3 ms·

Just to add some context here. Some of this doesn't line up with my experience. - my battery life is roughly 2-4 hours depending on the game. I'm playing Yakuz

Just to add some context here. Some of this doesn't line up with my experience. - my battery life is roughly 2-4 hours depending on the game. I'm playing Yakuza like a dragon right now and the battery lasts close to 3 hours - my screen is plenty bright. I don't play in direct sunlight, but I do sit out on my porch during the day and it's fine. - I've not had an issue with it being underpowered. I played Harry Potter on it which is a pretty demanding game and it seemed comparable to the performance my daughter had on the PS5 with her copy. - I've never noticed an issue with downloads and stuttering while playing. - Loudness is about the same as a laptop or console while gaming. Same for temp. - Ergo is a small issue for me as well. The size and bulk of the deck can make my wrists hurt after some time.

dagmx 3y ago
I’m glad your experience is better but I’d just point out a few things. Battery life is heavily dependant on the games being played. Yakuza isn’t typically that demanding so I’m not surprised you’re getting more. Playing something like Forza kills my battery pretty quickly. The screen is 400nits. It’s also not got great gamut coverage. That’s what I mean by it being dull and dim. It’s usable but it’s really dependent on the content and context what clarity is like. Yes it can play Harry Potter but at what settings and frame rate? The capability to play a game isn’t an issue, it can play most things. But it’s essentially a mobile PS4. Which is great, but it’s also only capable of playing games at settings comparable to a downclocked PS4. Again, something I knew going in but I figured they’d have better thermal management if I was giving up more contemporary performance.
- deelowe 3y ago
  I played Harry Potter on medium-high settings. If you keep the resolution at the native screen resolution and turn off things that aren't needed on a smaller screen (eg AA or super sampling), the performance is better than PS4 and roughly the same as a PS5. Performance isn't really a concern for me unless I'm plugged into an external display.
  - dagmx 3y ago
    But that’s exactly it. You’re playing at a lower setting by turning off AA and playing at low resolutions I’m glad performance is fine enough for you though. I still find it quite underpowered, where every game I play requires both feature and resolution compromises. Playing without AA is just not acceptable to me in this decade. At least not unless I’m getting significant battery life or thermal freedom to compensate.
    - deelowe 3y ago
      It's not needed on smaller screens. The switch does similar things. It's a common tactic on handhelds to disable those sort of features as they add no noticeable improvement.
      - dagmx 3y ago
        The switch does it for *some* games when running portably and then enables most things when docked. A lot of that is battery management. The steamdeck does not really have a concept of dual modes, per your own statements about playing on a bigger screen. And I completely disagree that AA isn’t needed on smaller screens. You can see aliasing at any screen size. Again, perhaps it meets your threshold of quality. That does not mean it meets mine nor does it mean that the form factor somehow obviates it. It just means that we have subjectively different preferences. But again, I disagree that “it’s not needed”. That’s not why games will disable AA in handheld mode. AA is expensive and a cost they try and mitigate with art direction that tries to avoid much of the losses. The steamdeck is not just playing games designed for a small screen. Many games suffer from shimmering and shifting. Whether that’s an issue for you or not is independent of whether they exist and might be issues for others.

dagmx 3y ago

I’m glad your experience is better but I’d just point out a few things. Battery life is heavily dependant on the games being played. Yakuza isn’t typically that demanding so I’m not surprised you’re getting more. Playing something like Forza kills my battery pretty quickly. The screen is 400nits. It’s also not got great gamut coverage. That’s what I mean by it being dull and dim. It’s usable but it’s really dependent on the content and context what clarity is like. Yes it can play Harry Potter but at what settings and frame rate? The capability to play a game isn’t an issue, it can play most things. But it’s essentially a mobile PS4. Which is great, but it’s also only capable of playing games at settings comparable to a downclocked PS4. Again, something I knew going in but I figured they’d have better thermal management if I was giving up more contemporary performance.

deelowe 3y ago
I played Harry Potter on medium-high settings. If you keep the resolution at the native screen resolution and turn off things that aren't needed on a smaller screen (eg AA or super sampling), the performance is better than PS4 and roughly the same as a PS5. Performance isn't really a concern for me unless I'm plugged into an external display.
- dagmx 3y ago
  But that’s exactly it. You’re playing at a lower setting by turning off AA and playing at low resolutions I’m glad performance is fine enough for you though. I still find it quite underpowered, where every game I play requires both feature and resolution compromises. Playing without AA is just not acceptable to me in this decade. At least not unless I’m getting significant battery life or thermal freedom to compensate.
  - deelowe 3y ago
    It's not needed on smaller screens. The switch does similar things. It's a common tactic on handhelds to disable those sort of features as they add no noticeable improvement.
    - dagmx 3y ago
      The switch does it for *some* games when running portably and then enables most things when docked. A lot of that is battery management. The steamdeck does not really have a concept of dual modes, per your own statements about playing on a bigger screen. And I completely disagree that AA isn’t needed on smaller screens. You can see aliasing at any screen size. Again, perhaps it meets your threshold of quality. That does not mean it meets mine nor does it mean that the form factor somehow obviates it. It just means that we have subjectively different preferences. But again, I disagree that “it’s not needed”. That’s not why games will disable AA in handheld mode. AA is expensive and a cost they try and mitigate with art direction that tries to avoid much of the losses. The steamdeck is not just playing games designed for a small screen. Many games suffer from shimmering and shifting. Whether that’s an issue for you or not is independent of whether they exist and might be issues for others.