One reviewer mentioned disappointment that it's still a full 11.7" long and 2" thick. I realize that some people are not built for that kind of size, but I enjoy the heft and find the ergonomics of the original pleasing. I find that it stands out among smaller equipment and any substantial reduction would limit the versatility and, quite frankly, my overall enjoyment.
Biggest improvement is probably the 30-50% increase in battery life. The deck already gets much better battery life than the ROG Ally or Lenovo Go (especially on low demanding games, it can get 2-4x the battery life), so this will further cement it as the best handheld PC for actually playing without the device plugged in.
I mean running the same game at the same settings/resolution/etc the Deck will get significantly better battery life. You can offset this somewhat by using task manager to close background processes in windows, but it still takes a lot more power to run stuff on the ROG Ally than the deck.
An example from Ally reviews was Stardew valley ran at 6-8w on the deck, but was pulling 16-20w on the Ally with same settings. Using task manager to close windows processes for the Ally down to the 12-15w range, but that's still a huge jump. This isn't even taking into consideration that you can tweak deck performance settings to run Stardew valley at a much lower power setting, I've seen people go as low as 3.8w giving them 10+ hours of battery life.
I love my steam deck, I also just got it like 2 months ago. If I knew this was coming, I might've waited. Either way, my girlfriend is probably going to get a cool hand me down in the next couple months.
I keep getting tempted to buy this or the LCD version, but I don't even play on the go. Anybody with a powerful desktop (mine is 6800xt) have a steam deck? Do you prefer one over the other!
I have a 6600xt and a Steam Deck. I don’t really prefer either, and end up playing both.
Indie titles I’ll play on the Deck, and AAA titles I’ll play mostly on my pc but occasionally swap to the Deck if I’m in bed or something. I also now pretty much exclusively emulate on the Deck instead of my pc.
Spider-man, for example, I played through on both. I did main story missions on my pc for the graphical fidelity during cutscenes or more cinematic sequences, while all the side quests, collectibles, and challenges I did on the Steam Deck.
How powerful is it for emulation? I have a razer kishi for my s22, and emulate various consoles like gbc, gba, nes, snes, etc. I assume the deck would be more powerful than that, but is it powerful enough to emulate switch? I currently emulate switch on my desktop using yuzu.
The pause functionality is awesome. You pause/suspend the deck with one button. Then whenever you come back to the game you hit the same button and boom right where you left off. Perfect for short sessions here and there. I've completed more games on the Deck in the past year than I have on my desktop in the past 5 years.
I mostly game stream to mine but I still get AAA mileage out of it when there's no network available. I've been chipping away at TotK, streamed from my desktop.
How good does streaming work? I have a steam link box attached to my tv on an ethernet cable, and it's always hit or miss, more miss than hits, so i've given up using it. How does steam deck compare to that?
Yeah I'm a sucker for small electronics. I have a GPD Win that wouldn't turn on anymore, but liked it when I had it. I stopped using it after a while for whatever reason, and it's not turning on now.
Hey, I don’t have a powerful desktop any more, however I opted for the steam deck over a new desktop just for lifestyle reasons. I don’t have very much free time, and what free time I have isn’t spent entirely on gaming. For me the steam decks secret weapon is that it goes from ‘off’ to ‘gaming’ in seconds, then if I’m needed, off again in seconds even mid cutscene, then when I am free again I press the button and I’m resumed. I can get some gameplay in a precious spare moment which I could never get in if I had to boot my pc, launch steam, install updates etc. it’s too slow.
Also I can play anywhere in the house, which means I’m not glued like a recluse to the pc upstairs. With a pair of open backed headphones I can still interact and talk to people in the room with me, whilst not disturbing someone watching the tv (I recommend the Koss KSC75s, super cheap, sound good and they fit in the weird hollow in the back of the deck case when you’re not using them). I do have a usb c dock with connected screens and mouse and keyboard which I could plug the deck into for a desktop style pc experience, it works well but I don’t often plug it in. It’s just better to play on the sofa. For me it’s the only way I’d find any time at all to game. 10 years ago: different story, but now, if I had a desktop pc it would just gather dust.
That's because the oled tvs are so thin you risk bending the display if you lay it down. A thick mobile device provides plenty of support. The display itself isn't affected by orientation.
@abobla
Yeah we got duped.
When they knew it was selling
good the released the real one.
They been lying saying they
would not release till 3 years to empty the ware
houses as this update is a complete redesign. This
whole thing was a crowdfund
from the start. Look at all the shit they made us go thru.
The other guys just release
While we stuck in beta test.
I got my and love it cause I
Love Linux. I might get the lenovo as well to complement my 16inch drawing tablet.