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Bought one of these during the recent sale. It is a marvel. I had been thinking of waiting for an eventual v2, but it's honestly so cool today that it's not wor
by dougmwne 4y ago
Bought one of these during the recent sale. It is a marvel. I had been thinking of waiting for an eventual v2, but it's honestly so cool today that it's not worth waiting. For me the main "wow" moments:
1. The first party, deck verified steam experience is super smooth, feeling just like a game console. It's like a switch with a deeper library and better controls. I love the community contributed control layouts as well.
2. The hardware itself is fantastic. The controls are great for both gaming and light desktop computing. Great feel in the hands, pleasant screen for gaming, and really just a much more comfortable experience than sitting at a desk or playing on the TV. It feels like curling up with a good book.
3. Linux with great windows compatibility layer out of the box. You pop it over into desktop mode and you have a Linux machine with ability to run most of the software out there for windows. You plug in a usb-c hub and you have a full desktop, keyboard mouse experience. And if you really have the need, you can dual boot into windows.
4. An insanely helpful community. Tons of knowledge out there for getting it to do anything you can dream of. So many people hacking on their favorite game to improve performance or play experience. Many folks writing auto-config scripts for anything from turning it into a retro gaming powerhouse to tweaking the swap file performance characteristics.
- flatiron 4y agoI agree. Last gaming PC I built was 2002. Decided to give the deck a whirl and I’m amazed by it. Playing octopath traveler 2 right now. Even though it has Denuvo antitamper I’ve had 0 issue. Put steam in offline mode and went on a plane and it worked great. Emu deck is also very good. My kids like to play super Mario allstars and they just fire it up like any other game.
- SamuelAdams 4y agoI wonder how the power draw compares to say an Xbox or PlayStation. Could the steam deck replace power-hungry consoles using a thunderbolt cable and dock? This could be a big win for Europe as electricity prices are going up considerably.
- vel0city 4y agoThe Steam Deck itself is like <20W. A Playstation 5 uses ~200W when playing games. That's before thinking about what your TV power usage is. A Steam Deck could use its own screen within that <20W power envelope, while a Playstation or a docked Deck is going to probably use an extra 100-200W on a TV.
- pja 4y agoIf you’re happy with 1080p PS4-ish level performance on the Deck’s 720p screen, sure. It’s probably not going to keep up with a PS4 on a 1080p TV, but Valve has done a lot of optimisation work & the output might be surprisingly “good enough”.
- dougmwne 4y agoThe steam deck on paper has higher specs than a PS4. PS4 can push 1.8 tflops on an older architecture and steam deck can do 3.3 on a more modern architecture. People’s real world experience on several games seems to put the Steam deck consistently ahead by a comfortable margin.
- therealdrag0 4y agoOriginal or Ps4 Pro?
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- chaorace 4y ago> An insanely helpful community. Tons of knowledge out there for getting it to do anything you can dream of. This may actually be one of the biggest lasting impacts of the Steam Deck. It puts a lot of enthusiasts with a common interest on a highly reproducible and officially supported configuration. If a game doesn't work, you can file a bug with Valve on Github about it and most of the time it'll be fixed within a week. If the system itself is misbehaving, you can feel safe knowing that there are thousands of others on the exact same configuration. Just two weeks ago, I had an issue with the system resuming into a blacked-out screen, so I vaguely Googled the symptoms and "Steam Deck", which led me to a Reddit thread with oodles of people experiencing the same issue[1]. Someone said it was a bug related to the new customizable boot animation feature -- I turned the feature off and I could go on with my day without even opening a single log file! [1]: https://old.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/11ubgfl/latest_update_breaking_games_on_resume/ https://old.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/11ubgfl/latest_u...
- jupblb 4y agoI have the same issue with my Steam Deck but didn't have the time to Google it. Thank you for saving me these few minutes!
- philistine 4y agoWelcome to the greatest benefit of the Mac community since 1984!
- BiteCode_dev 4y agoDon't see why you are being downvoted, missing one common supported hardware has always been a big problem in the linux community, always chasing crazy combinations of drivers. Of course if you control the hardware and software stacks, it's leads to a better experience and community can build on it.
- jchw 4y agoMicrosoft Surface and Google Pixel are both similar examples, but they don't really feel substantially better than alternatives where the hardware and software stacks are less unified. The primary difference between Steam Deck and other Linux experiences isn't really that the hardware and software are unified, it's that you're actually running a supported configuration in the first place. Almost all Linux setups are ultimately ran on hardware that was built to run Windows in the first place. Even System76 laptops ultimately (today) come from hardware designed for Windows laptops. Steam Deck is flat out, start to finish, all the way down to the APU, designed to boot into Linux, and it shows. On the contrary, booting Windows on it gives you some of the hallmarks of a typical Linux experience on less supported hardware. But I don't think that's really what the comment was about. I think what is really interesting here is the community. I think the close collaboration between Valve and the Linux community is pretty unique. Mac has always had a very vocal fanbase, but Apple is a notoriously secretive and stubborn company. Valve is doing all of this work in the open including customer support, which is fostering quite a community. I think to compare it to Mac computers misses the point; Mac has an unusually large base of enthusiasts, much larger than the Steam Deck userbase, but it's not strength in numbers that is intriguing here.
- matheusmoreira 4y agoI wonder how comfortable it is to write code on the deck. I'm already addicted to programming on my phone with Termux, this could be an upgrade for me.
- JeffeFawkes 4y agoFor what it's worth, the on-screen keyboard is kind of awful. You can also type using the two thumb touchpads, so I guess you could do it with that, but it sounds like an exercise in frustration unless you're using an external keyboard of some sort.
- dougmwne 4y agoI suppose if you are already coding on your phone it could be an upgrade. I find the touch keyboard to be pretty basic, but it does have all the symbols and special characters visible like on a physical keyboard. Once you get used to the double trackpad and hot keys, I think the coding experience could be maybe even better than a phone. For real coding plugging in a dock and going real keyboard, mouse and monitor would be a must for most.
- matheusmoreira 4y ago> Once you get used to the double trackpad and hot keys, I think the coding experience could be maybe even better than a phone. That's what I'm wondering about. Do those trackpads let you type without a virtual keyboard covering half the screen? That would be a killer feature for me.
- jeroenhd 4y agoIt's terrible; the device is quite bulky and bigger than people seem to expect. I like the on screen keyboard, but it's not exactly fast or fully featured and the touch screen is too far away from your fingers in any comfortable holding position to type more than a name or a message here and there. It's also quite heavy if you hold it horizontal with only one hand. With a docking station or a small Bluetooth keyboard you could probably turn the Deck into a portable dev platform, but it's simply not designed for text entry.
- 4y ago
- codetrotter 4y ago> Bought one of these during the recent sale Was the Steam Deck itself on sale? Or you bought a Steam Deck during Steam game sales? How much did you pay for your Steam Deck, and what model/features did you buy?
- estebank 4y agoThere was a Steam Deck sale. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/03/valves-year-old-steam-deck-is-on-sale-for-the-first-time/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/03/valves-year-old-steam...
- dmonitor 4y agoSteam Deck was on sale 10% off mid-march
- jeroenhd 4y agoThe Steam Deck was 10% off just two weeks ago to celebrate its first year of being out, at every performance tier I believe. I also think they discounted the Deck Dock. Crazy how it's only been a year since the Deck came out, given the impact it's had on the gaming market.
- LegitShady 4y agoI have a steam deck. I can't say I understand it's impact on the gaming market though.
- dougmwne 4y agoFrom what I understand, it gives games a good lower end hardware target to hit with optimal visuals. It also pushes games to add solid controller support on PC and be Linux/proton friendly. Some anti-cheat supports Linux now as a result of steam deck.
- shrewduser 4y agodo you not like it?
- ggregoire 4y ago> really just a much more comfortable experience than sitting at a desk or playing on the TV Can I ask what types of games do you play? I feel like the ones I play wouldn't be as enjoyable on the Deck than on a big monitor with a keyboard and a mouse. Especially for very long sessions. Strategy, FPS, ARPG... I'm still thinking about getting one to occasionally play JRPGs (FFs, Yakuzas, Personas...) and other story driven games that were originally designed for consoles (God of War, Red Dead Redemption, The Last of Us...). I guess it works great for this type of games and it would be more comfortable than playing on a laptop in bed.
- saidinesh5 4y agoIn the last 1 month, Games I have enjoyed on my steam deck: * A Plague Tale: Innocence * Shadow tactics: Blades of Shogun * Metro 2033 * Mark of the Ninja * A way out (co op only).. My only recommendation for playing in bed is that get some kind of stand or something so you can rest the deck on your chest/stomach and comfortably play for 2-3 hours at a time.
- uglygoblin 4y agoWhat stand do you use?
- saidinesh5 4y agoI purchased this one: https://www.amazon.com/Accessories-Protective-Adjustable-Protector-nintendo-switch/dp/B0B927GGCY/ https://www.amazon.com/Accessories-Protective-Adjustable-Pro... it came with a stand. While the stand itself is comfy to use, i hate how i have to manually hold the stand while picking up my steam deck. Maybe one of the fancy cases with detachable stands is better?
- icemelt8 4y agoShadow tactics is one my favorite games, how did you play it without a mouse?
- 4y ago
- pja 4y agoLikewise. Bought the cheapest Deck & put a 512Gb SSD in it. It’s going to be a lifesaver on the next long holiday drive with the kids.
- _joel 4y agoIt's great that you've trained them to be able to drive for so long so you can relax and get some sweet frags
- rozal 4y agoI never understood the steam deck. Most smartphones are much more powerful in terms are hardware, better screen technology (OLED and high refresh rates) More importantly, you can easily stream games on to them. So why on god earth is everyone so excited about a crumby screen that can play a few games on medium settings?
- dougmwne 4y agoFor one, game streaming is not portable past the range of a strong Wi-Fi signal. I have done game streaming on a phone with a Bluetooth controller and I found the ergonomics and screen size to be pretty uncomfortable. It can be done though and I played all the way through subnautica like that. And the swore to never do it again!
- dimitrios1 4y agoYou are right, you simply lack any understanding what-so-ever if you think the only thing people care for are hardware specifications or having the latest and greatest tech.
- BadBadJellyBean 4y agoMost smartphones have more powerful hardware than a steam deck? I doubt that.
- timw4mail 4y agoNo way are smartphones more powerful in hardware, and streaming adds latency to controls, regardless of the quality of the network connection.
- sleepybrett 4y agoLet me know when you get mainline AAA windows games running on your smartphone. Steamdeck does this through a software layer called proton. I guess you could try to port this to android or ios ... https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton The hardware may be more powerful on your phone (but it probably isn't). The screen is probably better but the steamdeck's screen is pretty great to my eyes. I can also easily stream games to my steamdeck just like my phone, and sometimes do.. however that really only works if I am on the same local network unless I want to take a huge video compression quality hit. I can take my steamdeck on an airplane and play any game that doesn't require a really reliable internet connection (or games without that requirement of course). But if you are trying to stream games, have fun with that I guess.
- johnchristopher 4y agoI almost bought one but then got curious about its fan noise level, read a bit on the internet and decided I wouldn't risk it. I still remember a laptop computer I barely used because of a whining coil. Fan noise that sounds like leaf blowers are a turn-off for me and I can't use headphones because of tinnitus :/.
- delecti 4y agoHonestly the fan noise is pretty overblown. It's barely noticeable on less intensive games (which naturally stress the CPU less), but I did a ~100 hour playthrough of Elden Ring (a recent and graphically intensive game) solely on my Steam Deck, and only ever noticed the fan noise in the lull of silence in the moments as my heartrate came back down after losing to bosses.
- johnchristopher 4y agoI am sensitive to those kind of noises, so I tend to give more weight on the feedback of people like me. Took me some time also to understand that most people don't always realize noise sensitivity can vary much between people and their own experience and that their baseline is way off other's baseline.