[Discussion] Favorite and least favorite things about your steam deck
Been thinking about getting a steam deck. Talk me in or out of it. I've got a desktop, but thinking something handheld would be good when I want to sit on the couch. What are your favorite and least favorite things about your steam deck?
Comfort is my #1. I gave away my gaming PC because being able to play games on the couch, or in my bed, or outside on the hammock is fantastic.
Next is portability. Not only for the above, but the ability to travel and everything without compromising my gaming ability is huge. It's helped my homebody self get out and visit more interesting places, since I have the comfort blanket of my games with me.
Controls are third. The medley of buttons handles so much, and the dual track pads are both versatile and make typing at reasonable speeds possible. Plus the ability to remap anything and to make virtual menus has made features that wouldn't be accessible on normal controllers very easy.
Couch gaming is key for me too. There are a lot of PC-only titles that interest me but don't compel me to sit at a computer to play. Being able to just tinker around in these games while watching TV is amazing. A great example of one of these types of games is Beam.ng Drive.
I live in a co-op, so for me it's nice that I can enjoy my games while still hanging in the common space and getting social interaction as opposed to be squirreled away into my room. And I've even got to revive the LAN party, as I just bring my deck to wherever the other person's setup is!
Right? I have the curse where I love being outdoors, but all my hobbies (games, tabletop) only really work indoors. Feeling some sun and a breeze while still playing games I love has been a game changer
A big positive is that it is the reason I'm dipping into genres I don't normally touch. I'm playing Chained Echoes right now, which is a modern-day 16-bit RPG. I normally don't bother with those, because if I'm at my PC with a 3080TI in it, I'm not playing a 16-bit game, and my PS5 is already building a bit of a backlog with so many good games coming, so I don't play smaller games when I'm on my big plush couch, I want to play stuff that takes advantage of the hardware and tends to be more cinematic. On Deck, I'm playing these smaller games while laying in bed next to my wife while we have the TV on. It's also nice to take to hotels when I travel for work, which I used to take my PS5 for. The hotel TVs always suck and you can't adjust any settings so it's nice to not be lugging the PS5 around any more.
The only drawback is the weight; my wrists start to get tired after 45 minutes or so, so I need to sit up or adjust my position to keep playing comfortably.
Likes: Portable, play games like on a console but have access computer exclusive things, like console commands, grate control customization, and nice button layout.
Dislikes: Not so great battery life, a bit too heavy for my taste, and doesn't come with a dock.
My opinion is likely outdated. I was really excited for the stream deck, but it struggled to work properly when I received it. And there were often issues with the clock and wifi that made it nearly impossible to use. Throw in some issues with audio not playing over tv speakers...
It ended up becoming an expensive paperweight over the last few months as it brought me memories of frustration and buyers regret rather than joy.
I'm not trying to make anyone angry or anything. Many people here seem to love it, so maybe I should give it another go. I hope some updates have maybe increased its performance. Just wanted to share my honest experience...
Oh, this thread has definitely encouraged me to do so again! 😁 Mostly I haven't because I've been having issues playing ANY games-- I keep turning them on and then off bc I cannot focus. 🥴
Honestly, I love it for what it is. It nails almost everything I want. Yeah it can get a little hot. Yeah the battery should be improved at some point. But I am 100% happy with what I got.
Only thing I don't like is certain devs screaming their eyes out about refusing to support Linux, implementing DRM, and that Linux users are 'cheaters' (we are not).
Its a new market. Embrace it or be left behind, because I am starting to avoid games that don't play nicely with Proton
I can relax on the couch and watch TV while I play games.
The buttons and controls are excellent and I can game for several hours.
What I dislike about the steam deck:
Sometimes it gets really hot after an intense gaming session.
The battery life isn't the greatest. (Although I usually have a charger close by.)
WiFi kinda sucks on it. I use a cheap Ethernet dongle when I need to install games.
Sometimes my eyes hurt and get blurry if I use the deck too long. My advice is to take a break from time to time once I realized that the culprit was the steam deck.
My favourite thing about my Steam Deck is that I can add gyro controls to pretty much any shooter. I've always struggled with using control sticks for fine aiming but now I can just add in motion control and play very well. It really has ignited my passion for shooters. Playing 300 hours of Splatoon 2 on my switch really got me comfortable with motion based aiming and now I couldn't go back.
My absolute favorite parts of the deck are the bang for your buck and the input options.
The Deck might not be the most powerful gaming device out there - heck, not even the most powerful x86-based gaming handheld - but it is suprisingly performant nonetheless. Part of that is the 1280x800 screen, which sounds small if you are used to 1080p or even 4k screens, but allowed Valve to use a less powerhungry APU, which resulted in the battery lasting a bit longer.
And frankly, the part where the Deck absolutely shines is the fact that they gave it trackpads with haptic feedback, gyro controls and a touchscreen plus the four extra triggers on the back. The gyro is perfect for shooters, and the touchpads for games that would normally need long mouse movements, or assigning them to radial menus or whatever. And you can just remap everything on a game-by-game basis.
The only flaws in my mind - nitpicks, really - are twofold:
It has the USB-C port at the top, so you cannot just slot the Deck into a dock and be done with it. As someone coming from a Switch, it is a slight loss of convenience.
You cannot use external GPUs*, so if docked, the Deck might struggle to play games on 4k. I think the ROG Ally had the right idea by allowing you to use a dock with a GPU in it, which gives you greater portability on the go and a beefy GPU when docked. I wish the Steam Deck could do the same thing.
Another thing that depends on the user is that with the stock Steam OS, some games will not work despite Proton because of anticheat software or DRM that is incompatible, but that one can be easily mitigated by installing Windows, if you absolutely have to. Personally, I strongly recommend sticking with Steam OS though, but that's from the perspective of someone who usually plays singleplayer games anyway.
Yes, I know, you can do a hardware mod that replaces I think the SSD with a GPU, but it's still not as easy as plugging in a USB-C cable and be done with it.
I agree with everything here. I just want to leave behind a little nugget for anyone searching in the future that runs across this after searching 4k.
My deck would run 4k for a few minutes on my TV. Then it would disconnect from the dock. I actually didn't realize I had it in 4k because I had set it to 1280x800 manually on another dock back when I got it.
I had a hard time figuring out why my new dock seemed to be busted. A friend who had recently ran into the same issue told me to change my resolution and suddenly everything worked.
All I could find searching for it was people complaining that their dock cut out on them intermittently.
Favourite thing? It's replaced my Switch for the most part. So not only do you get cheaper games on Steam, but they also run better.
I still use my PC for gaming, too. I just prefer some games on the Steamdeck and others on PC.
Best is the sleep function. Combined with it being a dedicated gaming device (I'm not using it for work etc) I can leave a game open on it for weeks. No boot up times, no loading into game times, just press the power button, play as long as I'm able, and back to sleep.
Controls are great too. The addition of the highly versatile trackpads, 4 back buttons, gyro, and steam input settings has ruined other controllers for me. I have a dock but rarely use it because I miss the extra buttons and controls when using a different controller.
Overall, I've honestly had a really positive experience. Most games I've tried work out of the box, performance is impressive, the control they give users is awesome, the support they are giving the Linux community is awesome, and it's great to have a second "PC" to game with my fiance or take with me on trips.
So with all that said, my biggest con by far is the official dock. I still have tons of problems hooking it to different TVs, and even when it does work there are issues with audio crackling.
I loveimy steam deck but for your purposes, if you have literally any other device you can run steam link on it, connect it to your TV, etc. And that would probably be better performance assuming that your computer has good specs
my favorite thing is how open it is. the usb-c port is the latest at the time of finalizing the specs with nothing added or taken away. its a linux desktop you can do damn near anything on. my least favorite is the fact it onl has one usb-c port. literally all they need is a second one.
Add comment