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Steam Deck VS rivals

I was interested in buying a Steam Deck... Until I discovered all the (apparently) better alternatives. Asus Rog Ally, OneXPlayer, Aya Neo etc... I like the idea of an handheld console and obviously I would like to have a device that can run almost everything, so the Windows based handhelds seem better than the Steam Deck. Is it true? Furthermore the Steam Deck looks really big compared to some new devices out there (eg the OneXFly) and neither I like the screen of the Steam Deck, apparently of lower res and with very big bazels (to me looks like the first Nintendo Switch). On the other hand, I think Valve is a more serious company than (apart from Asus) some other unknown Chinese company and I expect Valve to deliver a better product. Still I'm not convinced of Steam OS compared to Windows 11, since I would like to play also Epic games and maybe some emulators. So I started getting information about the alternatives and... There are a lot. There are so many that I got overwhelmed. If you go to the OneXPlayer website they sell like 3-4 different handheld consoles, Aya Neo even more and they also have IndieGoGo campaigns running for new devices, all with weird names. I can't understand what's the device right for me (and I really don't understand their business model). So my question is: are the rivals of the Steam Deck worth their price? Are they really better than the Steam Deck (in terms of quality, screen, size)? Thank you for your opinion!

UPDATE: I finally bought a refurbished 256GB Steam Deck.

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83 comments

  • I have a ROG Ally and a Steam Deck. The Steam Deck experience is miles ahead. Windows is such a limitation on these handheld devices (and dare I say PC gaming in general). SteamOS is the real MVP behind the Steam Deck, it makes everything feel seamless.

    The Ally feels like a crappy ASUS launcher stapled on top of an unoptimized Windows desktop, since that's exactly what it is.

    Also, the ASUS ROG Ally controls are nowhere near as nice as the Deck's. The Deck sticks feel better. The touchpads allow for mouse control.

    Get the Deck.

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    • Yeah, the Rog Ally got the more powerful hardware, but this is a good example how power isn't everything.

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    • Hopefully Microsoft releases a handheld mode instead of just experimenting with it. Besides the interface, they also really need to optimize for performance. Even though, with the steam deck, proton is converting draw calls it still outperforms the same deck running windows with native driver support. This really shows how the mountains of extra crap running on windows hurts gaming performance on these low power devices.

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      • Hopefully Microsoft fades into irrelevance. I'm glad the Steam Deck is doing something about Microsoft's control over the PC gaming market. I'm also glad Microsoft is losing in the handheld gaming PC experience. Let Windows die already, it's long overdue (especially given the continued and intensifying enshittification of the OS every release cycle).

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    • I haven’t used other handhelds, but what you say is what I’ve seen from other discussions and reviews. Yes, there are more powerful systems with better screens, but the SD’s OS is miles ahead (but not without a lot of quirks as well). The touchpads are incredible - I couldn’t imagine trying to use a handheld PC without those touchpads. Also, the custom control configuration abilities built in to steam OS are incredibly versatile and detailed.

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    • Ive used the Ally and I would agree. The hardware is great and feels good in hand, but Valve is going to have much more to gain by supporting the software of the deck as much as possible.

      The steam deck definitely shipped undercooked, but Valve has made amazing strides to make it my a reliable and versatile experience.

      I use a steam deck dock to hook it to my TV, but A LOT of the time im using it in desktop mode in this setup. I get crisp 1080p out and its a fantastic experience for playing youtube and twitch from the couch.

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    • Both are great options! Just to counterbalance arguments against:

      I can't buy a Steam Deck in Australia, but I can buy the ROG Ally.

      Windows can be clunky, but that less-than-stellar experience is limited to navigating and launching games. The stock launcher works fine, it's just bare-bones. You can set Steam to launch into big picture on boot at which point it's the same experience as the Steam Deck anyway.

      All games install and run, there's absolutely no dicking around required compared to some experiences on Steam Deck.

      Touch controls are nice. 120hz VRR 1080p screen is a better draw imo as it's universally applicable to all games. That screen makes sub-60fps experiences much nicer and has better colours and contrast and uniformity (not to mention resolution).

      ROG Ally cooling system is really great, and really quiet. I don't feel like there's a desktop machine wedged between my hands.

      The ROG Ally performance isn't what ASUS sold, but it's still a good bit faster than Steam Deck, and most games I've tried I can hit a visual and performance fidelity roughly on par with an Xbox Series S. Which ain't bad at all.

      Both are convenent and versitile systems, I think probably Steam Deck is more convenient whereas ROG Ally is more versatile.

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      • I really bought the ROG Ally to experiment with Linux on it. I think it is getting there. I have Arch Linux with chimera kernel on mine as well as gamescope-session which allows it to function very similarly to the Steam Deck, but at the moment it seems TDP control isn't working so games don't run as well as they should. I also can't get the ROG button to work as a Steam button even though that should be working according to ChimeraOS. I wanted Arch because it allows for dual booting vs. Chimera which does not, as well as for development purposes. I think the hardware of the Ally is solid, though I still hold that the Deck's controls are much better. Once the Ally is better supported on Linux I think it would be a better option, as I refuse to use Windows anymore except for testing/reverse engineering purposes.

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  • Steam Deck's secret sauce is the software. Steam Deck's software isn't all OSS yet (it's NOT the same as the publicly available SteamOS), so the alternatives are all running on Windows which... is not good (especially for a handheld).

    Honestly, just get a Steam Deck. The "power" differences are just not meaningful at that form factor right now.

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  • Steam Deck is shaping up to be the "Nintendo" of handheld PCs. Not the most powerful thing on the market, but cleverly put together with its own bespoke software that allows users to customise and tweak games at the system level via quick access to its features. Having windows on the other machines makes your access to games better but means you have to dig harder or install extra software to do what the deck does. To paraphrase Sega's 90s marketing, It Does what Windon't.

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  • I'm not a Linux fan, but even disregarding the OS (SteamOS vs Windows), the fact that most of these "killers" don't come with touch pads of any kind makes them an instant loss. So many PC games use a mouse, I'm not using a fiddly thumbstick in its place.

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  • Permanently Deleted

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  • On paper a lot of these devices beat the Deck. In reality the Deck sits on top and looks down on everyone else.

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    • Can you explain why? 🫤

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      • The OS is built for the hardware and is optimised accordingly. It's like the other handhelds have performance leaks everywhere while the Steam Deck doesn't. I blame win11. So even if the others are better on paper, actual performance is way better on the Deck. There are so many tools you can download to make it even better, personalise whatever you want. Linux really shines on this thing. And I've never used Linux before in my life. You can emulate everything up to the newest Nintendo games. It handles God of War, it handles Elden Ring and Diablo 4. Controls are awesome. Somehow even my Switch is more tiring to hold even tho the Deck is way bigger. For me it just clicks. I know I sound like I'm on their payroll but I just feel it's that good. And I would swap the Deck in a heartbeat if anything else would be better. But it isn't.

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      • Not OP but I can take a crack at it. For starters, the build quality is fantastic. As someone who's used quite a few mainstream handhelds (Gameboy up through Switch light, PSP/Vita, and most recently the GDP XD) The deck feels sturdy, and although it is quite bulky, it fits with case and charger in a backpack that's flown cross country several times. I've had to replace other devices that just couldn't stand up to that kind of abuse.

        It's also quite powerful - enough to run Elden Ring at a very consistent 30 FPS. More lightweight titles have zero issues. The same is also true of emulated hardware up to 6th gen, including KH1/2, Metroid Prime, etc. Which is quite a feat for a portable computer like this.

        The backend/desktop mode is easy to access and makes setting up those emus quite simple, and with a little command line work you can get applications running that aren't available via Discover.

        Really, the only thing lacking here is battery life, but even then, 2-3 hours is on par with most laptops.

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      • So it's definitely subjective.

        But I definitely wouldn't swap it straight up for any of the rest.

        The Deck is big and heavy compared to the field, but it uses the size for a couple of purposes:

        1. It has full controller sized everything (this is without measuring; it feels extremely comparable to the Xbox controller, though), plus the touchpads that are IMO an absolute requirement for interacting with the OS at all. Using any joystick to move a mouse cursor is terrible, and you will have to interact with the OS. You can work around this by only managing stuff at home with a mouse and keyboard plugged in and launching everything through a controller friendly launcher, but it's a headache.

        2. The Ally has the same 40WH battery the Steam Deck does (per a 30 second search), but if you go smaller you almost definitely have to go smaller. On a similar note, much of the rest of the space is cooling. If something is advertising comparable specs in a meaningfully smaller package, they're sacrificing one or the other. It's just physics. The Ally can kick up the power to higher top end performance, but it's at a higher power draw and you can get down to ~2 hours battery life on the deck. Again, the basic limitations of physics say that's going to make a dent in the already tight battery life constraints if you use the power. (Yes, having it while plugged in is still nice.)

        3. The shape is really comfortable. It does take some awareness to avoid resting the weight on your elbows, but once you recognize that you can comfortably play long sessions (compared to the switch, but a lot of the slightly smaller ones have very comparable designs because they're the only way to make a real dent without shrinking the screen).

        You can also install Windows without major issue if that's your preference, though if you don't play games that choose to block you out for anticheat you probably don't need to.

        Ultimately, all of these devices have to make compromises. It's a handheld and there's only one real supplier for chips to make it with (unless you go the basically Android only ARM route). Steam chose an extremely balanced approach such that you don't really feel any of them. Others chose to push harder to one metric or another, but because of the bottom line constraints of the form factor, they had to sacrifice something else to do it. It's possible you prefer the other approaches better, and that's fine. Valve will be perfectly happy if enough good options become available that there's no need for a second deck. Their goal was to make handheld PC gaming a thing (and cut down their reliance on windows), and they were extremely successful at both.

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      • The Nintendo effect. Not only is Steam a "brand" that people know and recognise and very well have a collection of games already on, they've designed their software to be very functional for people who don't know how to go digging for all the hidden options in windows. I can muck about with things like the thermal power limit, frame rate and refresh rate locks, half rate shading, scaler options, from one button access to eh side menu on my deck.

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      • It runs linux <3 But seriously the user experience is so good, i thought they would stop refining it after a year or so but no, it keeps going like a smash mouth song stuck in a loop.

        Also i had blast tinkering with it in desktop mode and discovering how the whole gadget runs after docking it and plugging a key board, mouse and monitor.

        The emulation options are fantastic if not a bit tricky to set up, but there are some tools that you can familiarize yourself with in just a 10 min youtube vid.

        Of course it sucks that it cant run the latest AAA, but it is amazing for casual games without micro transactions, indies and ps3 level games. I mean get a real pc if you want to play thoses for sure, but imo satisfying graphics fidelity was reached by the ps3 era, and only gameplay really matters now.

        Honestly my fav games atm are steep, stray, and witcher 3 which i would consider the max amount of graphics it can handle (without maxing, but without setting everything to low).

        On the indies side I had a blast with carrion, donut county and vampire survivor, games that I thought I would never play sitting in front of my PC.

        The idea of a 720 p screen kinda sucks at first, but you dont really feel a difference in game. Personally when I dock it with a screen i set the res higher and on some small indie games i game at 4k since it can take it.

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  • SteamOS (and Linux gaming in general, thanks to Proton) is absolutely great and has been for at least a year or two now. The reduced overhead and lack of update bullshit honestly makes it better than Windows gaming in every way, IMHO. Getting it running on non-Steam Deck mobile hardware is likely a bit of a chore, though. Frankly I don't even understand why anyone would waste time with the competitors.

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  • You can press the power button on the Deck while in the middle of a game and it'll suspend. Pick it up hours/days later and hit the power button and it'll instantly resume your game. I don't believe the Ally can do that.

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  • Screen is not the best, but everything else is superior. SteamOS is much better than Windows, IMO. Though I don't play multiplayer games and I've read some anticheats don't run on Linux. The only multiplayer game I play from time to time is Fall Guys and it works. Emulators are actually where Linux shines and especially Steam Deck - there's an app called EmuDeck that sets up all the emulators you could think of and makes it work really easily. For Epic and GOG games I use Heroic Games Launcher and it works well, I played Spider-Man and Fall Guys from Epic and most of my library is on GOG.

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  • Still I'm not convinced of Steam OS compared to Windows 11, since I would like to play also Epic games and maybe some emulators

    How much time, relatively speaking, do you spend playing multiplayer Epic games? If it's more than 50%, then yeah, SteamOS may not be for you. But if it's less than that, then SteamOS would be a better experience, simply because it was built ground-up for gaming. No Windows Defender slowing down your system unexpectedly, no Windows Updates to hijack your system at the most unexpected times, no other bloatware or nonsense services like Bing/copilot crap or ads in Explorer - just pure gaming. These Windows handhelds you speak of are barely optimized for gaming, the most they do is add a launcher and call it a "gaming console" - you still have to put up with various Windows annoyances, which defeats the point of a dedicated gaming console - you want to be able to just pick it up, turn it on and game - no nonsense. One of the cool things about SteamOS is how reliable the sleep/resume is when you're gaming, which allows you to just pause and game whenever you like. This whole streamlined experience is why people love the Deck.

    BTW, SteamOS has no issues running emulators. I can't think of any popular emulator that runs only on Windows, or runs significantly better on Windows.

    the screen of the Steam Deck, apparently of lower res

    The lower res is actually better because it's a small screen. A higher res on a small screen makes things harder to see, plus with a lower res you get more FPS and a better batter life.

    very big hazels (to me looks like the first Nintendo Switch).

    It may not look good, but it actually makes it more ergonomic and easier to hold. Check any review of the Deck and you'll see they all praise it's ergonomics, like this one: https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/pc-gaming/steam-deck-review#section-steam-deck-form-factor-ergonomics-and-gamepad

    "Despite its undeniable girth, the Steam Deck's attention to ergonomics makes it an incredibly comfortable device to hold, even during extended gaming sessions"

    In fact, read the rest of the article - or any other in-depth review. You'll find that the Steam Deck is a much more polished experience overall compared to the others, and this is thanks to both it's hardware and software.

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  • Steam deck has the community. There's more powerful single card computers than the raspberry pi but the pi has the community so everything works better and for longer. I wouldn't be surprised if the decks support outlives the others not to mention the third party market.

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  • I have a Steam Deck and was considering "upgrading" to something that has more power.

    But then I wanted to play Torchlight 2, an action-rpg designed for mouse and keyboard that does not have controller support. I wasn't even going to try it, but saw that Runic Games had an input profile for it. The left stick controls your character like it supporter controllers, but it's all using the mouse. The touchpads work for precise targeting. And I'm able to use all 10 skill buttons using modifier keys and adding the back buttons. Plus I was able to easily adapt this to Diablo 3, a non-steam game without controller support.

    If you want to be limited to games designed with controllers in mind, go for one of the alternatives. But if you want to be able to play mouse and keyboard games, there's nothing that competes with the Steam Deck.

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  • You can run Heroic on the steam deck to play Epic

    Ally is worse than the steam deck in everything unless it’s plugged in and you’re using a keyboard and mouse, at that point you should get a laptop

    Emulators also have no issue

    The res is lower so it can play higher demanding games, necessary res scales with screen size, a 1 cm screen doesn’t matter if it’s 10 pixels or 10 million but a 200 cm screen you’d want the 10 million

    Rivals might compete but they aren’t big enough to handle volume (you might be waiting a long time)

    Also Linux is better than Windows

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  • I feel like windows would seriously hamper the experience, it's terrible on small screens and when you don't have a normal mouse and keyboard to use. It also has a ton of overhead that's going to eat into the more limited CPU and GPU.

    I'm also pretty sure you can just dual boot windows on the steam deck if you want to have windows available.

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  • I own Steam Deck and the ROG Ally. Steam Deck is a simpler experience, ROG Ally is more powerful and offers a true desktop experience in a handheld.

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  • I recently picked up a Steam Deck and I can also vouch for it; the device is far more than the sum of its parts and is clearly something Valve was only able to pull off after a decade plus of various software/hardware integration experiments.

    SteamOS is the star of the show, and it is both fluid and easy to use while also putting more customization and flexibility at your fingertips than any other game interface I’ve seen. The integration of custom operating system, custom game wrapper tech, and their standardized hardware has produced a device that offers the power and flexibility of PC gaming with a user experience that is getting closer and closer to the “never think about it” ease of use that consoles provide.

    It’s not the most powerful; it’s really a 720/800P gaming machine, but games look great at that resolution and you can run a lot of games at comfortably playable frame rates.

    I had some doubts after I bought mine when I saw the ROG Ally come out alongside hundreds of “OMG THE STEAM DECK KILLER HAS ARRIVED” videos; but it didn’t take long until I saw a lot of those same content creators return their Ally and come back to the steam deck because although the hardware is slightly more powerful, the user experience end is so much worse than it just wasn’t worth it. Not to mention some serious QC issues with it.

    I’ve been a PC gamer for a long time; I think I’ve been active on Steam for 18 years now. The Steam Deck is the best PC Gaming experience I’ve ever had. The hardware is great, the controls (and mapping ability of those controls) are great, the interface is great…everything is just top notch about it. Do I wish it was more powerful? Well that’d be great, and one day it will be. But everything about the experience is so good, I don’t mind some of the drawbacks. It’s encouraged me to get into my backlog of games and genuinely enjoy exploring them again. The Steam Deck just makes it so seamless and easy to play your games.

    In fact, I’m getting close to time to build a new PC, and the Steam Deck has really changed my thoughts on it. Seeing how far Proton and SteamOS have come…I just really want Valve to take another shot at the Steam Box. A lot of its shortcomings aren’t issues now, and add in some good Steam Deck integration and have it target 1440P/4K Upscaling, you could create an affordable box that taps into a successful and growing ecosystem. I’d buy one in an instant and just not bother with a new PC build in the years ahead.

    That’s how much I genuinely believe that the Steam Deck/SteamOS experience is that good these days!

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  • Steam Deck punches way above its weight. But it does so much thanks to its lower resolution. Though in the format 720p isn't bad at all. It's what the switch uses as well.

    Skip all the Chinese alternatives, they require far more tweaking / researching than you're fit for (judged solely by this post).

    Really I'd break it down to games and game types you want to play. If you want say Genshin Impact then it's a lot easier to go with the ROG Ally. There are other Asian games that also don't play nice with Linux. Multiplayer titles also tend to be finicky with Linux. The ROG Ally is also strong enough to dock to a 1080p screen for titles like Valorant or CSGO. If that is appealing.

    If you're playing mainly older games then the deck is the obvious choice, it's a beast when it comes to emulation and has much better battery life in that setting than the ROG Ally. It's also arguably more plug-and-play especially if you play mostly steam games.

    Running Windows on the Deck isn't very good, it kills the decks battery advantage and the lower performance becomes more obvious. Same running Linux on the ROG is also missing out on what it's actually good at and Linux won't improve the battery life much.

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  • Steam Deck has better software support than ROG Ally. Also, the latter only sports standard analogs, and SD offers two trackpads (which are great, btw).

    On the other hand, ROG has more raw power and a better display. I don’t know anything meaningful about the rest you mentioned.

    As for the OS, Linux seems better suited for these kinds of devices. Proton runs almost anything and offers a great experience, and on top off that, you can still use it as a daily PC with the use of peripherals. But I’m probably somewhat biased, as I know and love my SD.

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  • Like others have said. It’s because steam deck runs steam os that makes it better than the rest. It’s a catered os for the device. It was after I jumped in I realised how robust it is. Every game in integrated works on Linux no issue I even took windows off my desktop pc. Best reason is also community. Steam deck has plenty of online support whereas the other ones are a bit more saturated

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  • Thank you all. This discussion is really helping me making a decision. I even thought that YouTubers are being paid for well advertising all these Chinese alternatives and put the Steam Deck in bad light.

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  • The steam deck has better performance when you set it to low power consumption, but the competitors have better performance when set at higher power consumption. If you play a lot mouse based games, the trackpads are very nice. Emulation works great on the steam deck and it is possible to play epic games (I don't use epic so idk how good it is).

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    • And how's the Steam Deck screen quality compared to competitors? And do you feel comfortable handling the Deck or is it too heavy and big?

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      • Watch YouTube reviews of the devices. I would not bother with comparing screens. I usually do this as well but in the long run you want the best overall device. The Deck doesn't have an 1080p OLED but I also wouldn't want it to have one because battery would be so much worse.

        Don't look on CPU and GPU. You can't compare them because the machines aren't running the same OS. It's like comparing ram, gpu and cpu on an iphone and compare directly to an Android phone. It's irrelevant. The actual experience is what matters, it's the device you will look at, not the spec sheet.

        Edit: oh and btw. If you want to put a screen protector on the Deck, get either the cheapest one and upgrade the internal ssd or get the middle one and buy a 512-1tb ssd. If you arent going to put a screen protector you can buy the deck with anti glare.

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      • I don't have any of the competitors, but the screen quality seems fine to me. If you hold it at a reasonable distance you can't really see the pixels. Compared to my switch it is definitely heavier and bigger, so its not very comfortable to hold up because of its weight, so I just rest it on my lap or a table when using it. A small annoyance with the screen is that the resolution isn't a standard ratio so a lot of games have black bars on the top and bottom.

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  • Correct me if I'm wrong, but all these better alternative have "better" price tags.

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  • I had a deck for a while and have sold it in favor of the ROG Ally. It requires a lot of work to get its software out of your way but after tearing all of thw asus crap out, including the trash services who's only purpose is to put their broken ass software back on against the end users' wishes I've got a matching software experience on it.

    I just could not give up the vrr screen, it makes the Ally beat out the deck for my uses and none of the $1200+ devices really come close either.

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  • I sold my Steam Deck because the hardware really isn't good enough. Poor quality screen and no anti friction rings for the analogue sticks, plus the whole thing is just too large.

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