For people that own a Steam Deck, how do you like it? And how do you use it? I would like to talk myself into buying one, but I can’t think of a decent use case.
One feature that doesn't get mentioned or appreciated enough is the perfect sleep capability. I have 2 young kids and busy work/family life so I struggle to dedicate gaming time. I might get 20min or I might get interrupted in 30s after I sit down. No problem! You hit the power button and it sleeps instantly, and whenever you have time next you seamlessly and perfectly pick up where you were. This removal of overhead for booting and loading the game makes a massive difference for people like myself.
Otherwise, its interface is great and gets out of the way. There is any number of awesome games available and I've found I've played games I might not have on pc anyway. And a lot of games have seamless cloud saves too - for example I'm playing witcher 3 now and I can play here and there during the day on steam deck and then if I have time for a bigger session I pick it up on pc.
Games I've enjoyed on it include outer wilds (CANNOT recommend that one enough!), steam world dig 2, Dex, into the breach, backbone, and a lot of others.
Edit / p.s.: for me it's size is a plus btw. With Kishi+phone, Nintendo ds and even Nintendo switch, my fingers tingle and wrists hurt after a while. The wider and more natural spacing / angle of the larger steam deck means I can play with no such ergonomic issues.
Somewhat disappointed with Outer Wilds though ;)
Later, I found the final sequence so frustrating that I gave up and watched the rest on YouTube—and was glad I did, because that ending would not have landed for me, at all. It reminded me (to its detriment) of Majora’s Mask, a game that actually did a good job of convincing me to care about the NPCs and their situations over the course of the story.
Funnily enough, Outer Wilds has been on my mind lately, because I just played through Tunic, a different (and for me, much more enjoyable) take on the “play the game blind” concept.
Can you let me know about Tunic? I first heard of it literally yesterday when I googled for "Zelda but on Steam Deck"...
No wonder it didn't, you just watched a video. It's like the difference between 4dx and netflix.
(It is a bit of a slow burn; but if you've invested time and it doesn't quite meet the hype, fair enough :)
I've had a single-player game of CIV5 going for MONTHS now. The Steam Deck is PERFECT for pick it up, play for 5 minutes (or a couple of hours), pause it, and resume later.
I have 2 main use-cases:
-couch-playing. When the Wife-unit is watching her shows, or I get bored but still want to be in the same area as her; I can play this on the couch without it being intrusive.
-kids playground. When the kids are at a playground I'll start playing as a way to pass my time until it's time to leave and/or I need to play with the kids too.
Both situations can have frequent interruptions, IMHO the Steam Decks' ability to suspend the game and then let me resume without a problem is incredibly helpful.
I also LOVE that because it's a "real PC", I don't need to fight with config oddities with linux on a laptop. Plug in an external monitor/keyboard/mouse and you have everything you need.
Curious, does anyone own both devices? Is there any noticeable difference in device sleep support between Steam Deck and Switch?
Happen to have any insight on this? $360 vs $540 on sale right now is tempting. Upgrading the storage to a larger NVMe is likely to happen either way, so the premium price would just be for the screen.
Based on videos I have seen online, the 'glossy' version is almost mirror-like. So ANYTHING would be an improvement over that.
FWIW I've added a microSD card and it's fine. Updating the internal nVME is not on my radar, because the whole point of SteamDeck, for me and my personal use, is for it to be "play and forget", as opposed to a hobby in and of itself :). YMMV :-)
But several folks around the interwebs have done practical tests of loading actual games from internal nvme vs external microSD in steam deck, and actual differences were far lesser than specs would indicate.
It's one of the best hardware purchases I've done in years. It's surprising how well it managed to balance "It just works" with "You can still customize/modify/install things you need.". It's not perfect (screen could be better, battery life could be better, it's a bit chunky).
> And how do you use it?
I use it as a "secondary" gaming device. I have a gaming PC where I play games with a Steam library. Since Deck shares that library and seamlessly syncs save games, I can sneak in some game time before sleep, when travelling or when commuting with a lot of game time. When I have more time, I usually move back to my PC where the games and saves are waiting for me.
The fact that it goes instantly to sleep and suspends games is amazing - it really reduces a lot of friction for short gaming sessions because you don't need to wait for games to load.
If you don't play games though... it's probably pointless to get one.
Installing new GOG games from the GOG library isn't quite as easy as installing Steam games is, and you don't get the extra testing and verification for running games on Linux that you get on the Deck.
You do get all of the benefits from the Steam UI, though, like controller remapping and game specific performance profiles.
But, the Deck absolutely 100% works the way Valve intended: I find myself preferring to purchase games on Steam because it’s easy, even if it’s a couple bucks more or I have to wait for the Steam sale. It’s just a better experience.
My Steam account is possibly most oldest active account anyways and I have always preferred it, but if you primarily use another store it might be a bit annoying to have to do all the manual steps for the majority of your games
You just made me feel old. I think my Steam account is even older than my Gmail account. It has accompanied me through several phases of my life... I first created it using a very silly username, later I grew up and became extremely ashamed of it. I remember frequently checking if it was already possible to change the username, but they never allowed it. And now that I'm older I just laugh about it as a memory of my teen years.
(About half the games I play on Deck are from GoG.)
It has become the only way I play games now. The single USB-C is great, I plug it into the same dock [a Dell WD19TBS] I use for my work MBP and personal XPS which provides dual screen, keyboard, mouse, Ethernet, additional USB ports, power, etc over a single cable.
I use it any time I'm travelling which can be anything from 20 mins to 15 hours. Depending on which game I'm playing, I can still get ~6 hours of battery in a single charge and it still charges quick enough. It uses the USB Power Delivery 3.0 standard so any >=45 W charger from a phone or battery pack will work.
This is a bit like the original Switch adverts when it first came out. Where people are playing a game on their sofa at home, then take the console with them to a party on a roof somewhere.
I thought I would never use the trackpads but they are probably the killer input. I use them extensively, they've very sensitive which makes them perfect for fine input controls, and they have rumble motors in them so it feels like you're physically moving something.
The suspend-resume is fantastic, it's very quick and works even though games were not designed for this usecase like they are on consoles.
One complaint I've heard a few times if from people who have already spent a lot on a powerful PC to play games, and are then disappointed that games are less impressive on a device optimised to run at 10W. I was already used to running AAA games on low->medium graphics so in some cases the Steam Deck was actually an upgrade for me.
- it’s underpowered. I knew that going in but so many games have to be played at either a really low setting or you chew through battery life quicker than i can manage.
- battery life is pretty poor. Most games give me an hour or two of use. While I rarely game that long in a stretch, it means that on a trip I’m always thinking about battery. The charging port is in a location that shifts the ballance in an unfortunate way.
- you can’t download while it’s asleep or in the background. So if a game needs to be downloaded or updated, you have to leave it lying there, turned on and doing nothing. You can opt to have it download while you play but it stutters a ton if you do so.
- screen is mediocre. I knew that going in but it’s really hard to appreciate how dim and dull it looks compared to my phone screen for example.
- it’s loud and hot. It’s not something I can play silently therefore. The fans are really working overtime to relieve that poor SoC
- the ergonomics are so so. This one is really subjective. It starts out feeling pretty good, but I find the weight distribution makes it really uncomfortable for me after a whole. I feel a lot more cramping in my fingers and wrists.
Now, it was relatively cheap so I don’t mind, but I find myself not wanting to use it unless I’m on a solo trip or my partner is using the TV.
- 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.
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.
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.
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.
You can try to replace it with some parts from ifixit or somewhere else.
I refunded my first too because it was just too loud and I didn't had the right situation for it.
Now one kid later and a newer deck with a silent fan, I'm very happy with the deck again.
It’s not that it’s making an unpleasant whining sound like what the older fan was meant to be, it’s that it’s trying to push out so much heat all the time that it’s perceptibly loud.
It’s the difference between tone and volume.
All my other devices in the house are relatively quiet compared to it. My switch, my Macs, even my PS5. None of them are fanless but they’re pushing out much less air at any point.
The steamdeck is fine for some games, but once it hits the thermal ceiling it gets so loud.
Are you saying this is something unique to the Steam Deck? If my Linux desktop is anything to judge by, you should be able to enable background downloads in Steam settings. I'm also fairly sure there should be a way to get logind to inhibit sleep during the download.
If you put it to sleep, it pauses downloads. Out of the box, it pauses downloads when you play games unless you enable a checkbox that says it will degrade performance.
If you switch to the desktop mode instead, you can download things as you would on a Linux desktop with all the other requisite performance state management caveats, and it’s very much now how the device is designed to be used.
With the deck, I just sit on the couch and play games - the sleep/standby function is amazing.
Caveat: I'm not a frame rate chaser and I'm not obsessed with graphics quality, so a lower end GPU running at 40hz is perfectly fine by me.
The huge win for me is sleep mode. The fact I can pick up my deck, play during some downtime, then put the thing to sleep and pick it up later, is huge. Couple that with the fact I can play anywhere and it allows me to play during those fragments of time when, previously, it was just too much of a pain to trundle off to my desk, fire up my rig, and get a game going.
And the range of control options means short of a fast twitch FPSes, where I still prefer m&kb (tbf I was never that good, and a lot of folks do just fine with stick+touchpad+gyro or a flick stick setup), there's little I can't play on the deck after some tweaking to get the controls the way I like.
Something about how quickly you can turn the device on and off and just start playing really makes me want to play more.
I've been playing different kind of games I play on console (Hades, Vampire Survivors, Hollow Knight, Brotato), just because they also help with the quick sessions.
I find myself picking it up several times a day when I need a break, and even when I'm stuck in some task at work.
As others have said, it is truly an outstanding achievement by Valve. Most things just work.
Of all my electronic purchases in the last 5 years or so, the Deck is by far the one that had the best cost/benefit. And the one that surpassed my expectations.
It’s a wonderfully flexible device, and extremely fun to tinker with - but the ergonomics are shockingly bad. I don’t know if it’s the size, weight or shape to blame, but it quite reliably gives me the worst hand/wrist pain I’ve ever experienced from a device like it. I’ve tried plenty of purported solutions - adjusting my grip to various positions, attaching grip tape to the handles, etc - and none of them have made any difference.
I played it for two hours last week and it gave me such severe hand cramp that I wasn’t able to fully close my fingers without pain for three days. The only way to fix the pain is to simply not use the console.
There are scattered accounts along these lines on places like /r/SteamDeck - I gather I’m not really unique in this respect.
It’s tremendously unfortunate, really - it’s excellent at what it does, but I expect I’ll have to just sell mine and hope that a future revision to the hardware makes it a little less painful to use.
It could be the weight? it's heavier than most handhelds
Biggest dislike is the on-screen keyboard. On the one hand it's usable with the two trackpads, but, I still take way to long to enter text, even compared to a phone screen. It's also very slow to appear and bugs out too often. I really hope that that can be improved so it can pop up and disappear without noticeable delay.
I'm not sure about underpowered, I was actually quite happy to install some rather resource-intensive (Windows!) games and while it's getting quite warm, I never ran out of battery immediately, but yes, if you've got to save energy, better turn on all the options for that. And that's actually quite cool to be able to turn down energy consumption on a whim, or with per-game profiles, etc.
As long as they're going to optimise the experience more and not just keep it as-is, because "it works fine", then it could be a really good platform going forward.
Same question for the dock though, is it worth it?
I like being able to detach from my gaming computer but still make progress on my RPG games. The device is very hacker friendly—- valve has done an amazing job creating something that is user friendly (versus user hostile e.g. Windows). The device is able to render good graphics without (much) slowdown. I like connecting it to my TV and using it like a console. I like knowing the games I buy for it are accessible on my PC. It’s great.
Form factor is good, no problem so far with controller position. Rather big and rather heavy, not as portable as psp or nds but definitely portable.
Battery lasts only 2 hours-ish for AAA games though, much longer for lower specs.
Suspend and continue works wonder, though anticipate for hang or freeze that you'll need to save before if can.
Controls can be mapped freely for each game which is amazing, 4 back buttons works wonder to add more functionality to already limited buttons. Moreover the radial menu with trackpad is superb.
If you don't have gaming pc or laptop, you'll definitely like this, though maybe you'll need usb hub, keyboard and mouse if you want to enjoy games that doesn't support controller (sim city). If that's the case, slap an external monitor too since you'll need a bigger screen to play those games.
Otherwise you can lie sideways on couch, or I read you can lie on the back with pillow to rest your hand to play deck. Perfect for open world and action games.
Haven't really tried sd card so I don't know how flexible it is to play from it, but I guess it'll works wonder for less than latest AAA games.
Agree. When rewriting an older game for Steam I ended up in-biggening the artwork a touch to look good on the Steam Deck. Of course the game now looks positively Duplo on a normal PC monitor now.
Without adjustable ui size the text will undoubtedly be small in some instances.
The only times I pick up my Switch is for Tears of the Kingdom. I put my old gaming PC to storage because I hadn't turned it on for 6 months (too shitty to bother selling).
I own an Xbox Series X, but the times I can hog the only big TV in the house are rare. The Deck I can just pick up and start playing where I left off. I also take it with me on commutes and sometimes play it at the office to wind down or keep the front of my brain occupied so the rest can think in peace =)
Even if new games became too resource intensive for it to run starting tomorrow, I'd still have literal hundreds of games I can play with it. And that's not including emulation. Combine that with the readily available spare parts and upgrades, I'll be keeping this for years.
I’ve played with emulators in the past but they’re always a little laggy, or the controls aren’t quite right, or there is some other nagging issue. EmuDeck isn’t perfect but it handles a lot of the hassle and is the only setup where I have 100% completed the old mario and zelda games of my childhood. https://www.emudeck.com/
You can instantly jump into a game that usually takes 5 minutes to start up while waiting for the kettle to boil or during an ad break.
I wouldn't ever buy a handheld that didn't have this.
(Unfortunately Valve broke the per-platform playtime reporting that SteamDB had, so I can only say that I've played for at least 105 hours.)
I bet you have. wink
Lol
I need to apply a translation patch to my Steam copy of CHAOS;HEAD NOAH, but running the installer on the Steam Deck seems like a massive pain. I think I need to try to just copy over the patched game directory from my Windows PC to my Steam Deck to get it done without losing my sanity and installing a bunch of crap on the Steam Deck.
(Also, not a direct reply to your comment about trying to install something on the Steam Deck, but the comments here about cloud saves working seamlessly don’t compare to my experience. I mean, it wasn’t hard to fix. I’m a software engineer and could follow the instructions on some wiki to move some specific file in the terminal. It only took like 2 15 minutes max, including finding the wiki itself and a workaround without having a Bluetooth keyboard. But still, it was more than I wanted to do and I initially thought I was going to go down a rabbit hole. The device is still really good though!)
I spent a couple of hours diagnosing why I couldn't get save files for a particular VN sync via the cloud between my Steam Deck and my gaming PC. Turns out that they implemented cloud saves so that Steam syncs the cloud saves to Location A on the file system, and when the game boots up, it checks if there's a save file in Location B, it loads that, and if there isn't, it copies the save file from Location A to Location B and then loads it. The end result was that all of my Steam Deck saves were on my gaming PC immediately after I installed the game on my gaming PC, but neither device ever refreshed the saves because the actual save location was different from the cloud sync location, and there was no mechanism to override local saves with cloud saves.
I fear my Deck's USB-C connector is going to fail in a year, and think I need to use an external controller to let the Deck sit stationary on a desk. I wish there was a sturdier hardware connector.
I don't mind the ergonomics. I find it comfortable to hold. Battery life is not great but I mostly play at home and I don't mind.
We also have a switch but don't play it that much. The steam deck is just more convenient because of the steam integration and the fact that games on steam are much cheaper and there are a lot more games.
I've barely played games the last 5 years or so, but the Steam Deck has been much better than I ever thought it would be and it has brought back gaming for me.
The instant standby/resume from inside any game, from anywhere, is a true game changer. If I have 5-10 min somewhere I can jump into a game and be back in a second.
Another use-case is playing some mouse/keyboard games in the bed or sofa. I've been playing tons of FTL and the trackpads work exceptionality well (for slower games or games you can pause).
Or just emulate almost any older game (and many newer switch games).
It doesn't replace a gaming desktop or even an ipad. It's a mobile gaming console that plays steam games for the most part.
I like the hardware, but yeah I've had a harder time recommending it to some of my friends because my first question is "do you go anywhere?". Plenty of them say no.
I've been playing Nier Automata & Devil May Cry 5. Both on pretty good settings but I've locked the refresh rate in the decks settings to 30fps and lowered the TDP of the processor per game so they both run at a smooth 30 while drawing as little power as possible. It's great for the commutes.
I recently got both a GPD Win 3 and 4 and I’ve found they’re much better in all the areas I care about. They’re more expensive of course but better to spend more on something that you use than spend less for something you don’t.
It's not for everyone for sure, but it's an excellent way to have every PC game, including emulators, on the go... Which is basically 90% of all games ever created.
Personally I wouldn't take it outside my house, but I could see myself bringing it with me if I were to travel a lot.
The console like quality gives it a different feel compared to a controller hooked up to a gaming PC in my opinion. The fast sleep/resume also makes it super easy to pick up and play for a short while without having to worry about not making it to the next save point in time.
SteamOS/HoloISO is so good that I seriously consider installing it on my next gaming computer when the time to upgrade eventually comes. It has tons of issues with Nvidia hardware (as with any kind of Linux distro) but other than that it's one of the first times I've seen Linux for the mainstream done right. Read only system images, all software installed in the user directory makes for a very stable hassle free update experience. You can unlock the system partition if you want, but I intend to keep it read only for as long as I can.
It's not some kind of magical machine that will make you experience fun, though. If you're already happy with the amount of game time you're getting and you don't think you'll use it, don't get one. It is what it is, a handheld console. I bought mine knowing I'd probably spend a significant amount of time on it playing games in bed and on the go, and that's where it has really shined for me, especially when I was too sick to sleep for a few days.
If you've already got a gaming PC or console and a tablet/large smartphone, consider getting a comfortable controller grip for that instead and stream the games over your network. I've got pretty good experiences streaming games over WiFi and even over the internet this way. It's fiddly to set up, but it'll work for significantly less money than a separate game console.
If you've got money to throw at your gaming hobby, also consider more powerful alternatives. I think the 1200x800 screen is fine for the Deck screen size, but some people don't like it. The machine is also clearly optimized to play games at that resolution, hooking it up to a monitor can quickly show the limitations of a 15W chip. There are more powerful gaming handhelds out there, often running Windows and some kind of homebrew console environment, for a significantly higher price.
If you know anyone with a Deck, ask them to try it out for a few minutes.
I agree with the standby / sleep modes. Super useful if you need to stop gaming and run for whatever reason.
I think there's a big sale on them right now (I do wish I'd waited a month!).
And you lose all the important aspect of the Steam Deck, which is hardware/software integration.
much better than Windows on the ROG Ally for sure
But the deck stays.