Wow, I never comment on videos but I really just wanted to give you props on this content! I honestly throughly enjoyed the the entire video. You have excellent presentation skills and kept me engaged with no fancy backgrounds or graphics! On top of that I can really feel your enthusiasm and honesty of the review! Again well done, hope to see your channel grow! I just subscribed as well!
Thank you so much I really appreciate it! I always try to add clips and things that I would want to see if someone was talking about a game or feature, so it’s really great to know that those are appreciated!
I was considering since a few days ago to buy a steam deck, with this review so complete, so developed in each point and above all with so many experiences with the Steam deck I am completely convinced, thank you very much and I really hope to see more steam deck with you.
You’re right, thanks for catching that! I also play most/all my games at 720p just to save on battery life and/or performance, so I think I just started thinking of it as a 720p device even though it’s 1280x800.
Wow, thank you for the complete review. Really personal in depth about use cases and recommendations. I think although the competition is heating up, Steam has an advantage with Steam OS and the community. I've ordered the Steam Deck 512 GB on sale and hoping it will live up to my own created hype!
Absolutely, thank you for watching and commenting I appreciate it! And hopefully you like your Steam Deck! I’ve been really interested in testing out the ROG Ally and/or the Lenovo Legion Go at some point, but everything I’ve seen regarding them really comes down to “they’re great, but Windows makes it awful/frustrating” so I’m sticking with my Steam Deck for a while.
Thanks for this very informational video! I just ordered my deck a couple days ago after my oldest son (31) recommended it to me. Found your channel and have watched a few videos now, new subscriber.
Absolutely, and thank you for subscribing and watching my videos, I really appreciate it! Glad to hear you ordered one, hope you like it as much as I do!
Ok wow, this is the most comprehensive video about the steam deck yet! Just honest thoughts but also very detailed and nuanced facts and opinions. This by far, is what I consider an in-depth review hands down. No other reviewer I've watched ever got into details and real life scenarios and examples.
Thank you I appreciate it! It definitely has made it much more possible to game for me. I use my Steam Deck most when watching the kids playing outside, when they fall asleep in the car (I just park outside the house and game while they nap in their car seats), or when they’re watching a kids show that I just am not interested in watching, so there’s plenty of time throughout the week to fit a little gaming in which is awesome.
I enjoy using the device also, plus a gaming laptop. Really happy you have decided to start a UA-cam channel to share your thoughts, so I've subbed to you so i can follow you on your journey.
Very in-depth review, I really enjoyed it. Thanks! I received my steam deck a week ago and I'm also loving it. The only minor gripe I have is 2 hours of playtime when playing a AAA game, but then again, its a AAA game on the go looking great at 40fps... really can't complain that much. This might sound weird but another thing I like is the customizability. I'm a PC tweaker and I love to min-max the hell out of stuff, so the steam deck is perfect for me.
Thank you I really appreciate it! And yeah I get that, I'm sure I'd probably be having the same battery life issue if I didn't play with it plugged in all the time. That's cool to hear you like to do that to computers, have you done anything cool to the Steam Deck that worked really well or improved the experience?
@@MTS4K Installing a 1tb ssd and setting up cryoutilities with the 4gb vram is the most I've done so far.. but what I was referring to is that the SD gives you complete freedom to tweak your games (fps, cpu, gpu, wattage, etc) and a very in-depth overlay that lays down ALL the info. So if you're on the road you can squeeze all the battery you can from the SD, and if you're at home you can let it go off. Really happy with this device so far :)
That's awesome! Definitely more customization than I think I'd want to do, but that's awesome it gives you the option to do that! And awesome glad to hear it, same here! At this point life would be so weird without my Steam Deck.
Really good video, defiantly agreed with a lot of your points. I love my steam deck, I've had mine since march and i use it almost every day despite having a high end PC.
Thank you I really appreciate it! And nice that’s awesome, I know a lot of people feel the same way on that, it’s just such a great device! I will say, just finished playing a couple hours of Starfield on it, and it was fun but I definitely wish it had just a little more power so I could get more then 22 fps at all low settings. Then again though, I had to switch to beta updates and proton experimental just to get it to work, so hopefully there will be a lot of future optimizations that will have it working much better on the steam deck in the near future!
I just wanted to say I really liked the video... I've had my Deck since the 2nd week of release and I just love it. Almost every accessory you mentioned I have and I agree it has made gaming with it so much better. I have tried everything with it from dual boot to a full windows machine and just works. There isn't much I haven't tried with...lol
Thank you I really appreciate you saying that! That’s awesome, so you’ve had yours a bit longer than me I think. But I’m glad to hear I’m not alone in liking most/all those accessories, it definitely has made the experience with it better and a lot more easy to use and more portable I think. That’s awesome you even tried dual booting with Windows, that’s the only thing I haven’t tried yet! I was actually kind of thinking about doing that just to be able to play Destiny and Hunt Showdown on my Steam Deck, but I was a bit worried about messing it up so I never actually did it (yet).
@@MTS4K honestly it's super easy to do. The dual boot part was is a tedious on the internal SSD, but nothing bad. As of now I have steam os back on it and picked up a 1tb external SSD from Best buy for like $75 and it runs windows 11. So technically I have 3tb for steam os and roms and 1 TB for windows. So far that's been my favorite setup
Wow that’s awesome, I didn’t realize it could dual boot Windows from an external SSD like that, that makes me feel a lot better about trying it without risking losing my normal “Steam OS” experience. Thanks for sharing that! If I do end up dual-booting maybe I’ll make a video about my experience with that, that would be pretty cool I think!
@@MTS4K Yeah definintly, also another way I'm thinking of doing probably in the next couple of days is just the windows on a sd card and games on the ssd. So that way if you was to lose power to the external SSD it won't crash the whole thing just kill the game. (Food for thought)
Oh that's an interesting idea, that would probably be a better way to do it. Actually, while I'm not totally into their products or anything, JSAUX makes a dock that has a built in m.2 SSD slot, so that might make it pretty easy to do what you're talking about, I'll have to keep that in mind as an easy way to dual-boot and store my Windows games.
Great review, I think one additional thing to note is if you already have a dedicated gaming PC you can use moonlight to stream to your deck. Then to add to it, you can use Tailscale to set up a private VPN and bring that functionality wherever you have a internet connection. So yeah, the deck can really do it all.
Thank you I appreciate it! And that’s good to know that you can do something like that, I haven’t had a gaming pc for a while but that’s cool that that’s an option! Honestly what I usually do is the opposite, I stream games from my steam deck to my Mac so I can play games on my Mac that wouldn’t normally work there!
@@ThePaintedTarget72 Parse works as a client. You just can't use a Linux *host* yet. In this case, where the Deck is the client, it would work. In fact I added Parsec to my Steam library and it's usable in Game Mode. I don't use it for gaming though. I haven't used Moonlight but I believe that is specifically optimized for low-latency gaming.
I play destiny and COD on my deck I don't care who supports what it's a pc just add windows people think it's a console where you get what you get but it's a pc you can play any game if you are smart
@@MTS4K im just saying you have 3 tb of space you can easily spare 100gb to windows for any game thats deemed "Not playable on deck" i mean i laugh so hard when people say that but yeah i play all multiplayer fps games with gyro and always land top of the leaderboard because honestly gyro beats fontroler and k/m any day of the week and the deck can do it to any game heck this reply is from my deck i love this thing is a microwave oven for my tech needs
Yeah that’s true, maybe I’ll have to try that sometime. But that’s awesome, I haven’t tried playing with the gyro too much, but I bet it’s definitely a pretty powerful advantage in COD and other games. Haha microwave oven for your tech needs, that’s awesome.
I was bored and decided to dual boot windows and I’ve been on windows for 3 weeks now and I’m not doing anything special I’ve just been playing cyberpunk and death stranding from the gog store and epic store and they perform better on windows than running them through the heroic launcher. I just go back to steamOS when I want to play games I have on steam
Sounds pretty fun! Interesting to hear that those games work better on windows than running them through the Heroic launcher! Everyone doing all this dual-booting with windows is definitely making me want to try it even more!
That’s true it is pretty pricey! I still like them for the protection they give and knowing my controllers will always be in mint condition no matter how rough I might be on them while traveling, but yeah it definitely comes at a cost. I will say I got mine back when the PS5 controllers used to be more like $70 so it was worth the investment then, but now you can get them as low as $40 sometimes on sale so that’s a good point.
Companies surely want to have their games available on the Steam Deck, but this requires porting the game to work on Linux. However, porting games to Linux can be cost-prohibitive, and companies may not want to put in the effort. Most "Steam Deck games" are just running on a really impressive compatibility layer and aren't even actually native to Linux. Even with millions of Steam Decks sold, companies may still see very little profit compared to the effort it takes to port the games to Linux. For competitive online games, anti-cheat systems have to be adapted when functioning on different operating systems. The open-source, modifiable nature of the Linux kernel makes it harder to ensure anti-cheat software catches cheaters. If anti-cheat software was less reliable on Linux, cheaters would flock to the OS by the thousands to exploit the games. Super comprehensive review! Your passion about the device was fun to watch.
Thank you I really appreciate it! And interesting, but if the game is running in the proton compatibility layer then shouldn’t the game company not have to port it to Linux? It’s always been my understanding that (depending on its code-base) any game can technically work in Proton (though Proton does need to have adjustments created specifically for some games), but some game companies specifically choose not to allow it to work in Proton because of potential cheating risks.
The compatibility layer of proton makes it so ports aren't really required anymore, and Proton's performance has become increasingly impressive to the point where it's often better than poorly maintained native Linux ports. That's absolutely correct. When speaking about ports, I was talking in the context of these competitive anti-cheat games. From my understanding, these anti-cheat tools deal very close to the operating system with memory integrity checks and all that. Those types of function calls are so baked into the operating system they are meant to run on, creating some translative API compatibility layer like they do with the Windows and DirectX API calls which can be translated to Linux and Vulkan calls is challenging. From my understanding, there are some limitations in regards to these types of compatibility translations. Ultimately, people can cheat on a kernel level inside Linux if they had the technical abilities to do so. It would be an infinite cat and mouse game between cheaters and developers even more than it already is on closed source platforms like Windows.
Ahh that totally makes sense and was definitely what I was imagining it would be like, “an infinite cat and mouse game”, that’s an awesome way to put that. Really too bad it ends up that way, I hope someday they can find a way to permanently fix that, at least on Steam Deck or something. Especially because even Epic was able to update their own anti cheat to support Steam Deck, so I can’t see why other companies couldn’t either, but you make a great point that it’s definitely a risk and hard to perfect anti-cheat anyways on Linux.
Yeah I used my steam deck 1 time before I ordered a battery bank and chose to mainly game while plugged in... I can replaces the battery, ssd or joysticks when needed anyways. And this things begging for its life being used by a console gamer... I love it! Lasts between 2-3 hours no matter what! Or you can browse the internets for 8-9 hours... the amount of customization in buttons is just not even human.... my ps5s cowering My switch is safe, it's smaller and has 98 games on it, my mom loves it when we go away for work
Yeah I feel that for sure! We still use our Switch when we want to play Mario Party or any of the new Nintendo-specific games (can't wait for Mario and Luigi Brothership, that game looks so fun!) but my steam deck has definitely become my main gaming console now. I still use my PS5 because I got a PlayStation Portal and that let's me game around the house pretty easily like my steam deck, but I definitely prefer to use my steam deck most of the time. Thanks for taking the time to comment, glad to hear you love your Steam Deck as much as I do!
I don't think I have seen anyone be able to put on the dbrand skin so smoothly on the deck lol. I know I had a TOUGH time getting mine to be smooth on the edges so way to go!
Haha that would be cool. I did put the red and blue skins on but yes the rest of it later in the video is just the Killswitch case. That being said I am pretty overly particular about how I put screen protectors and skins on my devices, even them being slightly off will bother me, so I try to get it as close to perfect as I can every time.
RE: Audio cutting out on the Deck Dock Seems they fixed that issue now, I have not had that happen for a few weeks now! Running Beta updates, so I am sure whatever fix will come to Stable in the next push
Oh that's awesome, good to hear! It hasn't happened to me for a little bit, but I don't always play while docked so that could be why. Good to know that fix is coming (probably) soon to Stable though, can't wait for that because it definitely could be frustrating when the audio would just cut out randomly while playing with my kids.
It does kind of fit (there's a slight protrusion from the back of the kill switch case so it does put a little pressure on the deck and also makes it not as perfect a fit as the normal deck in the carrying case), but you have to remove the back kickstand every time you put the deck back in the case, which for me got really annoying so that's partly why I switched to using the dbrand travel cover. That being said, there are plenty of plastic case covers on amazon that don't have the little protrusion that the killswitch case has on the back, so those cases should work much better in the included carrying case for the deck. Some of those cases even have a little kickstand built-in to them so you could still have that feature as well, might be worth looking to see if there's any you like that have that.
Sorry but I don't think you adequately described exactly what it is that those 'silicone bands' do. I've been using controllers with analogue sticks for years and I've never even heard of these. So what's the benefit, exactly?
I was exactly in the same boat, I’d never once heard of them or thought this would be needed (even when I bought them I was super questioning them still) but it just made gaming with analog sticks so much better! I think the main thing you notice immediately when using them is that it makes it MUCH smoother to roll the analog stick around the edges of the cutout. Outside of that I can’t really explain it, it just feels better, smoother, and really improves the feel of the sticks for certain games, especially first-person shooters in my opinion.
Great video! I thought you covered every topic well and also you mentioned some aspects I haven't heard from anyone else. One question, does the dBrand killswitch cover allow the Steam Deck to still fit in the stock case? And do you use any sort of case other than the Killswitch, like say when you are transporting it for travel?
Thank you I really appreciate it! And glad to hear I mentioned some aspects other people didn't, now I'm curious which aspects those were! Great question though! I actually didn't remember since I haven't used the stock case since I first got my deck, so I just got the case out and tried and unfortunately it doesn't fit. The back of the Killswitch case has a small protrusion that sticks out to click the back stand into place, and that makes the deck stick out too far in the case and puts pressure on the analog sticks. Honestly I don't think the Killswitch case works in most traditional "stock case" style cases, which is why I like the cases below instead. For my deck in the killswitch case, generally I always either have it in this Tomtoc backpack amzn.to/3sitq3l with my other on-the-go stuff, or in this bag amzn.to/3sixm47 which I got on Amazon but apparently they don't currently sell anymore. That being said, I LOVE anything Tomtoc makes, they always have a ton of padding and protection and also based on other people's reviews they're always willing to do exchanges for any (seemingly rare) product issues, so this alternative bag amzn.to/3P4pImY for the Steam Deck looks very promising, though I haven't tried it myself. Hopefully one of those work for you! I think the backpack would be a good choice if you carry a lot of other things with you like a dock and controllers or an external battery pack, etc, but if you just want something small enough for the deck and a charger that alternative bag I listed should be a great option! If you end up getting anything (one I recommended or any other one too!) let me know what you think of it, I'd love to get your opinion on other accessories!
I'm thinking about buying a steam deck but I'm worried about the fan. Was surprised you didn't mention it at all, I heard it's quite loud? Does the steam deck get hot when you play it? I understand that I can buy a replacement fan or something like that, but I don't want to start taking my steam deck apart and replacing parts, especially right after I buy it. Would love to get your thoughts about it, loved the video, watched the whole thing :-) It was long but I enjoyed it, good video, thank you.
Also your little comment about the internal storage working faster than external SSD, even expensive ones, was very helpful, since it was hard for me to understand and compare the speeds of the SSD cards to the internal storage, so that was a very helpful peace of information and I'll go with the 512GB internal storage model (as I said, I'm worried about replacing the internal parts such as SSD, and then installing the OS, etc.)
I’ve heard complaints about the fan before, but I think there’s 3 reasons I didn’t really mention it. 1) The “fan whine” noise used to be pretty bad until they switched manufacturers for the fan about 1 1/2 years ago and that pretty much totally stopped that noise, and 2) I don’t ever play my steam deck in a completely quiet room unless my kids are out of the house for a couple hours, and even then, I turn the volume up high enjoy to really get into and enjoy the game I’m playing, so I never really have noticed any amount of fan noise that would bother me, and 3) if you play it docked, it’s usually far enough away that you can’t hear the fan anyways, but because of the distance, the tv volume at any level completely would block out any fan noise you could potentially hear. Hopefully that helps!
Absolutely, glad that helped! I think the 512GB is totally worth it unless you plan on upgrading the internal storage someday like I did, but unless you’re downloading 100+ GB games like Call of Duty or Red Dead 2 or GTA 5, you should be totally fine with that storage amount. I think the best storage usage for the Steam deck is putting your less played games and/or low-graphics/pixel games on a 1TB micro SD card and just keep that in the micro SD card slot in your deck all the time, and then put your main games or any AAA games like Starfield on your internal SSD to get the best performance you can.
@@MTS4K Good idea, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for taking the time to answer and clarify the fan issue as well, that was my major worry. Very helpful :-) Earned a well deserved sub. Good luck to you with the channel and all.
Ahhh gotcha that makes sense. That would be really nice for them to include a feature like that. I know in Remnant 2 it did a check when the game first launched to review my steam deck and adjust the settings to the preferred levels, but it set a couple of them kind of weird still so it’s definitely not perfect yet but a community-founded one would probably be a lot better.
Thank you I appreciate it! And honestly, I’ve literally never looked before! The dock experience with the steam deck has been so good since some of the earlier updates this year that I haven’t ever looked to see what resolution I was playing games at, I just didn’t think about it and the performance was great and that was enough for me. That being said, I just docked it while I had Remnant 2 running and according to the game graphics settings it was still at 720p. I tried turning on advance settings for the graphics option but that unfortunately doesn’t show resolution. The settings on the steam deck default to “set automatic resolution” when docked. I’m not sure what that does, because while I docked it with a 4K tv, I don’t think the menus and stuff can be 4K and the game can be displaying at 720p, (even though the menus look really good/crisp) but I could be wrong. Either way, unless you change the resolution, the docked performance should be exactly the same as the handheld performance. This is due to the Steam Deck processor being locked in at a specific power draw level, unlike the ASUS ROG Ally which can adjust power draw up or down depending on if it’s plugged in or not. Not saying the ROG Ally is better, mainly because it has its own issues, but I know it can do stuff like that. Hopefully that helps!
Great Points! The Deck is awesome and since two Months my no. 1 Game device. I still play the switch oled sometimes. But my XSX and PS5 collected dust now. Im a freelance Graphic Designer and Dad of four. So a handheld is perfect for this scenario. And i can play everything on the Deck at a easy way.
Thank you I appreciate it! Yeah I totally get that, my Series X ended up sitting there for so long I just sold it to GameStop since I didn't see myself ever using it again. Plus I have my PS5 for when I need a bit more power for a game or what a 60FPS experience in a AAA game. Glad to hear you like it though, I love my Steam Deck and carry it everywhere with me just in case I have some free time and want to game.
Which plug ins? I think one I was looking at was called Decky or something like that, is that one of the ones you're talking about? I've been really interested in trying those but was concerned it might not be as (mostly) refined as the stock experience so I hadn't done it yet. I really wanted to try the one that rebuilt the game library UI to make navigating between games look much cooler and have more game information.
It’s one of the boss fights in Remnant 2. This boss is the one you fight before the final area where you fight one of two possible world bosses for the world Losomn, The Nightweaver.
A lot of these other handhelds rely on devices in your house I don’t know what the purpose of that is that have to be running in the background that defeats the purpose in my opinion
Yeah that’s fair. The main thing with those is they just require the device to be on “sleep mode” and not like actively running, but I get your point. Pretty much everything in your home runs on sleep mode though, even most smart TVs by default use a type of sleep mode so they can turn on faster when the power button is pressed on the remote (even my $400 LG TV from 5 years ago has this feature) so it’s definitely more common than you might think. Also, a benefit of this is on some devices like the PS5 and Series X, they’ll download console and game updates while in this rest mode, with the intention that your console and games will always be up to date whenever you want to play. Since I (and I think most people) leave their PS5 in this mode so they don’t ever have to really think about downloading game updates, I think it’ll make the launch of the PlayStation Portal go a lot smoother this November. And even though my steam deck is my main gaming platform, if the Portal really works as well as intended and lets me play games that don’t work as well (or at all) on my Steam Deck like Star Wars: Jedi Survivor or Destiny 2, I’ll be ecstatic. I’m very much excited for the PlayStation Portal and hoping it lives up to their plans for it!
This was a tremendous review, I think the only game you cannot play unless there’s some type of a workaround is MLB the show because it’s in Nintendo game and does not support pc
Thank you I appreciate it! And yeah there’s definitely some games that they prevent from working on it like Destiny 2 (because I’d imagine they don’t want to have to update their anti-cheat to support the steam deck OS) but most games definitely do support it and pretty much right out of the gate on launch it seems like!
I have always been a pc gamer but back when ps4 pro arrived .. it became my main console, got a ps5 at launch and a series x about 6 months later. Bought a switch at launch too and later a oled model. Most of my gaming is done on a ps5… and very rarely on xbox. However the steamdeck has taken over my gaming since the day i got the 512gb model. It pretty much made switch obsolete for me. The fact that it has steam makes it much easier for me to go back to some older games like the tomb raider games from 10 years ago or the darksiders games. In terms of new releases i still prefer them on my ps5 but i am tempted to buy baulder’s gate 3 on steam deck. This is a wonderful device and i totally agree with your review.
Thank you I really appreciate it! And I definitely have had the same experience with you for that. I got a PS4 Pro back in the day for horizon and the other exclusives, and then I was lucky enough to get into the initial order requests for the PS5 when that came out and that absolutely became my new console until the steam deck came around. At this point I pretty much buy any game I want to play on the steam deck first, and then if it’s not supported or doesn’t work very well on deck like Jedi Survivor, then I get it on PS5 instead and play it there when I can. However, it’s definitely getting harder to justify buying games on anything other than my Steam Deck, it’s just so ridiculously convenient and I love being able to throw it in my daily-carry bag and always have it for when my kids fall asleep in the car or when I’m bored and waiting for something/someone.
@@MTS4K same, and surprisingly i am having a decent time with the battery too. I just finished dredge and am now in the middle of darksiders 3 playthrough. I take with me daily and play at my work too (i am the boss so i get the privilege) 😂
Same! The battery life has been great, and I also just finished Dredge a couple weeks ago! Loved that game so much, I’ve kept it installed just in case I want to play it again once they add all the new map features and everything. But nice, I haven’t tried darksiders 3 yet, I’ve been mainly playing Hogwarts Legacy and Remnant 2, can’t get enough of Remnant, that game is just amazingly fun. But that’s sweet you have that privilege to bring it with you as the boss! I work from home most of the time so my deck is always around too for breaks and stuff. 😂
@@MTS4K do give darksiders 3 a go, darksiders 2 also works fine. One thing that i tend to do with steamdeck is i set fps limit to 40 rather than 60. That way i have more headroom to increase the visual details while keeping a smooth frame rate. It also helps with the battery life too. As for remnant 2… i own the complete first game on ps and played it alot, i will probably get the 2nd game on ps5. Id like to point out that remnant is made by the same people who made darksiders series so you will see alot of similarities and in the art design. By now you must have figured out that i am a darksiders fan 😂
Oh that’s funny I didn’t realize that they’re made by the same people! But that’s interesting, maybe I’ll have to try that. I think 60 fps should be the standard for most games, it bothers me whenever it gets below 30 in some games, but I guess 40 is still pretty good and would definitely let me have some graphic fidelity back instead of always being on low-medium to try and get better frames. Either way, yeah hopefully you get into Remnant on PS5 at some point, it’s a total blast and has so much fun build-crafting and exploration.
That's a great question, I'll have to test it and see! My brother said he tried it and never got it to work multiplayer, but that was a couple months ago so I'll try to give it a try in a couple days and let you know if it works or not!
yea, indeed, 2K displays on phones are a bit overkill, tbh it would be just fine if phones of 6.5 inch or so screen just used FHD (90 to 120hz), it would still be perfectly fine and it provides better battery life as well
Yeah I totally agree. Though I have to say I couldn’t live without the auto-adjusting refresh rate on the iPhone Pro 13 and newer models, that 1 to 120hz refresh rate is a game changer for mobile devices in my opinion.
Dang that’s a bummer! If I remember correctly they recently adjusted the prices in some markets up/down based on how local currency values had adjusted so maybe that’s why it’s so much there.
I’m sorry to hear that! Hopefully there’s a guide somewhere on clearing the download or file cache, maybe that’ll fix it? I know sometimes Steam downloads can have issues and there’s some options in settings to deal with those when they do occur, so maybe check that out? Good luck though, hopefully you figure it out!
Interesting! Stadia worked great for me for a long while but at some point started stuttering a lot more, no matter what device I used or if I used cellular or wifi (and I have fiber internet where I live too.) Either way I think I’m done with game streaming now that I got my steam deck, but maybe I’ll look at trying it again in the future for games I can’t play on the steam deck or something, I know Destiny 2 worked on GeForce Now. Yeah I totally agree, I loved the UI of Stadia, especially compared to GeForce Now.
One thing I have to say though is I really disagree with the screen being great ... it has some advantages, it goes to super low brightness for example which most screens wont do, very nice to play in the dark because of it .... but the color accuracy is garbage and mine as well as my friends' units have HORRIBLE backlight bleed. It's the nr. 1 thing I want them to improve for the next generation
That's a good point and definitely a fair complaint to have. I also agree I wish the screen could get a little bit brighter for outdoor use, and that it definitely has some backlight bleed, but that being said, for the price of the steam deck and the amazing experience I've had with it outside of that, for a first of it's kind product like this, I think they've done an incredible job and I'm pretty easily able to overlook most of those issues because when I'm really invested in a game I don't really notice them. I agree though, on the next/upgraded version that will hopefully come out someday, I'd love to have an 120hz OLED screen with an upgraded processor capable of hitting that 120hz, at least in some games like Dead Cells and stuff. But at least for the masses and gamers who just want to play games while on the go, I think for the introductory price of $399 for this device is incredible and definitely helps cancel out some of the imperfections the device might have in this generation.
@@Dknightxs I also own both of these and they're MILES and MILES better. It's less noticeable in brighter games but the moment I play a game with a lot of darkness (think nighttime scenes in games, in poorly lit caves, large portions of hollow knight etc) the massive amount of back light bleed ruins the aesthetic. It is IMO the absolute worst aspect of the entire device. Don't get me wrong, it's still my favourite gaming device possibly of all time and I find myself doing 99% of my gaming on it, which is precisely why I really want one with a better screen. Don't need resolution bump, OLED (though would've been incredibly nice to have) or higher refresh rate, but the back light bleed is unacceptable
Dave the Diver! Great game and a ton of fun, came out recently and seems to be generally pretty well liked by the community, similar to the game Dredge.
Haha yeah I enjoyed Stadia for what it was, an easy way to game on any device for a low price. Obviously it didn't work out in the end, and I think it's mostly because Google just didn't give them the support they needed or come out with needed features fast enough, but the idea was cool and I'm always down for companies trying new ideas, that's how we get things like the Steam Deck or Switch.
Anyone ever tell you that you look a lot like Vince Vaughn, bro? Because you do look a lot like him. That’s a compliment btw. Also, what game is that at 1:46 ?
Haha thank you I appreciate it! And that’s Remnant 2, one of the boss fights I was stuck on for a while. Haha Great game though, just came out this past month, highly recommend it! It’s on Xbox and PS5 and PC/Steam Deck so you can play it on any platform if you’re interested! If you end up getting it let me know what you think, it’s been basically all I’ve been playing on Deck since it came out (besides Hogwarts Legacy which I got during Steam Summer Sale).
@@MTS4KUnfortunately I’m on a budget right now, so I have to make a choice between the Steam Deck, Spiderman 2 faceplates for my PS5, or maybe Remnant instead. But I may just forget about all three and just buy Spiderman 2 when it releases.
Ahh fair, well hopefully the new Spider-Man 2 game is great and you get a lot out of it and can try Remnant 2 and the faceplates and stuff another time if it goes on sale later! I probably will end up picking up Spider-Man 2 as well, so hopefully it works on deck day 1 so I can get it there and play it a lot more because it’s on deck.
Thank you I really appreciate that, that means so much! And hahaha fair. Lmao To be honest I like all platforms (with the deck being my favorite) but I was just aggressively disappointed with the Series X adding no new features to the console or controller beyond “you can pause and resume some games sometimes, and now the d-pad has a slightly different shape”. Haha
Everybody says that emulation is easy but it isnt. The thing that you need ROM's is the very thing you cant tell anybody where to get them. lol I have never found a place to get them therefore it isnt easy
Hmm interesting. Maybe try adjusting how you’re searching for them or what search engine you’re using? Within the first hour I found a site that had all the ROM’s I was looking for and more when I first got Emudeck installed.
Great video, I will say though that your intros are a little cludgy. Consider scripting them, you'll come off more professional and erudite. The world is your oyster friend!
Thank you for the input, I’ll definitely work to improve those, and I think you’re right scripting them should definitely help so I’ll look into doing that for future videos! Thanks again for the recommendation and the encouragement!
Haha that's awesome! Do you use your deck in desktop mode a lot? I usually just use my deck for gaming and then use my Mac or phone for everything else, but you and everyone else commenting here are helping convince me to use it as a full computer more often!
@@MTS4K For some reason, gaming feels stuttery for me in desktop mode I know it's an issue with Plasma desktop but I'm not sure what the exact issue is Since the actual frame rate of the game is over 60 yet it can feel like 30 or somewhere like that
Oh that's interesting, I haven't tried gaming in desktop mode yet, I'll have to give that a try and see if I have the same issue too. Worst comes to worst I'm sure they'll put a patch out for it eventually. I honestly get kind of excited (and wary) every time a new update comes out because I'm excited for what new features are coming, but nervous if something else is gonna break and if there's going to be multiple post-update patches coming.
Haha glad someone noticed this! I liked that song and I thought the beat was good and it sort of fit the genre of music I was looking for, so I just went with it!
Haha well I liked Stadia mainly for the portability of it and being able to play AAA games anywhere even on my phone, that was a cool thing and I wish it had made it to what their final plan was for it, but I think Google killed it too soon. But that's fair, they're not hard to install or anything, I just wish they didn't cache like that until the deck rebooted, it's a weird experience. Like gaming on the PS5 or Xbox it doesn't do that, so it's just weird that Steam does it that way.
Haha you’re not wrong, it’s definitely not the best looking dock (especially with the dbrand killswitch plastic piece) but it gets the job done. Plus it’s basically completely hidden by the Steam Deck when docked, so that’s nice too. But yeah I feel that! Just saw gameplay footage of Alan Wake 2 with DLSS and Ray Tracing turned on, pretty bummed I’m not going to get to experience that anytime soon. Maybe someday though! That new Lenovo handheld that @Dave2D showcased the other day on his channel looked awesome, maybe that’ll support DLSS someday!
I’m really sorry to hear that! I’m gonna be honest, I don’t have enough subscribers or views yet to even monetize my channel or choose when/how often ads are displayed or get any ad revenue for them, so unfortunately that’s just UA-cam doing its own thing.
I know I'm so scared it's not going to work on the Steam Deck day 1, but I'm keeping my hopes up it will (though I'm not going to pre-order, that's for sure). Valve has sold an estimated 3 million Steam Decks so far and that's not a small amount of players for Starfield so I'd imagine they put at least some optimization on it, but who knows with game dev companies at this point.
I love the depth you put into this video a lot of people who do reviews don’t put enough of what their actual experience is. Keep up the good work man liked the video and subscribed.🫶🏻
Thank you I appreciate that! Yeah I feel I've noticed that too for a lot of the channels I follow as well. I felt like this video was a bit longer than I'd like it to be, but after a couple times watching through it there was nothing that I really felt I could remove without missing an important piece of my experience with it. But thank you so much, really appreciate the feedback, like, and subscribe!
Wow, I never comment on videos but I really just wanted to give you props on this content! I honestly throughly enjoyed the the entire video. You have excellent presentation skills and kept me engaged with no fancy backgrounds or graphics! On top of that I can really feel your enthusiasm and honesty of the review! Again well done, hope to see your channel grow! I just subscribed as well!
Thank you so much I really appreciate it! I always try to add clips and things that I would want to see if someone was talking about a game or feature, so it’s really great to know that those are appreciated!
well said!
I was considering since a few days ago to buy a steam deck, with this review so complete, so developed in each point and above all with so many experiences with the Steam deck I am completely convinced, thank you very much and I really hope to see more steam deck with you.
Thank you I appreciate it!
All the feedback like this is definitely driving me to make another Steam Deck video in the near future!
Great review man. Ive watched like 30 reviews and yours was the best which covered a lot of cool things i didnt know about.
Thank you I really appreciate it!
Nice chill long video to watch while working! The screen is 800p though, I usually bump it down to 720 for extra battery life or extra performance.
Thank you for saying that brand new steam user here. I will do that on my.
You’re right, thanks for catching that!
I also play most/all my games at 720p just to save on battery life and/or performance, so I think I just started thinking of it as a 720p device even though it’s 1280x800.
Wow, thank you for the complete review. Really personal in depth about use cases and recommendations. I think although the competition is heating up, Steam has an advantage with Steam OS and the community.
I've ordered the Steam Deck 512 GB on sale and hoping it will live up to my own created hype!
Absolutely, thank you for watching and commenting I appreciate it!
And hopefully you like your Steam Deck! I’ve been really interested in testing out the ROG Ally and/or the Lenovo Legion Go at some point, but everything I’ve seen regarding them really comes down to “they’re great, but Windows makes it awful/frustrating” so I’m sticking with my Steam Deck for a while.
Man what a video, engaged the entire way. Great content. Love to see more. Subbed.
Thank you I really appreciate you saying that!
Best in depth review I’ve seen on UA-cam. I’m getting my SD on Saturday, I’m pretty excited.
Thank you I really appreciate it!
And awesome, congrats! Hopefully you have a ton of fun with it!
Thanks for this very informational video! I just ordered my deck a couple days ago after my oldest son (31) recommended it to me. Found your channel and have watched a few videos now, new subscriber.
Absolutely, and thank you for subscribing and watching my videos, I really appreciate it! Glad to hear you ordered one, hope you like it as much as I do!
perfect review, if I already wanted one, now I want it more
Thank you I appreciate it!
Ok wow, this is the most comprehensive video about the steam deck yet! Just honest thoughts but also very detailed and nuanced facts and opinions. This by far, is what I consider an in-depth review hands down. No other reviewer I've watched ever got into details and real life scenarios and examples.
Thank you I really appreciate that! Awesome to know the time and effort I put into it was worth it!
You have a good vibe about you man, keep up the good vids, I could watch long vids with this kinda vibe no problem.
Thank you I really appreciate it!
Amazing review! you irradiate good vibes Michael!
Thank you I appreciate it!
It's so nice to hear a parent's perspective on this device. As a dad, this seems like a great way to squeeze gaming into a busy lifestyle.
Thank you I appreciate it!
It definitely has made it much more possible to game for me.
I use my Steam Deck most when watching the kids playing outside, when they fall asleep in the car (I just park outside the house and game while they nap in their car seats), or when they’re watching a kids show that I just am not interested in watching, so there’s plenty of time throughout the week to fit a little gaming in which is awesome.
I enjoy using the device also, plus a gaming laptop. Really happy you have decided to start a UA-cam channel to share your thoughts, so I've subbed to you so i can follow you on your journey.
Thank you I really appreciate you saying that, I’m excited for the future!
I just bought mine
Awesome, excited for you! Hope you like it!
Very in-depth review, I really enjoyed it. Thanks! I received my steam deck a week ago and I'm also loving it. The only minor gripe I have is 2 hours of playtime when playing a AAA game, but then again, its a AAA game on the go looking great at 40fps... really can't complain that much. This might sound weird but another thing I like is the customizability. I'm a PC tweaker and I love to min-max the hell out of stuff, so the steam deck is perfect for me.
Thank you I really appreciate it!
And yeah I get that, I'm sure I'd probably be having the same battery life issue if I didn't play with it plugged in all the time.
That's cool to hear you like to do that to computers, have you done anything cool to the Steam Deck that worked really well or improved the experience?
@@MTS4K Installing a 1tb ssd and setting up cryoutilities with the 4gb vram is the most I've done so far.. but what I was referring to is that the SD gives you complete freedom to tweak your games (fps, cpu, gpu, wattage, etc) and a very in-depth overlay that lays down ALL the info. So if you're on the road you can squeeze all the battery you can from the SD, and if you're at home you can let it go off. Really happy with this device so far :)
That's awesome! Definitely more customization than I think I'd want to do, but that's awesome it gives you the option to do that!
And awesome glad to hear it, same here! At this point life would be so weird without my Steam Deck.
Really good video, defiantly agreed with a lot of your points. I love my steam deck, I've had mine since march and i use it almost every day despite having a high end PC.
Thank you I really appreciate it!
And nice that’s awesome, I know a lot of people feel the same way on that, it’s just such a great device!
I will say, just finished playing a couple hours of Starfield on it, and it was fun but I definitely wish it had just a little more power so I could get more then 22 fps at all low settings. Then again though, I had to switch to beta updates and proton experimental just to get it to work, so hopefully there will be a lot of future optimizations that will have it working much better on the steam deck in the near future!
I just wanted to say I really liked the video... I've had my Deck since the 2nd week of release and I just love it. Almost every accessory you mentioned I have and I agree it has made gaming with it so much better. I have tried everything with it from dual boot to a full windows machine and just works. There isn't much I haven't tried with...lol
Thank you I really appreciate you saying that!
That’s awesome, so you’ve had yours a bit longer than me I think.
But I’m glad to hear I’m not alone in liking most/all those accessories, it definitely has made the experience with it better and a lot more easy to use and more portable I think.
That’s awesome you even tried dual booting with Windows, that’s the only thing I haven’t tried yet! I was actually kind of thinking about doing that just to be able to play Destiny and Hunt Showdown on my Steam Deck, but I was a bit worried about messing it up so I never actually did it (yet).
@@MTS4K honestly it's super easy to do. The dual boot part was is a tedious on the internal SSD, but nothing bad. As of now I have steam os back on it and picked up a 1tb external SSD from Best buy for like $75 and it runs windows 11. So technically I have 3tb for steam os and roms and 1 TB for windows. So far that's been my favorite setup
Wow that’s awesome, I didn’t realize it could dual boot Windows from an external SSD like that, that makes me feel a lot better about trying it without risking losing my normal “Steam OS” experience.
Thanks for sharing that! If I do end up dual-booting maybe I’ll make a video about my experience with that, that would be pretty cool I think!
@@MTS4K Yeah definintly, also another way I'm thinking of doing probably in the next couple of days is just the windows on a sd card and games on the ssd. So that way if you was to lose power to the external SSD it won't crash the whole thing just kill the game. (Food for thought)
Oh that's an interesting idea, that would probably be a better way to do it.
Actually, while I'm not totally into their products or anything, JSAUX makes a dock that has a built in m.2 SSD slot, so that might make it pretty easy to do what you're talking about, I'll have to keep that in mind as an easy way to dual-boot and store my Windows games.
Great review, I think one additional thing to note is if you already have a dedicated gaming PC you can use moonlight to stream to your deck. Then to add to it, you can use Tailscale to set up a private VPN and bring that functionality wherever you have a internet connection. So yeah, the deck can really do it all.
or just use parsec and not worry about a vpn for the same performance
Thank you I appreciate it!
And that’s good to know that you can do something like that, I haven’t had a gaming pc for a while but that’s cool that that’s an option!
Honestly what I usually do is the opposite, I stream games from my steam deck to my Mac so I can play games on my Mac that wouldn’t normally work there!
@@UnicornSmokes Parsec doesn't work on linux yet.
???
It does. 🤔
@@ThePaintedTarget72 Parse works as a client. You just can't use a Linux *host* yet. In this case, where the Deck is the client, it would work. In fact I added Parsec to my Steam library and it's usable in Game Mode. I don't use it for gaming though. I haven't used Moonlight but I believe that is specifically optimized for low-latency gaming.
I play destiny and COD on my deck I don't care who supports what it's a pc just add windows people think it's a console where you get what you get but it's a pc you can play any game if you are smart
Yeah that’s a good point!
@@MTS4K im just saying you have 3 tb of space you can easily spare 100gb to windows for any game thats deemed "Not playable on deck" i mean i laugh so hard when people say that but yeah i play all multiplayer fps games with gyro and always land top of the leaderboard because honestly gyro beats fontroler and k/m any day of the week and the deck can do it to any game heck this reply is from my deck i love this thing is a microwave oven for my tech needs
Yeah that’s true, maybe I’ll have to try that sometime.
But that’s awesome, I haven’t tried playing with the gyro too much, but I bet it’s definitely a pretty powerful advantage in COD and other games.
Haha microwave oven for your tech needs, that’s awesome.
I was bored and decided to dual boot windows and I’ve been on windows for 3 weeks now and I’m not doing anything special I’ve just been playing cyberpunk and death stranding from the gog store and epic store and they perform better on windows than running them through the heroic launcher. I just go back to steamOS when I want to play games I have on steam
Sounds pretty fun! Interesting to hear that those games work better on windows than running them through the Heroic launcher!
Everyone doing all this dual-booting with windows is definitely making me want to try it even more!
Really good and straight to the point honest review. I can't wait to get my Steam Deck. Got a few more dollars to save
Thank you I appreciate it! That's awesome, excited for you, hope you can get one soon and really enjoy it like I have!
$23 for a simple plastic case for your controller is robbery
That’s true it is pretty pricey! I still like them for the protection they give and knowing my controllers will always be in mint condition no matter how rough I might be on them while traveling, but yeah it definitely comes at a cost.
I will say I got mine back when the PS5 controllers used to be more like $70 so it was worth the investment then, but now you can get them as low as $40 sometimes on sale so that’s a good point.
Companies surely want to have their games available on the Steam Deck, but this requires porting the game to work on Linux. However, porting games to Linux can be cost-prohibitive, and companies may not want to put in the effort. Most "Steam Deck games" are just running on a really impressive compatibility layer and aren't even actually native to Linux. Even with millions of Steam Decks sold, companies may still see very little profit compared to the effort it takes to port the games to Linux. For competitive online games, anti-cheat systems have to be adapted when functioning on different operating systems. The open-source, modifiable nature of the Linux kernel makes it harder to ensure anti-cheat software catches cheaters. If anti-cheat software was less reliable on Linux, cheaters would flock to the OS by the thousands to exploit the games.
Super comprehensive review! Your passion about the device was fun to watch.
Thank you I really appreciate it!
And interesting, but if the game is running in the proton compatibility layer then shouldn’t the game company not have to port it to Linux?
It’s always been my understanding that (depending on its code-base) any game can technically work in Proton (though Proton does need to have adjustments created specifically for some games), but some game companies specifically choose not to allow it to work in Proton because of potential cheating risks.
The compatibility layer of proton makes it so ports aren't really required anymore, and Proton's performance has become increasingly impressive to the point where it's often better than poorly maintained native Linux ports. That's absolutely correct.
When speaking about ports, I was talking in the context of these competitive anti-cheat games. From my understanding, these anti-cheat tools deal very close to the operating system with memory integrity checks and all that. Those types of function calls are so baked into the operating system they are meant to run on, creating some translative API compatibility layer like they do with the Windows and DirectX API calls which can be translated to Linux and Vulkan calls is challenging. From my understanding, there are some limitations in regards to these types of compatibility translations.
Ultimately, people can cheat on a kernel level inside Linux if they had the technical abilities to do so. It would be an infinite cat and mouse game between cheaters and developers even more than it already is on closed source platforms like Windows.
Ahh that totally makes sense and was definitely what I was imagining it would be like, “an infinite cat and mouse game”, that’s an awesome way to put that.
Really too bad it ends up that way, I hope someday they can find a way to permanently fix that, at least on Steam Deck or something.
Especially because even Epic was able to update their own anti cheat to support Steam Deck, so I can’t see why other companies couldn’t either, but you make a great point that it’s definitely a risk and hard to perfect anti-cheat anyways on Linux.
Yeah I used my steam deck 1 time before I ordered a battery bank and chose to mainly game while plugged in... I can replaces the battery, ssd or joysticks when needed anyways. And this things begging for its life being used by a console gamer... I love it! Lasts between 2-3 hours no matter what! Or you can browse the internets for 8-9 hours... the amount of customization in buttons is just not even human.... my ps5s cowering
My switch is safe, it's smaller and has 98 games on it, my mom loves it when we go away for work
Yeah I feel that for sure! We still use our Switch when we want to play Mario Party or any of the new Nintendo-specific games (can't wait for Mario and Luigi Brothership, that game looks so fun!) but my steam deck has definitely become my main gaming console now. I still use my PS5 because I got a PlayStation Portal and that let's me game around the house pretty easily like my steam deck, but I definitely prefer to use my steam deck most of the time.
Thanks for taking the time to comment, glad to hear you love your Steam Deck as much as I do!
I’m so with you on this man I love my deck 🎉
Glad to hear it! Such a sweet device, couldn’t be happier with it!
Great video bro I loved this review
Thank you I really appreciate it!
Happy Gaming!
Thank you, same to you!
I don't think I have seen anyone be able to put on the dbrand skin so smoothly on the deck lol. I know I had a TOUGH time getting mine to be smooth on the edges so way to go!
Not to be rude, however, he did mention that it is a dbrand case, if he did put dcal's on that good he would make a fortune at fitting them 😂.
Haha that would be cool. I did put the red and blue skins on but yes the rest of it later in the video is just the Killswitch case.
That being said I am pretty overly particular about how I put screen protectors and skins on my devices, even them being slightly off will bother me, so I try to get it as close to perfect as I can every time.
thanks for sharing, I'm gonna have to order one.
Absolutely, thanks for watching! I hope you like it as much as I do!
RE: Audio cutting out on the Deck Dock
Seems they fixed that issue now, I have not had that happen for a few weeks now!
Running Beta updates, so I am sure whatever fix will come to Stable in the next push
Oh that's awesome, good to hear!
It hasn't happened to me for a little bit, but I don't always play while docked so that could be why. Good to know that fix is coming (probably) soon to Stable though, can't wait for that because it definitely could be frustrating when the audio would just cut out randomly while playing with my kids.
Nice review!
Thank you!
Awesome video! Thank you so much!! I love your enthusiasm!!
Thank you I really appreciate it! And haha hard not to be enthusiastic about stuff like this, it’s too cool!
got my steam deck last week . It is awesome . If anyone has a. Pretty big steam library they should get a steam deck. It is super cool.
The steam controller walked so the steam deck could run
Haha very true! Same with the Steam Link!
Would the deck with the case on fit in the carrying case that comes with the mid level deck?
It does kind of fit (there's a slight protrusion from the back of the kill switch case so it does put a little pressure on the deck and also makes it not as perfect a fit as the normal deck in the carrying case), but you have to remove the back kickstand every time you put the deck back in the case, which for me got really annoying so that's partly why I switched to using the dbrand travel cover.
That being said, there are plenty of plastic case covers on amazon that don't have the little protrusion that the killswitch case has on the back, so those cases should work much better in the included carrying case for the deck. Some of those cases even have a little kickstand built-in to them so you could still have that feature as well, might be worth looking to see if there's any you like that have that.
Sorry but I don't think you adequately described exactly what it is that those 'silicone bands' do. I've been using controllers with analogue sticks for years and I've never even heard of these. So what's the benefit, exactly?
I was exactly in the same boat, I’d never once heard of them or thought this would be needed (even when I bought them I was super questioning them still) but it just made gaming with analog sticks so much better!
I think the main thing you notice immediately when using them is that it makes it MUCH smoother to roll the analog stick around the edges of the cutout. Outside of that I can’t really explain it, it just feels better, smoother, and really improves the feel of the sticks for certain games, especially first-person shooters in my opinion.
Great video! I thought you covered every topic well and also you mentioned some aspects I haven't heard from anyone else.
One question, does the dBrand killswitch cover allow the Steam Deck to still fit in the stock case? And do you use any sort of case other than the Killswitch, like say when you are transporting it for travel?
Thank you I really appreciate it! And glad to hear I mentioned some aspects other people didn't, now I'm curious which aspects those were!
Great question though! I actually didn't remember since I haven't used the stock case since I first got my deck, so I just got the case out and tried and unfortunately it doesn't fit. The back of the Killswitch case has a small protrusion that sticks out to click the back stand into place, and that makes the deck stick out too far in the case and puts pressure on the analog sticks. Honestly I don't think the Killswitch case works in most traditional "stock case" style cases, which is why I like the cases below instead.
For my deck in the killswitch case, generally I always either have it in this Tomtoc backpack amzn.to/3sitq3l with my other on-the-go stuff, or in this bag amzn.to/3sixm47 which I got on Amazon but apparently they don't currently sell anymore.
That being said, I LOVE anything Tomtoc makes, they always have a ton of padding and protection and also based on other people's reviews they're always willing to do exchanges for any (seemingly rare) product issues, so this alternative bag amzn.to/3P4pImY for the Steam Deck looks very promising, though I haven't tried it myself.
Hopefully one of those work for you! I think the backpack would be a good choice if you carry a lot of other things with you like a dock and controllers or an external battery pack, etc, but if you just want something small enough for the deck and a charger that alternative bag I listed should be a great option!
If you end up getting anything (one I recommended or any other one too!) let me know what you think of it, I'd love to get your opinion on other accessories!
I'm thinking about buying a steam deck but I'm worried about the fan. Was surprised you didn't mention it at all, I heard it's quite loud? Does the steam deck get hot when you play it? I understand that I can buy a replacement fan or something like that, but I don't want to start taking my steam deck apart and replacing parts, especially right after I buy it. Would love to get your thoughts about it, loved the video, watched the whole thing :-) It was long but I enjoyed it, good video, thank you.
Also your little comment about the internal storage working faster than external SSD, even expensive ones, was very helpful, since it was hard for me to understand and compare the speeds of the SSD cards to the internal storage, so that was a very helpful peace of information and I'll go with the 512GB internal storage model (as I said, I'm worried about replacing the internal parts such as SSD, and then installing the OS, etc.)
I’ve heard complaints about the fan before, but I think there’s 3 reasons I didn’t really mention it.
1) The “fan whine” noise used to be pretty bad until they switched manufacturers for the fan about 1 1/2 years ago and that pretty much totally stopped that noise, and
2) I don’t ever play my steam deck in a completely quiet room unless my kids are out of the house for a couple hours, and even then, I turn the volume up high enjoy to really get into and enjoy the game I’m playing, so I never really have noticed any amount of fan noise that would bother me, and
3) if you play it docked, it’s usually far enough away that you can’t hear the fan anyways, but because of the distance, the tv volume at any level completely would block out any fan noise you could potentially hear.
Hopefully that helps!
Absolutely, glad that helped! I think the 512GB is totally worth it unless you plan on upgrading the internal storage someday like I did, but unless you’re downloading 100+ GB games like Call of Duty or Red Dead 2 or GTA 5, you should be totally fine with that storage amount. I think the best storage usage for the Steam deck is putting your less played games and/or low-graphics/pixel games on a 1TB micro SD card and just keep that in the micro SD card slot in your deck all the time, and then put your main games or any AAA games like Starfield on your internal SSD to get the best performance you can.
@@MTS4K Good idea, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for taking the time to answer and clarify the fan issue as well, that was my major worry. Very helpful :-) Earned a well deserved sub. Good luck to you with the channel and all.
Thank you I really appreciate it! Hopefully you end up ordering a Steam Deck or find a portable console that you really enjoy!
really nice video love it sm
Thank you I appreciate it!
very very nice video!!!!!
Thank you I really appreciate it!
I want to get one just to play Steam Indy games and emulation from Sega Master System up to PS2/PSVita.
Fair I get that! I didn’t get into emulation when I first got my steam deck, but I definitely think it’s one of the main things I love about it now!
I would Love if Community Controller Mapping could be more like Community Graphic Settings.
Interesting, I haven’t really messed with the community graphics settings! Is that a good experience on the Steam deck?
@@MTS4K This is not an Official Support sadly only a few have pre made settings for Steam Deck like cyberpunk.
Ahhh gotcha that makes sense. That would be really nice for them to include a feature like that.
I know in Remnant 2 it did a check when the game first launched to review my steam deck and adjust the settings to the preferred levels, but it set a couple of them kind of weird still so it’s definitely not perfect yet but a community-founded one would probably be a lot better.
Nice review, what resolution do you play at when playing on the tv and how is the performance?
Thank you I appreciate it!
And honestly, I’ve literally never looked before! The dock experience with the steam deck has been so good since some of the earlier updates this year that I haven’t ever looked to see what resolution I was playing games at, I just didn’t think about it and the performance was great and that was enough for me.
That being said, I just docked it while I had Remnant 2 running and according to the game graphics settings it was still at 720p. I tried turning on advance settings for the graphics option but that unfortunately doesn’t show resolution.
The settings on the steam deck default to “set automatic resolution” when docked. I’m not sure what that does, because while I docked it with a 4K tv, I don’t think the menus and stuff can be 4K and the game can be displaying at 720p, (even though the menus look really good/crisp) but I could be wrong.
Either way, unless you change the resolution, the docked performance should be exactly the same as the handheld performance. This is due to the Steam Deck processor being locked in at a specific power draw level, unlike the ASUS ROG Ally which can adjust power draw up or down depending on if it’s plugged in or not. Not saying the ROG Ally is better, mainly because it has its own issues, but I know it can do stuff like that.
Hopefully that helps!
Cheers thanks for taking the time to check ;) @@MTS4K
Great Points! The Deck is awesome and since two Months my no. 1 Game device. I still play the switch oled sometimes. But my XSX and PS5 collected dust now. Im a freelance Graphic Designer and Dad of four. So a handheld is perfect for this scenario. And i can play everything on the Deck at a easy way.
Thank you I appreciate it!
Yeah I totally get that, my Series X ended up sitting there for so long I just sold it to GameStop since I didn't see myself ever using it again. Plus I have my PS5 for when I need a bit more power for a game or what a 60FPS experience in a AAA game.
Glad to hear you like it though, I love my Steam Deck and carry it everywhere with me just in case I have some free time and want to game.
Have to added the plug ins ? It’ll make your experience probably 10 times more fun and optimal
Which plug ins? I think one I was looking at was called Decky or something like that, is that one of the ones you're talking about?
I've been really interested in trying those but was concerned it might not be as (mostly) refined as the stock experience so I hadn't done it yet. I really wanted to try the one that rebuilt the game library UI to make navigating between games look much cooler and have more game information.
Anyone know the first game he played on the steam deck @ 1:33 ?
It’s one of the boss fights in Remnant 2.
This boss is the one you fight before the final area where you fight one of two possible world bosses for the world Losomn, The Nightweaver.
A lot of these other handhelds rely on devices in your house I don’t know what the purpose of that is that have to be running in the background that defeats the purpose in my opinion
Yeah that’s fair. The main thing with those is they just require the device to be on “sleep mode” and not like actively running, but I get your point.
Pretty much everything in your home runs on sleep mode though, even most smart TVs by default use a type of sleep mode so they can turn on faster when the power button is pressed on the remote (even my $400 LG TV from 5 years ago has this feature) so it’s definitely more common than you might think.
Also, a benefit of this is on some devices like the PS5 and Series X, they’ll download console and game updates while in this rest mode, with the intention that your console and games will always be up to date whenever you want to play.
Since I (and I think most people) leave their PS5 in this mode so they don’t ever have to really think about downloading game updates, I think it’ll make the launch of the PlayStation Portal go a lot smoother this November.
And even though my steam deck is my main gaming platform, if the Portal really works as well as intended and lets me play games that don’t work as well (or at all) on my Steam Deck like Star Wars: Jedi Survivor or Destiny 2, I’ll be ecstatic. I’m very much excited for the PlayStation Portal and hoping it lives up to their plans for it!
I got an idea for you make a video how to install game pass on the deck. Others have done it. I think you would do it better.
Interesting, thanks for that recommendation, I’ll definitely look into it! And thank you I appreciate the vote of confidence!
This was a tremendous review, I think the only game you cannot play unless there’s some type of a workaround is MLB the show because it’s in Nintendo game and does not support pc
Thank you I appreciate it!
And yeah there’s definitely some games that they prevent from working on it like Destiny 2 (because I’d imagine they don’t want to have to update their anti-cheat to support the steam deck OS) but most games definitely do support it and pretty much right out of the gate on launch it seems like!
great video
Thank you I really appreciate it!
I have always been a pc gamer but back when ps4 pro arrived .. it became my main console, got a ps5 at launch and a series x about 6 months later. Bought a switch at launch too and later a oled model.
Most of my gaming is done on a ps5… and very rarely on xbox.
However the steamdeck has taken over my gaming since the day i got the 512gb model.
It pretty much made switch obsolete for me. The fact that it has steam makes it much easier for me to go back to some older games like the tomb raider games from 10 years ago or the darksiders games.
In terms of new releases i still prefer them on my ps5 but i am tempted to buy baulder’s gate 3 on steam deck.
This is a wonderful device and i totally agree with your review.
Thank you I really appreciate it! And I definitely have had the same experience with you for that. I got a PS4 Pro back in the day for horizon and the other exclusives, and then I was lucky enough to get into the initial order requests for the PS5 when that came out and that absolutely became my new console until the steam deck came around.
At this point I pretty much buy any game I want to play on the steam deck first, and then if it’s not supported or doesn’t work very well on deck like Jedi Survivor, then I get it on PS5 instead and play it there when I can.
However, it’s definitely getting harder to justify buying games on anything other than my Steam Deck, it’s just so ridiculously convenient and I love being able to throw it in my daily-carry bag and always have it for when my kids fall asleep in the car or when I’m bored and waiting for something/someone.
@@MTS4K same, and surprisingly i am having a decent time with the battery too.
I just finished dredge and am now in the middle of darksiders 3 playthrough.
I take with me daily and play at my work too (i am the boss so i get the privilege) 😂
Same! The battery life has been great, and I also just finished Dredge a couple weeks ago! Loved that game so much, I’ve kept it installed just in case I want to play it again once they add all the new map features and everything.
But nice, I haven’t tried darksiders 3 yet, I’ve been mainly playing Hogwarts Legacy and Remnant 2, can’t get enough of Remnant, that game is just amazingly fun.
But that’s sweet you have that privilege to bring it with you as the boss! I work from home most of the time so my deck is always around too for breaks and stuff. 😂
@@MTS4K do give darksiders 3 a go, darksiders 2 also works fine.
One thing that i tend to do with steamdeck is i set fps limit to 40 rather than 60. That way i have more headroom to increase the visual details while keeping a smooth frame rate.
It also helps with the battery life too.
As for remnant 2… i own the complete first game on ps and played it alot, i will probably get the 2nd game on ps5. Id like to point out that remnant is made by the same people who made darksiders series so you will see alot of similarities and in the art design. By now you must have figured out that i am a darksiders fan 😂
Oh that’s funny I didn’t realize that they’re made by the same people!
But that’s interesting, maybe I’ll have to try that. I think 60 fps should be the standard for most games, it bothers me whenever it gets below 30 in some games, but I guess 40 is still pretty good and would definitely let me have some graphic fidelity back instead of always being on low-medium to try and get better frames.
Either way, yeah hopefully you get into Remnant on PS5 at some point, it’s a total blast and has so much fun build-crafting and exploration.
new sub here, great vid !!!
Awesome, thank you I really appreciate you saying that and thank you for subscribing!
best review
Thank you I appreciate it!
Can you use 2 controllers with emudeck , I would like to bring this to a friends house to play fight nights and killer instinct on his tv?
That's a great question, I'll have to test it and see! My brother said he tried it and never got it to work multiplayer, but that was a couple months ago so I'll try to give it a try in a couple days and let you know if it works or not!
yea, indeed, 2K displays on phones are a bit overkill, tbh it would be just fine if phones of 6.5 inch or so screen just used FHD (90 to 120hz), it would still be perfectly fine and it provides better battery life as well
Yeah I totally agree.
Though I have to say I couldn’t live without the auto-adjusting refresh rate on the iPhone Pro 13 and newer models, that 1 to 120hz refresh rate is a game changer for mobile devices in my opinion.
What a bummet that the 64gb version is a little above 2 minimum wages here in Brazil.
Dang that’s a bummer!
If I remember correctly they recently adjusted the prices in some markets up/down based on how local currency values had adjusted so maybe that’s why it’s so much there.
i can't seem to get mk1 to update or redownload!!!!!! done tried everything.
I’m sorry to hear that! Hopefully there’s a guide somewhere on clearing the download or file cache, maybe that’ll fix it? I know sometimes Steam downloads can have issues and there’s some options in settings to deal with those when they do occur, so maybe check that out?
Good luck though, hopefully you figure it out!
Looking like a younger Leonardo DiCaprio. Im sure you've heard that before 😅
I never has an issue with Stadia I always had issues with Xcloud and GeForce
Stadia had the best looking UI I wish I could use that UI on my Steamdeck
Interesting!
Stadia worked great for me for a long while but at some point started stuttering a lot more, no matter what device I used or if I used cellular or wifi (and I have fiber internet where I live too.)
Either way I think I’m done with game streaming now that I got my steam deck, but maybe I’ll look at trying it again in the future for games I can’t play on the steam deck or something, I know Destiny 2 worked on GeForce Now.
Yeah I totally agree, I loved the UI of Stadia, especially compared to GeForce Now.
One thing I have to say though is I really disagree with the screen being great ... it has some advantages, it goes to super low brightness for example which most screens wont do, very nice to play in the dark because of it .... but the color accuracy is garbage and mine as well as my friends' units have HORRIBLE backlight bleed. It's the nr. 1 thing I want them to improve for the next generation
That's a good point and definitely a fair complaint to have.
I also agree I wish the screen could get a little bit brighter for outdoor use, and that it definitely has some backlight bleed, but that being said, for the price of the steam deck and the amazing experience I've had with it outside of that, for a first of it's kind product like this, I think they've done an incredible job and I'm pretty easily able to overlook most of those issues because when I'm really invested in a game I don't really notice them.
I agree though, on the next/upgraded version that will hopefully come out someday, I'd love to have an 120hz OLED screen with an upgraded processor capable of hitting that 120hz, at least in some games like Dead Cells and stuff.
But at least for the masses and gamers who just want to play games while on the go, I think for the introductory price of $399 for this device is incredible and definitely helps cancel out some of the imperfections the device might have in this generation.
Its no oled but its not bad at all, this is coming from someone who has never owned a lcd gaming hand held.. as i own a switch oled and the og vita.
@@Dknightxs I also own both of these and they're MILES and MILES better. It's less noticeable in brighter games but the moment I play a game with a lot of darkness (think nighttime scenes in games, in poorly lit caves, large portions of hollow knight etc) the massive amount of back light bleed ruins the aesthetic. It is IMO the absolute worst aspect of the entire device. Don't get me wrong, it's still my favourite gaming device possibly of all time and I find myself doing 99% of my gaming on it, which is precisely why I really want one with a better screen. Don't need resolution bump, OLED (though would've been incredibly nice to have) or higher refresh rate, but the back light bleed is unacceptable
What's the game in 20:10
Dave the Diver! Great game and a ton of fun, came out recently and seems to be generally pretty well liked by the community, similar to the game Dredge.
@@MTS4Kthank you ☺️
Wait.. Stadia was the best?
Haha yeah I enjoyed Stadia for what it was, an easy way to game on any device for a low price. Obviously it didn't work out in the end, and I think it's mostly because Google just didn't give them the support they needed or come out with needed features fast enough, but the idea was cool and I'm always down for companies trying new ideas, that's how we get things like the Steam Deck or Switch.
Anyone ever tell you that you look a lot like Vince Vaughn, bro? Because you do look a lot like him. That’s a compliment btw. Also, what game is that at 1:46 ?
Haha thank you I appreciate it!
And that’s Remnant 2, one of the boss fights I was stuck on for a while. Haha
Great game though, just came out this past month, highly recommend it! It’s on Xbox and PS5 and PC/Steam Deck so you can play it on any platform if you’re interested!
If you end up getting it let me know what you think, it’s been basically all I’ve been playing on Deck since it came out (besides Hogwarts Legacy which I got during Steam Summer Sale).
@@MTS4KUnfortunately I’m on a budget right now, so I have to make a choice between the Steam Deck, Spiderman 2 faceplates for my PS5, or maybe Remnant instead. But I may just forget about all three and just buy Spiderman 2 when it releases.
Ahh fair, well hopefully the new Spider-Man 2 game is great and you get a lot out of it and can try Remnant 2 and the faceplates and stuff another time if it goes on sale later!
I probably will end up picking up Spider-Man 2 as well, so hopefully it works on deck day 1 so I can get it there and play it a lot more because it’s on deck.
Best review on youtube, beating youtubers with millions of subscribers imo. If you weren't such a playstation fanboy i'd subscribe 🤣/jk
Thank you I really appreciate that, that means so much!
And hahaha fair. Lmao
To be honest I like all platforms (with the deck being my favorite) but I was just aggressively disappointed with the Series X adding no new features to the console or controller beyond “you can pause and resume some games sometimes, and now the d-pad has a slightly different shape”. Haha
Everybody says that emulation is easy but it isnt. The thing that you need ROM's is the very thing you cant tell anybody where to get them. lol I have never found a place to get them therefore it isnt easy
Hmm interesting. Maybe try adjusting how you’re searching for them or what search engine you’re using?
Within the first hour I found a site that had all the ROM’s I was looking for and more when I first got Emudeck installed.
Great video, I will say though that your intros are a little cludgy. Consider scripting them, you'll come off more professional and erudite. The world is your oyster friend!
Thank you for the input, I’ll definitely work to improve those, and I think you’re right scripting them should definitely help so I’ll look into doing that for future videos!
Thanks again for the recommendation and the encouragement!
cludgy???
watching this on my Steam Deck aha :D
Haha that's awesome! Do you use your deck in desktop mode a lot?
I usually just use my deck for gaming and then use my Mac or phone for everything else, but you and everyone else commenting here are helping convince me to use it as a full computer more often!
@@MTS4K I do use it docked as my computer quite often
It works pretty well with two monitors hooked up too!
Oh sweet that's awesome, I'll have to give that a try sometime!
@@MTS4K For some reason, gaming feels stuttery for me in desktop mode
I know it's an issue with Plasma desktop but I'm not sure what the exact issue is
Since the actual frame rate of the game is over 60 yet it can feel like 30 or somewhere like that
Oh that's interesting, I haven't tried gaming in desktop mode yet, I'll have to give that a try and see if I have the same issue too. Worst comes to worst I'm sure they'll put a patch out for it eventually.
I honestly get kind of excited (and wary) every time a new update comes out because I'm excited for what new features are coming, but nervous if something else is gonna break and if there's going to be multiple post-update patches coming.
Why do u have Indian music in background xD
Haha glad someone noticed this! I liked that song and I thought the beat was good and it sort of fit the genre of music I was looking for, so I just went with it!
bro going from stadia to that is too hard updates install ..... i can t im waiting on netflix youtube playables i m done with local hardware
Haha well I liked Stadia mainly for the portability of it and being able to play AAA games anywhere even on my phone, that was a cool thing and I wish it had made it to what their final plan was for it, but I think Google killed it too soon.
But that's fair, they're not hard to install or anything, I just wish they didn't cache like that until the deck rebooted, it's a weird experience. Like gaming on the PS5 or Xbox it doesn't do that, so it's just weird that Steam does it that way.
That dock is atrocious. I am waiting for a handheld with dlss.
Haha you’re not wrong, it’s definitely not the best looking dock (especially with the dbrand killswitch plastic piece) but it gets the job done. Plus it’s basically completely hidden by the Steam Deck when docked, so that’s nice too.
But yeah I feel that! Just saw gameplay footage of Alan Wake 2 with DLSS and Ray Tracing turned on, pretty bummed I’m not going to get to experience that anytime soon. Maybe someday though! That new Lenovo handheld that @Dave2D showcased the other day on his channel looked awesome, maybe that’ll support DLSS someday!
bruh you have ads every 3-4 minutes, this for an hour long video is literally unwatchable
I’m really sorry to hear that!
I’m gonna be honest, I don’t have enough subscribers or views yet to even monetize my channel or choose when/how often ads are displayed or get any ad revenue for them, so unfortunately that’s just UA-cam doing its own thing.
I wouldn’t keep my hopes up for starfield. It’s going to be badly optimised.
I know I'm so scared it's not going to work on the Steam Deck day 1, but I'm keeping my hopes up it will (though I'm not going to pre-order, that's for sure).
Valve has sold an estimated 3 million Steam Decks so far and that's not a small amount of players for Starfield so I'd imagine they put at least some optimization on it, but who knows with game dev companies at this point.
I love the depth you put into this video a lot of people who do reviews don’t put enough of what their actual experience is. Keep up the good work man liked the video and subscribed.🫶🏻
Thank you I appreciate that! Yeah I feel I've noticed that too for a lot of the channels I follow as well.
I felt like this video was a bit longer than I'd like it to be, but after a couple times watching through it there was nothing that I really felt I could remove without missing an important piece of my experience with it.
But thank you so much, really appreciate the feedback, like, and subscribe!