Valve Steam Deck

right, where to begin... to concisely put it, if you want a good handheld gaming unit- look at the switch. I have had nothing but problems with the steam deck. It has a great library, and if you are a PC gamer, that's great- but a lot of those games, depending on what you have, won't work optimally on the deck. You will have to fiddle with settings, controls, etc- and that's the best of it. and RTS? forget that. It has sporadically deleted my save games on older games, and sometimes just doesn't even work- Call of duty: united offensive, i'm looking at you. A lot of games require third party stuff, like Ubisoft or to play Halo. You can't just jump into the game, you need secondary logins and stuff, and that's not easy to navigate on the deck, to be honest. People rave about this device, but honestly, avoid.

I have accidentally left the deck off charge and on sleep mode. DONT DO THIS. Basically, it can put the steam deck in a perpetual mode of error- where it doesn't turn on, or in my scenario, the HDMI output works, but the backlight of the actual device itself doesn't work. Steam deck help is very unreliable at best. My asks for help have been met with no cares- and 2 day late messages. Finally we reach an impasse, where they tell me because I live in Australia, there is no repair options, and it's out of warranty, so... sorry! So I have no option now- and have to look at third parties, or do it myself. Shocking customer service, and no assistance at all. If you want to play the 'verified' only games, sure, they work well- but don't leave your device off charge and let it fully drain the battery. This seems like a simple, and easy, mistake to make, but don't do it. If you want a reliable handheld, look at Nintendo. Steam isn't the answer, sadly.

Fantastic device, great game library – Fantastic. Great battery life, great physical controls, a genuinely unbeatable range of games. I have the OLED 1TB SSD and I recommend it hugely, I've run into no issues with it. The installed OS is great and the system is snappy and responsive, and games like Yakuza 0 run incredibly smoothly. The battery lasts way longer than I expected, and it pairs with pretty much anything you care to throw at it. Perfect for long flights or playing on the couch, and it's become my preferred platform for games like Balatro. The screen is clear and surprisingly large, and outputs a very nice amount of brightness. I've handed it off to a lot of non-gamers to show it off and they are universally surprised by how intuitive and enjoyable it is to use.

If you have small hands you might find this a touch big. I've got big hands and I love it, but if you're using it for hours you might find it a touch heavy. I can't really find anything else to criticise; this thing really is a fantastic little machine.

Portable, Powerful, Perfect – The Steam Deck is a portable gaming unit. Picture Nintendo Switch, but on steroids! This is the device for any gamer, who wants to be truly able to play AAA rated games, in HD, in a hand held device. That's right, not just games specifically made for the unit, but pretty much any game out there, almost. The Steam Deck is tomorrows portable all in one PC, gaming device and full Linux Desktop. But there is so much more.

There are three sizes of Steam Deck, the entry level 64Gb eMMC version, which is what I purchased, as I can upgrade it to more than the top version 512Gb SSD and save myself a few dollars, while also increasing it's storage to 2Tb internally!

The other versions have either 265Gb or the 512Gb storage. The 512Gb also has a reflection reducing etching on the screen. This reduces glare and reflections. I was not concerned about that.

So, what really can this thing do?

It is a portable gaming device, akin to the Nintendo Switch. The difference is the power built into this unit.

How powerful? Well it will run the SteamOS flawlessly. You can then switch to the built in Desktop Mode. This is a fully fledge Linux installation. So you not only have a portable gaming unit, but also a full desktop computer. Linux is extremely easy to learn. There are a growing myriad of games, apps and more easily available, often free!

Now it goes into the realms of the ridiculous. If you want, you can actually install, on a microSD, or in a partition on the internal storage . . . Windows 10 or 11. So, you now have a portable gaming system Linux PC and Windows PC, in a handy package.

If you are this far in, I guess you like games, so I expect you are aware of the massive Steam games library? But now you can also use Windows to run the necessary game launchers, for those PC games not available on Steam.

With a Zen 2+ RDNA 2 processor, to the AMD GPU, through the 32Gb RAM and the ability, nay the encouraged by Valve themselves possibilities to upgrade the device. As you read, mine will have a 2TB SSD installed, plus a 1TB MicroSD card. The thumbsticks can be user replaced, upgraded, the screen can be replaced, by the user, if they have some basic skills and knowledge. Oh, that's right, they provide videos to walk you through each step.

Portable, Powerful, Perfect. The title says it all. These are a tremendous piece of technology, that every gamer wants, nay, deserves!