has, the Rog Ally just makes noise while for the Deck you can actually hear clear sound with a volume range that'd make anyone happy, it's the best to save your money and get the Deck ^^
Ally has gyro, if you're like me, and play AAA games pretty much exclusively , Ally is the right choice. Its not perfect, nor do I claim it to be. I based my choice on what's important to me, higher quality screen, higher resolution, compatibility with AAA titles. for those who emulate mostly, id say its a wash. for those who just want to turn on and play, then get the steam deck.
I love my Steam Deck, get to play so many great games on traveling days. Plus with a "Dock" I can slap it on my big screen and play the games on the big screen. Though I only really play older/retro or indie games on it.
The game changer for me as a Steam Decker owner is how seamless remote playing from my PC to my Steam Deck is. Literally just have my Steam (on my PC) turned on, and it works like magic in the deck. It's very responsive and I very rarely notice hiccups while I stream it. It's an exceptional feature as someone who seats wholeday while working, and just wanna game on my bed afterwards either w/ graphics heavy AAA games via remoteplay, or indie games. These seamless and convenient feature plus the great battery life (as compared to competitor handhelds) of the Steam Deck is why I just gave my ROG Ally (while an exceptional handheld) to my sibling instead.
My gaming laptop is my desktop. ASUS Rog. Ryzen 9. RTX 3060. 16Gbs. ram. QHD/ 165 HZ screen. Only came with a 500Gb SSD. I added a 2TB SSD. Down falls of a laptop this powerful. On the go it gets about 30 minutes of game time on the battery with a heavy graphics game. Simple games like Minecraft gets about 1 1/2 hours. Not a very good portable.
It blows my mind how valve got so much right with the deck and still gets so much crap. Whilst other companies get so much wrong and peeps still support them.
A fantastic video, I have a deck and have upgraded the drive to a 1tb but haven't dived very deep into what I can do. You've inspired me to have a good play around and get a little deeper. I am off Friday so will have a good look then
I legit just had to pawn my steam deck instead of my 2,000 laptop because the pawn shop said laptops are not selling, and steam decks turn over rate has never been anything but same day.. meaning... they sell the same day they are placed on the shelf... they said will do 200$ on the rog zeph m16 laptop.. and will do 300$ on the Steam deck. 6 months ago I said steam decks were going to destroy the gaming laptop market.. and this absolutely confirms it for me.
For the price on sale I think is ok for many ppl. Personally if I want to play on the go I use m phone for emulation or xcloud with kishi. I hope valve to create a steam deck 2 in a Mac mini or backbone pcs form factor without a display for the tv or monitor.
Glad I saw this video. Didn't know much about Steam Deck, and think because of all the other random platforms coming to market, like Stadia, and I think nVidia had something, Steam Deck kinda fell into the background for me. I grew up gaming on PC, and the missus also likes PC gaming; problem is, over the years our rigs have become completely outdated, and buying two formidable newer rigs so we can both play at same time, can be kinda pricey. We also like gaming on our XBox Ones, and were toying with the idea of upgrade to Series, but not fans of having to surrender so much storage space, with really expensive upgrades, while both our consoles already have external HDDs (ginormous WD-Black on each). Not to mention, ABK trial revealed new consoles in 5 years anyways. So then we thought, maybe PC, but again, price for two systems. This may be a great solution however; I love Linux, love emulation, love tinkering, love optimizing, love modding. Guess three primary things I'm still going to research are: 1. Can WoW play on Steam Deck. (Missus LOVES WoW, and I wouldn't mind playing it again.) EDIT: LOL, first vid found in search results on this, was YOURS, thanks bro! 😎 2. Can Steam Deck hook to TV with either cables or BlueTooth. (Would love to be able to quick-link it [BT] to my LG 75" UHD 120hz SmartTV, and game on reclining couch.) EDIT: Researched == Possible with cable or Steam Link. (Turns out it can also be docked with a keyboard and mouse.) 3. Can games run mods on Steam Deck. (Been wanting to run GTA4 with LSPD [police] mod, along with Real Life mod. Also thought ~maybe~ GTA5, but R* kinda beat that horse so much, dunno. Was thinking of testing GTA4 with those mods on my older PCs, which should maybe run okay-ish, but as said in video, that whole need to be locked down and sequestered.) 🤠 EDIT: Researched == Possible with some tinkering.
I've only had the Steam Deck since June 2023, but so far I really like it. My Steam Deck does have an issue though. I can't put mine to sleep or else the audio will stop working. I have to do a complete shut down every time I stop playing it. I have the 64GB version with a 1 terabyte Micro SD card, but can only have a few games installed because the shaders take up so much space on the 64GB SSD. I plan on buying 1 or 2 Terbyte SSD so that problem shouldn't last long. Also I'm hoping that when I reinstall the Steam OS whenever I buy the new SSD that the audio issue will fix. So far my favorite thing about the Deck is customization with the plugins. I have the Switch theme and added small gifs that I turned into Webp files as the game Icons. I've always wanted animated game icons since the PS Vita and now I can do that.
Everything you said in this video about the pros and the cons of the Steam Deck is actually why the ROG Ally has become my handheld of choice in 2023. I installed a 2TB SSD in my Ally and it was easier than on the Steam Deck. I can play those AAA games and still get a good framerate. Battery life isn't an issue for me because I mostly play unplugged at work on my breaks. When I am home, I am mostly plugged in, sometimes docked to a monitor. I also have the eGPU for 1440p/4K High/Ultra gaming. When I am out and about, on a long car ride, etc., I can drop the wattage to 15w and get about 1.5 hours which is more than enough for me. There is also this thing called a power bank if you want to extend your game time while away from home which I rarely use. I have responsibilities and can't play games for hours on end. Which is why these handhelds work so well for me. I can squeeze gaming in anywhere I happen to be and when I can find time. I don't have to worry about compatibility or a verification process because Windows is compatible with every game. Windows vs Linux: I actually prefer Windows because freedom. I can do the same things on my handheld that I can do on my desktop PC. I have Windows on my Steam Deck (dual boot), my Ayaneo and my ROG Ally. The Ally also has a beautiful jaw dropping 1080p 120 Hz screen (and yes the 120 Hz is useful for a lot of games) with vibrant colors and VRR, which makes the Steam Deck look like your playing on an old black and white TV. Not to mention, PS Remote play works much better on the Ally compared to the Steam Deck because of Wifi6. Haven't tried emulation but I have heard it is better on the Ally also. Don't get me wrong. Still love my Steam Deck and I would still recommend it to others. But my Steam Deck has been collecting dust since I got the Ally. Just being honest.
Yet windows is complete utter gash as a handheld OS. Desktop Linux is crap too btw. I don't want to deal with windowisms when I want to just pick up game and set it down. Especially when mobile. The three things that prevent me from buying an Ally are the SD card destroying issues, Windows being a desktop OS designed for M+K, (do not dock at all) and the battery not being at all matched to the APU power levels. 40W is no where near enough for that APU.
Really poor ergonomics compared to the Steam Deck, rushed buggy design confirmed by lots of reviews, laggier interface, worse joysticks, some gaming sessions lasting under 45 mins compared to the Steam Deck running GoW at 1 hour and 30 mins and others up to 8 hours, susceptibility to stick drift compared to the Deck, less overall inputs compared to the Deck that feel much worse, much higher price point which could've been used to get you 1512 GB of storage if you've gotten the most expensive Deck and a 1 TB SD for it, worse case compared to Steam Deck's, no pause button like the deck has, the Rog Ally just makes noise while for the Deck you can actually hear clear sound with a volume range that'd make anyone happy, the Deck is superior in every way
Just got mine last month. it plays fallout 3 and 4. As an old school metal gear fan I was excited to see death stranding on it as well. There is more then enough games in the verified section to keep me happy until the wheels fall off or a decent enough upgrade comes along. For now I'm all in.
My only hold up is making sure the games I want to play like Halo MCC and Infinite. And the upcoming War of the Worlds. As long as they work, I'm almost willing to say goodbye to my PC.
Im in the same boat as alex, its difficult for me to sit and play games. Steam deck has allowed me to play RE4, hi fi rush, dead space, red dead 2 (again), baldurs gate 3, guardians of the galaxy, Prey, power wash sim, roller drome, project wingman, six days in fallujah, alan wake, control, doom eternal, elden ring, hogwarts legacy, max payne 3, metro exodus, etc.
I’ve had a heck of an experience with the Deck since I bought it in November of last year. Yuzu emulation is golden and Emudeck made emulation that much better, mostly use it for emulation but i have beaten Deus Ex mankind divided and Bioshock and both ran flawlessly at 40fps high settings at 800p
Sold it after 3 days. It's a good start but it needs more power and a much better screen. After a superior screen revision then I'll probably pick it up.
The bezel argument always confuses me. Unless your running a multi monitor setup than bezels don't matter. Its just where the screen ends. And an OLED would drain the battery faster. Id prefer more battery than a better screen but I don't own any 4k screens so that's never been a big draw for me.
I repasted my Steam decks APU with Thermaltake T4 I think it's called. A video I saw recommended it and as mine was hitting 90 degrees a lot of the time I did it. And now don't go above 83 -84 degrees which is nice. So I recommend that.
It’s literally a PC… anything that is optimized for PC operating systems is optimized for it. It all comes down to hardware limitations since it’s much smaller than a desktop computer or even a laptop
2 handhelds have absolutely lit the modding community, the Steam Deck and the Miyoo Mini. Both fantastic devices and both affordable for their markets.
I chose Steam Deck over ASUS Rog Ally, and personally I am loving it. Most of my PC games are from Steam, and some GOG games I can manually install and play MK Trilogy PC Edition without trouble (just a little work around due without the need of installing Windows). Otherwise, I am pleased to play Elden Ring and modded Skyrim on the go.
I got a Steam Deck around April in April and love it. I've been playing through a lot of PC games and trying games I had that I probabal wouldn't have checked out in a while. Now I tend to buy a game for PC over PlayStation, Xbox or Switch, if it's Steam Compatible. I just wish it was easier for it to play other games like The Division, for example. Or games from EPIC, without the extra work.
I am a father like u Alex and I have been considering buying a SteamDeck for a while but I never had space on my budget to get one. Now that I have a little bit more room ,and with the Valve certified refurbished ones, I might finally buy one but I am concerned with the quality. Any thoughts?
Got mine this year during the Spring Sale, and was finally able to start playing it about a month ago. I love it! It may not be a powerhouse like the Ally, but it helps me go through my backlog and play so many great games from my bed or on the dock through my TV. For any other AAA games, I'll just play them on my PS5. I even convinced my friend to get one, and he ended up getting one for his brother as well; they both love it! Just need to find a way to cool the system, it gets hot even when playing lower spec games.
I personally dock it to my TV and it works incredibly well. Just like using a regular desktop PC. Major difference is that you're on Linux but that is honestly not a problem.
I love Steam Deck but imagine this: you are hyped for a game, let's say Texas Chain Saw Massacre for no reason at all. You wait for the release and when it comes out..... it doesn't work. What options do you have? 1. Buy a console but if you bought Steam Deck that means you don't want to have anything with them (or you just wanted to play new games on a handheld) 2. Buy a pc.... Which i probably should do but anyways, PC is expensive and many people (i'm many, hi) bought the Deck to have cheap PC so kinda cringe 3. Wait for the patch that will make linux compatable which can be long time or not, it's an RNG 4. My favorite option, Proton Summary:.... Consoles suck and fuck paid online (ye it doesn't have anything to do with the thing i was talking)
I like how you gave multiple answers, not just a "yes" or a "no" to weather or not you should buy it, but also took into consideration the type of player or person looking for it. Very nice content. I have also had mine for a couple months now, and i enjoy it. its nice to be able to play on the go. I am really big into the single player first person shooters and story heavy games, so having them more on the go is excelent. and if i want to play at home, i dont have to buy the game again for the laptop, just have it installed and steam auto syncs most progress through games, (some do not do cloud save as of yet though) but it has handled most games i have thrown at it already.
I have been a Linux gamer for the past few years now. I always want to promote adoption of Linux and other open source software however the Steam Deck is not sold in my country. I finally bit the bullet and paid to get one imported a few weeks ago. Sure, I ended up paying a lot more to get it imported but I absolutely love this thing so far. I am willing to pay the extra because I want Valve to know that I love what they did here and I want to see more innovation like this in the future. I am not normally a controller gamer however I must say the controls on this thing feel pretty premium (With the exception of the back paddles which I find a bit hard to use but that may just be me). I love that I have the freedom to do basically whatever I want on my own device. If I want to be able to install windows on it for some reason, I can. If I want to SSH into my steam deck, I can. If I want to run windows applications on my steam deck with Wine, I can. This thing is great.
This thing is great, I got to play Jedi Fallen Order and Doom Eternal in school and on a road trip. I used Decky Loader to customize big picture mode. Hell Heroic Games Launcher let me install Rocket League (though I can't play it offline for some reason). What really suprised me is that retro shooters play pretty nice on this thing. I played Half-Life Opposing Force and Doom 2 on this thing and resumed on my desktop. However Proton isn't perfect. Direct 3D 8 games don't seem to work too great. Granted I only tried Metal Gear Solid 2 from GOG.
I recently got mine, its actually refreshing to actually be able to play modded Minecraft(had java edition for years, but couldn't ever play it cause my old pc was a potato)
Like you, I am a dad (3 kids born between 2015-2019) and the Steam Deck has been another great addition to my portable library. I really agree with everything you said about positives and negatives. I have had mine since April 2022 and it has been incredible for portable PC gaming.
Got my deck during the steam summer sale. 64gb verson for 359. Soon as i received it i swapped the ssd to a 1tb. Absolutely worth it. With many of Alex's dislikes about the SD being valid, it is still a great experience. So if you really want to get a SD in 2023 i say dont hesitate and get yourself one.
I'm a parent of a kid with severe autism that needs round the clock attention. I went from a psvita to a switch and I loved the switch but I do love the steam deck just a bit more. I also love the wave of emulator consoles like the miyoo mini and the anbernic stuff. It's an amazing time for handheld gaming b
Yeah, the deck verified system doesn't instill a lot of confidence. In my experience, there are a ton of games listed as "Playable" that run and feel perfect on the Deck but have marks against them for something bullshit like entering text using the on screen keyboard. For example, Monster Hunter World which runs really good on the Deck and was designed to be played with a freakin controller! I guess any game with text chat gets that notch. For the most part, I haven't had any issues with games that have the green check with notable exception: the Spyro Reignited Trilogy had a bug where the cutscenes played in a foreign language. I think it got fixed eventually but c'mon. That being said, I daily drive Linux and proton works beautifully for most of my games. Only a few lesser known games really have issues.
Personally think for the money the 64 GB is the best value and is what I am getting and you can often find on sale for 10% off. However while the ROG Alley may perform better the one thing I think that should be considered is the long term support this is likely to receive. The 64GB model is also half the amount if not more depending on what your sales tax rate is. Edit: In addition the steam deck has alot more support for fixing or repareing than the rog alley which is always a nice bonus. Both are good but I think it really just depends on how much you want to spend and if you care about the sofware.
i just got one and my reason for getting it was well mostly steam because i already have tons of games, but also the freedom it gives you being basically a handheld PC and Valve being in support of DIY repairs.
I've been saving for a "gaming computer" for a while, but am kind of broke. All my research into cheapest gaming PC keeps bringing me back to here. Thanks for the video. I just wanna play Vernal Edge (should be easy), and BG3 (my worry).
Recently gotten my own steamdeck, and im bloody lovin it. Its more expensive over here due to currency but thats beside the point I like to play games on the go and my selection are hardly triple A, mostly playing stuffs like Project Diva Mega Mix and God eater3 and emulating a certain console games. Its great to kill time on the go and on the bed when i dont feel like sititng up and facing my pc/laptop, and its certainly an amazing device to have despite the shortcomings it has.
People seem to think that calling it a console is a bad thing. I see it as a great thing. It's a PC if you want it to be or it's a console if you want it to be. I recently put together a gaming PC running a variant of steam OS and we're using like a console hooked up to our 4k living room TV. The fact that you can confidently navigate the OS with just a controller is the missing link for Windows.
I love my steam deck. I've had the mid steam deck with a 1tb SD card for over a year now. So cool that I can play diablo 2 3 and 4 in my car on lunch then play that same character on my pc at home after work. I have no clue how to emulate nintendo tho. I don't regret my deck but in the bright light can be tough. In all pretty good.
I know it’s a mote point for most but I live off grind and having the steam deck has been the best way for me to manage my power and still play computer games all the time but I can’t use my tower without using a generator.
I don't play too many AAA games on deck but stuff like Horizon 4 can run at 40fps, mid settings at 10 watt for 3.5 hours. That is more than fine to me. I don't want a 120hz screen for the next steam deck. 60hz is enough and 120 will just eat that battery more. I want an oled screen, better battery and stronger hardware.
Valve and Uncle Gabe need a round of applause, OK I've lapsed into being a casual gamer with age admittedly, I have Risk of Rain 2 and Snow Runner installed on the Deck and haven't even played them yet. I've managed to rack up over 300 hours on Borderlands 2 and the Steam Deck has performed well in 4 player game sessions, PC gaming without the interference of Windows is sublime, Kudos to Steam.
I haven’t had the chance or money to get a Steam Deck, but it is on my radar when I am able to get one. I see them all the time on Facebook Market place for about how much you can get it brand new which makes no sense. I see people state that they played it once and selling it for full price hoping they would get the money they wasted on it back. It is nice to know buying the 64 GB model’s SSD can be upgraded which I was unaware that was possible so it seems like I could have a Steam Deck with say 2 TB of SSD storage for example and not even worry with an SD card. It’s food for thought.
I ordered a 512Gb refurbished one to try it out... more interested in the GameCube and Switch emulation over the PC stuff, but might give Baldur's Gate 3 a shot. If I don't feel the upgraded screen it worth it, I'll return the unit and maybe wait for Steam Deck 2nd Gen to see what's improved.
My daily goal: wake up, workout, read Bible, eat, work, chores, all while being a dad and husband. The steam deck allows me to lay in bed a get my daily dose of gaming while the family is sleeping, and gaming on the go.
@16:22 I have been crawling down all the possible and credible rabbit holes on this Steam Deck..... and I have very high hopes as what you said marks my feels quite nicely. Cheers fam! Great review and down to earth as well. Very easy to digest for us "boomers"
I've had my Steam Deck for about a year as well, it was an absolute lifesaver post-knee surgery. Just for that, and also being a fairly decent portable workstation, I can't recommend it enough
As someone who has a ROG Ally, I strongly disagree about the comment made about the Ally. Yes, the early software sucked but those were the early review sample software. On release, the only true issue it had was it wasn't turboing as fast as it could but performance was still good, and better when it got patched. Biggest Benefit for the Deck over the Ally is the software has been matured plus the nice trackpads. (Also the case) The Ally is just suffering the same issues the Deck had on release which is software maturity. Minus the SD card reader being a faulty on a lot of products. Also, the Ally can run Linux which is pretty neat. Now that Im done rambling about how awesome my Ally is lmao I can really go on about the pros and cons of both but Ill stick with the video title for now. I agree 100% with everything you've said, the product is a godsend for anyone who loves to light/medium game without expecting AAA gwaphics. I tend to play a TON of JRPGs/Turn base games on my Ally since I can crank down the power to extend battery life and since I play like a 2 year old on the sticks. MnK for life. Emulators is probably the biggest reason to get a Deck or an Ally, both being powerful enough to emulate Switch or PS2 and down games at damn near max settings at 60fps. As a fan of Digimon games, this was my biggest highlight for owning a gaming handheld. And to answer why everyone keeps calling it a console, to make it sound more approachable and fits with how the software is designed. Designed in a way where it kinda works like the consoles in terms of ease of use. I call it a Handheld PC since its just a laptop with a controller attached instead of a keyboard. In the end, it truly does depend on what you want to do with the Steamdeck that will justify its purchase. Do you find yourself wanting to game but put in a position that you cant leave? Do you find yourself wanting to play easy to run games but your PC is outputting so much heat because its summer and you would rather not cook yourself alive? The steamdeck is amazing, especially now, where you can buy a refurbished one for an amazing price. TLDR: My Ally is Awesome, you suck Alex Many reasons to buy a Deck, just need to see if it fits you Nows the best time to buy one since the refurbished ones are cheap and probably good as new.
The answer is yes. Even without watching the video. Now I'll watch it.
^
100%
same
I was going to wait for the Steam deck 2, but I ended up with having some extra money and decided to get it and I am not disappointed. I do hope that I won the Silicon Lottery though when I decide to overclock it
I hear the refurbished decks are goin for 320! Sign me up!
One thing to mention is the community support just for this device is incredible with all the guides, mods & accessories that fixes some of the downsides of the deck. It is the one invaluable things a handheld could have to have longevity over any other handhelds in the current market despite the advances in hardware.
I don’t have a PC, but the nice thing about my Steam Deck is if I do get a full PC, I won’t have to rebuy any of those games on Steam.
The good thing with the steam deck is you can have a underpowered pc or laptop that you use for regular daily activities and have a steam deck for gaming
I think the Steam Deck is an amazing way to get started in PC gaming.
A agree with you. I’m also 40 and a father and my gaming has gone up dramatically and saved my sanity a little 😅
Busy mom of 3 here and I love my Steam Deck! I've had it for a little over a year now and am able to game more because of it.
Being a lifetime Windows user/Playstation owner the switch to Linux has been straight forward and easy to figure out. The fact I can have all my gaming history on one device from arcade to PS2 is next level. This thing is a trouble free next level wonder device.
The steam deck is far from perfect but so far it has to be one of my favorite handheld devices ever. Even tho I haven’t done emulation on it, just being able to play the games I like on it on the go or if I feel like not sitting in my room is awesome. I really hope valve can hit home with the successor.
I think the reason its so good is steam itself and the experience on gaming your existing titles on a handheld without much fuss
Dude, the Wii emulator is sooooo fun!! Dead rising and manhunt!!! 🗿🗿
Dude. PS2, Wii, Wiiu, Switch and anything below that is free gain. It is so nice to go back to older games, take em on the go and that suspend feature is a God send.
steamdeck is the godsent for travel and for someone who can‘t play games for long because of busy schedule( i play for an hour a day on my comfy ass bed)
I have a rp3+ for emulation, steam deck for pc titles and xbox series for console
Valve are now officially offering certified refurbished Steam Decks on their website as low as $319 to $519 depending on the storage model you get!
grumble grumble still not officially out in Aus
What better certification than one that comes from the manufacturer itself ? This is sooo cool fr ! 😊
@@francistaylor1822 Yeah I know if sucks right now but hopefully that will be coming soon!
@@voidvoidvoid7274 Yup, exactly...I heard GameStop will be doing refurbished Steam Decks too just not sure if that's just a rumor but definitely sweetheart Valve is doing this!
yeah my uncle lives in Aus. I told him to get one sent to my nan's his mum's and pick it up when he comes over. He is here now. Don't know if he did.@@francistaylor1822
I absolutely love the steam deck, it's an amazing excellent handheld for indie games and especially emulating old games i.e SNES, GBA and PSone games
I gave my Switch to my best friend for her birthday and I'm now emulating it on my Deck ! Suuuch a better gaming experience and my friend is happy AF !
I even had some ps3 games working too. i was playing silent hill downpour for a little a few weeks back.
GameCube and PS2 games also run great on it, definitely one of my fav handhelds of all time!
Get a laptop
why?@@armyspy9797
Proton is absolutely magic. The steam deck is such a fun device, and my first foray into Linux.
It made me a believer that Linux is the future that games need to thrive.
It's also always a good day when Alex has an upload
Can you explain to me what Proton is. Is it an operating system like Linux or a program that you run to make certain games play?
@@pftburchell5197I am not super intimate with Proton either, but as far as I understand, Proton is essentially a layer between Linux and the application (game) that fools the game into thinking it's being run on Windows.
Like a translator for Windows > Linux.
@@mbazoka Ahh ok, thank you. That makes perfect sense.
Some years ago I switched to linux for coding and day to day stuff. I always dual booted windows for gaming but tbh? I didn't boot windows since maybe a year now. Everthing just runs, I even play apex with 300+fps. All indie titles run flawlessly. Even games like hogwarts legacy are no problem at all. It mostly just works. The only two games that won't run are fortnite and valorant, which would be nice, but I'm not gonna have a dual boot just for those. I see reason for windows anymore.
linux desktop use will keep stay 3% they never win windows with millions distros. they should make linuxOS and let user choose theme(distro wallpaper and extras) in one installation media. one linux not distros. windows has linux bash its fine for me. linux is bash not desktop
I got my Steam Deck early in the past Spring and despite my PC being significantly more powerful, I haven't even turned it on more than twice since then. There hasn't been a single game I've not been able to play on it, and being able to mod New Vegas through MO2 including running LODGen and even editing mods in FNVEdit to perfectly customize whatever I want has all but made my PC unnecessary. I was not expecting for it to become a near total replacement when I bought it.
Seems like I could learn a lot from you. Maybe u could do some quick tutorials? Anyway. TTW has been an absolute blast, outside of like the 3 day installation lol
@@jeremiahjohnson2784 That is very kind of you to say, but I'm afraid that anything I know already is covered with tutorials. I've just been modding the Bethesda games for so many years that I've come to know the stuff like the back of my hand; if there is anything in particular you need some help with though I'd gladly try to offer some advice?
I actually have never done a TTW run, and have had it in the back of my mind for years. My current New Vegas mod count on Steam Deck is 332 lol though a significant amount of them are individual weapon animation replacers; I don't use any of the big packs (with the exception of Hit's animations for Another Millennia) because I like the work of different modders for different weapons and went through all of the weapons for which animations have been remade and covered the majority of them.
Getting all of the animations to work properly with Drop Mag, B42 Optics, Simplified Weapon Retexture Project, the Iron Sights Alignment patches, etc took forever though. I also edited the Wasteland Floral Overhaul and the Groundcover mods to get rid of all of the cacti with flowers on them, which involved replacing meshes with blanks and using FNVEdit. I also updated a bunch of stuff that is outdated; for instance I was stubborn and clung to Nevada Skies for years because I just love the Western Skies cloud and coloring effects, which you can fine-tune in the MCM while in-game, but was having issues with bright horizons and horrific looking early morning brilliancy. I switched it out for Desert Natural Weathers and the Redux, with Night Sky Tweaks and MoonlightNVSE and the result is staggering.
Anyway I'm very happy with my current loadout, it took nearly 3 weeks of frequent tweaking everything to work together and I managed to get it to where I can reliably play at 50 FPS (60 in all interiors and roughly half the time in the open worldspace) while using NMC, Poco Bueno, Micro Clutter, and around 40 or so individual mesh and texture replacers (I used to use the Small Collection of Textures mod but nearly half of those included I very much disliked so I trashed it and manually replaced only what I specifically like). If I were to turn the grass draw distance down I'd easily get 60 FPS near constantly, but going any lower than where I have it now practically makes using a grass mod pointless. It crashes after about an hour or two of playing if I'm staying in the exterior, and I have not been able to avoid this no matter what I've tried, so I can only assume it is a memory issue with the texture replacers (despite each of them being downgraded to performance size or 1k with a very few exceptions of 2k). If I could lock in more stability I'd be in heaven, but this is with using Viva New Vegas as a base and all of the latest utilities and bugfixes, NVTF, the 4GB patcher, etc.
I’m excited to try it out
The Steam Deck is just great and of course you should buy in 2023 and also next years too. It's just important to not have wrong expectations. A mobile gaming device can of course not run new demanding AAA games with ultra graphics at 60 fps. That would be a miracle. But for that you have your power pc at home. But even new demanding AAA games are running at a minimum of 30 fps on the steam deck. And older or emulated games will always run perfect. So yes sure there won't be a better mobile gaming pc. You can just put all your favourite games on the steam deck and take it with you everywhere.
Here's my story on why I ended up with a Steam Deck purchased in May 2023.
The ROG Ally had been announced, and reviews were starting to pour in. At the same time, Asus was under fire for their motherboards causing death to some CPUs, and their PR screwed up big time. That actually wasn't a big factor in why I chose the Steam Deck though.
No, biggest factor why I chose the Deck over the Ally was for the following reasons:
- I want to support a Steam Deck 2
- I want Valve to continue to make handheld Gaming amazing with SteamOS
- Valve's approach to repairability is insanely good (You could technically assemble your own Steam Deck via iFixit)
- A base Deck + Dock + 1TB SSD was cheaper than the Ally, and a tad more than the top Steam Deck.
For those reasons, the Deck won. I'm not using it as my primary gaming device, but going forwards, I no longer am carrying a gaming laptop.
I’m holding out for the Steam Deck 2. Always good to see how the first iteration of something goes. Been impressed so far.
Ditto. Even if they just release the same one with OLED, I'm in.
Switch 2 when? .... gonna be awhile for a deck 2 just get one or buy used
@@emanuelarriaza3710that will take almost 2 years. Next one will probably have 8inch + faster igpu. No oled.
You're gonna be waiting a while. Valve ain't one for rushing to make new tech. Could even be a couple of years at min. It's selling well and they're trying to perfect software. Still performs very well. Just like there vr headset. Best bang for your cash. Good, specs,visuals and cracking audio. When launched, best in vr audio. Still ain't got an index 2 lol. Htc Vive have probably released 12 in that time lol.
Not OP but oh I can wait. There's lots of backlogs and ways to play already.
I just bought one for $256 after taxes it’s 64gb but I had a 1tb ssd NVMe sitting home😊
I'm loving the steam deck so far! I got it like February/March this year and I haven't regretted it at all. I saved up to get the middle grade one, I put a few large games on it, and the rest is just emulation. I can mod Skyrim to my hearts content. I can take it to my training classes and use it with my dock, keyboard, monitor, and mouse to do my homework. I can take it anywhere I go, and play it however I want.
I love how valve offers parts so you can fix it yourself. Idk why it isn't required for all companies to provide parts. I use this system more than my home PC, switch, and Xbox s combined. I'm just mesmerized at how much this little thing can do!
There's a noticeable difference between the iFixIt screen and the preorder one of the 512 gb . I noticed it was brighter, and the colors were better. Repairing it was a thing, it wasn't overly difficult and it wasn't easy. It was tedious and time consuming but if you follow the guide you'll be fine. The fact that there are parts available is just amazing. It was what convinced my partner to buy hers. It's wonderful that we can play coop games or different games while cuddling on the couch is just how awesome the Deck is.
It most likely isn't an anti glare screen. 512gb are not as bright as the 256gb cos of the coating. I may change mine. If I knew about anti glare, I would of downgraded my order. Pre ordered in mins lol.
@@13guns87 Nope, it's the anti-glare etched glass replacement screen.
Alex, you should've mentioned that the deck is great for those on a budget that doesn't want to spend $700-1200 on a handheld. I own a deck by the way and loving the hell out of it
even mid range android phones can run any game emulator up to and including the ps3 at 30 fps or better
thats FAR better than the steam deck can do and last I heard one of those and a razor kishi dont cost anywhere near 1000 bucks...
or steam deck's 500 for that matter...
@@aa-tx7th You can literally go on UA-cam and watch videos from this week of the steam deck running Cyberpunk 2077 on 40 fps on default settings without plugins (which greatly increase performance). But it can’t run PS3 games at 30? The switch can do that… Why lie?
The STEAM DECK is my go to as well. My office and rig see me less and it's now mostly a MSFS set up now. I love my Deck and would get the next gen without question. Every game that is Proton compatible works and others if you tinker, haven't had graphics hold any game back yet, Backlog killer! That bezel is definitely a 1st gen trait. Playing AAA and only lasting 1.5 to 2 hours isn't a problem I do not have game sessions longer than that anyway and if they are I just save/cloud save and continue on my rig.
Fahrenheit Indigo prophecy runs so damn good.
I don't regret getting a steam deck. This device is absolutely phenomenal in my opinion. I've been following your guides on "how-to" anything steam deck and everything has turned out well for me. Thanks bruh!!!
I love my Steam Deck so much. As a Capcom/Sega/Retro gamer, its everything I want and much more. I really hope Proton becomes a bigger and better beast as the years go on so I can finally be released from the shackles of Windows. It's almost there!!!
The steam deck is a great handheld at that $400 and $530 price range. The Rog Ally makes the $650 model obsolete in my opinion but the power you get at the $400 price tag is Amazing.
main thing i worry with rog ally is support and the community cuz specs are not everything
@@jedinetwork9985 I get that and I don't have 100% faith in any company to look out for the customer. The thing that I am seeing with ASUS so far is they have been putting out updates that have been beneficial and they have been implementing changes that the community has asked for. They haven't been great with communication but they haven't been horrible they at least let people know they are aware of a problem but they are radio silent until they think they have a fix for it. If people like and buy the ALLY I suspect they will support it fairly well from what I have seen so far.
Agree with everything you said. That said, i love the Steam Deck!
Would love to see a buying guide in the future since I have NEVER bought any kind of hardware from steam before. :)
Buy a 64 gig version if you are willing to open it up and upgrade it to 512 gigs and beyond... buy a 512 if you really dont like the idea of opening it up.
Pretty simple really, if gaming on Linux is what you want to do the buy AMD, from a Linux vendor. Avoid Windows machines.
@@ViestaI'd recommend getting a proper PC repair kit if you're going to take it apart. So you have the right screw driver heads, spudgers and tweezers. I put a 2TB SSD into my Deck a few hours ago and I have to say the IFixit kit made the whole process much much easier in terms of having the right tools, especially the spudger for getting the clips in the shell to unhook and the magnetic screw driver heads for the eight screws you have to take out of it.
It's been almost a year since the Steamdeck arrived at my front door. Considering that I'm in Western Australia, that's pretty important to me. However I've never had any luck with the official Holo/SteamOS. Currently running ChimeraOS and finding it to be the blessing I needed.
I've been a Linux nerd for most of my life now. It's been an exciting ride, and a slow build.
What do you mean never had any luck with steamOS? It just works?
Just want to give some advice. I bought one of these last week instead of the ROG ally. And 100% it was the best decision. If there are any setbacks theres always a solution. I mainly play emulators, euro truck sim, project zomboid and some classic games on the deck but then i use xbox cloud gaming to play hundreds of xbox games like gta online, halo, sea of theves, doom and all the fallout games. When it comes to pc games like modded gta RP, five days to die, garrysmod, tarkov and stalker gamma I use shadow PC which I spend £30 a month for. This allows you to have a full high end windows gaming PC through an application on your deck. Now the issue with cloud gaming is usually latency but the trackpad and gyro is an absaloute game changer. Aiming and shooting over cloud through the trackpad is so perfect and you can map all 4 buttons, trackpad buttons with any game too so if I play gta over xbox cloud gaming i only need to hold one of the back buttons and it auto turbos the A button so I no longer need to spam A to sprint. Little things like this is what sold it to me compare to the ally. Yes you can play more on the ally without the cloud but your restricted to joysticks only which is horrible when you compare to trackpads and gyro
Really poor ergonomics compared to the Steam Deck, rushed buggy design confirmed by lots of reviews, laggier interface, worse joysticks, some gaming sessions lasting under 45 mins compared to the Steam Deck running GoW at 1 hour and 30 mins and others up to 8 hours, susceptibility to stick drift compared to the Deck, less overall inputs compared to the Deck that feel much worse, much higher price point which could've been used to get you 1512 GB of storage if you've gotten the most expensive Deck and a 1 TB SD for it, worse case compared to Steam Deck's, no pause button like the deck has, the Rog Ally just makes noise while for the Deck you can actually hear clear sound with a volume range that'd make anyone happy, it's the best to save your money and get the Deck ^^
Ally has gyro, if you're like me, and play AAA games pretty much exclusively , Ally is the right choice. Its not perfect, nor do I claim it to be. I based my choice on what's important to me, higher quality screen, higher resolution, compatibility with AAA titles. for those who emulate mostly, id say its a wash. for those who just want to turn on and play, then get the steam deck.
@@Jimmyz96 that's cool and all but I don't remember asking
doesnt matter if you asked or not, you posted on an open forum, so did i. no point in being assinine about it@@TheSpiritedFendron
@@Jimmyz96 assinine
I love my Steam Deck, get to play so many great games on traveling days. Plus with a "Dock" I can slap it on my big screen and play the games on the big screen. Though I only really play older/retro or indie games on it.
Dad experience here.
Only played Diablo 4 so far - minor hiccups, but man so I love this device.
Fits my life perfectly
Yes, maybe. For me it has been an absolute yes, but the answer may vary from person to person.
The game changer for me as a Steam Decker owner is how seamless remote playing from my PC to my Steam Deck is. Literally just have my Steam (on my PC) turned on, and it works like magic in the deck. It's very responsive and I very rarely notice hiccups while I stream it.
It's an exceptional feature as someone who seats wholeday while working, and just wanna game on my bed afterwards either w/ graphics heavy AAA games via remoteplay, or indie games. These seamless and convenient feature plus the great battery life (as compared to competitor handhelds) of the Steam Deck is why I just gave my ROG Ally (while an exceptional handheld) to my sibling instead.
Did Ben Affleck and Adam Sandler have a baby 40 years ago that now creates gaming content?
My gaming laptop is my desktop. ASUS Rog. Ryzen 9. RTX 3060. 16Gbs. ram. QHD/ 165 HZ screen. Only came with a 500Gb SSD. I added a 2TB SSD. Down falls of a laptop this powerful. On the go it gets about 30 minutes of game time on the battery with a heavy graphics game. Simple games like Minecraft gets about 1 1/2 hours. Not a very good portable.
I was looking into if it was a good idea to get a Deck, wanted to ask you but didn't do so.
The next day, you make a video!
Thank you Alex.
I can’t wait to see what the Steamdeck 2 will look like in the future.
All I want is less crappy screen and less crappy battery. The rest can stay the same
@@HaohmaruHL same
It blows my mind how valve got so much right with the deck and still gets so much crap. Whilst other companies get so much wrong and peeps still support them.
A fantastic video, I have a deck and have upgraded the drive to a 1tb but haven't dived very deep into what I can do. You've inspired me to have a good play around and get a little deeper. I am off Friday so will have a good look then
I legit just had to pawn my steam deck instead of my 2,000 laptop because the pawn shop said laptops are not selling, and steam decks turn over rate has never been anything but same day.. meaning... they sell the same day they are placed on the shelf... they said will do 200$ on the rog zeph m16 laptop.. and will do 300$ on the Steam deck. 6 months ago I said steam decks were going to destroy the gaming laptop market.. and this absolutely confirms it for me.
I’m sold!!!! I’m getting one for sure!!! Thanks for the great info video!! 😀👍
For the price on sale I think is ok for many ppl. Personally if I want to play on the go I use m phone for emulation or xcloud with kishi. I hope valve to create a steam deck 2 in a Mac mini or backbone pcs form factor without a display for the tv or monitor.
Glad I saw this video. Didn't know much about Steam Deck, and think because of all the other random platforms coming to market, like Stadia, and I think nVidia had something, Steam Deck kinda fell into the background for me.
I grew up gaming on PC, and the missus also likes PC gaming; problem is, over the years our rigs have become completely outdated, and buying two formidable newer rigs so we can both play at same time, can be kinda pricey.
We also like gaming on our XBox Ones, and were toying with the idea of upgrade to Series, but not fans of having to surrender so much storage space, with really expensive upgrades, while both our consoles already have external HDDs (ginormous WD-Black on each). Not to mention, ABK trial revealed new consoles in 5 years anyways.
So then we thought, maybe PC, but again, price for two systems.
This may be a great solution however; I love Linux, love emulation, love tinkering, love optimizing, love modding.
Guess three primary things I'm still going to research are:
1. Can WoW play on Steam Deck. (Missus LOVES WoW, and I wouldn't mind playing it again.)
EDIT: LOL, first vid found in search results on this, was YOURS, thanks bro! 😎
2. Can Steam Deck hook to TV with either cables or BlueTooth. (Would love to be able to quick-link it [BT] to my LG 75" UHD 120hz SmartTV, and game on reclining couch.)
EDIT: Researched == Possible with cable or Steam Link. (Turns out it can also be docked with a keyboard and mouse.)
3. Can games run mods on Steam Deck. (Been wanting to run GTA4 with LSPD [police] mod, along with Real Life mod. Also thought ~maybe~ GTA5, but R* kinda beat that horse so much, dunno. Was thinking of testing GTA4 with those mods on my older PCs, which should maybe run okay-ish, but as said in video, that whole need to be locked down and sequestered.) 🤠
EDIT: Researched == Possible with some tinkering.
I'm waiting for mine to come in the mail.
I've only had the Steam Deck since June 2023, but so far I really like it. My Steam Deck does have an issue though. I can't put mine to sleep or else the audio will stop working. I have to do a complete shut down every time I stop playing it. I have the 64GB version with a 1 terabyte Micro SD card, but can only have a few games installed because the shaders take up so much space on the 64GB SSD. I plan on buying 1 or 2 Terbyte SSD so that problem shouldn't last long. Also I'm hoping that when I reinstall the Steam OS whenever I buy the new SSD that the audio issue will fix. So far my favorite thing about the Deck is customization with the plugins. I have the Switch theme and added small gifs that I turned into Webp files as the game Icons. I've always wanted animated game icons since the PS Vita and now I can do that.
Everything you said in this video about the pros and the cons of the Steam Deck is actually why the ROG Ally has become my handheld of choice in 2023. I installed a 2TB SSD in my Ally and it was easier than on the Steam Deck. I can play those AAA games and still get a good framerate. Battery life isn't an issue for me because I mostly play unplugged at work on my breaks. When I am home, I am mostly plugged in, sometimes docked to a monitor. I also have the eGPU for 1440p/4K High/Ultra gaming. When I am out and about, on a long car ride, etc., I can drop the wattage to 15w and get about 1.5 hours which is more than enough for me. There is also this thing called a power bank if you want to extend your game time while away from home which I rarely use. I have responsibilities and can't play games for hours on end. Which is why these handhelds work so well for me. I can squeeze gaming in anywhere I happen to be and when I can find time. I don't have to worry about compatibility or a verification process because Windows is compatible with every game. Windows vs Linux: I actually prefer Windows because freedom. I can do the same things on my handheld that I can do on my desktop PC. I have Windows on my Steam Deck (dual boot), my Ayaneo and my ROG Ally. The Ally also has a beautiful jaw dropping 1080p 120 Hz screen (and yes the 120 Hz is useful for a lot of games) with vibrant colors and VRR, which makes the Steam Deck look like your playing on an old black and white TV. Not to mention, PS Remote play works much better on the Ally compared to the Steam Deck because of Wifi6. Haven't tried emulation but I have heard it is better on the Ally also. Don't get me wrong. Still love my Steam Deck and I would still recommend it to others. But my Steam Deck has been collecting dust since I got the Ally. Just being honest.
Yet windows is complete utter gash as a handheld OS. Desktop Linux is crap too btw. I don't want to deal with windowisms when I want to just pick up game and set it down. Especially when mobile. The three things that prevent me from buying an Ally are the SD card destroying issues, Windows being a desktop OS designed for M+K, (do not dock at all) and the battery not being at all matched to the APU power levels. 40W is no where near enough for that APU.
Really poor ergonomics compared to the Steam Deck, rushed buggy design confirmed by lots of reviews, laggier interface, worse joysticks, some gaming sessions lasting under 45 mins compared to the Steam Deck running GoW at 1 hour and 30 mins and others up to 8 hours, susceptibility to stick drift compared to the Deck, less overall inputs compared to the Deck that feel much worse, much higher price point which could've been used to get you 1512 GB of storage if you've gotten the most expensive Deck and a 1 TB SD for it, worse case compared to Steam Deck's, no pause button like the deck has, the Rog Ally just makes noise while for the Deck you can actually hear clear sound with a volume range that'd make anyone happy, the Deck is superior in every way
Just got mine last month. it plays fallout 3 and 4. As an old school metal gear fan I was excited to see death stranding on it as well. There is more then enough games in the verified section to keep me happy until the wheels fall off or a decent enough upgrade comes along. For now I'm all in.
My only hold up is making sure the games I want to play like Halo MCC and Infinite. And the upcoming War of the Worlds.
As long as they work, I'm almost willing to say goodbye to my PC.
Im in the same boat as alex, its difficult for me to sit and play games. Steam deck has allowed me to play RE4, hi fi rush, dead space, red dead 2 (again), baldurs gate 3, guardians of the galaxy, Prey, power wash sim, roller drome, project wingman, six days in fallujah, alan wake, control, doom eternal, elden ring, hogwarts legacy, max payne 3, metro exodus, etc.
I’ve had a heck of an experience with the Deck since I bought it in November of last year. Yuzu emulation is golden and Emudeck made emulation that much better, mostly use it for emulation but i have beaten Deus Ex mankind divided and Bioshock and both ran flawlessly at 40fps high settings at 800p
Sold it after 3 days. It's a good start but it needs more power and a much better screen. After a superior screen revision then I'll probably pick it up.
the touchpads and gyro really help for me, really makes actual PC game enjoyable
The bezel argument always confuses me. Unless your running a multi monitor setup than bezels don't matter. Its just where the screen ends. And an OLED would drain the battery faster. Id prefer more battery than a better screen but I don't own any 4k screens so that's never been a big draw for me.
I repasted my Steam decks APU with Thermaltake T4 I think it's called. A video I saw recommended it and as mine was hitting 90 degrees a lot of the time I did it. And now don't go above 83 -84 degrees which is nice. So I recommend that.
I absolutely love my deck. I use it at work (lots of downtime)
I love the deck but I think it needs a few more big updates before I recommend it to non PC users more.
It all comes down to whether big publishers will optimize their games for it or not.
It’s literally a PC… anything that is optimized for PC operating systems is optimized for it. It all comes down to hardware limitations since it’s much smaller than a desktop computer or even a laptop
I personally would call the steam deck a hybrid. Its got console functionality with PC features
I say yes because of the support Valve provides for the handheld. Plus the community itself has been amazing with Decky and other apps. 😊
hoping if they release a steam deck 2, they add the ability to have a full M.2 NvMe. Oled, and a better battery.
2 handhelds have absolutely lit the modding community, the Steam Deck and the Miyoo Mini. Both fantastic devices and both affordable for their markets.
I chose Steam Deck over ASUS Rog Ally, and personally I am loving it. Most of my PC games are from Steam, and some GOG games I can manually install and play MK Trilogy PC Edition without trouble (just a little work around due without the need of installing Windows).
Otherwise, I am pleased to play Elden Ring and modded Skyrim on the go.
I got a Steam Deck around April in April and love it. I've been playing through a lot of PC games and trying games I had that I probabal wouldn't have checked out in a while.
Now I tend to buy a game for PC over PlayStation, Xbox or Switch, if it's Steam Compatible.
I just wish it was easier for it to play other games like The Division, for example. Or games from EPIC, without the extra work.
I am a father like u Alex and I have been considering buying a SteamDeck for a while but I never had space on my budget to get one. Now that I have a little bit more room ,and with the Valve certified refurbished ones, I might finally buy one but I am concerned with the quality. Any thoughts?
They'll be fine! Get one!
Got mine this year during the Spring Sale, and was finally able to start playing it about a month ago. I love it! It may not be a powerhouse like the Ally, but it helps me go through my backlog and play so many great games from my bed or on the dock through my TV. For any other AAA games, I'll just play them on my PS5. I even convinced my friend to get one, and he ended up getting one for his brother as well; they both love it! Just need to find a way to cool the system, it gets hot even when playing lower spec games.
Just purchased the 1tb OLED steam deck can't wait
Hey how’s the oled? I really want to get a steam but I’m not sure which to get
@@zeiku738 I got the 1 tb steam OLED and all I been playing on it is fallout New Vegas pal world Skyrim GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 online
@@zeiku738 awesome worth every penny I play pal world GTA 5 RDO Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim and state of decay 2 must own best investment
I personally dock it to my TV and it works incredibly well. Just like using a regular desktop PC. Major difference is that you're on Linux but that is honestly not a problem.
I love Steam Deck but imagine this: you are hyped for a game, let's say Texas Chain Saw Massacre for no reason at all. You wait for the release and when it comes out..... it doesn't work. What options do you have?
1. Buy a console but if you bought Steam Deck that means you don't want to have anything with them (or you just wanted to play new games on a handheld)
2. Buy a pc.... Which i probably should do but anyways, PC is expensive and many people (i'm many, hi) bought the Deck to have cheap PC so kinda cringe
3. Wait for the patch that will make linux compatable which can be long time or not, it's an RNG
4. My favorite option, Proton
Summary:.... Consoles suck and fuck paid online (ye it doesn't have anything to do with the thing i was talking)
I like how you gave multiple answers, not just a "yes" or a "no" to weather or not you should buy it, but also took into consideration the type of player or person looking for it. Very nice content. I have also had mine for a couple months now, and i enjoy it. its nice to be able to play on the go. I am really big into the single player first person shooters and story heavy games, so having them more on the go is excelent. and if i want to play at home, i dont have to buy the game again for the laptop, just have it installed and steam auto syncs most progress through games, (some do not do cloud save as of yet though) but it has handled most games i have thrown at it already.
Refurbished 64 GB units are going for $319. Before watching this video, I'm saying, F*CK YES!!
I have been a Linux gamer for the past few years now. I always want to promote adoption of Linux and other open source software however the Steam Deck is not sold in my country. I finally bit the bullet and paid to get one imported a few weeks ago. Sure, I ended up paying a lot more to get it imported but I absolutely love this thing so far. I am willing to pay the extra because I want Valve to know that I love what they did here and I want to see more innovation like this in the future. I am not normally a controller gamer however I must say the controls on this thing feel pretty premium (With the exception of the back paddles which I find a bit hard to use but that may just be me). I love that I have the freedom to do basically whatever I want on my own device. If I want to be able to install windows on it for some reason, I can. If I want to SSH into my steam deck, I can. If I want to run windows applications on my steam deck with Wine, I can. This thing is great.
OLED Comment aged like milk xD
This thing is great, I got to play Jedi Fallen Order and Doom Eternal in school and on a road trip. I used Decky Loader to customize big picture mode. Hell Heroic Games Launcher let me install Rocket League (though I can't play it offline for some reason). What really suprised me is that retro shooters play pretty nice on this thing. I played Half-Life Opposing Force and Doom 2 on this thing and resumed on my desktop.
However Proton isn't perfect. Direct 3D 8 games don't seem to work too great. Granted I only tried Metal Gear Solid 2 from GOG.
The only thing I really expect to see on a Steam Deck 2 is a better and bigger screen and resolution.
And VR support for the Steam Deck 2: Episode One
I recently got mine, its actually refreshing to actually be able to play modded Minecraft(had java edition for years, but couldn't ever play it cause my old pc was a potato)
Like you, I am a dad (3 kids born between 2015-2019) and the Steam Deck has been another great addition to my portable library. I really agree with everything you said about positives and negatives.
I have had mine since April 2022 and it has been incredible for portable PC gaming.
Got my deck during the steam summer sale. 64gb verson for 359. Soon as i received it i swapped the ssd to a 1tb. Absolutely worth it. With many of Alex's dislikes about the SD being valid, it is still a great experience. So if you really want to get a SD in 2023 i say dont hesitate and get yourself one.
I'm a parent of a kid with severe autism that needs round the clock attention. I went from a psvita to a switch and I loved the switch but I do love the steam deck just a bit more. I also love the wave of emulator consoles like the miyoo mini and the anbernic stuff. It's an amazing time for handheld gaming b
Yeah, the deck verified system doesn't instill a lot of confidence. In my experience, there are a ton of games listed as "Playable" that run and feel perfect on the Deck but have marks against them for something bullshit like entering text using the on screen keyboard. For example, Monster Hunter World which runs really good on the Deck and was designed to be played with a freakin controller! I guess any game with text chat gets that notch. For the most part, I haven't had any issues with games that have the green check with notable exception: the Spyro Reignited Trilogy had a bug where the cutscenes played in a foreign language. I think it got fixed eventually but c'mon.
That being said, I daily drive Linux and proton works beautifully for most of my games. Only a few lesser known games really have issues.
I’ve hade mine for almost a year and I love it. I’m a Console player and having the freedom to play any PC game that I want to is very exciting.
Personally think for the money the 64 GB is the best value and is what I am getting and you can often find on sale for 10% off. However while the ROG Alley may perform better the one thing I think that should be considered is the long term support this is likely to receive. The 64GB model is also half the amount if not more depending on what your sales tax rate is.
Edit: In addition the steam deck has alot more support for fixing or repareing than the rog alley which is always a nice bonus. Both are good but I think it really just depends on how much you want to spend and if you care about the sofware.
i just got one and my reason for getting it was well mostly steam because i already have tons of games, but also the freedom it gives you being basically a handheld PC and Valve being in support of DIY repairs.
I got one, Upgraded it, got accessories now Thinking about selling it.
I've been saving for a "gaming computer" for a while, but am kind of broke. All my research into cheapest gaming PC keeps bringing me back to here. Thanks for the video. I just wanna play Vernal Edge (should be easy), and BG3 (my worry).
Recently gotten my own steamdeck, and im bloody lovin it. Its more expensive over here due to currency but thats beside the point
I like to play games on the go and my selection are hardly triple A, mostly playing stuffs like Project Diva Mega Mix and God eater3 and emulating a certain console games.
Its great to kill time on the go and on the bed when i dont feel like sititng up and facing my pc/laptop, and its certainly an amazing device to have despite the shortcomings it has.
1:05 That one guy : "Little gaming console"
Opened a random crate on CS2 got a $400 skin (only opened 1 crate) ordered a steam deck for $27 (taxes) waiting for it to come, can't wait!
People seem to think that calling it a console is a bad thing. I see it as a great thing. It's a PC if you want it to be or it's a console if you want it to be. I recently put together a gaming PC running a variant of steam OS and we're using like a console hooked up to our 4k living room TV. The fact that you can confidently navigate the OS with just a controller is the missing link for Windows.
I love my steam deck. I've had the mid steam deck with a 1tb SD card for over a year now. So cool that I can play diablo 2 3 and 4 in my car on lunch then play that same character on my pc at home after work. I have no clue how to emulate nintendo tho. I don't regret my deck but in the bright light can be tough. In all pretty good.
I find it funny that people will call this out dated but it can play over 10,000 games modern and old ... buy one sure
Hi I’m wondering if I should save up for a steam deck or a gaming laptop?
Get PC This Steam deck It’s not worth shit it don’t support all the games for that price is a joke device why is anyone even interested in this junk.
Yup got the low tier and upgraded my ssd to a 1 tb. Love the deck.
I know it’s a mote point for most but I live off grind and having the steam deck has been the best way for me to manage my power and still play computer games all the time but I can’t use my tower without using a generator.
I don't play too many AAA games on deck but stuff like Horizon 4 can run at 40fps, mid settings at 10 watt for 3.5 hours. That is more than fine to me.
I don't want a 120hz screen for the next steam deck. 60hz is enough and 120 will just eat that battery more. I want an oled screen, better battery and stronger hardware.
Valve and Uncle Gabe need a round of applause, OK I've lapsed into being a casual gamer with age admittedly, I have Risk of Rain 2 and Snow Runner installed on the Deck and haven't even played them yet. I've managed to rack up over 300 hours on Borderlands 2 and the Steam Deck has performed well in 4 player game sessions, PC gaming without the interference of Windows is sublime, Kudos to Steam.
I haven’t had the chance or money to get a Steam Deck, but it is on my radar when I am able to get one. I see them all the time on Facebook Market place for about how much you can get it brand new which makes no sense. I see people state that they played it once and selling it for full price hoping they would get the money they wasted on it back.
It is nice to know buying the 64 GB model’s SSD can be upgraded which I was unaware that was possible so it seems like I could have a Steam Deck with say 2 TB of SSD storage for example and not even worry with an SD card. It’s food for thought.
OMG! I bought a valve certified refurbished 64gb version yesterday and this video drops today!
I ordered a 512Gb refurbished one to try it out... more interested in the GameCube and Switch emulation over the PC stuff, but might give Baldur's Gate 3 a shot. If I don't feel the upgraded screen it worth it, I'll return the unit and maybe wait for Steam Deck 2nd Gen to see what's improved.
Don't forget to install vibrant deck
My daily goal: wake up, workout, read Bible, eat, work, chores, all while being a dad and husband. The steam deck allows me to lay in bed a get my daily dose of gaming while the family is sleeping, and gaming on the go.
I've had my steam deck for 7 months and I play it over my pc and PS5 😂
@16:22 I have been crawling down all the possible and credible rabbit holes on this Steam Deck..... and I have very high hopes as what you said marks my feels quite nicely. Cheers fam! Great review and down to earth as well. Very easy to digest for us "boomers"
I've had my Steam Deck for about a year as well, it was an absolute lifesaver post-knee surgery. Just for that, and also being a fairly decent portable workstation, I can't recommend it enough
As someone who has a ROG Ally, I strongly disagree about the comment made about the Ally.
Yes, the early software sucked but those were the early review sample software. On release, the only true issue it had was it wasn't turboing as fast as it could but performance was still good, and better when it got patched.
Biggest Benefit for the Deck over the Ally is the software has been matured plus the nice trackpads. (Also the case)
The Ally is just suffering the same issues the Deck had on release which is software maturity. Minus the SD card reader being a faulty on a lot of products. Also, the Ally can run Linux which is pretty neat.
Now that Im done rambling about how awesome my Ally is lmao
I can really go on about the pros and cons of both but Ill stick with the video title for now.
I agree 100% with everything you've said, the product is a godsend for anyone who loves to light/medium game without expecting AAA gwaphics. I tend to play a TON of JRPGs/Turn base games on my Ally since I can crank down the power to extend battery life and since I play like a 2 year old on the sticks. MnK for life. Emulators is probably the biggest reason to get a Deck or an Ally, both being powerful enough to emulate Switch or PS2 and down games at damn near max settings at 60fps. As a fan of Digimon games, this was my biggest highlight for owning a gaming handheld.
And to answer why everyone keeps calling it a console, to make it sound more approachable and fits with how the software is designed. Designed in a way where it kinda works like the consoles in terms of ease of use. I call it a Handheld PC since its just a laptop with a controller attached instead of a keyboard.
In the end, it truly does depend on what you want to do with the Steamdeck that will justify its purchase. Do you find yourself wanting to game but put in a position that you cant leave? Do you find yourself wanting to play easy to run games but your PC is outputting so much heat because its summer and you would rather not cook yourself alive?
The steamdeck is amazing, especially now, where you can buy a refurbished one for an amazing price.
TLDR: My Ally is Awesome, you suck Alex
Many reasons to buy a Deck, just need to see if it fits you
Nows the best time to buy one since the refurbished ones are cheap and probably good as new.