Most Judeo-Christians faith believe God as Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresent. Meaning Your inter monologue pray, all of our prays will be heard.
That's what Valve is hoping for, but I'm not sure who else is really in a position to take a loss on each unit sold. Or who would want to, for that matter. So yeah, I'm sure we'll see other devices (both GPD and Aya Neo announced new hardware after Steam Deck's reveal IIRC), but I fully expect them all to be at least double the price of Steam Deck's 64GB model. Shipping with Windows is an extra $100 on its own.
Like I said, I'll see what the landscape looks like in a year or so. The right device will be worth the price, I'm not too eager to put money down on this product with this design. Comfort is a huge selling point for me in handhelds, and I'll gladly pay more for a similar device with a more pleasing layout and grip.
The layout would definitely be a bit funky if not for the curvature of the grips looking so comfortable. I'd be a lot more worried if it were flat in the back like Aya Neo or standard joycons, as opposed to having more of that Hori Splitpad Pro look to it like it does.
I have big hands too, which is why I was happy to see the large rounded grips on Steam Deck. For comfort you ideally want just your fingertips touching the flat back part of the device, same way all modern controllers are designed. Given the size of Steam Deck relative to Switch, I'd almost be willing to go so far to say it was designed specifically with larger (adult) hands in mind.
To each their own I guess, just knowing my hands and looking at that thing, I can just feel the cramping and premature hands falling asleep now. The design of this thing is the only thing not working for me, otherwise I really want to love this device, and I know that someone else out there (or maybe a later model from Steam themselves) will get it right for what will be comfortable for me, and that will be what I'll set my sights on in this field.
Out of curiosity, which controllers are comfortable for you? XB1? PS5? Switch Pro?
Well, we can only go off of images right now obviously, but it looks to me like the buttons are fairly standard size, right around the same as XB1. The stick also appears to be about the same distance from the X button as it is from the A button on an XB1 controller. Which is to say: I can push the right stick on an XB1 controller diagonally and press the A button at the same time, but that fact has never once bothered me while playing a game.
You see one thing, I see another. I'm getting GBA SP hand cramping deja vu vibes from this thing. It's great that you're optimistic, but I know myself and my hands and what feels good in them and what doesn't, and I'm simply not seeing something my hands will enjoy, that's all there really is to this at this point. And hey maybe I am wrong, but I'm certainly not going to just take a gamble and throw a bunch of money down now just because it's possible I've misjudged how this thing will feel in my hands. And comparisons may be nice for some people, but I'll only actually judge the thing in terms of if I personally will want one or not, when I personally have held one in my hands and played a few games with it.
So long as you've seen the size comparison with Switch, I'm not sure how you could think anything about Steam Deck is going to be too small. There very well might be comfort issues for other reasons, but that's one aspect I'm not worried about in the least.
Size really isn't my issue here overall, as I've said numerous times, its about placement and cramping, though that extra weight definitely will be an unavoidable problem, I know it will be inevitable with these devices that will be packing more power and features, so I'm not hoping others will weigh less, this is just some unavoidable baggage that comes with packing more features and power, and I get that.
I'm definitely just not seeing what you are then, because the base of your thumbs will be around the center of the device, allowing them to sit diagonally (across the A/X buttons on the right), just as they would with any standard controller. Maybe you were thinking they'd come straight along the top of the device instead (across B/X on the right)? That wouldn't allow your ring/pinky fingers to reach the extra bumper buttons on the back, though. Thus there's only one proper way to hold it, with all of your digits at or near full extension.
Yeah it could've been made smaller/lighter, but that would also drive the price up, and I'm sure Valve was only willing to subsidize this product to a certain extent. Ultimately though, it's still under one and a half pounds, and so long as the weight is evenly distributed, that's enough to feel "premium," but not enough to actually feel "heavy."
That's alright, I'm not asking that you do see it my way, clearly we have different bodies and we know what is and isn't comfortable for ourselves better than anyone else does. If this thing looks comfy to you, more power to ya, I wish it did for me, honestly I really do, but it simply doesn't, and that's ok. I understand why the layout is the way that it is, they had to make room for the touch pads, but having all that tech definitely seems like a sacrifice has been made for comfort, at least for myself. But that's ok, I know this is just the start of these kinds of devices entering the mainstream market, and someone, if not Steam, is going to come along with the exact device of this kind that will be exactly what I'm looking for, and until then, I'll just keep an eye out for it.
I think they could've done with just the one touchpad personally, but it'll be interesting to see how the haptics on them are utilized nonetheless. The stick placement though is fine, I just look at it as an inverted DualShock/DualSense.
Portable PCs have actually been around quite a while now, early 2010s is when I first started seeing designs similar to modern ones. I myself previously owned a clamshell GPD Win and an Nvidia Shield Portable (the former being truly uncomfortable and the latter running Android). The biggest issue with them has always been pricing, and that's doubly a concern now with the shortages going on. The GPD Win 3 is going for $1200+ on Amazon, which is approaching gaming laptop territory.
