Should I get a Steam Deck, and is it worth getting?

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So, I've been considering buying a Steam Deck for quite a long time now; is it worth getting? What do you think?

 

[EthanB]

I love mine tbh but I just really do not like the OS. It makes things difficult if you like modding games. But windows on SD is TRASH. SD is really good for emulation as well tbf. Overall I love it but there is a lot of room to improve it.

 

[Xzi]

Yes and yes. The value is insane if you have any sort of existing Steam library, or even if you only want to pirate and emulate. If you have any experience with PC gaming you'll be right at home too, the interface and shortcuts are very intuitive.

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

I've never gotten one, for the simple fact that I already have two Chromebooks, a gaming laptop, every PlayStation console that exists, an N3DSXL, a PS VIta, a Vita TV and a Nintendo Classic Mini.

And I am playing Final Fantasy X and Rogue Legacy on Switch.

Unless there is a game that is just a must-have, and you have to have an on-the-go console, you might be better off getting a powerful gaming PC or laptop.

Think about whether or not you will actually use something you spent more than five hundred dollars on. What game is currently out right now that would make being able to play it portably worth that investment?

If you can't come up with at least five, hold off.

 

[Xzi]

What game is currently out right now that would make being able to play it portably worth that investment?

If you can't come up with at least five, hold off.

That's fair, there's a pretty damn long list of games that Steam Deck can play and Switch can't, so coming up with five shouldn't be hard. The amount of time I spent playing Elden Ring alone on Deck justified its price for me, and I've been carving through my backlog with it ever since. Played plenty of ER on my desktop too ofc, just love that game.

 

[x65943]

My thoughts are, if you have a strong PC - no

Personally I rarely have opportunity to play outside of the home anyway, and the steam deck is weaker and has less compatibility

If you live in Europe or somewhere else that commuting by train makes sense then it may be worth it, but for me I see 0 pros

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

That's fair, there's a pretty damn long list of games that Steam Deck can play and Switch can't, so coming up with five shouldn't be hard. The amount of time I spent playing Elden Ring alone on Deck justified its price for me, and I've been carving through my backlog with it ever since. Played plenty of ER on my desktop too ofc, just love that game.

I have fought myself for months over buying one. Not an issue of being able to afford it, or anything. Most of us could probably buy one right now if we wanted.

I am just one of those eHoarders. My backlog is literally, not figuratively, at least 200 games deep, actual purchases, retail, physical copies or legitimate downloads.


When they have some sort of Steam Deck-ish equivalent within the next couple of years that is around the $300-400 pricepoint, that's where I think I could get in at.

Why am I going to buy a crotch rocket motorcycle when I don't even drive my convertible, except to the same gas station I always go to? I think that's a decent analogy.

 

[Xzi]

When they have some sort of Steam Deck-ish equivalent within the next couple of years that is around the $300-400 pricepoint, that's where I think I could get in at.

The 64GB model is $400, though realistically you would want to upgrade it to a larger SSD.

Why am I going to buy a crotch rocket motorcycle when I don't even drive my convertible, except to the same gas station I always go to? I think that's a decent analogy.

True, though it's nice being able to game in places you normally wouldn't even at home. Including but not limited to the shitter. You'd think the pandemic would've reduced demand for portable systems, and yet Switch sales went crazy. Partly because everybody and their dog already had a PS4, but still.

 

[WalterSlovotsky]

The 64GB model is $400, though realistically you would want to upgrade it to a larger SSD.


True, though it's nice being able to game in places you normally wouldn't even at home. Including but not limited to the shitter.

If I were still reliant on public transportation, it would absolutely change my outlook on this. That's specifically why I got so hardcore into the modding scene when I got my first EZ Flash2Advance card for my Arctic White GBA .

Dude, I spent HUNDREDS of hours... check that, WASTED hundreds of hours, encoding every single episode of Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, Dragon Ball, DBZ and Dragon Ball GT into PSP format, so I could watch them on the bus. I was just so sure that one day, I would be so happy to have all of this.

And now I can stream all of it from my phone, with a bigger and better screen.

Meh. If the zombie apocalypse comes, I will be safe in my bunker with 480x272 rips of poorly encoded old anime. Who's the sucker NAO?

Edit: BUT, the world has also changed over the past fifteen or so years. If I wanted to ride the bus or the subway now with an expensive portable console, I would also need to buy a gun. At least once, I had some random punk kid threaten to try to jack me for my PSP. I WAS armed when he tried to get gully, so nothing happened, but, still.

I would be very careful taking anything this expensive out on public transport.

 

[dekuleon]

I have one, it's pretty cool, but in the end I just use it to play in my couch or bed.
Also, it's kinda huge!

 

[pustal]

So, I've been considering buying a Steam Deck for quite a long time now; is it worth getting? What do you think?

Depends on your use case. I play a lot in bed with it, some of my friends bought one and end up not using it in favor of their desktop. I play newer AAA games on the desktop and idie games or older games on the Deck essencially.

If you'd benefit fom portability, it's a clear value proposition. I'd say to take a look at the ROG Ally and see if the extra power is worth the extra bucks for you, though.

 

[videogamefanatic]

I don't even game on my PC anymore. It's much more enjoyable to just play my Steam Deck on my couch. I also have the dock so that I can just hook it up to my TV too. No dealing with random cloud save issues or the odd old game that doesn't support cloud saves, or stupid Windows or driver problems. Everything I'm actively playing is just on my Deck.

Absolutely fantastic for emulation too. I love having portable Wii and older ready to go whenever.

 

[Taleweaver]

Got mine for over a year now, and still play it almost daily. And if it wasn't for my social responsibilities, I'd be playing much more on it (can't really ignore my daughter, for one thing ). It absolutely raises the bar in quality in portable gaming. The different OS is hardly an issue except if you're determined on a few specific (anti cheatcode reliant) games. I've yet to encounter a game that wouldn't simply run.

Granted: it's an investment. And just because you CAN play every game on the go doesn't mean it's a good idea for all of them. The non-verified games at this stage are almost purely about text/UI elements being hard to read or the mouse equivalent not being up to snuff(1).


My gaming PC...it's not exactly a new setup anymore, but even so I used it often...until this thing arrived. Now I'm just using it for work, mails and redeeming my steam keys.

So...if you've got any sizeable steam library, you can breeze through whatever you want. Same goes for GoG and epic games store (I can only attest that "it works"...not too extensively tested, though). Emulation is a fucking DREAM. Emudeck is the answer to everything except where to find the illegally obtainable stuff. Optimal builds? Key bindings? Overall structure? It's so easy I feel like my hours slowly modding my (second) wii during the pandemic felt like a wasted effort.

Getting any shady executable working is (to my knowledge) still a bit of a hassle. Doable, but could use some tweaks (note: there might already be some...like deckyloader's plugin to quickly assign matching icons). And you only need to do it once per game.

The steam deck's...versatile. In theory, you could plug it into the television, pair an external controller and have a blast with it(2).
Same goes for computing: plug it into a USB-C powered docking station and you can use it as if it was a PC. Including mouse and keyboard(3). Yes, it runs linux. But by now it's merely "different" from windows, not worse. There's a reason I've used it as main OS for years (while my job just has me faffing about with windows versions).


(1): mind you: those trackpads blow any laptop's pads out of the water. But even so: it's not a mouse, so boomer FPS'es or RTS'es isn't an optimal experience.
(2) I can confirm this works, but with my girlfriend hogging the television that was more a proof of concept for me. Oh, and you'll need a seperate (cheap) USB-C -> hdmi converter for this
(3): I'm currently having a problem getting external monitors to work on anything but valve's steam deck dock, and I have no idea what's causing it. :-\

 

[Scarlet]

I'm on the side of thinking handheld PCs are stellar. Even as somebody with a gaming laptop and desktop, it's the handheld things I run to most. Steam Deck will give you the most streamlined console-like experience for handheld PC gaming and is a stellar entrypoint for its price. I have a preference for Windows handhelds myself (I think I'm a minority here!) with my current device of choice being the ROG Ally, but between Valve's software support and the genuinely impressive low power performance, the Deck still stands out.

If you like handheld gaming and have a Steam library to play from already, it really is a great pick.

 

[Ryccardo]

Not interested for the price, if I wanted a stupidly thin PC I'd buy an IBM PC110

 

[codie-fz]

I asked myself that question since the announcement of the deck until a couple of weeks ago, when I decided to get it. Ultimately, I wanted a device that would let me play games while chilling with my gf on the couch and watching some shows. The Steamdeck fits here since I can access my giant Steam library and even remotely play PS5 via chiaki4deck.

So it depends. If you want to play games on the go, without having to boot up your PC or don't want to occupy the TV for it, I'd say go for it.

 

[tech3475]

There are a combination of factors to consider, for example in no particular order:
1) Are you sticking with Steam OS or dual booting?
2) Which model are you buying? Are you willing to upgrade the storage yourself?
3) What games are compatible with Steam OS/suitable for the Steam Deck?

There's more competition now in the handheld pc space so I would look around, although if I was buying now for myself, I'd consider getting the 64GB model and upgrading the SSD myself.

I love mine tbh but I just really do not like the OS. It makes things difficult if you like modding games. But windows on SD is TRASH. SD is really good for emulation as well tbf. Overall I love it but there is a lot of room to improve it.

I've got the 512GB model and I find it runs fine from the internal SSD, at least storage performance wise.

The issue though is the bios and selecting the OS, although scripts are available to install refind and modify the system because for some stupid reason the Linux based handheld by default enforces windows as the default bootloader.

 

[EthanB]

There are a combination of factors to consider, for example in no particular order:
1) Are you sticking with Steam OS or dual booting?
2) Which model are you buying? Are you willing to upgrade the storage yourself?
3) What games are compatible with Steam OS/suitable for the Steam Deck?

There's more competition now in the handheld pc space so I would look around, although if I was buying now for myself, I'd consider getting the 64GB model and upgrading the SSD myself.



I've got the 512GB model and I find it runs fine from the internal SSD, at least storage performance wise.

The issue though is the bios and selecting the OS, although scripts are available to install refind and modify the system because for some stupid reason the Linux based handheld by default enforces windows as the default bootloader.

Sorry by SD I meant Steam Deck. I have the 512gb version and if I want to use Windows for certain old games like Web of Shadows I'll use Windows installed on an SD card. Tbh I'm very nooby with Linux.

 

[Taleweaver]

The issue though is the bios and selecting the OS, although scripts are available to install refind and modify the system because for some stupid reason the Linux based handheld by default enforces windows as the default bootloader.

Ah, I see you're learning microsoft's marketing strategy 101 here.

The stupid reason isn't caused by the handheld (obviously) but by windows' installer. Installing a new linux partition on a linux PC? Not a problem. Installing a new linux partition on a windows PC? Not a problem. Installing windows on any OS PC? It'll claim everything for itself and makes dual booting a hassle to get working again (at best).

Honestly: if MS didn't enforce their operating system the way they did, I'd try out (and potentially recommending) dual booting. Truth is you're just better off using steamOS.

 

[RAHelllord]

Personally I use my deck for couch gaming and when I travel properly where I won't be at home for a few days at a time.
I work from home and it's just amazingly comfortable to be able to play my steam games while lazing on the couch instead of having to sit in my office chair for a few more hours.