Steam Deck

[Harrison]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/39049601/view/2986431641634388284

What are your thoughts on the newly announced Steam Deck, handheld gaming PC?

Compared to other handheld gaming PC coming out of China the Steam Deck is a a very good price, however there is currently limited information on the actual hardware processing power. However the screen is only 720p, the same as the Switch, which might explain the price point because you won't need such a powerful system for a lower resolution, but on a handheld its not so important. The controls look interesting, with Xbox style controls, plus touch thumb controls and a touch screen.

The OS will be Linux based, meaning natively it will only run Linux versions of games available on Steam. But it apparently will be able to run Windows emulaton to make the majority of games run, and they are quoted as saying at full speed. But that is to be seen. Some are saying you will be able to install Windows instead if you wish, but I've not read that myself. Linux will obviously be far more lightweight.

Linux also means it could be very good for retro gaming too. It will be far more powerful than the cheaper retro handhelds from companies such as Anbernic, so I bet it won't take look before we see dedicated distros for retro emulsion.. retroarch and maybe frontends like EmuElec could quickly appear.

To preorder one you have to pay £4 to secure a slot, for an expected first quarter 2022 release. The different versions vary a lot in price, but the only real difference is the storage size and type. Yes the storage types should make a big difference in access speed, but we dunt really know for such by how much, so is it worth paying £200+ more without any realworld previews and reviews?

Are you tempted? Will you be ordering one?

[Demon Cleaner]

I won't get one, looks nice though, but having ordered the OneXPlayer, I can skip this.

[J T]

It does look like a nice piece of kit

[Harrison]

After watching some preview and other discussion videos on YouTube, reading more about the system, and seeing a proper list of system specs I've bitten the bullet and payed my £4 preorder.

I've gone for the middle of the range model with the faster 256GB storage. I can always change my mind once the orders are available to complete.

The 256GB model seems to be the sweet spot. The 64GB one has far slower storage so might impact system boot speed, as well as smoothness of use and games that rewrite fast access. But it is £100 cheaper. The much faster storage and more realistic storage space of 256GB seems far more useable and sensible. The 512GB model just seems a bit too expensive to be worth it.

You will also be able to buy a dock for it, working in a similar way to the Switch, so you can dock it with a larger display. But unlike the switch it doesn't have detachable controllers. Instead the sick will also keyboard and mouse, so you actually dock it to become a full desktop PC.

It's one of those systems where you can see it going one of two ways. It might just end up being an alternative way for PC gamers to continue playing on the move. Eventually ending production. Or with its Linux based Steam OS it does have a chance to become an alternative console system, bringing PC gaming to a console level. I often wondered the real reason Valve developed Steam OS, and this is finally making more sense.

One other interesting point to note is unlike console makers they are not locking it down. You can add Xbox Game pass to have access to all those PC games, you can install other gaming stores too. You can even wipe Steam OS and install Windows.

[Demon Cleaner]

My OneXPlayer was shipped and will arrive tomorrow.

[Demon Cleaner]

So here it is, quite impressed with the quality so far, will have to test some gaming on it.

https://i.imgur.com/JCETEHi.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/Nc7QKRo.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/lBaCihb.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/OdGWBZ5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/XDz9lI1.jpg

[Harrison]

Nice. Will be interesting to find out how you find performance and battery life.

[J T]

I haven't seen a turbo button since the 486 days - what does that one do?

[Demon Cleaner]

I haven't seen a turbo button since the 486 days - what does that one do?

It increases power limits from default 20W (PL1) and 35W (PL2) to 28W and 40W.

[J T]

I haven't seen a turbo button since the 486 days - what does that one do?

It increases power limits from default 20W (PL1) and 35W (PL2) to 28W and 40W.

I'm assuming that increases performance but also drains the battery quicker (and makes it get warmer). Does it make much noticeable difference?

[Demon Cleaner]

[QUOTE=J T;56632]I'm assuming that increases performance but also drains the battery quicker (and makes it get warmer). Does it make much noticeable difference?

Exactly. I didn't try yet.

[Demon Cleaner]

So far so great with the One XPlayer, I'm running Forza Horizon 4 perfectly in 1280x800, and GTA V runs even smoothly in 2560x1600. I showed it to some friends at work and they were quite amazed, and also think that it is not overpriced, considering its built quality and performance. One even said it looks nicer than the games on his PS5 :lol:

I didn't try any other games yet, but I guess they will also run fine, most of them having even lower specs than Forza. Didn't try Cyberpunk yet though, as I didn't start it up once yet, plus I will not consider playing that on the handheld. Although the advantage of having cloud saves makes a lot more sense now :D

[Harrison]

https://youtu.be/SElZABp5M3U

This video has been out for a few days now but it's the best hands on I've seen yet for the Steam Deck.

The Vlogger is one of the few to so far ne invited by Steam to try out a pre-production unit, and it looks impressive. Innitially they seemed aprehensive to allow him to do too much, but he somehow managed to convince them to allow him to test it quite extensively. Including a tbermal camera, screen colour and lighting tests, as well as connecting an array of devices and testing it connected to external displays, and yes it can output 4k 60pfs on a monitor, which is cool.

The fps on the Deck itself seemed quite impressive. And the screen looked impressive in games. I dunt think we need to worry about the 1280x800 resolution. He run The Witcher on Netflix and instantly noted you could tell the resolution want 1080p, but as he also said, are you likely to actually watch video on the Deck? Most of us have a smartphone with a higher resolution (mine is higher than 4K) or a tablet for that on the move.

[Harrison]

There is going to be a slight delay on the Deck shipping from what I've heard. Sometime in Q2 or just after. That's ok with me.

Problem is I'm also now tempted by the Ayn Odin Pro. But I don't need one, just it looks really nice in both design and spec for its price.

[Harrison]

Now the Steam Deck is released development on the Steam OS has seen a fair few updated. They already fixed many teething issues with OS updates, and the OS interface works really nicely for any form of input and control. Especially like rhe pull up control panel to adjust system performance and also monitor fps and other stats in any game.

And surprisingly, this week Microsoft posted information on how to run Xbox Gamepass on the Steam Deck. It's not yet quite directly supported. I was expecting them to say you would need to sacrifice Steam OS and install Windows 11 to run it. But no. They have detailed instructions on how to install Microsoft Edge on Steam OS, and then launch Gamepass through it. Apparently it works pretty well. But they also mentioned a proper Steam OS app is in development. That says a lot because it means Microsoft have noticed how big the potential is with the Steam Deck and direct support for Xbox Gamepass will instantly open up their subscription service to a new handheld gaming market.

This is great news because installing Windows on the Steam Deck was something I wanted to avoid. Currently games running in Steam OS have massive performance gains compared to Windows on the system. Elden Ring for example runs smoothly at 60fps, whereas in Windows 11 it chugs along in the mid 20s and drops into the teens when mignon quickly, so is unplayable. Mad when you consider Steam OS is running a Windows game in an abstraction layer in Linux. Shows the work Value have put into this system.

Just have to wait now for my pen Steam Deck the preorders have been put back to Q3 now. Not one of the lucky early receivers of the system. That has mainly been reviewers, content creators and developers. And some even have multiple systems such as the Youtube guy Linus Sebastian. But then he is rolling in money and is a really good reviewer and did the best Deck preview I saw by some margin.

[Harrison]

Finally got my invitation email from Steam saying my preordered Steam Deck is now available. So completely the order and it is on its way.

Very excited. But not so much for running current games. More to try out emulation. :D

[Kin Hell]

:tumbleweed:

[Harrison]

Indeed. Over a year from the preorder. And I'm one of the first after the preview reviewer order level got their Decks.

Anyone who ordered the 512GB top level version is having to wait until Q4, maybe even December. And other then the etched glass over the screen and larger ssd storage there is no difference. And Valve even endorce swapping out the default built in storage for a different ssd, so not really worth the extra. Thry are even making video tutorials for owners in how to do it.

But I think it will be worth the wait. Valve have been putting a lot of work into the Steam OS development. Updating and adding features and extensive bug fixing. And this actually means a lot for the Linux community because it means a Distro commercially developed for gaming.

[Harrison]

My Steam Deck finally arrived today. It was shipped from The Netherlands so not too long considering.

I've not had time to even turn it on yet, but I quickly took it out of the box to take a look. Initial impressions are very good. Feels really comfortable in the hand and the build quality feeks really nice. It's also not as heavy as I thought it was going to feel, so that's great. It is big for a handheld though so that might take a bit of getting used to and the screen feels very large for a handheld.

Will have time this evening to power it up and hand an initial play. Can't wait. Going to try a few games, then in the next few days I want to test some emulation. You can install Retroarch directly from Steam, so that's going to make things easy to begin with. But you can actually even install emulated Switch games and have them appear in Steam. Amd launch directly as if they were native. Looking forward to trying that out. You can configure other emulated games the same way too, so I will be building a shortlist of my most played tetro games to have permanently added.

[Harrison]

So far very impressed with the Steam Deck. Great form factor. Very comfortable to hold with a great control layout. Really nice screen that's large, but not too big. It's also light enough for extended sessions.

I've tested a few games from my Steam library that are Deck verified and all worked perfectly.

I also followed the official Microsoft guide and added Xbox Gamepass Ultimate Cloud gaming to the Steam Deck. It is a bit fiddly to do, but once setup the homepage link appears just like any game in Steam. And it works seemlessly. I've tested Gamepass streaming before on both my Tablet and phone. It was ok on both but was a bit clunky to use. On the Steam Deck once setup the keys map perfectly to the Xbox controller layout of that games and the Deck is a perfect setup for it. I tested a couple of games and they all streamed and played perfectly. No buffering or stuttering and the controls felt responsive and the graphics looked great. I couldn't feel any lag either. Even Fonza Horizon 5 ran fine.

I also installed Retroarch, but haven't had time to add any time yet.I

Battery life has seemed good so far. I was running Steam games, setting up stuff in the Steam OS desktop and testing out Gamepass Streaming. It's had it on for annoy 4 hours and still had 20% battery left. So happy with that. Will need to test a gaming sessions running a single game to see how long the battery lets for a single task. 3D intensive games will obviously drain it faster.

The system does get a bit hot underneath where some of the exhaust vents are. You can hear the fans kicking in rhythm you have been played a had for a bit. It never feels hot how you hold it for the controls, but move your hand to the middle underneath and it can be wide warm, so probably not good for testing on your lap. But you are never naturally going to do that anyway.

One negative thing and there are not many. The on-screen keyboard takes s bit of getting used to, and it doesn't work as seamlessly or perfectly in desktop mode. In Steam gaming mode it's more responsive and fine. But if you need to edit and test in Desktop more it can be a bit off a chore. I had to enter some Linux commands and edit the config for a game entry in Steam and that was hard work. Connecting a real keyboard and mouse for desktop mode is highly recommended.

Finally Steam OS. Valve have done an amazing job with this OS. I never thought anyone would ever create a Windows PC Game compatible OS that just works without the hassle of Windows. Valve really have. And it really does give the feel of using a games console. You select play game, it asks if you wish to install. If it isn't fully verified it shows a list of any known issues (so far it has mainly just been the need for a game to need text input, which isn't actually much of an issue). You then get to pick where to install it to. Internal or SD and the OS gets I with it in the background. I noticed it installs extra supporting libraries and things for specific games as it's installing. Obviously part of the Steam OS Proton compatibility layer. And that just works really well so far. It's just like on a console. If you have ever used Steam that's the interface. You navigate to a game, select play and it just loads. No Windows drivers or messing around. And just hit the Steam key, much like the PS button on Playststion, and it gives you puns to return to the game, so back to the Steam Homepage, quit the game or shut down the system.

With how well Steam OS now works it would work really well using the same Deck hardware as a standalone console to plug and play like any games console. Steam could even make that a lot cheaper then the Deck because there wouldn't be a screen and the controls would be a separate controller. I wouldn't be surprised if they did that later. I know they tried out before but the older Steam IS could only run Linux games and was limited. With Proton that's all changed now.

What the Steam Deck does is show you no longer need Windows to run PC games, and Steam OS is stable. And even Microsoft are supporting it. Giving official guides on setting up gamepass. A portable Xbox is unique in this regard. Microsoft have never attempted that themselves.

[Harrison]

I tested a few more games out this evening and tried a few older titles to see how they handle.

Skyrim is now nearly 10 years old so it's hardware requirements are not so high by today's standards. Steam shows it as playable with issues. I played it for over an hour and had no problems. And running the game on ultra graphics settings it held solid at 60fps and looked very nice. The controls map nicely to the Deck's controls and it played really well. No issues and I might actually play through the whole game again on it.

I know Skyrim is not quite a few years old. But for me it's still a bit mind blowing to see a game that only a few years ago was a showcase game pushing systems and GPUs to there limit. And now a handheld system costing less then a cheap PC build can run the game perfectly on high settings with no issues. And more impressive is the fact such games were never designed or intended to work like this. And thr fact this is running a 9+ year old Windows game in Linux using an abstraction layer.

It has got me thinking. Steam OS is now reaching a maturity, with so much work Valve are devoting to it, with the success of the Steam Deck helping to quickly bug fix and improve it, and the speed and level of support and development it's currently being seen. There are only a few areas of Steam OS that still need a bit of work. The knscreen keyboard being the Meon one that still needs a few tweaks. But in the whole in game mode Steam OS doesn't need any real experience of computers. You can literally install and play PC games exactly as you would on a Playstation. Therfore Valve could attempt another console in the future with a seperate controller to play Windows games as a console in your TV just like an Xbox or PS5. The issue when they tried it originally was the OS. The first versions of Steam OS were just a Linux OS with a Linux copy of Steam, and it could only run native Kinux games. So very limiting and a bit pointless. But that led to where we are now. Steam OS seemlessly running Windows games like a console. That would work as a console, not just as a handheld. If they used the same hardware as the Deck they could produce thrm even cheaper. Say the £299 price point.

I also think the real success of the Steam Deck and Steam OS is also the fact it's not running Windows. Windows is so bloated and resource heavy because it has to be so compatible for such a range of hardware setups. Steam OS on the Steam Deck basically makes it a fixed platform just like a console. They can develop the OS knowing all hardware is identical, so can optimise it knowing every device will function and perform the same. They can just concentrate on getting games working.

[Harrison]

https://www.emudeck.com/

This is such a polished Emulation solution for the Steamdeck. With all the features of Emulation Station built in to manage your roms, including scraping box art, bezels and game info you can manage the rom set you add on the Steam Deck itself easily, but you can also mirror an existing EmulationStation setup you already have onto the system too.

You can also pick for EmuDeck to use the Steam library itself to manage your roms, or use EmulationStation and just launch it from the Steam Library.

[Harrison]

Not tried it yet, but you can even install the Epic library and the GOG Galaxy library launcher applications on the Steam Deck and launch them from within Steam.

I've not tried it yet because it involves a bit of fiddling and you need a keyboard and mouse to do it easily, so I will be doing this next week once the holidays are over.

Here's a video showing the process of installing both launchers:

https://youtu.be/jaHRKdr1owc

The Syram Deck just keeps being better and better. Just bring able to install non Steam Windows applications, and thanks to the magic of Proton they just work. Mad.

[Harrison]

This is getting mad now. I've just found some tutorials on getting Playstation Plus Premium cloud streaming working on the Steam Deck. I've not tried it but I'm going to be seeing if I can get it working over the weekend. And tgere are some other tutorials on getting remote play working, so I could access my PS5 or PS4 and remote play them on the Deck. But the cloud game streaming (similar to Gamepass streaming) is the more interesting to me, because it offers a lot of PS3 games, a well a quite a few PS2 and PS1.

[J T]

Crikey, I only just realised that PS games were available on PC through that service. Wowzers.

[Harrison]

Yes. You need a real Playstation 4 or 5 controller connected via Bluetooth or usb to play them on PC, but it works well if your broadband is good enough.

Before recently you needed the PS Now subscription to access Playstation cloud gaming. Now they have combined PS Plus and Now together and the top tier Plus Premium has cloud streaming included. Works really well for PS3 games too. That's the only way to play those on a PS4 or 5 at the moment too.

[J T]

Getting a joypad is easy.

Is running this stuff taxing on the computer itself? I have pretty good broadband now but I don't have any modern computers (other than a work laptop)

[Harrison]

Not at all because you are not actually running the games on your own computer. Just using it like a terminal. Minimum PSPlus streaming spec states i3 2GHz, 2GB Ram, 300MB storage, and Windows 7. So pretty much any system built in the last 8+ years should cope fine.

And as long as your broudband can manage 20Mbps it should be ok. I used to stream games on a 37Mbit connection with no issues with PS. But a few buffering issues with Xbox Gamepass.

[Harrison]

I have to say that Valve are showing up every other hardware and software commany at the moment in terms of communications, support and speed to reply and action.

When the Steam Deck was first previewed Valve stated that games on Steam would show a compatibility level to aid gamers in knowing if a game would run on the Steam Deck. And this information would appear as each game was tested. The handheld obviously had a massive advantage over any other new platform launch because it runs Steam and has access to the whole Steam catalogue that has been going for around 20 years now. It's cornered the whole market in digital PC gaming and try as they might no alternative has ever come close. This access to thousands of games does however being with it the headache of compatibility. Now it's all very well saying they will show game compatibility as games are tested, but with so many games?

Today Valve have treated that they have just passed the millstone of 5000 Steam games tested and Verified and Playable titles on Steam Deck.

5000 games verified as fully compatible and working. That's a huge number that most consoles will never reach. And that's only going to increase as they test more games. I know Steam went over 20000 games in total in the library a while ago but don't know the current figure.

I'm still seeing quite a few games in my library that are currently flagged as unsupported, but more often than not these games are just not yet tested when you look at the details. And mostly these are older games. So many more will be flagged verified soon.

Verified games are 100% compatible with full Deck control compatibility. Playable means that p they run perfectly well, but with a few issues. All games I item that show playable have normally just listed issues with text input needing the on-screen keyboard. IMO that's not really an issue and running the games they work perfectly such as Skyrim. It just means when text is needed you have to press Steam key + X to bring up the keyboard. No issue.

In other news Valve have announced work is underway in a Steam Deck 2. I would be more worried if there wasn't because it would mean the first one wasn't successful. It is very much so and as technology progresses the price of more powerful components will be available at the same price point. So in maybe 2 years we might see the second version. But being a full PC the current Deck won't suddenly be out of date and obsolete. It will just mean any new one will run games better. So all good.

[Harrison]

There has been a Steam OS update in the last few days that has added some nice new features and updated some existing things such as the onscreen keyboard to fix a few issues it had.

The biggest update is to virtual menus. For any game you can create popup menu systems atteched to the left and right trackpads. You touch the centre of the pad and the onscreen icon menu appears within the game where you have set it to appear. You can cinfigure each icon in the menu to perform any action within the game, such as keyboard button press or a function within the game such as bringing up your inventory or character profile.

You can make a menu circularv with asx many options as you like in a wheel cinfiguration, or make it square with the icons like a keypad. You can select unique icons to each, and change their colour. And can getv the menu opacity and location in case you need to still be able to see something in game whilst the menu is open.

These new virtual menus are a genius idea by Valve. Many older PC games were never designed for controllers and have more keyboard commands or options then you can fit in controller buttons easily. You can also assign a combination of keys to an icon of needed to, such as if some commands were Shift+A f.ex. You can also have more virtual menus by assigning them with a toggle. So if the right trigger is held a different menu could appear when you touch the left trackpad f.ex. That could be useful for weapon selection or car settings.

Or in a game like Elite Dangerous you could create virtual menus for things vkike docking and landing controls, and another for camera viewing angles.

It's a very powerful addition to the Steam Decks already huge range of controls.

[Harrison]

One thing I hadn't really realised until last week was that the Steam Deck's Thumbsticks are touch sensitive. It knows of you have your finger on them or not.

Why would you need this? Valve updated Half-Life 2 specifically for the Steam Deck to showcase it's controls. Mad if you consider the game is now 18 years old, but runs beautifully on the Steam Deck and looks amazing. The graphics have dated very well.

Anyway, in HL2 you use the standard controller layout for FPS with the left stick moving you around, and the right stick moving your view to look directly at anything. But if you have you finger rested on the right thumbstick without moving it, it activates the gyroscopics so you can move the Steam Deck adding to move b your pov in the game. Let go of the stick and move thr Deck stops moving in game.

Bring able to physically move the Deck to control your view in game works really well for FPS. I played through the first part of HL2 yesterday until I get to the helicopter bit. Moving adding using the thumbsticks works really nicely, but when you are shooting, bring able to fine tune you aim by physically moving the Deck makes aiming and shooting very accurate. I get a lot of headsets. And it makes it far less frustrating and fun. And I was playing on Medium and no autoaim so it wasn't compensating.

Another nice feature of the Steam Deck.

Now Valve need to make a Steam Controller 2 using the controls and software from the Steam Deck. Combining the controls and all the features into a standalone controller would be brilliant for full PC gaming. The Steam Deck controls and configuration are a huge leap forward from the frankly odd original Steam controller. That has good ideas but was never intuitive. They leary from that and have got this spot on.

[Harrison]

Heroic Games Launcher

https://heroicgameslauncher.com/

This Linux based games launcher was independently developed because GOG.com refused to make a Linux based version of Galaxy so that Linux users could manage, install and play their GOG Linux games.

This has matured a lot and now even has a native Steam Deck version. This installs via Decktop mode and adds a launch shortcut into the Steam Library. I've not tested it yet so don't know more then that yet. I will be testing it this weekend.

In addition to adding your GOG library to Heroic it also supports adding your Epic library too so it's all in one place. You can even add new free games released and buy games directly from Heroic, so no need to visit the actual stores.

It also has a built in Wine manager, and supports Wine-GE, Wine-Lutris or even Proton-GE. These are abtraction layers that work within Linux to emulate the ability to make Windows games run. Heroic let's you install both Linux native games and Windows games that will run viax one of these layers. And can install multiple versions to allow selecting the most compatible one per game.

The Steam Deck natively uses Proton-GE, and so far I've found it brilliant. I've yet to find a game that doesn't run that was released in the last 20 years, but I've only tested about 30 games so far that I've wanted to play. The Steam Deck also lets you install multiple versions of Proton to increase compatibility for games that don't work prefecture with the default latest build.

The reason Heroic is also offering Wine and Lutris over the built in native Proton is because GOG has a lot of older such as Windows 9x and DOS games. Most setup to run in DOSBox or other methods to launch then on modern systems. These offer a wider chance you will get them running.

I'm going to see if I can get some of the earlier Star Trek and Star Wars games to work.

In addition to Heroic these is another games launcher called Lutris. In addition to the Epic Games Store and GOG, Lutris also supports Origin, Ubisoft Connect, and a variety of popular emulators like Dolphin and ScummVM. But unlike Heroic, that has an installer and does all the hard work for you, Lutris needs a lot more work to setup via the Linux Komandline, and it's user interface isn't nice compared to Heroic. Kutris has an advantage that you can add installed games into your Steam library so they appear alongside all your Steam games in exactly the same way. With Heroic you only get a link in Steam to Heroic, and need to launch games from there instead.

You can install both, and I might do this and just use Lutris for Origin and Ubisoft access. But I don't have that many games in either of those libraries so that will come later if needed.

---

Something like Heroic is really pushing Steam Deck as the ultimate Handheld. In effect running old GOG games on it is another form of emulation. Valve's choice to develop their own Linux Steam OS with such freedom and scope was a genius move. The initial price of a Steam Deck might seem expensive when compared to a Switch, the Odin Pro/lite, or even one of thr cheaper emulation handhelds such as the Retroid Pocket 3, but it provides far more bang for your buck.

It can run your Windiws Steam Library, your GOG and Epic libraries. You can also manually install and get running Windows and Linux games and add them into the Steam library. And you have extensive emulation support via EmuDeck, offering easy to setup support for emulation from Atari 2600 to PS3 and Switch.

Other than the one negative of it's large size it is the best handheld on the market bar none. The Odin Pro comes a close second for portability but is limited to Android.

[Harrison]

The official Steam Deck docking station has finally been released for order, with an estimated 1-2 week delivery time. It costs £79 so not cheap.

I'm a bit disappointed in the design, as it doesn't really offer much over a more generic device dock (which do also work with the SD). But being official the system should sit better in the cradle. The biggest design flaw is the dock to deck connection. If they had located the USB C port on the bottom edge of the system it could have just slotted into the port on the dock. Instead the port is on the top edge of the SD, so you have to plug a cable from the dock into the top. A bit of a shortsighted solution. It's nice to just be able to pick a device out of its dock, not have to unplug it. My Amazon Fire tablet f.ex. just sits in its dock and you can just pick it up. No cables as wireless charging. Other then that seems ok.

Will pass final judgement when mine arrives.

The actual Steam Deck can now also just be ordered with no wait time. No need to preorder any longer and have to wait in a long production queue. Like the docking station, you can now buy it and expect delivery within 1-2 weeks.

[J T]

So other than nicely moulded plastic, what else is that dock doing? If you have to plug in a cable anyway, I struggle to see the point.

[Harrison]

It's a full dock, like a laptop dock. So you can have displays, keyboard, mouse, power etc all connected to the dock. Plug the deck in and it switches over to the monitor and you have a full PC running Steam OS. You can even switch to desktop mode and use it like a standard PC. Steam OS is full Arch Linux OS using the KDE Plazma 5 desktop. And the full Linux Konsole.

But Steam OS has being developed with the focus purely on gaming, so it doesn't have much installed that isn't needed for gaming. It's goal for PC gaming without the need for a keyboard and mouse. And heavilyvtied into the Steam library interface. Bit you can install what you like from the Desktop mode though the OSs own Discovery App store/repository, or using Github or from a flatpak.

The OS doesn't currently have any direct streaming support f.ex. So no built i access to services like Netflix or Spotify. But as with everything else Steam Deck related
an easy solution seem to be found to get them working. From Desktop mode you can just install Spotify from the Discovery store, then add it to Steam as a non game. Then you can play music as you game. And one cool Steam feature. You can control Steam from your phone, so you could queue up tracks without leacing your game. I will be setting this up tomorrow.

As for Netflix, I've not tried it yet, but it should run though a browser window. Not that I would want to watch Netflix on the Deck.

[Harrison]

This is quite a funny story. On the Steam Deck you can encode a file to be used by the system as the boot screen or animation. It can be an image, animation or video file.

One owner decided to encode the whole of the Shrek movie as their boot screen file. But Valve only ever considered a boot animation would be a few seconds at most, so never bothered adding the ability to skip it. So this user had to wait the whole length of the Shrek movie every time the system booted.

Due to this story Valve have now added the ability to skip the intro animation.

[J T]

This is quite a funny story. On the Steam Deck you can encode a file to be used by the system as the boot screen or animation. It can be an image, animation or video file.

One owner decided to encode the whole of the Shrek movie as their boot screen file. But Valve only ever considered a boot animation would be a few seconds at most, so never bothered adding the ability to skip it. So this user had to wait the whole length of the Shrek movie every time the system booted.

Due to this story Valve have now added the ability to skip the intro animation.

Ahh that is funny. While it shows determination and initiative it also shows that if you play stupid games you win stupid prizes.

I wholeheartedly approve of such silly endeavours.

[Demon Cleaner]

:lol:

Good he didn't put the Godfather trilogy.

[Harrison]

:lol:

Or the Lord of the Rings Directors cut!

Imagine doing this though without realising you could skip it?

I'm considering making one from a clip from the film 2001. The bit showing HAL's eye as he says "Good Morning Dave".

[Demon Cleaner]

I have an important question for you Dave.

You know I'm selling my OneXPlayer, so a guy asked my if I would also consider to exchange it against a Steam deck. He has the 256GB version and says it's in very good condition, he only played for 10-15 hours with it. It comes with a docking station but not originally Valve.

I considered getting one but as I pre-ordered the Loki Max I ditched that thought, strangely enough I was watching Taki Udon's new video about it yesterday and was already looking at decals.

Guy has only positive feedback although only 31. Can I trust this exchange as it's not managed by eBay anymore.

Would you consider an exchange, like I mentioned, selling my OneXPlayer anyways.

Here's a picture he sent me:

https://i.imgur.com/7I0e934.jpg

- - - Updated - - -

:o :o :o I think I go crazy now here!!!!

I thought I would be fine with the exchange, went to eBay to remove the OneXPlayer, but didn't find it anymore. Checked my mails, nothing. Checked again on eBay and noticed that it was sold. Then the mail came, so I just missed it by seconds.

Yesterday I was putting the price down from 799€ to 649€ because it didn't sell and people always wanted it for 500€ or even less. Probably that's what sold it in the end.

On the other hand, I could now buy a complete new Steam deck, even the biggest model :lol: So in the end this was even better, although adding eBay fees the money received is only 578€.

[Harrison]

Well, at least you sold it. Funny how things happen.

Obviously as you might guess I'm a big supporter and fan of the Steam Deck and would recomnend it to anyone. As for version. The only difference between the 256GB and 512GB models, other then the storage size, is the antiflare glass on the screen. For the price different I don't think it's worth it. I run most of my games from an SD card abyway with no issues. They load fast and you can put a 1TB card in too.

The only negative with the Steam Deck is its size. It won't easily fit in a pocket and not quite small enough for some quick gaming on the bus. But it comes with a very good protective carry case and is light enough and small enough to be portable for gaming away from home.

But now I would say the Steam Deck's big advantage over any other Windows game compatible handheld is Steam OS and the huge support it's receiving from Valve. They are rekeasing multiple OS updates every month, and fixing software issues, improving hardware control functionality in the updates, constantly improving the OS UI, and most importantly they are cobstantly updating the Proton compatibility layer to give more and more compatibility.

Obviously there are games that still don't work because it isn't running native Windows. But then the Steam library is massive. I think it was at 57,000 games last time I checked. And for my item library I've got a large library of over 2,700 games and over 500 of them are fully verified as fully compatible on the Deck.

But you can also get GOG and Epic game sites working. And even EA have just fixed some issues to get their games on Steam working properly because of a new version of their new game store changing.

And of course you have some great emulation support with a very easy to use all in one installer package that has just had a major version 2 upgrade.

You shouldn't be disappointed if you did buy one.

[Demon Cleaner]

But now I would say the Steam Deck's big advantage over any other Windows game compatible handheld is Steam OS and the huge support it's receiving from Valve.
That was the guy's main problem, he wanted full support of Windows, that's why he didn't like the deck so much.

I won't get one now as I pre-ordered the Loki Max.

[Harrison]

If gaming only then as a handheld I would say the Steam Deck is the best you can get at the moment. You can obviously wipe Steam OS and install Windows 11 on it and Valve fully support this with drivers available. But performance in games is worse then using Steam OS because Windows has more overheads.

For game compatibility I've yet to run a game that hasn't worked. Even all games I've tried that have a yellow ! for Deck compatibility have all worked perfectly. That's normally just flagged because you need to enter some text using the i screen keyboard, which isn't an issue.

[Demon Cleaner]

Handheld for me means emulation, advantage in Windows is that you have every possible emulator available, restricted on the Odin due to Android. Loki Max comes with Windows. Just copy your LaunchBox settings over instead of starting from scratch like I did on the Odin, exporting every platform to Android and setting it up with different emulators. I mean AetherSX2 for PS2 is great, but if I can have PCSX2, there’s no doubt.

[Harrison]

I agree Windows can't really be beaten for emulation. But Linux emulators have come a long way, probably thanks to other Linux based systems such as from Anbernic.

EmuDeck v2 provides all I need for handheld emulation at the moment.

[Demon Cleaner]

Emulators have indeed become better and better whatever the system. And the deck is a fantastic handheld to run emulation on, plus the other obvious stuff. I would have set it up and put aside probably, that’s why I’m even glad I sold the OneX instead of exchanging, although I was already looking forward to it :lol:

The Loki Max is gonna be amazing, plus I absolutely love the form factor, as it’s gonna be “same” like the Odin :thumbs:

[Harrison]

I agree with the form factor. The Ayn range has just the right case size and design to make it the perfect portable.

[Harrison]

I decided to test out Quake 2 on the Steam Deck this morning. It said it was compatible, but with some interface issues.

It loaded up fine but was playing at 320x240 in a small square in the middle of the screen, which I thought was funny. Navigating the menu system was a bit fiddly, having to use the left stick to move through menus, the right pad to left mouse click to select, and the Steam menu key to go back up a menu. But playing around with video settings it runs well changing from software rendering to OpenGL, and at 1024x768 full screen, which isn't far off the Steam Deck native resolution. And is the highest resolution you could play the game on release of you had a Voodoo 2 card. And with these settings it looks exactly as it did with Glade3D on Voodoo 2. So I'm happy with that.

The controls needed a lot of fiddling to get every control I needed working in a way that made the game playable. Mapping controls using the games custom controls settings worked fine, although it doesn't recognise all Steam Deck controls. But eventually I managed to map forward, backwards and striving to the left stick, and free look to the right. With fire buttons on the triggers, weapon toggle on the D Pad, and other controls such as jump and crouch to the buttons. This is near to how newer games preconfigured controls on the Steam Deck.

After party testing it I did look in the game controller setup screen that the Steam Deck has got each game within the actual Steam OS game page. This can override and map in game controls to the Steam Deck controls of a game is hardwired to a layout. I didn't need to change much here but noticed I could turn on gyro controls. This worked well in FPS on the deck as the right thing sensor detects when you have your finger on the stick and then you can move the Deck add-ons to move and aim using gyro in game. Makes aiming really accurate. I haven't tested it it actually works in the game yet though.

As for the game itself, it runs at a solid 60fps. I would be worried if it didn't for a game over 20 years old, but it looks good with the settings I have, and moved and plays well. Obviously Quake 2 looks primitive by today's standards, but compared to games of that era on other systems PC FPS tend to hold up ok, other than the low poly count. There are more to improve textures and models, but that wasn't my rain to play it. Wanted to run through that game as it originally looked.

Combat and moving around were fine once I had experimented with the control setup. It's amazing how you instantly remember level maps and baddy locations. I was only playing in easy though to get the game. It the gyro setting does work for aiming I can ramp up the difficulty.

Next games I might test are the Jedi Knight games, or maybe go back to Dark Forces. Also planning on trying Return to Castle Wolfenstein too.

[Harrison]

Interesting development. HDR is coming to Steam Deck.

No the handheld's screen cannot do HDR. That would be impressive if true. But when docked it will be able to output to an HDR capable screen.

The issue until now has been no support for HDR in Linux. But Redhat have been developing support and Valve have been taking notice and starting to build this support into Steam OS. The fact work by Redhat only started last year in 2022 shows just how invested Valve are in Steam Deck and Steam OS development.

This will mean Steam OS will have direct HDR and Raytracing support built in, so when docked you can utiluse this on the Deck, but in theory installing the OS on more powerful PC hardware should benefit more from this too.

[Demon Cleaner]

I know see the docking purpose of a handheld, I buy a handheld for what exactly the name says. I have a Switch Lite, using it as handheld but I also have a normal Switch OLED, using it docked, never as a handheld :huh2:

[Demon Cleaner]

Arcade Punks have a 1TB Steam Deck Batocera image for download:

https://www.arcadepunks.com/fully-loaded-1tb-batocera-steam-deck-retro-gaming-build/

You should definitely grab it this weekend.

[Harrison]

Nice thanks. Not sure I have enough HD space to download it and extract it. Would be great to get though, especially for the newer systems. Not tried PS2 or PS3 emulation on the Steam Deck yet.

And interesting that it boots completely from the SD card, bypassing Steam OS. I hadn't actually realised that was possible from the BIOS. You learn something new.

[Demon Cleaner]

They also have a bootable 1TB USB stick version for PC, I'm downloading that at the moment, only to check it out, don't really need it, but could be a great gadget to give to a friend.

You don't have disk space :o I even have some 4TB external HDDs lying around in my cupboard which I don't even need. Taking "only" my internal and NAS space I have 140TB.

Btw, what is happening there with the UK postal services? It has been over 2 months now that I sent you the SD card, and I didn't receive it back either so it still must be somewhere. I don't have any tracking number as I just sent it with our local post, no insurance.

[Harrison]

I don't have any HDDs with 2TB free on a single drive for downloading it and expanding the archive. Most of my HDDs are still 2TB in my PCs, and 4x 4TB in my NAS, so not a huge amount of space as I use most on the NAS for video projects. Really hoping to save up soon for some larger drives.

Referring UK post. There was a big attack on the Royal Mail international shipping computers in January using ransomware, so no international mail could be sent out received in the UK. It started working again last week as I managed to post something to the USA. So fingers crossed your parcel arrives very soon.

[J T]

Arcade Punks have a 1TB Steam Deck Batocera image for download:

https://www.arcadepunks.com/fully-loaded-1tb-batocera-steam-deck-retro-gaming-build/

You should definitely grab it this weekend.

I clicked the link to see what it was all about and a box pops up asking to allow updates. I was just about to get angry when I see the option boxes have been labelled '**** no' and 'hell yes'

I fully approve of such, and it made me smile.

[Harrison]

:lol: yeah, it's that last bastion of underground downloads you can pretty much trust.

[Demon Cleaner]

Did you try the CryoUtilities 2.0?

[Demon Cleaner]

I pre-ordered the Asus ROG Ally today, don't know yet if I'm gonna keep it but apparently they're already sold out almost everywhere, so I grabbed the chance, plus my fingers were tingling :)

I'm still waiting for my Loki Max which I pre-ordered on July 22nd last year and it still didn't ship. I'm not so sure about the ROG Ally's size, it's almost as big as the Steam deck, and I sold my OneXPlayer because of it's size, although that on had even 8.4" screen, so still bigger than the Ally. Plus that was almost 900g whereas the Ally is "only" 600g.

[Kin Hell]

These kind of toy's are really not up my street & I've never really wanted to game on the go.

I like to sit down in a comfortable surrounding when gaming, but this ROG Ally is quite a box of tricks looking at the official web link (https://rog.asus.com/gaming-handhelds/rog-ally/rog-ally-2023/?utm_source=sem&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=23q2_rog_ally_hq&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItqfM2Kz-_gIVAC0GAB0UVQkSEAAYAiAAEgJmdvD_BwE)

:cool:

[Demon Cleaner]

These kind of toy's are really not up my street & I've never really wanted to game on the go.

I like to sit down in a comfortable surrounding when gaming, but this ROG Ally is quite a box of tricks looking at the official web link (https://rog.asus.com/gaming-handhelds/rog-ally/rog-ally-2023/?utm_source=sem&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=23q2_rog_ally_hq&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItqfM2Kz-_gIVAC0GAB0UVQkSEAAYAiAAEgJmdvD_BwE)

:cool:

Me too :lol: I never play on the go, never. Basically I just take them with me to Finland for when it gets boring. I also only use retro gaming on them, used the Odin Pro a lot (in Finland) playing PS2 games, but it struggles a bit here and there. I wanted one handheld that can emulate those systems flawlessly, like PS2, XBox, Wii or GC, even Saturn, as that's still tougher to emulate. The never ones also run PS3 and Switch without problems, although I have a Switch Lite and a Switch OLED, but emulating is more my thing.

They are a bit of collection items for me, I love setting them up with everything, but once I'm done, they get put away in some drawer and only taken out for demonstration or updating. Or like I said, they find their use from time to time when I go to Finland.

The ROG Ally only gets released on June 13th, so if by any chance I get the Loki Max by then or if I change my mind I still can cancel my order. But seeing that they are selling out so fast I just wanted to put an order just in case. Perhaps the prices will increase after that and I can sell it for more.

[Harrison]

I'm not so sure about the Ally. It's been getting way too much hype. Even M$ jumping in to try and push Xbox gaming. But in preview testing but Linus and other regular handheld testers it isn't delivering on the promise. The battery life being the worst part. In performance mode outs estimates to be 1-2 hours. That isn't good. And real world tests show it only managed about 5-8 fps better in some games than the Steam Deck.

I also don't like the design. Offset sticks always bugs me, and the D Pad doesn't look good. And I've got so used to the touchpad on the Deck trying to use a Windows based system without them will be fiddly.

Finally for me the cost is too high.

But we will see. It isn't it yet so it might surprise. But I'm not holding out.

[Kin Hell]

These kind of toy's are really not up my street & I've never really wanted to game on the go.

I like to sit down in a comfortable surrounding when gaming, but this ROG Ally is quite a box of tricks looking at the official web link (https://rog.asus.com/gaming-handhelds/rog-ally/rog-ally-2023/?utm_source=sem&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=23q2_rog_ally_hq&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItqfM2Kz-_gIVAC0GAB0UVQkSEAAYAiAAEgJmdvD_BwE)

:cool:

Me too :lol: I never play on the go, never. Basically I just take them with me to Finland for when it gets boring. I also only use retro gaming on them, used the Odin Pro a lot (in Finland) playing PS2 games, but it struggles a bit here and there. I wanted one handheld that can emulate those systems flawlessly, like PS2, XBox, Wii or GC, even Saturn, as that's still tougher to emulate. The never ones also run PS3 and Switch without problems, although I have a Switch Lite and a Switch OLED, but emulating is more my thing.

They are a bit of collection items for me, I love setting them up with everything, but once I'm done, they get put away in some drawer and only taken out for demonstration or updating. Or like I said, they find their use from time to time when I go to Finland.

The ROG Ally only gets released on June 13th, so if by any chance I get the Loki Max by then or if I change my mind I still can cancel my order. But seeing that they are selling out so fast I just wanted to put an order just in case. Perhaps the prices will increase after that and I can sell it for more.

Very entrepreneurial indeed. - Hedging all bets too! :D


I'm not so sure about the Ally. It's been getting way too much hype. Even M$ jumping in to try and push Xbox gaming. But in preview testing but Linus and other regular handheld testers it isn't delivering on the promise. The battery life being the worst part. In performance mode outs estimates to be 1-2 hours. That isn't good. And real world tests show it only managed about 5-8 fps better in some games than the Steam Deck.

I also don't like the design. Offset sticks always bugs me, and the D Pad doesn't look good. And I've got so used to the touchpad on the Deck trying to use a Windows based system without them will be fiddly.

Finally for me the cost is too high.

But we will see. It isn't it yet so it might surprise. But I'm not holding out.

Guess you're not buying one then eh! :lol:

[Harrison]

Valve announced this week Steam Deck support has now officially reached 9000 games, and this is only officially tested games with verified or playable status. There are many more games that do work, but haven't been officially tested yet. The Steam library now had over 70,000 games so there is no way they will all very tested, but 9,000 is impressive and that is already far more than any standalone system.

There is a site called protondb that tests more itself with contributors and can even show their results for your own library.

I continue to be impressed by Valve's level of support, constantly updating Steam OS and Proton to fix games not working or performing well. They even rolled out next day Proton updates for new game releases. No other hardware and OS developer has ever done that.

The Steam Deck hardware is now already at least 2 years old. But it's price point is still very good compared to anything Windows based and it's performance is still good enough for most current releases. Plus more and more support keeps appearing from 3rd parties. The Heroic installer lets you access and install GOT and Epic libraries. And Lutris enables you to access an ever expanding number of gaming libraries, including Humble Bundle, GOG, Epic, Amazon gaming etc, but also now directly has emulation support for systems like mame, dolphin, retroarch etc.I

I'm now also looking Linux again over Windows thanks to the Steam Deck. It's for more lightweight and just works.

[Demon Cleaner]

I eventually canceled my order of the Loki Max and got it already refunded. I was checking a lot of videos lately, and like I said, the Ally will even be available before the Loki as they still didn't ship yet, plus they're now trailing behind, the Ally being a lot more powerful for the same price. I wonder have many people have withdrawn their Loki orders, but what I read in YouTube comments there are quite some.

I also ordered another 1TB SD card for it and a 2TB NVMe, M.2 2230 (Team Group MP44S) to replace straight away, that should leave me with some space.

[Demon Cleaner]

I got it today, that was quite fast. I will only test a bit as I'm still waiting for my NVMe to arrive. I had to cancel the Team Group MP44S because it was still not available for shipping for still at least 10 days. So I ordered a SABRENT Rocket Q4 2230 NVMe 2TB High Performance PCIe 4.0 SSD which should arrive this weekend hopefully.

I also ordered an M.2 enclosure from UGREEN to make backups and as I already was in the shop I ordered a fanxiang S770 4TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD M.2 2280, 7300 MB/s with heatsink for my PS5 because I'm constantly deleting stuff which is annoying, I wanted to download NBA 2K23 which is one of this month free games but it's over 200GB.

- - - Updated - - -

Btw, ETA Prime tested the battery life of both devices:

Battery Life 15W TDP:

Steam Deck: 103 minutes
ROG Ally: 96 minutes

Charge Time (Full Charge):

Steam Deck: 45W Stock Charger = 3.3 hours
ROG Ally: 65W Stock Charger = 1.4 hours

[J T]

download NBA 2K23 which is one of this month free games but it's over 200GB.

There isn't an emoticon for falling off a chair in shock.... so just imagine it.....

I can't fathom how the game would require that much space. Loads of uncompressed textures?

[Harrison]

That's mad. I've yet to encounter a game that big. What would a sports game contain to need that much storage? Just stupid. And I was thinking GT7 with all the updates being over 110GB was big enough, but at least I could see with all the content why it was so big.

What's funny is if that game is also on Xbox anyone with a Series S would only be able to install that one game before needing a storage expansion as it only has a 512GB SSD with about 240GB free.

[Demon Cleaner]

I installed my 4TB in the PS5 and downloading all the stuff back, might take some time.

I will probably receive the 2TB SSD for the ROG Ally tomorrow.

- - - Updated - - -

And it's in :)

https://i.imgur.com/RUcP1LU.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1Jowp1J.jpg

[Harrison]

How easy have they made it to upgrade the M2 in the AOG?

[Demon Cleaner]

You put it in just by opening the cover and you just swap it, it's reachable straight away. No cable removing or such.

Then you switch it back on and it boots into the BIOS, you just chose ASUS recovery and it installs everything from scratch by itself, very easy.

[Harrison]

Nice. That's the only thing about the Steam Deck I wish they had thought of and designed better. They support upgrading the built in SSD, but it's a more involving process. Maybe if they eventally design a Steam Deck 2 in the future.

[Demon Cleaner]

I installed RetroBat now for emulation, but I have to go through every single ROMs install process again, as that uses gamelists, maybe I can use some from the RPi4, but my library got updated.

I wanted to go with LaunchBox but as I can't install every single game of that, PS2 f.ex. takes 1.9TB already, I will have to chose which games I want to use, thus having to edit xml files anyways, so it might even be easier or faster to just create the gamelists.

RetroBat covers everything plus it downloads any missing emulators by itself, like what I did now with RPCS3. And it uses EmulationStation which I know quite well as I'm using it on most of my other handhelds, although under Linux.

How is EmuDeck, is it nice, easy to use, does it cover many systems? Isn't EmuDeck not also using EmulationStation? The Windows version is only in beta state so far though.

[Harrison]

Yes EmuDeck is very nice. It does use Emulation Station and RetroArch. You can choose to drop into either and just use the one you prefer. But it also installs any other standalone emulators worth having.

EmuDeck is more an all in one emulation system that installs and configures the lot, and integrates it into Steam without you having to manually add each emulator as a non Steam game. It also has the ability to add individual games installing on any of the emulators directly into Steam so they appear in the games catalogues in Steam just like any other game, which is a nice feature.

It also comes with Steam Rom manager where you can scrap the internet to add boxart, screenshots etc to your rom collections, as well as a more of other stuff to manage them.

And like you say, because Steam Deck uses Linux it has the more developed and supported versions of Emulation Station and RetroArch. But obviously on PC some emulators such as Mame are further along.

EmuDeck is currently being ported to PC though and you can sign up for early access testing. They will be supporting us integration with Steam on Windows, as well as mentioning direct AOG Ally support. Might be worth you taking a look for that reason.

https://www.emudeck.com/

[Demon Cleaner]

I saw now a video that the have these 90 degrees NVMe adapters for the ROG Ally, so I grabbed one from Amazon, like this I can add an 2280 NVMe and I'm not restricted to the smaller, less space (2TB max) and more expensive (double price) 2230 NVMe. I ordered a 4TB Corsair MP600 CORE XT which should arrive tomorrow.

[Harrison]

Valve have now released an updated version of the Steam Deck, in the form of an OLED version.

This new OLED version has the same performance as the original. However it uses a newer smaller chip meaning it uses less power and runs cooler.

The new OLED screen specially made for Valve by Samsung has a refresh rate up to 90hz, so increasing the maximum framerate the Deck can run from 60fps to 90fps. And it still supports HDR.

And as the screen is 30g lighter, uses 2W less, and thinner, plus the main chip is smaller and cooler, this has allowed Valve to fit a larger battery and bigger heatsink.

They have also doubled the built in storage to 1TB.

And it will cost exactly the same as the existing 512GB model.

So some nice improvements and updates. In early reviews they have found battery life is up to 30% better. This updated model is not really worth an upgrade if you own the original, unless you use it exclusely travelling then the larger batter and more energy efficient chips and screen might be attractive.

It's still great to see Valve continuing to support the Steam Deck so much. They are heavily invested in Steam OS and continue to release updates every week and fix bugs and improve performance. They are also constantly improving how the OS handled games, and the whole UI and user experience. Taking all comments, feedback and bug reports very seriously.

Yes there are far more powerful handhelds on the market now, such as the Asus, but their battery life is less than 2 hours, they are running Windows which was never directly designed for a handhejd console, and they are missing many hardware features such as the dual touch pads on the Steam Deck. And they don't have any direct OS support specifically for that one device.

For me, yes I would love to see a Steam Deck with better performance, but at the moment it's the best handheld IMO as an all rounder for both emulation and PC gaming.

[J T]

It's good to see that they didn't just 'bung in an OLED' but did something a little bit more thoughtful and considered. Nice.

[Harrison]

Very true. They could of just put the oled in and called it a day, plus charge more. Instead they have done a mid generation refresh to optimise what was already there.

Valve have stated they won't be releasing a more powerful Deck any time soon as they want to optimise the existing one as much as possible, so unlike other handheld gaming makers who are turning out a new Windows or Linux based handheld every year or so, Valve are treating the Steam Deck in the same way as a proper gaming console.