Valve's huge Steam Deck update is now ready for everyone, including rival AMD handhelds
New SteamOS handhelds, here we go?
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I kind of wish they first released a Steam Deck 2 because they might shift their focus towards SteamOS now.
probably best they wait for the next major tech breakthrough at least since we know they'll never manage a third
I'm just thinking of my past experience where they also left stuff like the Link and SteamOS 1.
Steam Deck is way more successful.
actually wasn't deck steam os versioned as 3? maybe they broke the cycle
Yeah.
1 was Debian based. 2 was not released. 3. is now Arch based.
The hardware is fairly trivial to engineer. Building an OS is not. That's why we've seen a dozen different OEMs and zero new OS's.
If it means Valve dedicates all the resourced they have to SteamOS and we never see another Steam Deck, I would have no problem with that.
It is just immutable modded Arch Linux with some particular optimisations. While I am sure the task to create it is not so trivial. I am also sure that their hardware engineers put immense effort into designing and building the Steam Deck, which is no small feat. Selecting the components, thermal design, power design etc. considerations that need to be taken into account while building such a device is very challenging, I am sure and their hardware engineers did an excellent job. That's why the Steam Deck is also so much superior to rival handheld devices.
That's why the Steam Deck is also so much superior to rival handheld devices.
Is it? I mean as far as I can tell the only advantages it has is:
I've only ever had a Steam Deck but certainly I can see why many people opt for other handhelds and just put Bazzite or similar on them.
The track pads are phenomenal for any game that doesn't have great built in controller support. I use them for mouse input on games like FTL, and they are much more accurate for aiming in FPS games than emulating a mouse on a stick. I also use them as radial menus for expanded controls on games like Elite Dangerous that really need more buttons than a controller has.
I agree with your point in general, and SteamOS was the main thing that pushed me towards steam deck over other handhelds with better specs. Now that I've used it though, it would be hard to give up the trackpads if the other options dont have the same quality. My hope is that 3rd party devices will basically mirror the steam controller setup, since the SteamOS controller mapping and provided layouts are a huge part of why so many games work on the platform even without official controller support. It's not just the hardware or the software but how well they work together.
They specifically said they'd wait for technological justification for a new version. AMD/Intel simply might not have something at the moment that they can use that is significantly better with similar thermals.
While I understand the sentiment, if they switch to SteamOS as a primary focus, what's the problem with buying someone else's handheld that's built to run SteamOS? There are already handhelds more performant than the Steam Deck out there, once they have official SteamOS support what's the difference? Don't get me wrong, I've actually bought an absurd number of Steam Decks so far for myself and for friends/family, but once they die, if there's no Steam Deck 2, I'll probably just pick up a handheld that is built specifically to run SteamOS
Valve has the most power to set a fair price for these handhelds.
I have a shitty Nintendo switch and no steam deck. Consider yourself lucky the availability is there lol. Steam Deck 2 just sounds like over saturation to me.
