Interesting, I assumed that it would flop or at best be a very niche product. It doesn’t seem like a very interesting device to me. I don’t see the appeal at all.
I guess it’s nice to hear that it’s so successful, considering how much it has done for linux gaming.
I get what you’re saying. I thought that myself, that it would be niche. Then I got it and now it’s part of my standard carry. I think the tricky thing about it is that it doesn’t do anything surprising, so you wouldn’t expect that it would be so successful. But once you try it yourself, you realize that the appeal is primarily in how balanced and versatile it is. In other words, it doesn’t do anything new, but it does everything that it tries to do very well
Tell me you haven’t tried a steam deck without telling me you haven’t tried a steam deck.
Not the person you replied to, but I have a Steam Controller and a streaming device for my main library on my desktop, so I’m honestly torn.
What do you think makes this better than such a setup? From my perspective, it seems like the main benefit is “Steam Controller with screen attached,” so it’s portable, and it has some limited* capabilities to install and play games locally.
I’m not trying to detract, but having used my own setup for over five years, I wonder what it is I might be missing. What do you think?
Edit: *Compared to a desktop with latest-gen or second-latest-gen hardware.
If your setup works for you I wouldn’t bother changing, but for me going from steam link to deck has been night and day. Running the games locally has been a massive experience improvement for couch coop, while the portability is great for unwinding away from my desk. No input lag, no weird video artifacts, things like that made it worth running locally for me.
Running the games locally also provides the ability to play games without an Internet connection, like at a park or cafe.
Limited capabilities? I haven’t found a game in my library it couldn’t play locally. The ui is great, the controls work well, and it can even be used to run desktop apps.
I have two for my kids, and will be getting a third. With the dock, it acts as a regular desktop computer with monitor on an arm, mouse, keyboard, etc, giving my kids an inexpensive desktop computer that can play games. It’s emulation is so robust that I downloaded battle net from Blizzard, added the installer as a non steam game, ran it with proton compatibility, and they can now play diablo 2 resurrected.
In desktop mode it is just a regular Linux desktop, so they can browse the web, and I have a nuc running Windows that they can remote into to learn Windows OS stuff as well. It is a way better experience for them than any other micro PC you might find for $400. And it can be mobile. Pretty crazy device.
That said, I wouldn’t need one for myself unless I traveled a whole lot more and wanted my steam fix on the road. But for a kids first desktop they are amazing.
When you say “kids,” what do you think the age floor would be for such a setup? Do you think being able to read is a prerequisite?
Ages 10 and 7, and I will be setting one up for my 5 year old. The two older kids can easily switch between game mode and desktop, run teamspeak and switch to their games, browse the web, etc. They needed a little help to get going but now are self sufficient and play multiplayer trailmakers all the time. The five year old will just do game mode with a cheap wired Xbox type controller to play kid games.
If you mean pure desktop, probably whatever age you’d need to be to use windows. Switching from Windows to Linux is an adjustment for most normal people, but a big part of that is because they’ve been using windows for years and are used to their design choices. At the end of the day, though, in either case, shortcuts on a screen are shortcuts on a screen, and you’re not going to be ready to manage either OS for a good while.
In terms of using it as a handheld, the flow is pretty easy, but it’s really big and heavy for a little kid.
You can throw it in your backpack and go around the city on roller blades screaming “hack the planet” because you’ve literally got a fully functional PC in your back pocket.
It’s solid. when my laptop went out and I needed a back up, it serves as a daily driver for a few days while the replacement shipped. No issues.
This was one of those products that, when it was announced, I thought to myself “meh, I have no need for this.” But through the urging of friends, I pre ordered it back in July of 21, because hey, it was only 5 bucks to deposit and I could cancel.
Then as they started coming out, and I heard about everything they could do, I thought “well damn that’s pretty cool.” And then my own hype grew until I managed to get it, I believe August of last year. By far the most fun I’ve had with a device in quite some time.
It’s a handheld that can play basically any game through the previous generation and even some current AAA titles. If you have a steam library already, most of your games are suddenly playable on the go. The hardware is open with spare parts easily obtainable so that you can repair it yourself if you drop it. Valve is very engaged with maintaining and updating the software to be an enjoyable experience whether you prefer console or PC. Because it is subsidized by software sales the hardware costs less and drove down prices in the industry for competing products. When my 10-year-old motherboard gave out in my desktop, I was able to use the Steam Deck as my primary PC for a month while I took my time putting together a new computer. Also, you are very correct that it has had a meaningful impact on Linux gaming.
In my opinion, there’s a lot to like.
