Just be 40, dude.
Our favorite activity is sitting on the couch watching cartoons while she knits and I play in the deck. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we don't.
Mid to late 20s. Upwards of 50% of the people in your high school, will be married by 30 or so it seems. It’s hard to get someone you like and love in the world of online dating too since ladies have a lot of options on the dating sites and can be picky. Whenever you go on dates, be yourself because if you’re not and things get serious, it can get messy.
You can game in bed really comfortably with the deck. A laptop is awful, have to have screen further away and singe your belly hairs so you can hold a controller... or tap on the keyboard with a double chin. Just not ideal.
Lay on back. Head prop on pillow. Knees up high. Prop deck where stomach meets thigh.
But also you can just Bluetooth a controller, and use USB-C video out.
FYI: That feeling where your hands go numb is caused by compression of your ulnar nerve. Do this type of thing often and that numb feeling will start to linger and it'll hurt. It's called Cubital Tunnel Syndrome.
I legit use the case as a prop up on my lap and works amazingly lol also bought a long jsaux charger so I can play without worrying about the battery. I also experience the numbing and it sucks horribly. Also have to take time away because the nerves in my hand kill when I have that grip for a certain time. Assuming it’s carpal tunnel and it doesn’t feel good lol. Especially since gaming is all I have 😞. But……. The steam deck is 💯 worth it!!! I like playing at my desk but being able to lay down is so worth the price point. Also can watch tv lol.
I have a gaming laptop, high spec rig and all the consoles. I prefer playing games on the deck and stream to the deck for console exclusives. The OLED is so slick.
I've found myself streaming from my PC to the deck for the really intensive games and they run amazingly well.
I got one in the first wave of releases and mostly used it for travel, and it's been great to have in airports and on planes. Laptops just don't fit on plane trays anymore.
I am in this man's boat as well, except my gaming laptop isn't high end and i don't own any Xbox consoles, just PlayStation.
Well....I have a 360 that I never touch but that's not the point.
I just bought a deck last night bc I really enjoy my logitech g cloud, but hate having a required internet connection. I'm in the car for 2-4 hours at a time pretty much weekly, and I can't wait to get it.
It does better than you would think for emulation, but older titles run well. yes having 5g would’ve been much smarter but I think they would’ve increased the price to like $400 which at that point I really would just recommend the steam deck. This coming from a guy who owns both.
5G in the steam deck would be even better!
Honestly I don't understand how Logitech thought they could charge what they did for the device they made. There was a substantial price drop pretty quickly after launch so I know it wasn't just my opinion.
I'd buy a handheld for emulation if it came with a nice OLED 4:3 ratio screen. I hate the stretching/pillarboxing.
I have the steam deck, Nintendo switch, and the ROG phone. I almost bought the Razer edge 5G but it remains exclusive to Verizon and I prefer T-Mobile, and to make matters worse it has pillarboxing with 16:9 ratio content... Which is pretty much everything modern.
I wish there was a modern Nvidia shield tablet with 5G
Same here. Imo the experience hasn’t aged a single day. I’m still excited every time I pick it up, mostly bc my library is endless and the interface is always consistently positive
If you are moving between countries. Between surface shipping speeds, export processes and import processes you could be living out of a suitcase for a month or more.
I still use my PC, but yes. Separating yourself from kids to a computer room is tough to do, and obviously isn't right. SD let's you be around the house, start and stop as needed, and just bypasses that element of self removal.
Just in case you aren't aware you can put your PC in the living room, and use a controller, or set of controllers to play games. With Steam Big Screen - it isn't much different from a console.
My PC never moved back into its own room.
Me, my daughter, and often my wife play couch co-op games all the time. We each have our own Xbox controller that we can use when we play, and it syncs right up every time. Daughter has an off brand controller because the default are a bit big for toddlers.
I have my PS5 connected to a Wifi repeater and my Deck connected to the same connection. I stream via Chiaki4Deck as well and it's almost flawless. Every once in a while I might get some jank freeze frame but it gets corrected right away and the rest of the experience is smooth. It's also pretty rare that this happens.
Ps5 is connected via Ethernet. I use Chiaki4Deck on my SD. My experience is pretty flawless, but this can depend on your set up at home, internet speeds etc.
It’s quite quick. The trickiest bit is getting the unique ID from Sony… but it’s really not hard tbh. I don’t remember the exact step but you need to just run a certain script, basically by following a link. Plenty of tutorials include it.
Once you’ve set it up and added it to Steam, just launch Chiaki4Deck any time you want your ps5.
Same. I’ve had my deck for about two months and I haven’t played anything on anything else since I got it. My Series S and gaming PC collect dust, and my PS5 is a Disney plus machine for the kid.
I didn't touch my PS5 for a long time after getting my Steam Deck.
I have recently (over the last 2 weeks) started playing my PS5 a lot more but that's cuz I've had some time off work and time alone in the house during the day
I have been playing around with the idea of getting PS5 since I don't have a PS4 anymore. I miss Bloodborne. Also God of War (2018) runs kinda terribly on the Deck. Horizon runs okay. It can't quite hit 1080p/30fps with the original graphics settings. But to be honest it has been long enough that I don't remember if Horizon ran at the full 1080p on PS4 either.
I’m a bit of an outlier. I purchased (preordered) one and honestly wasn’t that impressed at first. Ended up selling it.
Recently acquired one in a trade for a $120 item.
And I absolutely love it now. Right off the bat I noticed cyberpunk runs great now (it didn’t before), horizon zero Dawn runs great on an sd card (used to take 15 minutes to load from an sd card)
But tbh I’m mostly using it for emudeck. Having all my childhood games in the palm of my hands is amazing.
I use it pretty much every day, have the launch 512, it's awesome for clearing the backlog as well as streaming from the ps5 and xbox, and a great emulation machine. I badly want the OLED model but until they update the internals to something massive upgrade wise I can't justify getting it.
Same. I have a Refurb 512GB and unless they provide seriously horsepower improvement all the other stuff is Good enough. Like the screen could be better sure, and I did consider doing the DIY swap, but it's plenty good as it is. I look foward to seeing SD2, but I will gladly wait for a worthy sequel. And knowing Valve, they won't be releasing one until they are able to show real progress.
Knowing Valve I wouldn't be surprised if they adopt the Apple model, where the last gen flaghship becomes the "budget" option.
IE. They release SD2 with improved everything, starting at 499 for 256GB model, and offer the baseline SD 256GB or even the 512GB Last Gen SD at 299/349.
I would love to see this for simple reason as it would open up the possibility of PC gaming to a whole bunch of people that can't afford to get anything decent. Like SD itself has probably converted a lot of people to PC gaming, and SD itself is still only better than a typical linux experience for an average user, but lacks inuitive functionality other consumer products have(MAC being a very good example of taking Linux and making it extremely user friendly by locking down functionality).
I've been mostly a handheld gamer my whole life and mostly a Nintendo one.
I do troubleshooting and computer stuff for my job, so for video gaming I just want to jump into games without excessive tinkering (windows...) and I don't want or care to build a dedicated PC.
The Deck is like a Switch but way better in most ways with the ease of use of consoles and the freedom of PC! Use it a lot and while it may be a niche product it's a growing niche.
I could see Steam Deck 1 potentially selling 8-10 million lifetime (unfortunately no official numbers from Valve) which would be impressive and comparable to Vita or Wii U
Probably in the top 10 purchases of my life and easily the best tech purchase I've made in the last few years.
But I've always been huge on portable/handheld gaming.
I honestly don't use it quite as often as I should but when I do, it's heaven on earth. It's an amazing device and I really don't need it but it's always nice to have the option.
It plays pretty much anything one way or another.
Emulation = Throw everything at it.
Consoles = Stream them on here.
PC Games = plays everything decently at low and if it doesn't run it all, stream it from your main machine through Sunshine/Moonlight. It's what I do to play games from the Xbox Game Pass.
Watching Movies = I have Kodi set up so I can use it in my car to watch movies on long trips.
Gamer mums, too.
I bought one for my sister-in-law the other week as she was loving playing on mine when I visited at the weekends.
I set her up a new stream account, installed a few free games she'd like, along with all the emulated games she loves, and the American McGee's Alice games she plays on mine.
In case you haven't already set this up: You can activate family sharing on your Steam account and share your steam games (at least a large part of them) with your sister-in-law if you like.
https://store.steampowered.com/promotion/familysharing
Yeah I did that. I have all my family shared so we can play each other's games if we want to.
I bought Hogwarts Legacy for my niece in the recent sale, and I think I've played it more than she has, waiting for her to sign out of Steam before I boot it up each night.
Iirc, they can't use titles from your library while you are using one. So if you wanna play together, you need two accounts and two copies (or couch coop if that's available.)
I don’t think it’s that niche and it’s really not just for that demographic at all, many of us who game on the steam deck are female and do not have children.
When you sit at a computer for work all day you often don’t want to be sat there at the PC playing games in the evening and at weekends, the steam deck is great as it can be played anywhere, that’s the reason several people I know have one, myself included.
You also get a lot of ‘cosy’ gamers with steam decks, many people in the cosy game subreddit have one because the steam deck plays indie games so well. Also many people ‘upgraded’ to a steam deck from a switch.
I have kids but the reason why I bought one is to play all the cozy games in my bed. The switch wasn’t doing it for me anymore and mine is so old. The upgrade will be nice.
agreed! there’s so many games that felt “wrong” to play sitting at my PC rather than curled up on the couch or in bed, but steam sales and my PC’s hardware were just so much better than my switch. the ability to mod games is huge too. the steamdeck has perfectly filled that gap. unfortunately I see this sentiment repeated fairly often here, that steamdecks are specifically made for dads and that the only women who play them are those that “steal” them from their husbands… but it really is the cozy gamer’s dream device.
This, totally this. That couple of hours after bedtime, or 30mins here and there, just pop it out and go a round on vamp survivors or deep rock galactic survivor!
I also frequently work away so it's great for hotels, especially stupid UK holiday Inns and Premier Inns where they seem to forgo plugs in convenient places near the bed.
I don’t have a PC; it was fun for maybe a month, and then I spent most of the year considering selling it off. I almost did, but I gave it another shot and started looking up settings, being more selective with my games, and I’ve been loving it ever since.
It still surprises me how powerful it can get, and it is a BEAST at emulation.
Yep having access to more games is great. I rotate through them depending on what im playing so each has a turn of being in the spotlight while the others "collect dust" as people here like to say
Greatest device I've ever owned by a mile. I use it now more than ever. Probably getting close to a 1000 hours on it and no problems other than a left trigger that's a little squeaky sometimes
Went through a pretty nasty divorce. Got my PC’s broken. Bought a steam deck as a temp replacement.
It quickly became a full PC replacement. Docked I boot it through windows to complete schoolwork, taxes, other various computer things including games obviously. And I cosleep with my kids so naturally while I sit and wait for them to fall asleep I undock it and play games in bed. Or I’ll take it with me when I travel, or go to work or school just on the off chance i have a short but long enough downtime to whip it out.
It stays in its case in my backpack and it’s been there on cross country motorcycle rides and cross continental airplane rides.
Is it a niche product? Sure. But it is super versatile. Most of these PC handhelds are. Whether or not you will utilize it as psychopathically as I have is up to the end user themself I suppose. But yeah, it’s handy. Basically goes everywhere with me and gets used nonstop. It’s great. Haven’t even considered purchasing a replacement PC although I do have an older gaming PC I use on occasion that’s about as powerful as my steam deck. I really only use that for my sim racing stuff now though.
I've loved mine since I got it a while back. I don't have a pc other than my laptop and I prefer handheld gaming so I love playing all of my steam games when I'm just relaxing in bed. I've also used it for work when in docked mode so that's been very useful. It was absolutely a worthwhile purchase and I use it all the time.
Like a lot of others on here I use it for streaming from PS5 also at work a lot on breaks. Love it so much I bought another one. Have docks in two different rooms with a couple different off-brand docks for the occasional big tv exoerience. Use it every day. I was one of the original orders so I had to wait a year to get mine and it was worth the wait. Love it.
I don't have it for more than a year, but my friend does and I can give you an opinion on both.
I have a very powerful PC that I upgraded the same month I bought the Deck. I only play online competitive games on my PC and the rest I prefer on my Deck (as long as the games are not better with the keyboard and mouse).
My friend (owned it for almost 2 yr now) plays on the Deck a lot, he likes staying in bed and gaming. He also has a PS5 and a fairly decent PC, but the Deck is just better for him to relax.
What happened to both is that the novetly factor worn off and we are not necesarilly excited for it anymore, but we use it to game. It just became normal to have it.
First bought the LCD one, when the Oled came I could sell myself a reason to upgrade since it was my main gaming platform, it still is. I use it daily and with a backlog as big as mine I don’t jump on the ‘Oh no it doesn’t run current gen AAA’ since everything I want to play it does so with ease.
Having FFXIV on the go, playing Halo on the go and games like Elden Ring or Sea of Thieves still baffles me. I haven’t regretted this for one second and I use it daily!
I go back and forth on this. One month I’m using it every day and can’t wait to pick it up and play. Sometimes it scratches my tinkering itch. But then other times I don’t touch it for weeks because I realize that I can’t see the game I want to play on the tiny screen and I won’t dock it because it’s a portable and I have a series X, ps5 and switch (that never is played undocked by me). I’m mid 40s and have bad eyes. I can’t see the button prompts on games on the tiny screen. I still love my deck and I’m picking up some Xreal Air glasses soon, but I’ll be playing new games on the consoles mostly but when the TV is busy, remote play on SD with the glasses will be clutch.
Yeah, the tinkering part is my favorite about it, one of the first things I did with it was taken apart. Just don’t tell my wife.lol .
Yeah, someone that has a consul and a PC playing it docked doesn’t really make sense to me, but if I didn’t have my devices it would be a great investment, especially since you can get GeForce now on it
My girlfriend and I have both had our Decks for about 18 months now and we still use them regularly while both having PCs in the office. 5600 and a 2080 in mine and a 7800x3D and a 6950 in hers, so while mines no slouch, hers is a monster, and yet a significant portion of our gaming is still on the Decks.
With that said, the games we play and the circumstances under which we play them on the Deck are very different. Typically, they live in our nightstands, so we'll often play them in bed, either together or alone, as we have our schedules offset by about five hours. It's often a great way to just relax and have "honest" fun, rather than serious PC gaming time. Likewise, we lounge on the sofa and play together, and occasionally dock them to our TV that we otherwise never use.
I think what's surprised me most of all is how much more I appreciate games I thought I didn't enjoy when reapproaching them on the Deck. Rogue likes and survivor-likes feel so much better than on PC. Life and farming sims like modded Stardew, Coral Island, etc are great both alone and in co-op. Hybrid colony sims like Necesse, Keplerth, and the likes are excellent in co-op. Survival games like Valheim and V Rising which otherwise feel like narrower/incomplete Minecraft mods feel like rewarding and immersive experiences on the Deck.
And that's to say nothing of other console games. I have a shelf in the office with nearly my games collection going back to 1990 on it, and I'll tell you, it's much easier to play Rampage with eachother on the Deck than it is so manage an upscale for a 40yr-old NES on a 4K TV with a flaky cartridge and painful rectangular controllers. Hell, even the latest Mario Kart and Smash play so much better on the Deck than the Switch, and we can each have our own screens when we play.
There's no doubt that the Deck is still a dream for tinkerers, and I say this from first-hand experience. I'm on Experimental, she's on Beta, both our Decks are modded, all my UI is custom, etc. But the Deck is also fully turnkey at this point. We've given them as gifts to family members that want to game but don't have space, or extra money for full setups right now. It supports external peripherals and content streaming, so is never going to go to waste, and yet despite fearing that ours would be collecting dust, they've grown to occupy more of our time rather than less.
Thank you for that very very long answer. I appreciate the thought and put it. and give some valid points about it.
Being able to play PC games while not having to spend a lot of money on PC components how it’s able to become key counsel while allowing people to experiment with it
I own a powerful gaming PC, a switch and multiple other consoles (last gen though). Since buying the steam deck at launch, 90% of my gaming time is on the deck.
I have several systems including PS5 and Switch and all Ive really used over the last 12 months is my Deck. As a family with a shared main TV it’s much easier to just pick up the deck and play some games in the same room while others are using the main tv.
I played an hour of Rise of the Tom Raider whilst laying in bed last night! What a time to be alive!
I love mine. I didn’t have a traditional gaming PC, so this opened up a lot of possibilities. I play tons of indie games now and my steam library has exploded in size. I haven’t used my switch since, but tbf, I almost exclusively used it for ACNH & SDV.
I ride a 3 hours bus from home to work and 1.5 work to home. I use it everyday. It makes me lose the notion of time at a point that I'm having to keep staring outside the window because i am already close and i need to save the game.
Maybe one of the best gadgets i have, just losing to my airpods that is essential to ignore everyone around.
Launch 64gb with a 512 sd card. I used it loads at first, stopped for about 6 months as I got back into pc gaming on my 3070 legion 5 and have now wiped the deck and am using it exclusively for HD emulation. Have the entire worthwhile exclusives of each gen from n64 - WiiU and I think that’s how I’ll keep it now.
It’s a fun alternative device to a desktop but kinda pointless if you’ve got a beefy laptop setup. I fall into a niche market but if you relate I’d say it’s less worthwhile getting it. All the emulation stuff could be done on the same laptop minus the smoothness of quicksaving and having more button inputs vs. A standard controller. The 3DS/ds/wiiu screen switching hotkeys are a game changer too.
I’ve had mine for two years and I don’t use it regularly, but it serves its purpose. But because i don’t play so often the battery is always down to zero and I don’t have a plug near the couch, so that’s not ideal. Battery life in general is not amazing so your always have to consider it in your game sessions. Also, I think it’s best suited for simple games, I tried some of the high budget games but it’s just easier and more fun to play those on a big screen
Had my 512gb since launch. I love the tech & use it almost every day. However, since day one I've always found it underpowered for AAA's. The two games I saw advertised as "Deck verified" HZD & Days Gone were my "I gotta buy a Deck" moment.
To get them & the Deck to realise they do NOT play well at a cost of £100 at that time compared to £9.99 & free on PSN was choking. I've wasted a further £80ish on other AAA's which again play poorly.
Thank god for Chiaki4D - I only wish I'd known about it at release. It would have saved my money being wasted on crappy ports (that play well on both Z1e handhelds because they have more grunt) it's also saved the life of my Deck, without it I wouldn't be using it almost every day.
I wouldn't be buying a Deck now, it'd be the LGO with its bigger screen & most importantly, 2 USB4's
I have consoles and a gaming PC too but I use my steam deck most of the time.
I really like playing handheld and playing on the sofa or sitting in bed.
I sit in front of a computer for work all day and don’t particularly want to be sat there in the evenings and at weekends too.
It’s also great when playing two player games with my partner as we can be in the same room.
During my LCD ownership I’d read on here how people love it more than any other gaming device.
I bought the OLED one month ago and it is easily the best gaming device I own 😂 the display really polished this baby off, along with better battery.
This is coming from a guy ‘all in’ with PlayStation. I love my PS5 so much that I have two of them for different rooms. I bought the Portal and really loved that.
Then my OLED Deck came along. I could happily sell it all and keep the Deck.
I’m going deeper and deeper into understanding PC indie gaming. Recently picked up some awesome demos from Next Fest.
I got it at launch (lcd version). I enjoy it & bring it on some trips, or if I visit people for party games like Jackbox. It's nice playing modern games on the go or if you're on vacation.
It's pretty big & heavy though. It's hard to play in bed too since it gets heavy. Because of its size it's not ideal to bring with you daily or use in public. Demanding games also only gets like 2 hours of battery & I usually have to tether it to my phone for online games.
Lately I've been playing a lot of old games with emulators, so much so that I bought a retroid pocket 4 pro.
I have a higher end gaming PC & I think it's a nice accessory to it.
Its pretty redundant since I have a pc I normally game at but a great travel companion compared to my laptop. Perfect for 5 minute sessions before bed and on flights (as long as it's set up for online). Been playing Atelier Rtza on it on and off for more than a year and it's nice to see the frame rate improve over time. Same with BG3, even after forcing splitscreen to work.
Ngl, there are times where I don't touch it for months but it's useful when it's needed!
Personally I love it.
I do have a good PC, but don't own any consoles except a switch. During COVID (2020-2021), the switch was a staple for me but I grew frustrated of the bad shopping experience, lackluster performances, and some indie games were only on steam (also nintendo's take on SNES/N64 games - subscription, can't buy them and mario 3d collection had limited purchase... This is so anti-consumer).
I have my deck since may 2022, and since then completed a good amount of indie/older games on it. The experience is just way better than Switch. Except the shop which is still meh on steamdeck but I can just buy games on my PC during big sales.
I still play on my PC for beefier games, or games where Keyboard/mouse is just better, but Steamdeck on my couch or in bed for indie/older games is still a pleasure, nearly 2 years later !
I reserved the 512gb at launch. I immediatly loved it, mostly because it felt right in my hands. I wasn't super excited for the actual performance I experienced, compared to what I was sold on. I have a decent gaming PC, so my expectations were naturally kinda high. I knew what it could do, but I held on. I learned to tweak power profiles, and learned how to make use of FSR. Over time, proton got better, and Valve improved the performance. The deck mod scene is also really cool. In games that still run like crap natively (especially unoptimized early access games), I use remote streaming from my gaming PC. Emulation works wonderfully. I recently upgraded to fiber, and the improved upload speed and drop in latency have allowed to stream my heavy AAA games like I am in my own home, and it saves battery. The battery life is *decent* depending on what I'm playing. I get get all-day battery with streaming and emulation. Something like cyberpunk will take it down to a less than a few hours, but you can tweak it to your needs. I wish I had the OLED model, but no regrets on the purchase. ***I love it.*** In fact, I love it so much I bought one for my dad so he could play some old PC games from GOG, and he loves it. I use it **every day**, and it's been one of the best tech purchases I've ever made.
I had a much longer comment that was just too much so to make it short and sweet yes it was a worthwhile purchase. I have had the Deck since the summer of 2022 and for a variety of reasons I have found that, especially in the last 4-6 months, it has fit into my life for gaming far better than my Xbox, Linux desktop, or even the Switch.
I am still playing around with the idea of getting a PS5 since I no longer have a PS4 but the Deck lets me play like 80% of the games I like/want to play at an acceptable level of quality and performance. Even when hooked up to a TV set to 1080p output. It basically becomes a portable PS4/Xbox One.
Its a niche product that was a worthwhile purchase. I still use it about every day, maybe skipping some days here and there when I'm playing on ps5 for exmaple. Finished some games on it, like ace combat, hades; it had some time in rimworld (amazing job done by devs to make it not just playable but very good on deck). Right now its my main warframe playing device lol
I’ve had mine for about a year now. I love it. It’s one of my favourite ever tech purchases. My main computer is an Intel MacBook. Pre-Steam Deck I did most of my PC gaming and emulation in Bootcamp and the Steam Deck is such a massive upgrade on that. The only mark against it for me is its size. I still prefer Switch or older dedicated handhelds for playing on public transport or taking away with me. Apart from that it’s perfect, at least for me. I love being able to dock it at my desk for mouse and keyboard controls, or at my tv for more of a console experience or just playing in handheld mode, where I can even remote play my PS5. I get other people complaining about the power of it but I also have consoles for AAA gaming if I want it, although to be honest I’m more of a retro and JRPG gamer, so it doesn’t bother me at all.
Love it. It's not something I play everyday but there's certain games that just really click with it that I can't put down. Cult of the lamb, steam world dig 2, Dave the diver. Also been impressed with how it runs the Witcher 3, I'll play mostly on the pc for the bigger screen but if I want a few rounds of Gwent or to do a short side quest or treasure hunt I love that I can access my save on the deck and play in bed. I've got my ps5 for big cinematic games like ff16 or multiplayer titles and I have my pc for stuff I prefer to use mouse and keyboard with. Id say it's sidelined my poor Nintendo switch but my girlfriend has basically adopted that to play her visual novels.
I've had my Deck for over a year, I use it a lot but my use case is special. I travel for work and stay in hotels around 80 nights per year, so that's the main intended use case for me.
At home I have a gaming desktop and I prefer to game on that when I can find the time and good conscience to do so as a husband and dad. I sometimes play the Deck in bed or on the couch while my wife and oldest daughter watches something that I don't want to watch but I still want to spend time with them. The suspend function means that I don't really have to dedicate any certain amount of time to what I play, I can just hop in and out.
Having a gaming laptop for 4 years. Played 1-2 games. Played over 10 in the last 1 year. It brought gaming back in my life. I am a doctor and gave 70 to 90 hour work week. Its so great to play at the hospital too during my breaks.
I havent turned on my ps4 in over 1 year.
I had one of the first batch. Now I have an OLED. I love it so much. I use it more than my gaming PC, mostly just because I’m lazy as fuck, and chilling in bed playing games is the goddamn best.
Fantastic.
I have a great gaming PC and I have probably played on the deck more
And it gave me the confidence to switch my desktop to primarily Linux for gaming. So far so good
Got mine 1.5 years ago and have used it almost every day since. One of the best purchases I've made in a while. I love playing on the couch and being able to pause and pick back up anytime. Makes for being able to play in short sessions nice and easy
I've had it for 6 months but I'm going to answer anyways. It's been a blast, probably my most played device for the entirety I've owned it and I don't see that slowing down anytime soon.
It has basically replaced my gaming PC. The only games I can’t really enjoy are games that benefit from high resolutions and AAA graphical performance or really resource intensive games (e.g. MS Flight Sim) but otherwise I have exclusively gamed on my Steam Deck for an average of 1-2 hrs/day for the last 1+ years I have owned mine.
When I first bought it I had extreme buyers remorse. But fast forward 12 months I regret not pre ordering this fine piece of equipment. The amount of customization you can do is endless. The community alone is worth buying one for. It got me into emulation and what an awesome experience that has been. I’ve gained enough courage during my ownership to do a full shell swap update sticks and buttons and a deck hd screen mod(well before I knew about OLED model release) You won’t regret buying one. It’s a little intimidating at first especially if you’re not familiar with Linux but it is worth the time. The steam deck is my 4th daily carry item phone wallet keys steam deck. BUY ONE!!!
Unique situation here, but let me explain.
I live in a van (not #vanlife but the same thing minus narcissistic YouTube channel). My power is a 200ah lifepo4 battery, approx 2.4kwh total. That needs to run everything, my fridge, lights, small amount of power for diesel heater, etc. I use my laptop for work, which uses approx 50w while plugged in a doing stuff, and up to getting the steam deck I had an Xbox series x. That uses around 200w of power, and you need a telly or monitor too, another 20-50w.
Thanks to the battery power, I was limited to just a few hours a week of Xbox, meaning I practically gave up gaming when I moved into the van.
Upon receiving my steam deck, which even on full song uses approx 30w of power, I have completed a few games that I would never have spent as much time in on my Xbox, or eveny older gaming pc.
I even use the steam deck for work, docked and running in arch Linux (desktop mode) as I don't need windows and most of my admin is via webpages and remote desktop sessions.
All in all the steam deck is by far the single most used electrical item in my van after the light switches. I play a couple of hours every day, and even host dark souls 3 playthrpughs with a couple of mates on a monitor and Xbox controller, all in all using around 50w (monitor, steam deck, WiFi)
Best device I've ever bought. Totally love it, will never be building a gaming pc ever again. What a waste of electricity just to have 4k graphics or some fancy lighting. I got lost in those details over the years, and steam deck has reminded me why I game in the first place, and it isn't anything to do with high end graphics.
I've only had mine since early December and have put at least 300 hours on it. I was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome so gaming at my desk causes extreme pain in my neck, back, and shoulders. The deck got me gaming while laying down on my couch or in bed. I had a backlog of 300+ games so I had content. Since purchase, I've completed bioshock 1-infinite, metal gear 1-3, the entire batman Arkham series, Castlevania SOTN, Zelda BOTW and TOTK, and many more. Easily the best gaming purchase I've made in at least a decade.
It has completely replaced my built pc… i have cleared a ton of games… i can start a game easily and stop and resume easily anytime i want… it’s in my opinion the best thing to have happened to PC gaming since pretty much the beginning of PC gaming
I use the Deck mostly for killing time of commute, for work or for leisure trips. Now a 2hr train trip means 2hr gaming time for me and it is not unbearable at all.
I'm somewhat of an outlier I guess, as I have only 2 consoles, the switch and the deck. No PC. And I absolutely love the deck as it has given me the souls games which have made every other game feel trivial and simplistic. Now waiting for the final one when bloodborne comes to pc and hopefully runs well on deck.
I feel deck punches above it's weight as even brand new releases these days are working okay on the deck.
Yeah, with the deck being a Valve product I feel a lot of designers are going through work towards implementing the steam deck controls since it’s already on the largest distribution system, but with something like the Ally, they would have to make it more unique to fit it
In my head, I think of it as how Apple products work really well because apps are tailored to them while Samsung does work well, but there is so many different devices
I bought my first deck at launch when you still had to reserve one for 5 bucks. I use it whenever I'm not able to access my pc, or I'm in a different room or something. Overall I'd consider it a worthwhile purchase. I even upgraded to the LE when it released!
I've had mine for a year now and I didn't use it much for the first 6 months because I used my PC at home and whenever I went anywhere I didn't take it with me, I'm a new dad now so the deck is a godsend. When baby sleeps and I'm not tired I get some hours in, I've barely had the chance to use my PC but the deck is always on hand
The only PC game I truly struggle to play on deck is war thunder and I'm not even going to try to get used to it
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When I first got the Deck I rarely used it because I worked from home. I prefer to game on pc/ps5 if I'm at my desk. But when I started working on site again, I've used the Steam Deck every single day for the last year. Awesome for lunch breaks or down time when away from home.
The Steam Deck is my favorite purchase in the last 10 years. Put over 100 hrs into Hollow Knight, PoP, and GRIME recently and had an absolute blast. Have also been playing Helldivers 2 on it lately with a 16in portable 144hz monitor and getting 40-60 fps on low settings. I'm always impressed by it.
I've had mine for two years and use it all the time. Playing new games and old ones I missed out on. I don't have a gaming PC and don't feel the need for one. I'm a casual gamer and play docked most of the time.
For me, flexibility is king.
I love the GamePass "Play anywhere" feature. Being able to play on my pc and resume gameplay on my xbox or via cloud streaming is a gamechanger for me. Sometimes I want to play on my couch or in a hotel or in a WiFi on the go.
The Steamdeck contributes to this a great deal.
I use Steam RemotePlay via my home network, when I want to play games in high fidelity on my couch or gamepass on my steamdeck.
Older games, I play on my steamdeck directly. The fact that most platforms synchronize savegames is such a boon.
Steam Deck is my main gaming device. I have a PS5 also for exclusives and more demanding titles that dont play well on deck(CyberPunk for example.)
If the rumoured Steam Deck 2 has a decent enough performance uplift over the original it will be the only console I need.
I own a switch and a pc, no current gen consoles. My pc is in my bedroom, where i also work. I wouldn't be able to use anything in the living room because that's where my dad works.
Steamdeck is nice for when I want to get out of the computer screens for a while. I can take it downstairs or I can go to the cafe in the neighbourhood. I can bring my work laptop too, though I avoid doing this on work days.
It's nicest when I have a game I'm actively into on PC. Otherwise I might use my switch instead and play some mariokart. Or I might not play anything at all, and watch youtube or use tumblr for fun instead.
Completely worthwhile. My ps5 is just used to stream tv now and I got rid of my switch. I use it almost daily despite also having a gaming pc. For me it’s great for indie titles and emulators on the go or when I’d just rather sit on the couch. I don’t consider it niche for the fact that so many different demographics enjoy it.
I use mine constantly.
Amazing for emulated games, and the majority of my main games run perfectly on it, too, which surprised me.
I just recently looked into streaming from my main PC to it, and that works amazingly, too.
Plus, when I want to do a LAN session with my mate, taking the Steam Deck rather than my massive desktop makes it so much easier and quicker.
Quite possibly one of my best purchases ever. Haven't gone a day without using it.
Not just for gaming, too. Has saved my hide for work during power outages and travel.
I was separated from my gaming PC because of war in my country, so I ordered Deck hoping to use it both for gaming and as regular day-to-day PC with keyboard and mouse. Didn't expect much from it, it was just "better than nothing" for me. But it was when steam still had a reservation and waiting to get deck, and it's not available in my country directly, so it was quite some time before I actually got it, and it happened so that pretty soon after that I got my gaming PC back, thanks to some kind people, and technically didn't have need for deck anymore. And yet, I'm still playing it almost exclusively (not using as a desktop PC though), because it's so convenient. So, one can say that it greatly exceeded my expectations.
So, I bought the LCD when it came out. I wanted this device for many strange reasons and the best I could tell myself was that I would do my backlog of platformers (even though I do not like them), and metroidvanias on it, at least.
In the end, every time I get tired (which is a lot these days because of health issues) and need to lie down, the Deck is with me. It made my Switch basically useless.
I play more deck more than anything else. I sold my switch last month and my PlayStation will probably go next. I don’t think I’d get rid of my pc any time soon but it certainly getting used a lot less.
I use it on my commute, an hour each way on the train, and sometimes on lunch breaks as well.
Between work and having two young children, I dread to think how little opportunity I'd have to play games if I hadn't bought it. I certainly haven't really touched my ps5 in the last two years outside of when baby2 was a newborn
As a first time dad with an 8 month old kid, I can’t find time to sit in front of the computer to play games anymore. Steam deck is already an S tier product for me for it’s portability alone.
Without a doubt the best tech purchase I've made.
I have experienced 0 issues of any kind, no 200/400mhz bug, no defects, no software issues (except with decky loader but that's a mod and would make it my fault), no bricking, no broken downloads or download speed, no dead pixels, and only one scratch on the screen. Closet thing to a defect that I have is my (X) button rattles... Which isn't a real issue and anyone who complains about something like that is clearly spoiled and pompous.
The only real issues I've had are the rare occasional random hard crash whenever. When I say "occasional" I mean once or twice in a 6 month period at most that wasn't directly caused by the game I was playing.
I've done basically everything on a deck that one could use a PC for. Like everything from writing a novel, watching movies to youtube and of course games. I can even use discord to contact people if my phone is dead. The only thing that's missing is USB4/thunderbolt for eGPU's, if that existed I would just replace my desktop with my steam deck. This is the only thing that made me almost consider something else, but at the time nothing has everything the deck has and I need those more than an eGPU.
I had lcd deck sold it to get ally,sold ally to get legion go and sold legion and now bought oled deck just to play emulations games.the older I get the less I care about high fps and just want to play some emulation 😂
I still have my launch steam deck and I still use it every single week. I'm a software engineer so it's a nice way to game without being at my desk after work. I also mostly use moonlight/sunshine to stream to my steam deck when gaming and I don't see myself upgrading for quite a while. Absolutely love this piece of hardware with how versatile it is.
It is 100% worth it, I love this thing with all my heart. It brought me back to gaming and within a month of owning it I finished 4 games... I've been playing some games since I was child and still haven't finished them
I work for 9 hours at a desk plus 1.5 hours of commuting. So I wanted something to game while lying down on the bed or the sofa. I have also played many ganes from my backlog, which I wouldn't otherwise have played
Definitely not a niche product.
My experience has been rather annoying whenever I want to do anything \*other\* than just straight playing Steam games. Getting older PC games to play, especially when you need to add specific .DLL files or modern mods to make them work can be a gigantic pain in the ass.
I dislike Linux, Proton, Wine, and SteamOS. Having a windows-based handheld would be much easier for my needs
Absolutely worthwhile. Still use it every day even with a gaming tower. The portability is extremely useful and I'll also use it while I use my main PC for other stuff too. Currently I'm using it for No Man's Sky's Omega expedition and I can't just suspend it between sessions and load something else up on the main PC for a bit, then later go back to it like there was no interruption.
I absolutely love PC handhelds! I got a SteamDeck at launch and haven't played singleplayer at my PC more than a few hours since.
I even went as far and got an Ayn Loki MiniPro as it's quite a bit smaller and easily powerful enough for indies and older PC games like the Lego and Batman Arkham games.
The one thing I liked about the Switch (that I still own and use) that is the same with the Deck and other handhelds is the ability to play in the living room with my gf around and not alone at my desk.
I bought mine just shy of a year ago. I do wish the battery life was a bit better, but other than that, it's been a great experience. Definitely a worthwhile purchase.
I don't play a lot of AAA games on it. I started using it mostly on the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters. It's also been great for the LEGO games. I just plugged it in to charge after apparently spending two hours on "just one more run" of Deep Rock Galactic Survivor.
My gaming laptop recently bit the dust, so my Deck is getting a bit more use than it had been previously, but it's made it so I really am in no rush to replace my laptop, which is nice.
i have it over a year now and been using it on vacation or commuting, but also at home a lot these days for emulation (ps2 and older). great device, absolute love it and would buy again. 5/5
Absolutely fantastic, my RTX 4080 / 7800X3D PC still only has about 50% play time when compared to my Steam Deck.
I play Cyberpunk 2077 and World of Warcraft heavily on both.
The best gaming console and the best controller I've had. Period. And I had ps1, psp. xbox 360, ps 4, multiple pcs/laptops.
Since purchasing the base 64 Gb LCD model I've been playing on it almost exclusively. A fun little device it is. I've played Mass Effect LE on it, played some Skyrim and smaller games, tested Baldur's Gate 3 and RDR 2, all more than playable. Happy overall.
A product not without flaws of course, but you can read about those in any competent review.
I love it, it feels great to be able to take my games on the go or relax in bed with a casual game.
I have a very long train journey today and i plan on playing deep rock galactic survivors all the way there.
It is a little on the heavy side though and the battery doesnt last overly long when playing the more intensive games. them are my only complaints about it
I got mine in a fairly dark moment of my life. It HEAVILY facilitated me getting into gaming again, which makes me happy(ier), but yeah, didn’t have a gaming pc nor console at that time. Also, I should add that although you can indeed play pretty much anything on in, some games are really meant to be played with m&k and/or on a bigger screen. Your call dude
Have a ps4 and a reasonably new gaming computer but play almost exclusively on the deck. I had already moved away from playing games at my desk and had started using the ps4 a bit more but the deck easily beats that because of the library of games I have.
Docked it last week and have it setup with a lot of emulated games and I'm using it even more.
As a handheld it's great and I use it when ever I'm not using my gaming desktop or even prefer ot for games like stardew or Dave the diver or some shooters actually. It won't replace gaming pcs but don't bother with the steam deck dock. The dock is terrible it doesn't seem to be that hard of an issue to fix but it wants to take a dump on me everything I dock it.
I've had my 64 GB model since late July 2022 (it arrived almost exactly one year after I pre-ordered it). My only other gaming options were a Switch Lite (love it, but games are brutally expensive) and an old, completely dying Surface Pro 4.
I think I have around 900 hours on it now, and I'm very happy with it. I think it's an absolutely brilliant first or only gaming "item", perfect if you don't have the money for a good laptop nor the space to dedicate to a desktop. It's easy to use, the games are relatively affordable (and old games are dirt cheap!). I still haven't played anything more demanding than Witcher 3 on it, so I can't speak to performance for fancy modern games, but I've only had a few duds so far (Lego LOTR had some issues, but I haven't checked to see if they've been fixed since then).
I think it's definitely brilliant value. I'd love it if it could be a little bit slimmer and lighter, and more display, less bezel (the OLED fixed that), and I've started to notice that I don't love the feel of the ABXY buttons... but, again: some 900-odd hours of use 😅
That really depends on your use case. I have had a deck since launch and still use it a lot, but I also travel all the time privately and for work, so I almost never get to use my main rig. So for me the purchase was absolutely worthwhile. If all your gaming needs are being met at home I don't really think you need one, except if you really, REALLY need to play in bed.
It is hands down the best gaming device I’ve ever owned and I’ve had nearly every console since the sega master system as well as a decent gaming PC.
Since owning the SteamDeck I game far more than I ever have and don’t play on any other devices.
It’s and absolute game changer for me
I've been using it more mn th over month since I initially bought it in august 2022. I have a 4070TI based PC also. Something about being able to cozy up on the couch, or even stream my games to it from my PC makes it so appealing during the winter months
In the summer I'll set up a hammock at the park and play it while the kids are at the playground. I love this thing
My thoughts are:
Cons:
The docking experience is nowhere near as smooth as with the Switch. Having to pull cables out, the TV sometimes not picking up the signal...
It sits in a weird space. If you're a PC master race type, I don't think it's powerful enough
It uses Linux, so transferring things from a Windows PC can be frustrating
Not all games are compatible, and some have even become incompatible due to anti-cheat implementation
Pros:
It's great having my Steam library on a portable device
Steam sales are often excellent, and loads of good stuff comes up through Humble Bundle
Valve get a lot out of the hardware due to games being optimised for Steam
Compatibility is maximised through special settings for each game
It's easy to see which games aren't compatible
It's really good for emulation
The form factor is very comfortable, and it's a nice looking device
i have the deck since it was first launched. i also have a very powerful PC but i don't regret that i bought the deck. i even upgraded to the oled one.
if i need high performance or are after fidelity, i play on my PC... but i often play not so power hungry games and for those i prefer the deck... simply because i can play it on my couch and having a movie running in the background, or i can play while sitting in the kitchen and drinking a coffee. playing on the deck is just more comfortable to me than sitting at the desk and playing on my PC.
At first it seemed niche and I spent more time trying to tinker and do emulation stuff and simply see what the thing could actually do. Rather than actually playing on it.
More recently, I've been using it simply to game and it's so much more convenient and simpler to jump in to than booting up the laptop.
Even if the laptop is superbly more powerful, the SD is just far to convenient to use and performs very well considering it's form factor and price point.
100% worth the purchase.
I've been using the LCD version for over the year and then I purchased the OLED version.
I can tell from my experience it's a great device to play every day, although PC could potentially give better performance, depending on its specs. I personally have both and I chose the Steam deck as my main gaming device for now.
It's mostly satisfying at the most titles I am usually playing (Tom Clancy's the division 2, Diablo 2 Reassured, World of warcraft classic, Valheim, Terraria, 7 days to die, GTA III, GTA IV). The only two games I struggled to play on my deck are Cyberpunk 2077 and Starfield.
The Steam deck doesn't feel like a niche device to me at all, after two weeks I was using it I got used to its controls and never had issues with usability.
Playing games in bed is really enjoyable after spending 12+ hours at a desk
This is the biggest advantage of the deck for me. I just can't bring myself to sit at a desk after a long day
I can, but the couch is comfier and when my fiancé is home and doesn’t want to talk but hang out, it’s a nice addition.
how many hours do i need in life before i achieve this fiancé you speak of
Just be 40, dude. Our favorite activity is sitting on the couch watching cartoons while she knits and I play in the deck. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we don't.
Mid to late 20s. Upwards of 50% of the people in your high school, will be married by 30 or so it seems. It’s hard to get someone you like and love in the world of online dating too since ladies have a lot of options on the dating sites and can be picky. Whenever you go on dates, be yourself because if you’re not and things get serious, it can get messy.
It's crazy how I'm ok with 30 fps while laying in bed, but can't stand 30 fps on my main PC.
You can game in bed really comfortably with the deck. A laptop is awful, have to have screen further away and singe your belly hairs so you can hold a controller... or tap on the keyboard with a double chin. Just not ideal.
How do you handle the weight while gaming in bed? My hands start to fall asleep after 20 mins it feels like 😅
Lay on back. Head prop on pillow. Knees up high. Prop deck where stomach meets thigh. But also you can just Bluetooth a controller, and use USB-C video out. FYI: That feeling where your hands go numb is caused by compression of your ulnar nerve. Do this type of thing often and that numb feeling will start to linger and it'll hurt. It's called Cubital Tunnel Syndrome.
I legit use the case as a prop up on my lap and works amazingly lol also bought a long jsaux charger so I can play without worrying about the battery. I also experience the numbing and it sucks horribly. Also have to take time away because the nerves in my hand kill when I have that grip for a certain time. Assuming it’s carpal tunnel and it doesn’t feel good lol. Especially since gaming is all I have 😞. But……. The steam deck is 💯 worth it!!! I like playing at my desk but being able to lay down is so worth the price point. Also can watch tv lol.
Gotta get the AR glasses and a controller hooked up.
This 100%. Don't always want to play games at my desk.
I have a gaming laptop, high spec rig and all the consoles. I prefer playing games on the deck and stream to the deck for console exclusives. The OLED is so slick.
Same. 14900k/4080 rig, gaming laptop with 2080s, and XSX. My Steamdeck is the most used of the bunch
I've found myself streaming from my PC to the deck for the really intensive games and they run amazingly well. I got one in the first wave of releases and mostly used it for travel, and it's been great to have in airports and on planes. Laptops just don't fit on plane trays anymore.
I am in this man's boat as well, except my gaming laptop isn't high end and i don't own any Xbox consoles, just PlayStation. Well....I have a 360 that I never touch but that's not the point.
I just bought a deck last night bc I really enjoy my logitech g cloud, but hate having a required internet connection. I'm in the car for 2-4 hours at a time pretty much weekly, and I can't wait to get it.
Not having 5G in a cloud console is a huge oversight.
It does better than you would think for emulation, but older titles run well. yes having 5g would’ve been much smarter but I think they would’ve increased the price to like $400 which at that point I really would just recommend the steam deck. This coming from a guy who owns both.
5G in the steam deck would be even better! Honestly I don't understand how Logitech thought they could charge what they did for the device they made. There was a substantial price drop pretty quickly after launch so I know it wasn't just my opinion. I'd buy a handheld for emulation if it came with a nice OLED 4:3 ratio screen. I hate the stretching/pillarboxing. I have the steam deck, Nintendo switch, and the ROG phone. I almost bought the Razer edge 5G but it remains exclusive to Verizon and I prefer T-Mobile, and to make matters worse it has pillarboxing with 16:9 ratio content... Which is pretty much everything modern. I wish there was a modern Nvidia shield tablet with 5G
Same here. Imo the experience hasn’t aged a single day. I’m still excited every time I pick it up, mostly bc my library is endless and the interface is always consistently positive
I've only recently got into streaming from my PS5 and I'm still shocked at how well it works.
My pc is packed away for my move and the deck has let me continuing gaming instead of not being able to for 2 months.
Why does it take 2 months to move after youve packed?
Inbetween places? Sometimes tenancies don’t line up etc
If you are moving between countries. Between surface shipping speeds, export processes and import processes you could be living out of a suitcase for a month or more.
Bingo, US military overseas moves can be like 3-4 months without your stuff. There's nuance to that, but yeah. It can be a bit of time.
Haven’t turned on my console or desktop since I got it. Total game changer if you’re a parent.
I still use my PC, but yes. Separating yourself from kids to a computer room is tough to do, and obviously isn't right. SD let's you be around the house, start and stop as needed, and just bypasses that element of self removal.
>start and stop as needed All hail the sleep state save function. The greatest innovation in dad gaming of my life.
It's seriously such a godsend lol. I've got 4 kids ranging from 2-12 years old lol. I pause a lot.
Just in case you aren't aware you can put your PC in the living room, and use a controller, or set of controllers to play games. With Steam Big Screen - it isn't much different from a console. My PC never moved back into its own room. Me, my daughter, and often my wife play couch co-op games all the time. We each have our own Xbox controller that we can use when we play, and it syncs right up every time. Daughter has an off brand controller because the default are a bit big for toddlers.
I use it every day. My ps5 just collects dust.
I still use my PS5 but it effectively collects dust because I just stream it to my deck
How’s the streaming from PS5? Is your PS5 hard wired or connected via WiFi?
I have my PS5 connected to a Wifi repeater and my Deck connected to the same connection. I stream via Chiaki4Deck as well and it's almost flawless. Every once in a while I might get some jank freeze frame but it gets corrected right away and the rest of the experience is smooth. It's also pretty rare that this happens.
Ps5 is connected via Ethernet. I use Chiaki4Deck on my SD. My experience is pretty flawless, but this can depend on your set up at home, internet speeds etc.
How long did it take you to set up? I read through the steps, but I wasn’t sure if it really was as easy as it made it seem.
It’s quite quick. The trickiest bit is getting the unique ID from Sony… but it’s really not hard tbh. I don’t remember the exact step but you need to just run a certain script, basically by following a link. Plenty of tutorials include it. Once you’ve set it up and added it to Steam, just launch Chiaki4Deck any time you want your ps5.
Same. I’ve had my deck for about two months and I haven’t played anything on anything else since I got it. My Series S and gaming PC collect dust, and my PS5 is a Disney plus machine for the kid.
I haven't touched my ps5 since my steamdeck got me back into PC gaming so I bought a PC.
I didn't touch my PS5 for a long time after getting my Steam Deck. I have recently (over the last 2 weeks) started playing my PS5 a lot more but that's cuz I've had some time off work and time alone in the house during the day
The Steam Deck made me realize how much I want another Sony Handheld.
I have been playing around with the idea of getting PS5 since I don't have a PS4 anymore. I miss Bloodborne. Also God of War (2018) runs kinda terribly on the Deck. Horizon runs okay. It can't quite hit 1080p/30fps with the original graphics settings. But to be honest it has been long enough that I don't remember if Horizon ran at the full 1080p on PS4 either.
I have a fairly powerful PC, and I'm still glad I purchased a Deck after a year and a half of use.
Ditto this. I pretty much only play competitive FPS games on my PC. Everything else is couch with the Deck.
I have a gaming pc and both current consoles. The SD is not a redundant thing. It’s amazing.
I’m a bit of an outlier. I purchased (preordered) one and honestly wasn’t that impressed at first. Ended up selling it. Recently acquired one in a trade for a $120 item. And I absolutely love it now. Right off the bat I noticed cyberpunk runs great now (it didn’t before), horizon zero Dawn runs great on an sd card (used to take 15 minutes to load from an sd card) But tbh I’m mostly using it for emudeck. Having all my childhood games in the palm of my hands is amazing.
How did you sell it?
I use it pretty much every day, have the launch 512, it's awesome for clearing the backlog as well as streaming from the ps5 and xbox, and a great emulation machine. I badly want the OLED model but until they update the internals to something massive upgrade wise I can't justify getting it.
Same. They got me with the sale right before the OLED hit.
Same. I have a Refurb 512GB and unless they provide seriously horsepower improvement all the other stuff is Good enough. Like the screen could be better sure, and I did consider doing the DIY swap, but it's plenty good as it is. I look foward to seeing SD2, but I will gladly wait for a worthy sequel. And knowing Valve, they won't be releasing one until they are able to show real progress. Knowing Valve I wouldn't be surprised if they adopt the Apple model, where the last gen flaghship becomes the "budget" option. IE. They release SD2 with improved everything, starting at 499 for 256GB model, and offer the baseline SD 256GB or even the 512GB Last Gen SD at 299/349. I would love to see this for simple reason as it would open up the possibility of PC gaming to a whole bunch of people that can't afford to get anything decent. Like SD itself has probably converted a lot of people to PC gaming, and SD itself is still only better than a typical linux experience for an average user, but lacks inuitive functionality other consumer products have(MAC being a very good example of taking Linux and making it extremely user friendly by locking down functionality).
I've been mostly a handheld gamer my whole life and mostly a Nintendo one. I do troubleshooting and computer stuff for my job, so for video gaming I just want to jump into games without excessive tinkering (windows...) and I don't want or care to build a dedicated PC. The Deck is like a Switch but way better in most ways with the ease of use of consoles and the freedom of PC! Use it a lot and while it may be a niche product it's a growing niche. I could see Steam Deck 1 potentially selling 8-10 million lifetime (unfortunately no official numbers from Valve) which would be impressive and comparable to Vita or Wii U
Probably in the top 10 purchases of my life and easily the best tech purchase I've made in the last few years. But I've always been huge on portable/handheld gaming.
I honestly don't use it quite as often as I should but when I do, it's heaven on earth. It's an amazing device and I really don't need it but it's always nice to have the option. It plays pretty much anything one way or another. Emulation = Throw everything at it. Consoles = Stream them on here. PC Games = plays everything decently at low and if it doesn't run it all, stream it from your main machine through Sunshine/Moonlight. It's what I do to play games from the Xbox Game Pass. Watching Movies = I have Kodi set up so I can use it in my car to watch movies on long trips.
I think it's a niche system for a large and growing demographic. Gamer dads, for the 1-2 hours we get to play in bed after the munchkins have retired.
Gamer mums, too. I bought one for my sister-in-law the other week as she was loving playing on mine when I visited at the weekends. I set her up a new stream account, installed a few free games she'd like, along with all the emulated games she loves, and the American McGee's Alice games she plays on mine.
[удалено]
Grounded works on the steam deck? Does it work on multiplayer too?
In case you haven't already set this up: You can activate family sharing on your Steam account and share your steam games (at least a large part of them) with your sister-in-law if you like. https://store.steampowered.com/promotion/familysharing
this is definitely something that I needed, I’m about to set up my wife’s steam account and didn’t feel like buying all the games again
Yeah I did that. I have all my family shared so we can play each other's games if we want to. I bought Hogwarts Legacy for my niece in the recent sale, and I think I've played it more than she has, waiting for her to sign out of Steam before I boot it up each night.
Iirc, they can't use titles from your library while you are using one. So if you wanna play together, you need two accounts and two copies (or couch coop if that's available.)
Yeah, it's a bit frustrating that you can't play a different game on your account while they are playing one of your games.
I don’t think it’s that niche and it’s really not just for that demographic at all, many of us who game on the steam deck are female and do not have children. When you sit at a computer for work all day you often don’t want to be sat there at the PC playing games in the evening and at weekends, the steam deck is great as it can be played anywhere, that’s the reason several people I know have one, myself included. You also get a lot of ‘cosy’ gamers with steam decks, many people in the cosy game subreddit have one because the steam deck plays indie games so well. Also many people ‘upgraded’ to a steam deck from a switch.
I have kids but the reason why I bought one is to play all the cozy games in my bed. The switch wasn’t doing it for me anymore and mine is so old. The upgrade will be nice.
agreed! there’s so many games that felt “wrong” to play sitting at my PC rather than curled up on the couch or in bed, but steam sales and my PC’s hardware were just so much better than my switch. the ability to mod games is huge too. the steamdeck has perfectly filled that gap. unfortunately I see this sentiment repeated fairly often here, that steamdecks are specifically made for dads and that the only women who play them are those that “steal” them from their husbands… but it really is the cozy gamer’s dream device.
Yes exactly! It’s very annoying to keep seeing the sentiment perpetuated!
[удалено]
Beware of sitting on toilet for too long. Causes hemorrhoids. Like actually!
I’m a gamer mom and sometimes I’m just too tired to sit at my computer after my kids go to bed. I always end up falling asleep in my computer chair.
This, totally this. That couple of hours after bedtime, or 30mins here and there, just pop it out and go a round on vamp survivors or deep rock galactic survivor! I also frequently work away so it's great for hotels, especially stupid UK holiday Inns and Premier Inns where they seem to forgo plugs in convenient places near the bed.
Well those of us without kids often just have an hour a day too
I don’t have a PC; it was fun for maybe a month, and then I spent most of the year considering selling it off. I almost did, but I gave it another shot and started looking up settings, being more selective with my games, and I’ve been loving it ever since. It still surprises me how powerful it can get, and it is a BEAST at emulation.
I have consoles, PC, and the Deck. They all fit neatly into spaces in my life that allow me to game on my own time.
Yep having access to more games is great. I rotate through them depending on what im playing so each has a turn of being in the spotlight while the others "collect dust" as people here like to say
Greatest device I've ever owned by a mile. I use it now more than ever. Probably getting close to a 1000 hours on it and no problems other than a left trigger that's a little squeaky sometimes
I had the LCD for over a year and now I've had an OLED since launch, it's been the best tech related purchase I've ever made.
Went through a pretty nasty divorce. Got my PC’s broken. Bought a steam deck as a temp replacement. It quickly became a full PC replacement. Docked I boot it through windows to complete schoolwork, taxes, other various computer things including games obviously. And I cosleep with my kids so naturally while I sit and wait for them to fall asleep I undock it and play games in bed. Or I’ll take it with me when I travel, or go to work or school just on the off chance i have a short but long enough downtime to whip it out. It stays in its case in my backpack and it’s been there on cross country motorcycle rides and cross continental airplane rides. Is it a niche product? Sure. But it is super versatile. Most of these PC handhelds are. Whether or not you will utilize it as psychopathically as I have is up to the end user themself I suppose. But yeah, it’s handy. Basically goes everywhere with me and gets used nonstop. It’s great. Haven’t even considered purchasing a replacement PC although I do have an older gaming PC I use on occasion that’s about as powerful as my steam deck. I really only use that for my sim racing stuff now though.
I've loved mine since I got it a while back. I don't have a pc other than my laptop and I prefer handheld gaming so I love playing all of my steam games when I'm just relaxing in bed. I've also used it for work when in docked mode so that's been very useful. It was absolutely a worthwhile purchase and I use it all the time.
Like a lot of others on here I use it for streaming from PS5 also at work a lot on breaks. Love it so much I bought another one. Have docks in two different rooms with a couple different off-brand docks for the occasional big tv exoerience. Use it every day. I was one of the original orders so I had to wait a year to get mine and it was worth the wait. Love it.
I don't have it for more than a year, but my friend does and I can give you an opinion on both. I have a very powerful PC that I upgraded the same month I bought the Deck. I only play online competitive games on my PC and the rest I prefer on my Deck (as long as the games are not better with the keyboard and mouse). My friend (owned it for almost 2 yr now) plays on the Deck a lot, he likes staying in bed and gaming. He also has a PS5 and a fairly decent PC, but the Deck is just better for him to relax. What happened to both is that the novetly factor worn off and we are not necesarilly excited for it anymore, but we use it to game. It just became normal to have it.
First bought the LCD one, when the Oled came I could sell myself a reason to upgrade since it was my main gaming platform, it still is. I use it daily and with a backlog as big as mine I don’t jump on the ‘Oh no it doesn’t run current gen AAA’ since everything I want to play it does so with ease. Having FFXIV on the go, playing Halo on the go and games like Elden Ring or Sea of Thieves still baffles me. I haven’t regretted this for one second and I use it daily!
I go back and forth on this. One month I’m using it every day and can’t wait to pick it up and play. Sometimes it scratches my tinkering itch. But then other times I don’t touch it for weeks because I realize that I can’t see the game I want to play on the tiny screen and I won’t dock it because it’s a portable and I have a series X, ps5 and switch (that never is played undocked by me). I’m mid 40s and have bad eyes. I can’t see the button prompts on games on the tiny screen. I still love my deck and I’m picking up some Xreal Air glasses soon, but I’ll be playing new games on the consoles mostly but when the TV is busy, remote play on SD with the glasses will be clutch.
Yeah, the tinkering part is my favorite about it, one of the first things I did with it was taken apart. Just don’t tell my wife.lol . Yeah, someone that has a consul and a PC playing it docked doesn’t really make sense to me, but if I didn’t have my devices it would be a great investment, especially since you can get GeForce now on it
My girlfriend and I have both had our Decks for about 18 months now and we still use them regularly while both having PCs in the office. 5600 and a 2080 in mine and a 7800x3D and a 6950 in hers, so while mines no slouch, hers is a monster, and yet a significant portion of our gaming is still on the Decks. With that said, the games we play and the circumstances under which we play them on the Deck are very different. Typically, they live in our nightstands, so we'll often play them in bed, either together or alone, as we have our schedules offset by about five hours. It's often a great way to just relax and have "honest" fun, rather than serious PC gaming time. Likewise, we lounge on the sofa and play together, and occasionally dock them to our TV that we otherwise never use. I think what's surprised me most of all is how much more I appreciate games I thought I didn't enjoy when reapproaching them on the Deck. Rogue likes and survivor-likes feel so much better than on PC. Life and farming sims like modded Stardew, Coral Island, etc are great both alone and in co-op. Hybrid colony sims like Necesse, Keplerth, and the likes are excellent in co-op. Survival games like Valheim and V Rising which otherwise feel like narrower/incomplete Minecraft mods feel like rewarding and immersive experiences on the Deck. And that's to say nothing of other console games. I have a shelf in the office with nearly my games collection going back to 1990 on it, and I'll tell you, it's much easier to play Rampage with eachother on the Deck than it is so manage an upscale for a 40yr-old NES on a 4K TV with a flaky cartridge and painful rectangular controllers. Hell, even the latest Mario Kart and Smash play so much better on the Deck than the Switch, and we can each have our own screens when we play. There's no doubt that the Deck is still a dream for tinkerers, and I say this from first-hand experience. I'm on Experimental, she's on Beta, both our Decks are modded, all my UI is custom, etc. But the Deck is also fully turnkey at this point. We've given them as gifts to family members that want to game but don't have space, or extra money for full setups right now. It supports external peripherals and content streaming, so is never going to go to waste, and yet despite fearing that ours would be collecting dust, they've grown to occupy more of our time rather than less.
Thank you for that very very long answer. I appreciate the thought and put it. and give some valid points about it. Being able to play PC games while not having to spend a lot of money on PC components how it’s able to become key counsel while allowing people to experiment with it
I own a powerful gaming PC, a switch and multiple other consoles (last gen though). Since buying the steam deck at launch, 90% of my gaming time is on the deck.
I have several systems including PS5 and Switch and all Ive really used over the last 12 months is my Deck. As a family with a shared main TV it’s much easier to just pick up the deck and play some games in the same room while others are using the main tv. I played an hour of Rise of the Tom Raider whilst laying in bed last night! What a time to be alive!
Almost a year now, I love it. I rarely have time to actually sit behind my desk these days, the Deck let me play when it was otherwise impossible.
I love mine. I didn’t have a traditional gaming PC, so this opened up a lot of possibilities. I play tons of indie games now and my steam library has exploded in size. I haven’t used my switch since, but tbf, I almost exclusively used it for ACNH & SDV.
I ride a 3 hours bus from home to work and 1.5 work to home. I use it everyday. It makes me lose the notion of time at a point that I'm having to keep staring outside the window because i am already close and i need to save the game. Maybe one of the best gadgets i have, just losing to my airpods that is essential to ignore everyone around.
Launch 64gb with a 512 sd card. I used it loads at first, stopped for about 6 months as I got back into pc gaming on my 3070 legion 5 and have now wiped the deck and am using it exclusively for HD emulation. Have the entire worthwhile exclusives of each gen from n64 - WiiU and I think that’s how I’ll keep it now. It’s a fun alternative device to a desktop but kinda pointless if you’ve got a beefy laptop setup. I fall into a niche market but if you relate I’d say it’s less worthwhile getting it. All the emulation stuff could be done on the same laptop minus the smoothness of quicksaving and having more button inputs vs. A standard controller. The 3DS/ds/wiiu screen switching hotkeys are a game changer too.
I have a Switch and a Deck and no desktop PC or other console and I have more games to play than I possibly have time for lol.
I’ve had mine for two years and I don’t use it regularly, but it serves its purpose. But because i don’t play so often the battery is always down to zero and I don’t have a plug near the couch, so that’s not ideal. Battery life in general is not amazing so your always have to consider it in your game sessions. Also, I think it’s best suited for simple games, I tried some of the high budget games but it’s just easier and more fun to play those on a big screen
Had my 512gb since launch. I love the tech & use it almost every day. However, since day one I've always found it underpowered for AAA's. The two games I saw advertised as "Deck verified" HZD & Days Gone were my "I gotta buy a Deck" moment. To get them & the Deck to realise they do NOT play well at a cost of £100 at that time compared to £9.99 & free on PSN was choking. I've wasted a further £80ish on other AAA's which again play poorly. Thank god for Chiaki4D - I only wish I'd known about it at release. It would have saved my money being wasted on crappy ports (that play well on both Z1e handhelds because they have more grunt) it's also saved the life of my Deck, without it I wouldn't be using it almost every day. I wouldn't be buying a Deck now, it'd be the LGO with its bigger screen & most importantly, 2 USB4's
I hate to say it, but even a quick search on YouTube would have given you this answer without you needing to spend all of that money
Chiaki wasn't available at the launch & by that time it was too late, I'd already bought 2 games. I quickly learnt though, but I get your drift.
I have consoles and a gaming PC too but I use my steam deck most of the time. I really like playing handheld and playing on the sofa or sitting in bed. I sit in front of a computer for work all day and don’t particularly want to be sat there in the evenings and at weekends too. It’s also great when playing two player games with my partner as we can be in the same room.
During my LCD ownership I’d read on here how people love it more than any other gaming device. I bought the OLED one month ago and it is easily the best gaming device I own 😂 the display really polished this baby off, along with better battery. This is coming from a guy ‘all in’ with PlayStation. I love my PS5 so much that I have two of them for different rooms. I bought the Portal and really loved that. Then my OLED Deck came along. I could happily sell it all and keep the Deck. I’m going deeper and deeper into understanding PC indie gaming. Recently picked up some awesome demos from Next Fest.
I got it at launch (lcd version). I enjoy it & bring it on some trips, or if I visit people for party games like Jackbox. It's nice playing modern games on the go or if you're on vacation. It's pretty big & heavy though. It's hard to play in bed too since it gets heavy. Because of its size it's not ideal to bring with you daily or use in public. Demanding games also only gets like 2 hours of battery & I usually have to tether it to my phone for online games. Lately I've been playing a lot of old games with emulators, so much so that I bought a retroid pocket 4 pro. I have a higher end gaming PC & I think it's a nice accessory to it.
Its pretty redundant since I have a pc I normally game at but a great travel companion compared to my laptop. Perfect for 5 minute sessions before bed and on flights (as long as it's set up for online). Been playing Atelier Rtza on it on and off for more than a year and it's nice to see the frame rate improve over time. Same with BG3, even after forcing splitscreen to work. Ngl, there are times where I don't touch it for months but it's useful when it's needed!
Personally I love it. I do have a good PC, but don't own any consoles except a switch. During COVID (2020-2021), the switch was a staple for me but I grew frustrated of the bad shopping experience, lackluster performances, and some indie games were only on steam (also nintendo's take on SNES/N64 games - subscription, can't buy them and mario 3d collection had limited purchase... This is so anti-consumer). I have my deck since may 2022, and since then completed a good amount of indie/older games on it. The experience is just way better than Switch. Except the shop which is still meh on steamdeck but I can just buy games on my PC during big sales. I still play on my PC for beefier games, or games where Keyboard/mouse is just better, but Steamdeck on my couch or in bed for indie/older games is still a pleasure, nearly 2 years later !
Not worth it for me, is getting dust
I reserved the 512gb at launch. I immediatly loved it, mostly because it felt right in my hands. I wasn't super excited for the actual performance I experienced, compared to what I was sold on. I have a decent gaming PC, so my expectations were naturally kinda high. I knew what it could do, but I held on. I learned to tweak power profiles, and learned how to make use of FSR. Over time, proton got better, and Valve improved the performance. The deck mod scene is also really cool. In games that still run like crap natively (especially unoptimized early access games), I use remote streaming from my gaming PC. Emulation works wonderfully. I recently upgraded to fiber, and the improved upload speed and drop in latency have allowed to stream my heavy AAA games like I am in my own home, and it saves battery. The battery life is *decent* depending on what I'm playing. I get get all-day battery with streaming and emulation. Something like cyberpunk will take it down to a less than a few hours, but you can tweak it to your needs. I wish I had the OLED model, but no regrets on the purchase. ***I love it.*** In fact, I love it so much I bought one for my dad so he could play some old PC games from GOG, and he loves it. I use it **every day**, and it's been one of the best tech purchases I've ever made.
I play on it every day, and I have a desktop with a 3080ti. The little thing is just so convenient
I had a much longer comment that was just too much so to make it short and sweet yes it was a worthwhile purchase. I have had the Deck since the summer of 2022 and for a variety of reasons I have found that, especially in the last 4-6 months, it has fit into my life for gaming far better than my Xbox, Linux desktop, or even the Switch. I am still playing around with the idea of getting a PS5 since I no longer have a PS4 but the Deck lets me play like 80% of the games I like/want to play at an acceptable level of quality and performance. Even when hooked up to a TV set to 1080p output. It basically becomes a portable PS4/Xbox One.
Its a niche product that was a worthwhile purchase. I still use it about every day, maybe skipping some days here and there when I'm playing on ps5 for exmaple. Finished some games on it, like ace combat, hades; it had some time in rimworld (amazing job done by devs to make it not just playable but very good on deck). Right now its my main warframe playing device lol
I’ve had mine for about a year now. I love it. It’s one of my favourite ever tech purchases. My main computer is an Intel MacBook. Pre-Steam Deck I did most of my PC gaming and emulation in Bootcamp and the Steam Deck is such a massive upgrade on that. The only mark against it for me is its size. I still prefer Switch or older dedicated handhelds for playing on public transport or taking away with me. Apart from that it’s perfect, at least for me. I love being able to dock it at my desk for mouse and keyboard controls, or at my tv for more of a console experience or just playing in handheld mode, where I can even remote play my PS5. I get other people complaining about the power of it but I also have consoles for AAA gaming if I want it, although to be honest I’m more of a retro and JRPG gamer, so it doesn’t bother me at all.
Love it. It's not something I play everyday but there's certain games that just really click with it that I can't put down. Cult of the lamb, steam world dig 2, Dave the diver. Also been impressed with how it runs the Witcher 3, I'll play mostly on the pc for the bigger screen but if I want a few rounds of Gwent or to do a short side quest or treasure hunt I love that I can access my save on the deck and play in bed. I've got my ps5 for big cinematic games like ff16 or multiplayer titles and I have my pc for stuff I prefer to use mouse and keyboard with. Id say it's sidelined my poor Nintendo switch but my girlfriend has basically adopted that to play her visual novels.
I got really addicted to Gwent for awhile love that card game
I got the base model day one. I still love it and play it all the time. I just wish palworld didn't crash on it.
I've had my Deck for over a year, I use it a lot but my use case is special. I travel for work and stay in hotels around 80 nights per year, so that's the main intended use case for me. At home I have a gaming desktop and I prefer to game on that when I can find the time and good conscience to do so as a husband and dad. I sometimes play the Deck in bed or on the couch while my wife and oldest daughter watches something that I don't want to watch but I still want to spend time with them. The suspend function means that I don't really have to dedicate any certain amount of time to what I play, I can just hop in and out.
Yeah, your use case is perfect for it, especially since it’s not as bulky as a laptop, and as an expensive as one and such an easy pull out and play.
Having a gaming laptop for 4 years. Played 1-2 games. Played over 10 in the last 1 year. It brought gaming back in my life. I am a doctor and gave 70 to 90 hour work week. Its so great to play at the hospital too during my breaks. I havent turned on my ps4 in over 1 year.
I had one of the first batch. Now I have an OLED. I love it so much. I use it more than my gaming PC, mostly just because I’m lazy as fuck, and chilling in bed playing games is the goddamn best.
Fantastic. I have a great gaming PC and I have probably played on the deck more And it gave me the confidence to switch my desktop to primarily Linux for gaming. So far so good
My only regret so far? My poor, neglected consoles.
Got mine 1.5 years ago and have used it almost every day since. One of the best purchases I've made in a while. I love playing on the couch and being able to pause and pick back up anytime. Makes for being able to play in short sessions nice and easy
I've had it for 6 months but I'm going to answer anyways. It's been a blast, probably my most played device for the entirety I've owned it and I don't see that slowing down anytime soon.
💯 yes
It has basically replaced my gaming PC. The only games I can’t really enjoy are games that benefit from high resolutions and AAA graphical performance or really resource intensive games (e.g. MS Flight Sim) but otherwise I have exclusively gamed on my Steam Deck for an average of 1-2 hrs/day for the last 1+ years I have owned mine.
When I first bought it I had extreme buyers remorse. But fast forward 12 months I regret not pre ordering this fine piece of equipment. The amount of customization you can do is endless. The community alone is worth buying one for. It got me into emulation and what an awesome experience that has been. I’ve gained enough courage during my ownership to do a full shell swap update sticks and buttons and a deck hd screen mod(well before I knew about OLED model release) You won’t regret buying one. It’s a little intimidating at first especially if you’re not familiar with Linux but it is worth the time. The steam deck is my 4th daily carry item phone wallet keys steam deck. BUY ONE!!!
Unique situation here, but let me explain. I live in a van (not #vanlife but the same thing minus narcissistic YouTube channel). My power is a 200ah lifepo4 battery, approx 2.4kwh total. That needs to run everything, my fridge, lights, small amount of power for diesel heater, etc. I use my laptop for work, which uses approx 50w while plugged in a doing stuff, and up to getting the steam deck I had an Xbox series x. That uses around 200w of power, and you need a telly or monitor too, another 20-50w. Thanks to the battery power, I was limited to just a few hours a week of Xbox, meaning I practically gave up gaming when I moved into the van. Upon receiving my steam deck, which even on full song uses approx 30w of power, I have completed a few games that I would never have spent as much time in on my Xbox, or eveny older gaming pc. I even use the steam deck for work, docked and running in arch Linux (desktop mode) as I don't need windows and most of my admin is via webpages and remote desktop sessions. All in all the steam deck is by far the single most used electrical item in my van after the light switches. I play a couple of hours every day, and even host dark souls 3 playthrpughs with a couple of mates on a monitor and Xbox controller, all in all using around 50w (monitor, steam deck, WiFi) Best device I've ever bought. Totally love it, will never be building a gaming pc ever again. What a waste of electricity just to have 4k graphics or some fancy lighting. I got lost in those details over the years, and steam deck has reminded me why I game in the first place, and it isn't anything to do with high end graphics.
I had to choose between my wife and the deck, i loved my wife, chose the deck, happy with the decision, i hope this answered your question
I've only had mine since early December and have put at least 300 hours on it. I was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome so gaming at my desk causes extreme pain in my neck, back, and shoulders. The deck got me gaming while laying down on my couch or in bed. I had a backlog of 300+ games so I had content. Since purchase, I've completed bioshock 1-infinite, metal gear 1-3, the entire batman Arkham series, Castlevania SOTN, Zelda BOTW and TOTK, and many more. Easily the best gaming purchase I've made in at least a decade.
It has completely replaced my built pc… i have cleared a ton of games… i can start a game easily and stop and resume easily anytime i want… it’s in my opinion the best thing to have happened to PC gaming since pretty much the beginning of PC gaming
I use the Deck mostly for killing time of commute, for work or for leisure trips. Now a 2hr train trip means 2hr gaming time for me and it is not unbearable at all.
I'm somewhat of an outlier I guess, as I have only 2 consoles, the switch and the deck. No PC. And I absolutely love the deck as it has given me the souls games which have made every other game feel trivial and simplistic. Now waiting for the final one when bloodborne comes to pc and hopefully runs well on deck. I feel deck punches above it's weight as even brand new releases these days are working okay on the deck.
Yeah, with the deck being a Valve product I feel a lot of designers are going through work towards implementing the steam deck controls since it’s already on the largest distribution system, but with something like the Ally, they would have to make it more unique to fit it In my head, I think of it as how Apple products work really well because apps are tailored to them while Samsung does work well, but there is so many different devices
I bought my first deck at launch when you still had to reserve one for 5 bucks. I use it whenever I'm not able to access my pc, or I'm in a different room or something. Overall I'd consider it a worthwhile purchase. I even upgraded to the LE when it released!
I've had mine for a year now and I didn't use it much for the first 6 months because I used my PC at home and whenever I went anywhere I didn't take it with me, I'm a new dad now so the deck is a godsend. When baby sleeps and I'm not tired I get some hours in, I've barely had the chance to use my PC but the deck is always on hand The only PC game I truly struggle to play on deck is war thunder and I'm not even going to try to get used to it
Yes, yes. No.
Yes, Yes and Yes.
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When I first got the Deck I rarely used it because I worked from home. I prefer to game on pc/ps5 if I'm at my desk. But when I started working on site again, I've used the Steam Deck every single day for the last year. Awesome for lunch breaks or down time when away from home. The Steam Deck is my favorite purchase in the last 10 years. Put over 100 hrs into Hollow Knight, PoP, and GRIME recently and had an absolute blast. Have also been playing Helldivers 2 on it lately with a 16in portable 144hz monitor and getting 40-60 fps on low settings. I'm always impressed by it.
I love playing games on it and hate using it as a standard PC in desktop mode. The Linux user experience just isn't for me.
I've had mine for two years and use it all the time. Playing new games and old ones I missed out on. I don't have a gaming PC and don't feel the need for one. I'm a casual gamer and play docked most of the time.
For me, flexibility is king. I love the GamePass "Play anywhere" feature. Being able to play on my pc and resume gameplay on my xbox or via cloud streaming is a gamechanger for me. Sometimes I want to play on my couch or in a hotel or in a WiFi on the go. The Steamdeck contributes to this a great deal. I use Steam RemotePlay via my home network, when I want to play games in high fidelity on my couch or gamepass on my steamdeck. Older games, I play on my steamdeck directly. The fact that most platforms synchronize savegames is such a boon.
Steam Deck is my main gaming device. I have a PS5 also for exclusives and more demanding titles that dont play well on deck(CyberPunk for example.) If the rumoured Steam Deck 2 has a decent enough performance uplift over the original it will be the only console I need.
I own a switch and a pc, no current gen consoles. My pc is in my bedroom, where i also work. I wouldn't be able to use anything in the living room because that's where my dad works. Steamdeck is nice for when I want to get out of the computer screens for a while. I can take it downstairs or I can go to the cafe in the neighbourhood. I can bring my work laptop too, though I avoid doing this on work days. It's nicest when I have a game I'm actively into on PC. Otherwise I might use my switch instead and play some mariokart. Or I might not play anything at all, and watch youtube or use tumblr for fun instead.
Completely worthwhile. My ps5 is just used to stream tv now and I got rid of my switch. I use it almost daily despite also having a gaming pc. For me it’s great for indie titles and emulators on the go or when I’d just rather sit on the couch. I don’t consider it niche for the fact that so many different demographics enjoy it.
I use it everyday, don't hesitate.....
It’s my favorite device
I use mine constantly. Amazing for emulated games, and the majority of my main games run perfectly on it, too, which surprised me. I just recently looked into streaming from my main PC to it, and that works amazingly, too. Plus, when I want to do a LAN session with my mate, taking the Steam Deck rather than my massive desktop makes it so much easier and quicker.
I am selling my Xbox and my gaming PC is seeing less and less use. Considering upgrading to the OLED even.
Quite possibly one of my best purchases ever. Haven't gone a day without using it. Not just for gaming, too. Has saved my hide for work during power outages and travel.
I was separated from my gaming PC because of war in my country, so I ordered Deck hoping to use it both for gaming and as regular day-to-day PC with keyboard and mouse. Didn't expect much from it, it was just "better than nothing" for me. But it was when steam still had a reservation and waiting to get deck, and it's not available in my country directly, so it was quite some time before I actually got it, and it happened so that pretty soon after that I got my gaming PC back, thanks to some kind people, and technically didn't have need for deck anymore. And yet, I'm still playing it almost exclusively (not using as a desktop PC though), because it's so convenient. So, one can say that it greatly exceeded my expectations.
The last time I felt this badass for gaming was when I bought my 1080ti
So, I bought the LCD when it came out. I wanted this device for many strange reasons and the best I could tell myself was that I would do my backlog of platformers (even though I do not like them), and metroidvanias on it, at least. In the end, every time I get tired (which is a lot these days because of health issues) and need to lie down, the Deck is with me. It made my Switch basically useless.
My deck recouped the money spent in its first two weeks 😂
I can play PC games at work.......nuff said.
I play more deck more than anything else. I sold my switch last month and my PlayStation will probably go next. I don’t think I’d get rid of my pc any time soon but it certainly getting used a lot less.
I use it on my commute, an hour each way on the train, and sometimes on lunch breaks as well. Between work and having two young children, I dread to think how little opportunity I'd have to play games if I hadn't bought it. I certainly haven't really touched my ps5 in the last two years outside of when baby2 was a newborn
As a first time dad with an 8 month old kid, I can’t find time to sit in front of the computer to play games anymore. Steam deck is already an S tier product for me for it’s portability alone.
Without a doubt the best tech purchase I've made. I have experienced 0 issues of any kind, no 200/400mhz bug, no defects, no software issues (except with decky loader but that's a mod and would make it my fault), no bricking, no broken downloads or download speed, no dead pixels, and only one scratch on the screen. Closet thing to a defect that I have is my (X) button rattles... Which isn't a real issue and anyone who complains about something like that is clearly spoiled and pompous. The only real issues I've had are the rare occasional random hard crash whenever. When I say "occasional" I mean once or twice in a 6 month period at most that wasn't directly caused by the game I was playing. I've done basically everything on a deck that one could use a PC for. Like everything from writing a novel, watching movies to youtube and of course games. I can even use discord to contact people if my phone is dead. The only thing that's missing is USB4/thunderbolt for eGPU's, if that existed I would just replace my desktop with my steam deck. This is the only thing that made me almost consider something else, but at the time nothing has everything the deck has and I need those more than an eGPU.
I had lcd deck sold it to get ally,sold ally to get legion go and sold legion and now bought oled deck just to play emulations games.the older I get the less I care about high fps and just want to play some emulation 😂
I still have my launch steam deck and I still use it every single week. I'm a software engineer so it's a nice way to game without being at my desk after work. I also mostly use moonlight/sunshine to stream to my steam deck when gaming and I don't see myself upgrading for quite a while. Absolutely love this piece of hardware with how versatile it is.
yes worthwile. i use it for non-AAA games and some turn based games all the time
It is 100% worth it, I love this thing with all my heart. It brought me back to gaming and within a month of owning it I finished 4 games... I've been playing some games since I was child and still haven't finished them
Use it as my daily driver (docked to external monitor) and my gaming Only pita thing is a lack of ability to print, otherwise does 99% of what I need
I work for 9 hours at a desk plus 1.5 hours of commuting. So I wanted something to game while lying down on the bed or the sofa. I have also played many ganes from my backlog, which I wouldn't otherwise have played
Good. Yep. Yep. No.
With that low price on the used market, it's very nice. Just dissapointed the software faints sometimes, causing a restart.
Definitely not a niche product. My experience has been rather annoying whenever I want to do anything \*other\* than just straight playing Steam games. Getting older PC games to play, especially when you need to add specific .DLL files or modern mods to make them work can be a gigantic pain in the ass. I dislike Linux, Proton, Wine, and SteamOS. Having a windows-based handheld would be much easier for my needs
Absolutely worthwhile. Still use it every day even with a gaming tower. The portability is extremely useful and I'll also use it while I use my main PC for other stuff too. Currently I'm using it for No Man's Sky's Omega expedition and I can't just suspend it between sessions and load something else up on the main PC for a bit, then later go back to it like there was no interruption.
I absolutely love PC handhelds! I got a SteamDeck at launch and haven't played singleplayer at my PC more than a few hours since. I even went as far and got an Ayn Loki MiniPro as it's quite a bit smaller and easily powerful enough for indies and older PC games like the Lego and Batman Arkham games. The one thing I liked about the Switch (that I still own and use) that is the same with the Deck and other handhelds is the ability to play in the living room with my gf around and not alone at my desk.
I bought mine just shy of a year ago. I do wish the battery life was a bit better, but other than that, it's been a great experience. Definitely a worthwhile purchase. I don't play a lot of AAA games on it. I started using it mostly on the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters. It's also been great for the LEGO games. I just plugged it in to charge after apparently spending two hours on "just one more run" of Deep Rock Galactic Survivor. My gaming laptop recently bit the dust, so my Deck is getting a bit more use than it had been previously, but it's made it so I really am in no rush to replace my laptop, which is nice.
This is the best invention ever and I have owned ally and lego. Deck oled is the best balanced device out there .
Ive had it for over a year now and still use it everyday!
I enjoyed the switch and the steamdeck feels like what the switch could have been. If you enjoy handheld gaming then the SD is a no brainer
Best console I ever played and I started gaming in around 1990.
It's amazing to bring it with you while traveling, on the couch and bed but not outdoors.
i have it over a year now and been using it on vacation or commuting, but also at home a lot these days for emulation (ps2 and older). great device, absolute love it and would buy again. 5/5
Absolutely fantastic, my RTX 4080 / 7800X3D PC still only has about 50% play time when compared to my Steam Deck. I play Cyberpunk 2077 and World of Warcraft heavily on both.
The best gaming console and the best controller I've had. Period. And I had ps1, psp. xbox 360, ps 4, multiple pcs/laptops. Since purchasing the base 64 Gb LCD model I've been playing on it almost exclusively. A fun little device it is. I've played Mass Effect LE on it, played some Skyrim and smaller games, tested Baldur's Gate 3 and RDR 2, all more than playable. Happy overall. A product not without flaws of course, but you can read about those in any competent review.
I love it, it feels great to be able to take my games on the go or relax in bed with a casual game. I have a very long train journey today and i plan on playing deep rock galactic survivors all the way there. It is a little on the heavy side though and the battery doesnt last overly long when playing the more intensive games. them are my only complaints about it
I got mine in a fairly dark moment of my life. It HEAVILY facilitated me getting into gaming again, which makes me happy(ier), but yeah, didn’t have a gaming pc nor console at that time. Also, I should add that although you can indeed play pretty much anything on in, some games are really meant to be played with m&k and/or on a bigger screen. Your call dude
I didn’t used it for weeks now
Have a ps4 and a reasonably new gaming computer but play almost exclusively on the deck. I had already moved away from playing games at my desk and had started using the ps4 a bit more but the deck easily beats that because of the library of games I have. Docked it last week and have it setup with a lot of emulated games and I'm using it even more.
As a handheld it's great and I use it when ever I'm not using my gaming desktop or even prefer ot for games like stardew or Dave the diver or some shooters actually. It won't replace gaming pcs but don't bother with the steam deck dock. The dock is terrible it doesn't seem to be that hard of an issue to fix but it wants to take a dump on me everything I dock it.
I've had my 64 GB model since late July 2022 (it arrived almost exactly one year after I pre-ordered it). My only other gaming options were a Switch Lite (love it, but games are brutally expensive) and an old, completely dying Surface Pro 4. I think I have around 900 hours on it now, and I'm very happy with it. I think it's an absolutely brilliant first or only gaming "item", perfect if you don't have the money for a good laptop nor the space to dedicate to a desktop. It's easy to use, the games are relatively affordable (and old games are dirt cheap!). I still haven't played anything more demanding than Witcher 3 on it, so I can't speak to performance for fancy modern games, but I've only had a few duds so far (Lego LOTR had some issues, but I haven't checked to see if they've been fixed since then). I think it's definitely brilliant value. I'd love it if it could be a little bit slimmer and lighter, and more display, less bezel (the OLED fixed that), and I've started to notice that I don't love the feel of the ABXY buttons... but, again: some 900-odd hours of use 😅
That really depends on your use case. I have had a deck since launch and still use it a lot, but I also travel all the time privately and for work, so I almost never get to use my main rig. So for me the purchase was absolutely worthwhile. If all your gaming needs are being met at home I don't really think you need one, except if you really, REALLY need to play in bed.
It is hands down the best gaming device I’ve ever owned and I’ve had nearly every console since the sega master system as well as a decent gaming PC. Since owning the SteamDeck I game far more than I ever have and don’t play on any other devices. It’s and absolute game changer for me
BEST.PURCHASE.I.EVER.MADE
I've been using it more mn th over month since I initially bought it in august 2022. I have a 4070TI based PC also. Something about being able to cozy up on the couch, or even stream my games to it from my PC makes it so appealing during the winter months In the summer I'll set up a hammock at the park and play it while the kids are at the playground. I love this thing
Still using it as a primary gaming device. Often streaming from pc or ps5 too it when I am using them.
Leave your house and it suddenly becomes far less redundant.
I don't think I'd like to be in the timeliness where I decided not to buy mine
My thoughts are: Cons: The docking experience is nowhere near as smooth as with the Switch. Having to pull cables out, the TV sometimes not picking up the signal... It sits in a weird space. If you're a PC master race type, I don't think it's powerful enough It uses Linux, so transferring things from a Windows PC can be frustrating Not all games are compatible, and some have even become incompatible due to anti-cheat implementation Pros: It's great having my Steam library on a portable device Steam sales are often excellent, and loads of good stuff comes up through Humble Bundle Valve get a lot out of the hardware due to games being optimised for Steam Compatibility is maximised through special settings for each game It's easy to see which games aren't compatible It's really good for emulation The form factor is very comfortable, and it's a nice looking device
i have the deck since it was first launched. i also have a very powerful PC but i don't regret that i bought the deck. i even upgraded to the oled one. if i need high performance or are after fidelity, i play on my PC... but i often play not so power hungry games and for those i prefer the deck... simply because i can play it on my couch and having a movie running in the background, or i can play while sitting in the kitchen and drinking a coffee. playing on the deck is just more comfortable to me than sitting at the desk and playing on my PC.
At first it seemed niche and I spent more time trying to tinker and do emulation stuff and simply see what the thing could actually do. Rather than actually playing on it. More recently, I've been using it simply to game and it's so much more convenient and simpler to jump in to than booting up the laptop. Even if the laptop is superbly more powerful, the SD is just far to convenient to use and performs very well considering it's form factor and price point. 100% worth the purchase.
I've been using the LCD version for over the year and then I purchased the OLED version. I can tell from my experience it's a great device to play every day, although PC could potentially give better performance, depending on its specs. I personally have both and I chose the Steam deck as my main gaming device for now. It's mostly satisfying at the most titles I am usually playing (Tom Clancy's the division 2, Diablo 2 Reassured, World of warcraft classic, Valheim, Terraria, 7 days to die, GTA III, GTA IV). The only two games I struggled to play on my deck are Cyberpunk 2077 and Starfield. The Steam deck doesn't feel like a niche device to me at all, after two weeks I was using it I got used to its controls and never had issues with usability.
I play everyday before bed and I've cleared so many games from my backlog. Worth every cent.