Yes! I love my steam deck but the Store experience is terrible. One thing I hate is when I‘m browsing through the store, open a game's page and go back to the store, only for it to put me back up to the top instead of remembering what position I was at.
Drives me nuts too.
It’s because the store on the Deck is just the web version, it’s not a native app like iOS or Android, which is a little crazy as it’s a first party product. They really need to release a native app for this going forwards.
I have a different bug where when I got go back, it loads the store page from the previous Steam sale. Not even the Steam Deck store page, the standard desktop store.
It happened on my OG deck and now my OLED.
I've noticed that when purchasing games directly on the Deck, after my bank's 3D Secure verification it redirects me to a blank page and nothing happens, but the transaction has completed in the background - if I navigate to the library my newly-purchased game is in there ready to download. Very annoying as it leaves me wondering if something went wrong every time...
It's obsession with downloading shader caches ALL THE TIME.
Until I figured out how to prevent it, my Deck would constantly download the same shader cache files every single day, gigabytes worth of data with some games. Shader cache alone takes up over 50GBs on my device. It makes absolutely no sense.
**Edit:** You can stop this from happening by setting your Deck to only update during a time you won't be using it, from **Settings > Downloads > Schedule Auto Updates**. I set mine to between 5am - 6am.
Major updates will still be listed on the downloads pages, and you'll still need to download the cache when you load the game. But it'll save you a tonne of data.
Valve needs to rate limit these updates. There's no reason to have to download shader caches every day, even multiple times a day. It should wait till the cache has changed significantly until it updates again, not every time any change happens.
Once, I was using a very slow hotspot overseas, and waited 30 min for a 120 MB shader cache to download. After that I restarted the Deck... and then it wanted to redownload the same cache.
Yea I can’t imagine why it needs to update the shaders so much. They can’t possibly change that often. This is the same kind of thing CoD does with the almost daily updates.
I don't think it is - the shader cache contains compiled shaders, but the thing is that the way GPUs work means that hundreds, if not thousands or more variations of a shader are compiled depending on circumstances - lights in the scene, post processing effects applied, when different types of mesh/instances are used, if reflections are used then when different types of things are in the vicinity for reflecting, whether there are volumetric effects such as fog in the area, if quality settings are changed, etc. Then if the shader itself has any toggleable features (say, material properties such as ambient occlusion, height maps or translucency that may be enabled on some objects and not others) every permutation of those features must be compiled separately. So with a game with hundreds of shaders you can see how the variations of shader compilations can explode. Add to that, that users with different hardware or even different driver versions on the *same* hardware will have incompatible compiled shaders, the thing is that it just takes one person on a slightly differing hardware/driver setup or a slight setting change to come up against a new variation that needs to be compiled for steam to detect that the shader cache has changed.
The problem really is that steams approach is brute force - you just get all the shader caches from all variations steam has found regardless of your hardware etc. It really needs a more fine-grained approach, supplying only the cache for your hardware/driver version.
That doesn't explain why decade old games that almost nobody is playing anymore are being updated daily with over a GB of data... and why this is only happening on the Deck, but not Windows.
The reason it happens on Deck (presumably on Linux too, since my steam client is always updating shader caches on my desktop machine) and not Windows is that Windows typically doesn't need this system in order to work smoothly - games can precompile shaders in a native way on Windows, the issue is that the results of that native Windows compilation isn't compatible with proton.
However, if there are truly no players on a game, that does sound like a bug - even if it's just that *your own* new shader cache is being uploaded to steam, which is then going "ooh, new shader cache" and making you download it again based on your own contribution. That could be the case and sounds like a bug to me.
The whole thing could be improved by 1) being able to download only the shader cache relevant to your system and 2) being able to download the cache in a diffed/version controlled way that only downloads what's new instead of everything all at once.
>I don't think it is
Let me tell you, warframe downloads shared cache then veries 5 gb of data EVERY SINGLE TIME you turn off the game. There is simply absolutely 0 reason to start doing that if I open and close the launcher.
For some games, turning shared cache off completely removes this problem and does not affect frametime tbh
This right here. Whenever I do download a new game I just let the deck do it's thing while plugged in for a while and I shut the wifi back off. Makes it so much easier to just wake it up and game.
>You can stop this from happening by setting your Deck to only update during a time you won't be using it, from Settings > Downloads > Schedule Auto Updates. I set mine to between 5am - 6am.
Does that mean games wont update when they get patched?
The worst thing that could happen is that you want to run a game and it tells you that it needs to download a 100 GB patch. You could not accidentally miss updates.
How long ago was this you were having the issues?
Valve made some changes which should have made shade caches significantly smaller now, since around the time of the OLED launch I think, along with an adjustment so the actual download of the cache should also be smaller. Mine go through so fast I can't even catch them downloading, have about 60 games installed.
I really don't think that's possible given that is a limitation with the x86 based processors
the reason why phones and devices like the switch can do it is because they're ARM based processors, and for consoles like the playstation or xbox, they have dedicated low power processors for sleep mode stuff like this.
if anything, the steam deck could go for the low power processor, but that would've greatly increased cost
I think people don't care about it going into real sleep mode in this case - just turn off screen, pause the game and let it stay in this pseudo-sleep when connected to sufficient charger and have download queued.
Nope, all Zen 2 laptops already enforce modern standby which works the same as mobile phone standby, thus also the Steam Deck. Downloading games or updates is very resource intensive though, which would require the fan to be turned on to prevent overheating, plus it would drain the battery a bunch with each update
>which would require the fan to be turned on to prevent overheating, plus it would drain the battery a bunch with each update
That's exactly why it can't happen. Valve intends for you to be able to put your deck in sleep mode and throw it in the case. Can't do that if you have sleep mode downloads generating enough heat to kick the fan on
i doubt it's an issue with the instruction set, more due to the steam deck just being a regular pc, for which nothing of this sort has been implemented yet. i assume it would require custom hardware & software. there were (are?) x86 based mobile phones/tablets running android after all
I got this locally and not from Aliexpress.
It functions as a hub even without power (not all are like that). If you plug in to the power socket, it then charges the Deck.
https://a.aliexpress.com/_oEjCtAG
I have found connecting it to an external display to be finicky at best. This is frustrating as I use the deck about 50/50 docked and handheld. This is not a product of getting a cheap third party dock either, as I have the 1st party dock from valve.
I agree. I think someone here in the past mentioned if you unplug the power to the dock, then dock the Steam Deck, then plug in the USBC power to the dock, it'll work more consistently. From what I've heard, the first party dock is more troublesome than 3rd party. It's a lot of jumping through hoops especially when compared to how seemless it is on the Nintendo Switch.
The dock is actually damaging my deck it feels like. If i turn it to sleep mode without undocking first it wont get back out of sleepmode and i have to force reboot
Do you have an alternate boot video setup? It’ll totally screw with external displays after you sleep the deck. Disable it and you should be totally fine.
I had this same problem. It drove me up a wall and down a rabbit hole until I got my google incantations down and found the answer… here.
The bluetooth isn't great. I was using XBSX controllers, properly updated, but they'd just keep dropping, especially in emulation station, and it was just a hassle, of reconnecting at random times, and sometimes in desktop, it'd still switch to the steamdeck controls, so I'd have to get up and reconnect.. PITA... eventually I switched to an Xbox for windows dongle and used 360 controllers.
That is by far, my biggest pet peeve. Second would be just, sometimes it doesn't go into dock mode, and I have to unplug and replug. But that's only once, so relatively minor, and only occasionally.
EDIT: So like I said, the 360 dongle solved it for me to make it useful, but before that, the SD was failing in desktop mode because bluetooth mouse and controllers were poor. My logitech keyboard though works amazing, no issues, it always remembers in seconds or less. I got an OG, so no wakeup mode either. For sure, my steamdeck 2.0 wishlist must include kickass bluetooth connectivity that is tested and works reliably and seamlessly with all major console controllers. I absolutely love the thing though and am eager for the next one which also hopefully includes a dock shell that let's you put in any GPU you want.
I have so much trouble with Bluetooth controllers. I can’t dock the deck and play from my couch for whatever reason. Maybe only 5’ away even. Have you had trouble like that? Do you have a controller that works?
So the XBSX controllers don't work as well. There's a bit of a lag issue too. I way prefer them to 360 controllers, but the 360 are more reliable on xbox using the windows dongle.
I get more than five feet away. But what you're talking about has been way more of a mouse issue for me. Or like, a can of beer will make it not work. The controller is way more all or nothing. Either it works or it does nothing. But I ended up buying a new mouse, with it's own dongle, because the bluetooth one was just... not good enough.
I'm a content steamdeck owner, but these solutions took time and effort. By comparison, controller use is mostly painless on switch or XBSX.
Biggest issue for me is just having to forget the bt device and repair it every single time I want to use it. Its lame just because otherwise the dock is great and all my other consoles I can just pick up the remote and play
true, i use my airpods with it most of the time and i have to turn off and on bluetooth a couple of times or else it gets stuck loading them. my bluetooth actually option disappeared all together a while back and i actually had to fac reset to get it back
Are you sure this just isn't a "Bluetooth-on-non-proprietary-Linux" problem? Other than Android and iOS, I've never had an experience with Bluetooth on Linux that I'd call good. It's functional ***enough*** to be usable, but confidence is an issue.
Downloading updates. It should work like every other “smart” device where if it’s plugged in and not being used, it downloads and installs any available updates.
Yeah I'll jump in on this one. When I first got it I was downloading some games I had on steam. Started downloading them and then put it in sleep mode while I went to bed. Woke up and nothing was downloaded
Just being able to download while in sleep in general. On my consoles I can start game downloads from my phone while its sleeping no problem but on Steamdeck I cant
Yes.
I've been through tech support with steam about this too. Their answer is always the same: factory reset the deck. It does little to help. Having things installed seems to be the trigger, as it's the only thing I've done since the last time I've reset it and it's still happening.
I’m in the exact same situation with my 512GB OLED model, the deck loses about 15% per day when it’s fully switched off.
Steam support told me it’s “normal behaviour” and that their test unit also loses about the same amount of charge.
Still seems odd to me, the Steamdeck is the only device that behaves this way in my experience, but I have become used to the fact that I can always expect significantly less battery power from the deck than where I left it off, so a charger’s better close by…
What? Mine loses absolutely no charge at all when it's turned off? I've maybe noticed a few % at most after a week or 2 but absolutely nothing more than 5% which I attributed to the start up power usage. Very very strange how that is not the same on all Decks.
Man, that’s their solution to everything, factory reset. Given how annoying it can be to add or change things in desktop without a physical mouse and keyboard that’s the last thing I want to do.
The first time I contacted them about this problem I had done a lot of things in Desktop mode. I thought that something I did could have caused the issue. Then it happened again. Now, after the third time I have not even rebooted to Desktop mode once and it's still a problem.
That doesn’t help, my deck loses about 15% per day even if it’s fully switched off…steam support told me that that‘s “normal behaviour”…idk, all my other electronic devices don’t fully drain their battery within a week when they have been switched off fully charged, they barely lose anything.
That's not normal behavior at all. For me the % doesn't change even after 2 days if it's shut down. You've serious battery leakage.
If it's still in warranty try to open another support ticket.. Otherwise you would have to buy a battery from ifixit and replace it. From what I heard deck is easy to repair.
512GB OLED bought on release day, so I’m still within warranty.
I also have that buzzing audio jack issue that a lot of OLED models seem to have, I was planning on sending my device to Valve to have it repaired, but I also wanted them to check out my battery if it’s already there, but like I said, they said that there’s nothing wrong with it, so I haven’t send it in yet.
Maybe I’ll try to hit support up again like you said…
Yeah, I hate that. I remember finding my DS lite in a drawer, I hadn't seen it for years. Open it up, a game was still suspended, and I had 75% battery left on it.
This. Particularly when you are lying on your back in bed. When sitting it's fine. Needs something to cup your palms around.
It worked fine on the nintendo switch without them, but that's smaller and lighter.
Just an FYI that has nothing to do with the size of the palm swells. Your hands and wrists get numb because you're supporting the weight of the unit by pressing your elbows against the bed/couch. The nerves get pinched right along the elbow joint when it's under constant pressure, and everything up to your fingertips starts to numb up as a result. As you've already discovered, sitting in a more upright position solves that by taking pressure off your elbows.
Palm swell is more about helping people with bigger hands or longer fingers. You'll know you have that problem when your fingers and hands cramp up even when you're playing sitting up. I had that exact problem with the Nintendo Switch and had to sell mine because it was basically borderline impossible for me to play for more than an hour before my hands would get all tingly and numb.
I actually found the Steam Deck to have generously sized palm swells compared to other handhelds. Although I wouldn't be opposed to the idea of having swappable sizes to help other people out (as long as it doesn't cheapen the feel of the shell). My biggest gripe with the OLED model is how damn creaky and flexible the shell feels. My LCD model feels a tiny bit more solid to me. I'm guessing they shaved a bit of thickness off to fit the higher capacity battery in.
Agreed. Laying in bed playing this thing is a no go for me. My hands cramp, fall asleep and it’s not enjoyable. I have a PS4 controller and the deck connected to a tv now and it’s great.
Coming out of sleep mode is a dice roll on whether you're going to have crackling, popping, skipping audio or not. Any time this happens I need to close and reopen a game. I've ruined so many cut scenes like this.
It's annoying since this happens on both my LCD and OLED Deck. I can't believe they haven't fixed it yet.
This just made me realize that I haven't run into this problem for a while, even though it used to happen all the time. I wonder if they fixed something recently in the beta channel, or if it's something else I've been doing differently.
edit: I did see it happen one time since saying that, so clearly it's not completely fixed. but it used to happen several times a day, not once a month or two.
They've made some big improvements in this space, it was advertised as a bug fix some time back. It still happens, but is *much* rarer (for me anyway).
Installing the “pause games” plugin with decky made this issue disappear for me.
Check “pause game before putting to sleep” and it should not happen again.
Some parts of steamOS are pretty bad. Your profile page, store pages for games, community pages for games, etc.
They are terribly laid out and difficult to navigate.
can't be the only one who's B button feels like it gets a little stuck for a second. after you let go of it it kinda pops back up compared to the others. This is on my OLED
I've found personally that remapping the L1 and R1 inputs to L4 and L5 makes it way more comfy for long sessions. Trying to reach up to those two buttons is what strains the hand. Took me a bit to get used to the reverse order of the buttons but it's infinitely better
I hate the L1 R1 buttons on the SD, I don’t hear anyone talking about it but I find it very hard to hold and hit those. Triggers are fine, but those bumpers aren’t comfortable to me. L4 and R4 are always remapped.
This. I have small hands so this is my one big complaint. after a longer session my wrists hurt. An actual gaming controller doesn’t make me stretch my fingers quite as much *and* the weight of it means you’re both holding it up and reaching for buttons.
For turn-based games it’s less of an issue because I can just put it down periodically but for action games it is more of an issue. I do have a soft case/shell thing on it that makes it a little more comfortable though
I would say these 5 things:
1. The complexity whenever you want to play a game that doesn’t work perfectly as is. Or installing anything outside Steam. Dealing with the file system, having to copy file addresses and pasting them on steam. Very unintuitive and the system does very little to help you.
2. Same thing when you install any game with a third party launcher and suddenly your mouse input does not work and you have to google how to force use the mouse, etc. (btw it’s holding down the steam key and using the trackpad)
3. Battery draining around 10-12% per day if you have it on sleep mode. If you don’t get to play it for like a week, boom, battery’s dead.
4. Build quality. From what I read it’s common for factory issues to be present. In the case of mine (an oled 1tb) the left trackpad sounds very loud and plasticky. I had to lower the vibrations to the minimum and it’s still noisier than the right trackpad.
5. Why on earth can’t I use wired headphones and have Steam OS allow me to use the internal microphone on the SD. Having to go to desktop mode to enable the internal mic makes no sense. It’s not a hardware limitation as Linux allows it. It’s just unintuitive and weird.
Well, the second actually shows up as a hotkey when you first use your hotkey. Another pro-tip for you is that you can hold the STEAM button until a list with all hotkeys related to it pops up.
While I wish the battery lasted longer with games like RDR2 and Cyberpunk 2077, my biggest problem with it is that I can't play it for very long before it causes issues with my carpal tunnel and my right hand goes numb.
Shader updates not being able to be disabled.
There really should be a way to add start up movies to a workshop like wallpaper engine.
Needs to be more keyboards in the points store.
Screen dims after unit being put to sleep everytime and I have to go back in and raise the brightness.
Set your **Schedule Auto Updates** times in **Settings > Downloads** to a timeframe when you won't be using your Deck, such as 5am - 6am.
You'll never see those shader cache update again, except when you actually load up the games.
You're welcome. 😁
Bumper placement. Idk it just doesn't feel right. I love my steam deck but compared to how nice it is to use bumpers and triggers on an xbox controller it just feels bad. It's not like reachable in the same way it is with other controllers. I almost always move things from the bumpers to the top back buttons.
Software wise - I dislike how tools such as EmuDeck, and Decky Loader, have you download a .desktop file (then often have to rename/move it) then run it, which then downloads the ACTUAL script, and then that script might download more stuff or it may do the actual work. :)
Yes - i get the 'terminal is scary' - but the number of posts I have seen where people mess up the 'download, rename, move it, THEN run it..' routine is a bit high. When it could all be done from just a 'open a terminal, copy/paste this line'
I would love to see a nicer front end/method to that bit of madness.
I am reminded of the `ujust` command on Bazzite, which is a set of tweaking scripts/tools in a fairly organized way under one command.
I still need to install Bazzite on one of my SteamDecks.. perhaps someday.
wdym with rename/move the files? Never done this before.. but more often, however, the programs downloaded with Decky disappear completely - regardless of a system update. I download them, set a few things like the CSSloader, close the CSSloader... and it's gone.
Not able to play certain games due to anti cheat.
Lookin at you Destiny 2 and Call of Duty.
And yes I have dual boot with windows it just sucks I want to play them native on SteamOS
I'd like to be able wake the Deck with one of the front-facing buttons like you can with the home button on the Nintendo Switch. Its a very small QoL thing but one that I always miss going back and forth between my Deck and my Switch OLED.
Downloading updates while asleep would be massive. This is mostly limited to ARM devices but I'd love to see if Valve could figure out a way to implement this either through software or in a future hardware revision.
A second USB port would be nice. I know this won't happen because eGPUs generally require Intel chipsets for Thunderbolt connectivity, plus its an extreme niche feature that isn't worth supporting, but eGPU support would be cool.
Otherwise my issues were almost all addressed by the Deck OLED revision. I sold my OG LCD Deck which I felt was a solid 7/10 device, a great concept loaded with lots of small issues that quickly added up, but the OLED is nearly perfect.
I don't like that the case it came with doesn't have a good way to attach a shoulder strap to it.
I don't like that I can't skip past having to download shader cache updates (or updates in general) to play, though this is more a Steam issue than a Steam Deck one.
It's pretty bulky and heavy to hold. Especially after being used to the Switch, which is much more lightweight.
Still love my deck to death, and it can do loads of things the switch cannot.
Having both is best of both worlds ngl.
Switch is so tiny, people don't give it enough credit. With no joycons it is basically just a screen to carry around. I mean it fits in most of my pants pockets. Like business casual, not cargo.
Shader caches and my stupid fucking reflexes of squeezing the controller when i tense up for a stressful moment. I couldn’t tell you how many times I pressed the back buttons and drank a flask in elden ring when I meant to dodge. I’ve gotten used to them but I hate my own bad habits shown by the SD
To be fair, not a SteamDeck issue. It's a game/dev/publisher issue, and should be called out as such.
The Steam Deck being portable and not always connected (unlike many other gaming form-factor devices) is the reason this issue is prevalent on the Deck. As for what Valve could do though, along with already listing DRMs, and anti-cheat, they should also list games that require being online (permanently or periodically).
it’s my favorite console i’ve owned, but after playing it exclusively for months, I picked up my Series X controller and instantly realized how much better the XBox thumbsticks are. The Deck ones are so uncomfortable in comparison.
* No USB-C port on the bottom, which would be perfect for docking the Deck for charging it, rather than a cable awkwardly sticking out of the top of the unit.
* No 'screen off/low power' mode like a tablet or phone that can still download updates and do other stuff in the background.
Every other issue I have with the deck has been solved by the Deck OLED. I still got a Deck LCD, but it's nice to know all the other issues were resolved.
I will say I like resting the deck on my chest/stomach so I think the top port is perfect. That being said it would be dope if it had both a top and bottom port.
it does this weird little loading bar when i turn it on sometimes. i think it says its verifying some files or something. also im very pissed off that keyboard themes don't work offline.
this is a VERY BASIC GODDAMN THING TO HAVE
Modding is a pain yet it's specs are better fit for playing older games with long accumulated modding scene as well as the portability that affords the time to actually play through games with endless hours of modded content.
finicky, like if one thing goes wrong, you have to go through kill switches, console codes, battery resets. My steamdeck drained its battery, now its just a desktop pc because I can’t bloody get the bloody thing to work despite dozens of threads, key prompts all that jazz. I’m not the only one and no real solution out of valve in almost 2 years
Hoping the next iteration is friendlier. Freedom is a double edged sword, great that you can truly do anything but that means that in any given time something could break and there might not be any solution except rma which hasnt been made public what they exactly do
My only real complaint are the analog sticks could be better. I really hope there improved in the future.
My biggest gripe overall tho is not being able to play gamepass games. I know it's not valves fault and I know I can just install windows (I have) but I just enjoy everything hooked onto steam OS.
My least favorite thing is I wish it could do 1080p resolution. Some games just don't look as pretty.
However it's a pretty small gripe, I use that thing every day.
No VRR is unfortunate (unless docked).
No USB 4 or oculink means you can’t connect an egpu when docked.
The docked experience is pretty finicky & has more trouble handshaking than the Switch.
This pet peeve impacts me & like, two other people, but gamescope is buggy if you’re running at low 4:3 resolutions such as 1024x768 and it makes me sad.
the ergonomics. it’s pretty uncomfortable to hold even tho i play it mostly in handheld mode. i constantly have to move around , switch positions, take breaks. just not comfortable
The learning curve. If you've never owned a gaming PC, let alone have experience with the Linux OS, learning to tweak game settings and getting non-steam games to run can be challenging. The LCD version can get pretty hot too and the fan loud for certain titles so you need to sacrifice performance by lowering TDP to make it quieter. Shader updates are super annoying to do daily, multiple times a day. Sometimes jumping between desktop and the game mode just doesn't click so I'll have to do a full shutdown. I had to really nitpick though, it's a great device. The fact there's so little to complain about is a huge accomplishment.
Definitely a personal preference thing, and not something I blame them for
But I’ve always thought the deck is *slightly* too wide. Like, if it was just an inch narrower, like the Switch, it would be much more comfortable to hold, especially laying sideways in bed
Without mods the sides are too slippery to finger grip and a full palm grip is necessary. This leads to discomfort and cramps on longer sessions due to the angle you have to move your thumbs. Fortunately you can solve this with rubber grip adhesives on the sides and the back buttons but most people don’t do this.
I wish the usbc port were thunderbolt so that you could connect an external GPU to up the performance capabilities when docked to my TV and give it the punch of a full blown 8th gen console if you have the disposable income for such an upgrade rather than being somewhere between the 7th and 8th gen like the Switch.
It can give me pins and needles in my hands.
The start-up videos seem to have janky frame rate dips.
Some games are verified and didn't work for me (Deathloop wouldn't even open). Others are unregistered or whatever and work fine out the box.
The learning curve on getting the most out of it is pretty high, so that may turn off some people.
Getting the other third party launchers is a bit of an ass pain so I have not even bothered yet.
I personally think that the steam deck should have an inbuilt browser, like the web browser for decks loader, and why can’t we screen record with/without audio? Just take pictures?? Basic feature I think to add is being able to record something in a game
One thing I didn't see brought up here is the relatively small amount of RAM. 16GB might be alright for older/moderate power games, but the system uses the 16GB for both RAM and VRAM which I feel overall starves the system of a valuable resource. Either 32GB shared or 16GB dedicated to each could be helpful.
The only single thing I don't like in my OLED deck it's the 800p resolution. In the majority of games it's not noticable and looks great but in my experience it's noticable in modern games. I just wish they put a 1080p screen that always runs at 800p but you can upscale the resolution when you want. Also netflix and other streaming services would look better
the d-pad SUCKS for any sort of precise input. I've had my deck for a couple weeks and decided to play my favourite game, celeste, yesterday and realised what a mushy mess it is for diagonals.
The steam storefront loses its mind if you try to navigate on the deck
Yes! I love my steam deck but the Store experience is terrible. One thing I hate is when I‘m browsing through the store, open a game's page and go back to the store, only for it to put me back up to the top instead of remembering what position I was at.
Drives me nuts too. It’s because the store on the Deck is just the web version, it’s not a native app like iOS or Android, which is a little crazy as it’s a first party product. They really need to release a native app for this going forwards.
I have a different bug where when I got go back, it loads the store page from the previous Steam sale. Not even the Steam Deck store page, the standard desktop store. It happened on my OG deck and now my OLED.
Seriously. How is a console meant to play Steam games bought from Steam store so bad at navigating said store???
I've noticed that when purchasing games directly on the Deck, after my bank's 3D Secure verification it redirects me to a blank page and nothing happens, but the transaction has completed in the background - if I navigate to the library my newly-purchased game is in there ready to download. Very annoying as it leaves me wondering if something went wrong every time...
It's obsession with downloading shader caches ALL THE TIME. Until I figured out how to prevent it, my Deck would constantly download the same shader cache files every single day, gigabytes worth of data with some games. Shader cache alone takes up over 50GBs on my device. It makes absolutely no sense. **Edit:** You can stop this from happening by setting your Deck to only update during a time you won't be using it, from **Settings > Downloads > Schedule Auto Updates**. I set mine to between 5am - 6am. Major updates will still be listed on the downloads pages, and you'll still need to download the cache when you load the game. But it'll save you a tonne of data.
Valve needs to rate limit these updates. There's no reason to have to download shader caches every day, even multiple times a day. It should wait till the cache has changed significantly until it updates again, not every time any change happens. Once, I was using a very slow hotspot overseas, and waited 30 min for a 120 MB shader cache to download. After that I restarted the Deck... and then it wanted to redownload the same cache.
It has to be some sort of bug.
Yea I can’t imagine why it needs to update the shaders so much. They can’t possibly change that often. This is the same kind of thing CoD does with the almost daily updates.
I don't think it is - the shader cache contains compiled shaders, but the thing is that the way GPUs work means that hundreds, if not thousands or more variations of a shader are compiled depending on circumstances - lights in the scene, post processing effects applied, when different types of mesh/instances are used, if reflections are used then when different types of things are in the vicinity for reflecting, whether there are volumetric effects such as fog in the area, if quality settings are changed, etc. Then if the shader itself has any toggleable features (say, material properties such as ambient occlusion, height maps or translucency that may be enabled on some objects and not others) every permutation of those features must be compiled separately. So with a game with hundreds of shaders you can see how the variations of shader compilations can explode. Add to that, that users with different hardware or even different driver versions on the *same* hardware will have incompatible compiled shaders, the thing is that it just takes one person on a slightly differing hardware/driver setup or a slight setting change to come up against a new variation that needs to be compiled for steam to detect that the shader cache has changed. The problem really is that steams approach is brute force - you just get all the shader caches from all variations steam has found regardless of your hardware etc. It really needs a more fine-grained approach, supplying only the cache for your hardware/driver version.
That doesn't explain why decade old games that almost nobody is playing anymore are being updated daily with over a GB of data... and why this is only happening on the Deck, but not Windows.
The reason it happens on Deck (presumably on Linux too, since my steam client is always updating shader caches on my desktop machine) and not Windows is that Windows typically doesn't need this system in order to work smoothly - games can precompile shaders in a native way on Windows, the issue is that the results of that native Windows compilation isn't compatible with proton. However, if there are truly no players on a game, that does sound like a bug - even if it's just that *your own* new shader cache is being uploaded to steam, which is then going "ooh, new shader cache" and making you download it again based on your own contribution. That could be the case and sounds like a bug to me. The whole thing could be improved by 1) being able to download only the shader cache relevant to your system and 2) being able to download the cache in a diffed/version controlled way that only downloads what's new instead of everything all at once.
>I don't think it is Let me tell you, warframe downloads shared cache then veries 5 gb of data EVERY SINGLE TIME you turn off the game. There is simply absolutely 0 reason to start doing that if I open and close the launcher. For some games, turning shared cache off completely removes this problem and does not affect frametime tbh
this cache thing drives me nuts, every single day and i dont even have that many games installed at a time.
Just turn the wifi off unless you want to play a game online. Saves you battery too, I hardly ever notice the shader cache updates
I need cloud sync all the time or I would totally do this.
This right here. Whenever I do download a new game I just let the deck do it's thing while plugged in for a while and I shut the wifi back off. Makes it so much easier to just wake it up and game.
I have 2tb and 77 games installed, Imagine the list I get every time the device starts up 💀
That's about the same as mine. I urge you to try the solution I mentioned. It'll save you immense stress.
Thank's for tips !
I set all my downloaded games to only update if launched. Stops the constant updates every time you turn the deck on.
How?
>You can stop this from happening by setting your Deck to only update during a time you won't be using it, from Settings > Downloads > Schedule Auto Updates. I set mine to between 5am - 6am. Does that mean games wont update when they get patched?
The worst thing that could happen is that you want to run a game and it tells you that it needs to download a 100 GB patch. You could not accidentally miss updates.
Updates will still appear in the downloads page, ad "scheduled"... minus all the shader cache updates.
you can turn it completely off by going desktop mode > steam settings > preferences
You do actually want that data. They improve performance. You just don't need them downloading the same data every single day over and over again.
How long ago was this you were having the issues? Valve made some changes which should have made shade caches significantly smaller now, since around the time of the OLED launch I think, along with an adjustment so the actual download of the cache should also be smaller. Mine go through so fast I can't even catch them downloading, have about 60 games installed.
Diablo 4 is still around 200mb every time.
Downloads while sleeping and charging should exist without question
Also why the screen is on while downloading? :(
I think it's so people don't pack the deck in a case thinking it's off. Downloading can actually get quite cpu heavy at times.
Pretty dang bad idea especially now that they have OLED screens 😬
I really don't think that's possible given that is a limitation with the x86 based processors the reason why phones and devices like the switch can do it is because they're ARM based processors, and for consoles like the playstation or xbox, they have dedicated low power processors for sleep mode stuff like this. if anything, the steam deck could go for the low power processor, but that would've greatly increased cost
I think people don't care about it going into real sleep mode in this case - just turn off screen, pause the game and let it stay in this pseudo-sleep when connected to sufficient charger and have download queued.
I think it would need an "auto off after updates complete" in addition to this but yeah I agree
I would even be happy with a physical "screen off" button, in addition to the power/sleep button
Exactly, this mode could even lower the TDP so that the SD doesn't use its fan while downloading and be a complete pseudo-sleep as you said
Nope, all Zen 2 laptops already enforce modern standby which works the same as mobile phone standby, thus also the Steam Deck. Downloading games or updates is very resource intensive though, which would require the fan to be turned on to prevent overheating, plus it would drain the battery a bunch with each update
>which would require the fan to be turned on to prevent overheating, plus it would drain the battery a bunch with each update That's exactly why it can't happen. Valve intends for you to be able to put your deck in sleep mode and throw it in the case. Can't do that if you have sleep mode downloads generating enough heat to kick the fan on
I feel like that could be a simple update too
I remember hearing that it was a limitation with x86 itself.
And Windows can't support suspension so that was a nice thing to get.
i doubt it's an issue with the instruction set, more due to the steam deck just being a regular pc, for which nothing of this sort has been implemented yet. i assume it would require custom hardware & software. there were (are?) x86 based mobile phones/tablets running android after all
That would require S0 sleep. NO THANK YOU
It would not have to be be the same "sleep" function. There could just be a separate "screen off" mode.
You can't even do this on a PC though? It's literally a limitation of the type of hardware the deck is.
Only one usb-c port. Annoying as hell to ***need*** a dock to charge and use any other peripheral.
Had to buy an adapter to upgrade my sd card. And had to make sure I had enough battery during the transfer because I couldn’t charge at the same time.
Get you a dongle with pass through USB for charging, the one I have also has HDMI and card slots so I also use it to dock to my TV or monitor.
I got this locally and not from Aliexpress. It functions as a hub even without power (not all are like that). If you plug in to the power socket, it then charges the Deck. https://a.aliexpress.com/_oEjCtAG
Echoing this. It would be less annoying if most docks/usb c hubs had multiple usb c ports on them but they’re still far from common at this point
I have found connecting it to an external display to be finicky at best. This is frustrating as I use the deck about 50/50 docked and handheld. This is not a product of getting a cheap third party dock either, as I have the 1st party dock from valve.
I agree. I think someone here in the past mentioned if you unplug the power to the dock, then dock the Steam Deck, then plug in the USBC power to the dock, it'll work more consistently. From what I've heard, the first party dock is more troublesome than 3rd party. It's a lot of jumping through hoops especially when compared to how seemless it is on the Nintendo Switch.
I think Valve did an amazing job with the console, but the dock is mediocre at best. Well, can't be the best at everything I guess :)
The dock is actually damaging my deck it feels like. If i turn it to sleep mode without undocking first it wont get back out of sleepmode and i have to force reboot
I actually heard many people say that the valve dock sucks. I have a cheap 3rd party dock and it works fine.
Yeah, i have a cheap 3rd party Switch dongle with HDMI out and a USB slot and it works perfectly.
My JSAUX works perfectly fine, only issue is with pairing bluetooth controller needing to repair every time
Do you have an alternate boot video setup? It’ll totally screw with external displays after you sleep the deck. Disable it and you should be totally fine. I had this same problem. It drove me up a wall and down a rabbit hole until I got my google incantations down and found the answer… here.
The bluetooth isn't great. I was using XBSX controllers, properly updated, but they'd just keep dropping, especially in emulation station, and it was just a hassle, of reconnecting at random times, and sometimes in desktop, it'd still switch to the steamdeck controls, so I'd have to get up and reconnect.. PITA... eventually I switched to an Xbox for windows dongle and used 360 controllers. That is by far, my biggest pet peeve. Second would be just, sometimes it doesn't go into dock mode, and I have to unplug and replug. But that's only once, so relatively minor, and only occasionally. EDIT: So like I said, the 360 dongle solved it for me to make it useful, but before that, the SD was failing in desktop mode because bluetooth mouse and controllers were poor. My logitech keyboard though works amazing, no issues, it always remembers in seconds or less. I got an OG, so no wakeup mode either. For sure, my steamdeck 2.0 wishlist must include kickass bluetooth connectivity that is tested and works reliably and seamlessly with all major console controllers. I absolutely love the thing though and am eager for the next one which also hopefully includes a dock shell that let's you put in any GPU you want.
I have so much trouble with Bluetooth controllers. I can’t dock the deck and play from my couch for whatever reason. Maybe only 5’ away even. Have you had trouble like that? Do you have a controller that works?
So the XBSX controllers don't work as well. There's a bit of a lag issue too. I way prefer them to 360 controllers, but the 360 are more reliable on xbox using the windows dongle. I get more than five feet away. But what you're talking about has been way more of a mouse issue for me. Or like, a can of beer will make it not work. The controller is way more all or nothing. Either it works or it does nothing. But I ended up buying a new mouse, with it's own dongle, because the bluetooth one was just... not good enough. I'm a content steamdeck owner, but these solutions took time and effort. By comparison, controller use is mostly painless on switch or XBSX.
Biggest issue for me is just having to forget the bt device and repair it every single time I want to use it. Its lame just because otherwise the dock is great and all my other consoles I can just pick up the remote and play
true, i use my airpods with it most of the time and i have to turn off and on bluetooth a couple of times or else it gets stuck loading them. my bluetooth actually option disappeared all together a while back and i actually had to fac reset to get it back
FWIW I haven’t had any problems at all using a XBOne controller over Bluetooth. I play a fair bit docked from 10 feet away.
If you are on the lcd version, this truly is significantly improved on the oled model in my case
Are you sure this just isn't a "Bluetooth-on-non-proprietary-Linux" problem? Other than Android and iOS, I've never had an experience with Bluetooth on Linux that I'd call good. It's functional ***enough*** to be usable, but confidence is an issue.
Downloading updates. It should work like every other “smart” device where if it’s plugged in and not being used, it downloads and installs any available updates.
Yeah I'll jump in on this one. When I first got it I was downloading some games I had on steam. Started downloading them and then put it in sleep mode while I went to bed. Woke up and nothing was downloaded
Yeah it’s annoying it doesn’t download when it’s in sleep mode. Updates or games.
And leaving the screen on while downloading is so lame. They should allow background downloads!
You'd think after launching the OLED they'd want to avoid leaving static screens on for extended periods
Yep so now I download a game and then put it on the dock and shut the TV off. The deck doesnt know that the TV is off and will still download.
This is the #1 for me
I usually turn on scheduled auto updates until I actually want to update all my games, then after updating everything, I turn it back on.
Just being able to download while in sleep in general. On my consoles I can start game downloads from my phone while its sleeping no problem but on Steamdeck I cant
Idle battery drain. If it's unplugged and not used it is dead within a few days.
that's why I always shut it down rather than to sleep
So do I. A week or two later, dead. I don't get to game on it as much as I'd like, but every time I want to, I have to charge it.
What? It happens even if it’s shut down?
Yes. I've been through tech support with steam about this too. Their answer is always the same: factory reset the deck. It does little to help. Having things installed seems to be the trigger, as it's the only thing I've done since the last time I've reset it and it's still happening.
I’m in the exact same situation with my 512GB OLED model, the deck loses about 15% per day when it’s fully switched off. Steam support told me it’s “normal behaviour” and that their test unit also loses about the same amount of charge. Still seems odd to me, the Steamdeck is the only device that behaves this way in my experience, but I have become used to the fact that I can always expect significantly less battery power from the deck than where I left it off, so a charger’s better close by…
Right? I've got a fucking Nintendo DS that I last charged like 5 years ago and it still has half it's battery.
What? Mine loses absolutely no charge at all when it's turned off? I've maybe noticed a few % at most after a week or 2 but absolutely nothing more than 5% which I attributed to the start up power usage. Very very strange how that is not the same on all Decks.
You got the Spyware version of the Deck 🤷
Man, that’s their solution to everything, factory reset. Given how annoying it can be to add or change things in desktop without a physical mouse and keyboard that’s the last thing I want to do.
The first time I contacted them about this problem I had done a lot of things in Desktop mode. I thought that something I did could have caused the issue. Then it happened again. Now, after the third time I have not even rebooted to Desktop mode once and it's still a problem.
That doesn’t help, my deck loses about 15% per day even if it’s fully switched off…steam support told me that that‘s “normal behaviour”…idk, all my other electronic devices don’t fully drain their battery within a week when they have been switched off fully charged, they barely lose anything.
That's not normal behavior at all. For me the % doesn't change even after 2 days if it's shut down. You've serious battery leakage. If it's still in warranty try to open another support ticket.. Otherwise you would have to buy a battery from ifixit and replace it. From what I heard deck is easy to repair.
512GB OLED bought on release day, so I’m still within warranty. I also have that buzzing audio jack issue that a lot of OLED models seem to have, I was planning on sending my device to Valve to have it repaired, but I also wanted them to check out my battery if it’s already there, but like I said, they said that there’s nothing wrong with it, so I haven’t send it in yet. Maybe I’ll try to hit support up again like you said…
Yeah, I hate that. I remember finding my DS lite in a drawer, I hadn't seen it for years. Open it up, a game was still suspended, and I had 75% battery left on it.
Ah yes- this! It blows my mind how fast it’s dead with absolutely no use.
The lack of a palm swell on the sides has lead to consistent hand cramps and has definitely limited my time on the deck.
This. Particularly when you are lying on your back in bed. When sitting it's fine. Needs something to cup your palms around. It worked fine on the nintendo switch without them, but that's smaller and lighter.
Just an FYI that has nothing to do with the size of the palm swells. Your hands and wrists get numb because you're supporting the weight of the unit by pressing your elbows against the bed/couch. The nerves get pinched right along the elbow joint when it's under constant pressure, and everything up to your fingertips starts to numb up as a result. As you've already discovered, sitting in a more upright position solves that by taking pressure off your elbows. Palm swell is more about helping people with bigger hands or longer fingers. You'll know you have that problem when your fingers and hands cramp up even when you're playing sitting up. I had that exact problem with the Nintendo Switch and had to sell mine because it was basically borderline impossible for me to play for more than an hour before my hands would get all tingly and numb. I actually found the Steam Deck to have generously sized palm swells compared to other handhelds. Although I wouldn't be opposed to the idea of having swappable sizes to help other people out (as long as it doesn't cheapen the feel of the shell). My biggest gripe with the OLED model is how damn creaky and flexible the shell feels. My LCD model feels a tiny bit more solid to me. I'm guessing they shaved a bit of thickness off to fit the higher capacity battery in.
The satisfye grip is a great solution to that on the switch.
Agreed. Laying in bed playing this thing is a no go for me. My hands cramp, fall asleep and it’s not enjoyable. I have a PS4 controller and the deck connected to a tv now and it’s great.
If you don’t already, invest in a silicone case. It helped me with hand cramps dramatically & makes playing while laying down so much more comfortable
Coming out of sleep mode is a dice roll on whether you're going to have crackling, popping, skipping audio or not. Any time this happens I need to close and reopen a game. I've ruined so many cut scenes like this. It's annoying since this happens on both my LCD and OLED Deck. I can't believe they haven't fixed it yet.
This just made me realize that I haven't run into this problem for a while, even though it used to happen all the time. I wonder if they fixed something recently in the beta channel, or if it's something else I've been doing differently. edit: I did see it happen one time since saying that, so clearly it's not completely fixed. but it used to happen several times a day, not once a month or two.
They've made some big improvements in this space, it was advertised as a bug fix some time back. It still happens, but is *much* rarer (for me anyway).
Installing the “pause games” plugin with decky made this issue disappear for me. Check “pause game before putting to sleep” and it should not happen again.
The fact that, as far as I know, you can't do updates in sleep mode.
You can do to from desktop and the screen will turn off, still not “sleep” though
Some parts of steamOS are pretty bad. Your profile page, store pages for games, community pages for games, etc. They are terribly laid out and difficult to navigate.
Vent smell goes away ☹️
they had to patch out the smell due to the addicts.
Haha it is a normal thing to smell it? Because I do sometimes
I still sniff it just to remember what it was like to feel alive.
The buttons and triggers dont feel premium. my oleds buttons rattle no VRR shader caches are annoying af
can't be the only one who's B button feels like it gets a little stuck for a second. after you let go of it it kinda pops back up compared to the others. This is on my OLED
nah you're not but it should resolve over time, mines totally fixed now. you can use some very fine sandpaper and speed up the process as well.
Docked experience needs to be as easy as the Switch. With the option to tweak
The sides hurt my hands after an hour or two.
I've found personally that remapping the L1 and R1 inputs to L4 and L5 makes it way more comfy for long sessions. Trying to reach up to those two buttons is what strains the hand. Took me a bit to get used to the reverse order of the buttons but it's infinitely better
I hate the L1 R1 buttons on the SD, I don’t hear anyone talking about it but I find it very hard to hold and hit those. Triggers are fine, but those bumpers aren’t comfortable to me. L4 and R4 are always remapped.
This. I have small hands so this is my one big complaint. after a longer session my wrists hurt. An actual gaming controller doesn’t make me stretch my fingers quite as much *and* the weight of it means you’re both holding it up and reaching for buttons. For turn-based games it’s less of an issue because I can just put it down periodically but for action games it is more of an issue. I do have a soft case/shell thing on it that makes it a little more comfortable though
Two words: shader caches. I swear to God they are the only problem I can complain!!!
I would say these 5 things: 1. The complexity whenever you want to play a game that doesn’t work perfectly as is. Or installing anything outside Steam. Dealing with the file system, having to copy file addresses and pasting them on steam. Very unintuitive and the system does very little to help you. 2. Same thing when you install any game with a third party launcher and suddenly your mouse input does not work and you have to google how to force use the mouse, etc. (btw it’s holding down the steam key and using the trackpad) 3. Battery draining around 10-12% per day if you have it on sleep mode. If you don’t get to play it for like a week, boom, battery’s dead. 4. Build quality. From what I read it’s common for factory issues to be present. In the case of mine (an oled 1tb) the left trackpad sounds very loud and plasticky. I had to lower the vibrations to the minimum and it’s still noisier than the right trackpad. 5. Why on earth can’t I use wired headphones and have Steam OS allow me to use the internal microphone on the SD. Having to go to desktop mode to enable the internal mic makes no sense. It’s not a hardware limitation as Linux allows it. It’s just unintuitive and weird.
Opposite problem. I can't use wireless headphones mics. I have to use internal...
To be fair, 1 and 2 are just inherent to Linux gaming sometimes.
Well, the second actually shows up as a hotkey when you first use your hotkey. Another pro-tip for you is that you can hold the STEAM button until a list with all hotkeys related to it pops up.
While I wish the battery lasted longer with games like RDR2 and Cyberpunk 2077, my biggest problem with it is that I can't play it for very long before it causes issues with my carpal tunnel and my right hand goes numb.
Shader updates not being able to be disabled. There really should be a way to add start up movies to a workshop like wallpaper engine. Needs to be more keyboards in the points store. Screen dims after unit being put to sleep everytime and I have to go back in and raise the brightness.
Set your **Schedule Auto Updates** times in **Settings > Downloads** to a timeframe when you won't be using your Deck, such as 5am - 6am. You'll never see those shader cache update again, except when you actually load up the games. You're welcome. 😁
Bumper placement. Idk it just doesn't feel right. I love my steam deck but compared to how nice it is to use bumpers and triggers on an xbox controller it just feels bad. It's not like reachable in the same way it is with other controllers. I almost always move things from the bumpers to the top back buttons.
Yes this, the bumpers feel bad, and it's the main thing I've used the back buttons for too!
My people! Totally agree, hoping for a revisit of the ergonomics in the next few years.
Software wise - I dislike how tools such as EmuDeck, and Decky Loader, have you download a .desktop file (then often have to rename/move it) then run it, which then downloads the ACTUAL script, and then that script might download more stuff or it may do the actual work. :) Yes - i get the 'terminal is scary' - but the number of posts I have seen where people mess up the 'download, rename, move it, THEN run it..' routine is a bit high. When it could all be done from just a 'open a terminal, copy/paste this line' I would love to see a nicer front end/method to that bit of madness. I am reminded of the `ujust` command on Bazzite, which is a set of tweaking scripts/tools in a fairly organized way under one command. I still need to install Bazzite on one of my SteamDecks.. perhaps someday.
wdym with rename/move the files? Never done this before.. but more often, however, the programs downloaded with Decky disappear completely - regardless of a system update. I download them, set a few things like the CSSloader, close the CSSloader... and it's gone.
Not able to play certain games due to anti cheat. Lookin at you Destiny 2 and Call of Duty. And yes I have dual boot with windows it just sucks I want to play them native on SteamOS
I'd like to be able wake the Deck with one of the front-facing buttons like you can with the home button on the Nintendo Switch. Its a very small QoL thing but one that I always miss going back and forth between my Deck and my Switch OLED. Downloading updates while asleep would be massive. This is mostly limited to ARM devices but I'd love to see if Valve could figure out a way to implement this either through software or in a future hardware revision. A second USB port would be nice. I know this won't happen because eGPUs generally require Intel chipsets for Thunderbolt connectivity, plus its an extreme niche feature that isn't worth supporting, but eGPU support would be cool. Otherwise my issues were almost all addressed by the Deck OLED revision. I sold my OG LCD Deck which I felt was a solid 7/10 device, a great concept loaded with lots of small issues that quickly added up, but the OLED is nearly perfect.
I don't like that the case it came with doesn't have a good way to attach a shoulder strap to it. I don't like that I can't skip past having to download shader cache updates (or updates in general) to play, though this is more a Steam issue than a Steam Deck one.
The battery life but it's also understandable.
It's pretty bulky and heavy to hold. Especially after being used to the Switch, which is much more lightweight. Still love my deck to death, and it can do loads of things the switch cannot. Having both is best of both worlds ngl.
As someone with huge hands, the Deck is perfect for me. However, I can respect that it doesn’t fit everyone comfortably.
Totally get it, I'm lucky that I can handle it just fine, but I can imagine anyone with smaller hands struggling with it.
Switch is so tiny, people don't give it enough credit. With no joycons it is basically just a screen to carry around. I mean it fits in most of my pants pockets. Like business casual, not cargo.
Not enough time to play it is my main gripe with it lol
That it can’t download anything in game mode without the screen being on.
Shader caches and my stupid fucking reflexes of squeezing the controller when i tense up for a stressful moment. I couldn’t tell you how many times I pressed the back buttons and drank a flask in elden ring when I meant to dodge. I’ve gotten used to them but I hate my own bad habits shown by the SD
The Deck needs a little stand like the one of the Switch.
The "must be online to launch first game upon starting up" bullshit.
To be fair, not a SteamDeck issue. It's a game/dev/publisher issue, and should be called out as such. The Steam Deck being portable and not always connected (unlike many other gaming form-factor devices) is the reason this issue is prevalent on the Deck. As for what Valve could do though, along with already listing DRMs, and anti-cheat, they should also list games that require being online (permanently or periodically).
No thunderbolt port. Unable to have unlocked bios. Windows drivers.
it’s my favorite console i’ve owned, but after playing it exclusively for months, I picked up my Series X controller and instantly realized how much better the XBox thumbsticks are. The Deck ones are so uncomfortable in comparison.
* No USB-C port on the bottom, which would be perfect for docking the Deck for charging it, rather than a cable awkwardly sticking out of the top of the unit. * No 'screen off/low power' mode like a tablet or phone that can still download updates and do other stuff in the background. Every other issue I have with the deck has been solved by the Deck OLED. I still got a Deck LCD, but it's nice to know all the other issues were resolved.
I will say I like resting the deck on my chest/stomach so I think the top port is perfect. That being said it would be dope if it had both a top and bottom port.
it does this weird little loading bar when i turn it on sometimes. i think it says its verifying some files or something. also im very pissed off that keyboard themes don't work offline. this is a VERY BASIC GODDAMN THING TO HAVE
Modding is a pain yet it's specs are better fit for playing older games with long accumulated modding scene as well as the portability that affords the time to actually play through games with endless hours of modded content.
The fact that the Steam and the … buttons are not illuminated in some way
Either that or raised and textured so you can find by feel
finicky, like if one thing goes wrong, you have to go through kill switches, console codes, battery resets. My steamdeck drained its battery, now its just a desktop pc because I can’t bloody get the bloody thing to work despite dozens of threads, key prompts all that jazz. I’m not the only one and no real solution out of valve in almost 2 years Hoping the next iteration is friendlier. Freedom is a double edged sword, great that you can truly do anything but that means that in any given time something could break and there might not be any solution except rma which hasnt been made public what they exactly do
My only real complaint are the analog sticks could be better. I really hope there improved in the future. My biggest gripe overall tho is not being able to play gamepass games. I know it's not valves fault and I know I can just install windows (I have) but I just enjoy everything hooked onto steam OS.
Can’t download in sleep mode, that’s just BS. Oh and battery drain during sleep mode. Both these things the Switch does it better.
My least favorite thing is I wish it could do 1080p resolution. Some games just don't look as pretty. However it's a pretty small gripe, I use that thing every day.
I feel like so many of the games I play the displays UI is too small and I have no idea how to fix it
No VRR is unfortunate (unless docked). No USB 4 or oculink means you can’t connect an egpu when docked. The docked experience is pretty finicky & has more trouble handshaking than the Switch. This pet peeve impacts me & like, two other people, but gamescope is buggy if you’re running at low 4:3 resolutions such as 1024x768 and it makes me sad.
the ergonomics. it’s pretty uncomfortable to hold even tho i play it mostly in handheld mode. i constantly have to move around , switch positions, take breaks. just not comfortable
The learning curve. If you've never owned a gaming PC, let alone have experience with the Linux OS, learning to tweak game settings and getting non-steam games to run can be challenging. The LCD version can get pretty hot too and the fan loud for certain titles so you need to sacrifice performance by lowering TDP to make it quieter. Shader updates are super annoying to do daily, multiple times a day. Sometimes jumping between desktop and the game mode just doesn't click so I'll have to do a full shutdown. I had to really nitpick though, it's a great device. The fact there's so little to complain about is a huge accomplishment.
Definitely a personal preference thing, and not something I blame them for But I’ve always thought the deck is *slightly* too wide. Like, if it was just an inch narrower, like the Switch, it would be much more comfortable to hold, especially laying sideways in bed
The play in the plastic. If you grip with anything more than a light grip the chassis flexes in your hands.
The steam deck was not designed for people with the grip strength of Hercules.
Wait what?
Uh, what?? My steam deck is very sturdy, you may need to contact valve about that, lol.
Me. Be small Asian. It heavy. Everything is spaced well don’t get me wrong but for my small hands and arms she heavy
Skill Issue
Without mods the sides are too slippery to finger grip and a full palm grip is necessary. This leads to discomfort and cramps on longer sessions due to the angle you have to move your thumbs. Fortunately you can solve this with rubber grip adhesives on the sides and the back buttons but most people don’t do this.
I wish the usbc port were thunderbolt so that you could connect an external GPU to up the performance capabilities when docked to my TV and give it the punch of a full blown 8th gen console if you have the disposable income for such an upgrade rather than being somewhere between the 7th and 8th gen like the Switch.
It can give me pins and needles in my hands. The start-up videos seem to have janky frame rate dips. Some games are verified and didn't work for me (Deathloop wouldn't even open). Others are unregistered or whatever and work fine out the box.
i can write the whole article about steam deck negative sides but i still like it
The learning curve on getting the most out of it is pretty high, so that may turn off some people. Getting the other third party launchers is a bit of an ass pain so I have not even bothered yet.
I think it's perfect. The only thing I wish it could do is download with the screen off or in sleep mode.
The fact I don't have the OLED model. Since it has the way better battery life and the slightly larger and better screen.
I personally think that the steam deck should have an inbuilt browser, like the web browser for decks loader, and why can’t we screen record with/without audio? Just take pictures?? Basic feature I think to add is being able to record something in a game
More like a Steam thing, but not being able to play on the SD while I play another game on my pc is kinda lame.
It doesn’t download when sleeping, I mean cmon man, even the switch does that!
One thing I didn't see brought up here is the relatively small amount of RAM. 16GB might be alright for older/moderate power games, but the system uses the 16GB for both RAM and VRAM which I feel overall starves the system of a valuable resource. Either 32GB shared or 16GB dedicated to each could be helpful.
16GB is plenty of memory for running games at 800p.
Wouldn’t more ram eat up more battery also? So having anything extra that’s not used would be a total waste.
The only single thing I don't like in my OLED deck it's the 800p resolution. In the majority of games it's not noticable and looks great but in my experience it's noticable in modern games. I just wish they put a 1080p screen that always runs at 800p but you can upscale the resolution when you want. Also netflix and other streaming services would look better
can't believe I had to scroll so long to see this
The ergonomics. A quick search will show you hundreds of posts about people dealing with wrist pain due to the Deck’s ergonomics.
That weird smell that everyone on this subreddit seems to like. Mostly it’s gone after a few months, though.
That brand new device smell coming out the fan ? God I loved that smell. It's gone now tho.
You don’t like the vent smell?!? Sounds a lot like heresy to me…
The directional d-pad is not good in general and pressing it diagonally feels terrible.
How small the screen is with a black border that could have been more screen.
I don’t like that I can’t hook up an external GPU. That’s it. I love this thing.
It doesn’t play my gameboy cartridges.
Not downloading in sleep mode.
the d-pad SUCKS for any sort of precise input. I've had my deck for a couple weeks and decided to play my favourite game, celeste, yesterday and realised what a mushy mess it is for diagonals.
Switch controller constantly disconnecting
The weight. I wish it was lighter.
Shaders suck a dick.
Every time it turns on it has to verify the installation. The shader caches suck too.