I found these comparison pics on reddit extremely illustrative for those interested in getting this for portable gaming:
So the Deck is about the same footprint as the Switch with Hori Split Pad Pros attached.
And color reproduction is significantly better on the Switch OLED. Makes me excited already for a Gen 2 with an upgraded screen. I’m sure Valve will be able to swing a good supply agreement with any of the top-tier phone panel makers, given the momentum behind this device.
Looks like my “after Q2” just got changed to Q3. But honestly I’m leaning no on placing the order anyway, so it probably won’t matter.
For what it’s worth, my primary concern is still the same thing I’ve thought from the start. It’s just too big for me to bring in my everyday bag. For that matter, as someone who typically travels with a single bag, it’s arguably too big for my travel bag too. It’d be a sitting on the couch with the TV on something else type of thing. And if I’m going to do that, I might as well do remote play to my phone instead.
I think that shows just how well Nintendo understand how people play games.
There are several reasons for the Switch’s hardware, but one is that it lends itself to being played. That comes with compromises, but it means that you can easily take it along most of the time.
Compared to Valve’s throw the kitchen sink at it approach.
I guess I have some disappointing news to share if anyone was looking forward to my feedback. After further consideration, I just couldn’t justify having a Steam Deck since my Surface Pro 8 has a significantly better display plus eGPU support. Until then, I will be waiting until the second-generation model comes out when they add a display with proper color reproduction and Thunderbolt support. For now, I will let the impatient folks fight over getting their hands on these first-generation units.
Well shoot, is there anyone left who’s getting one in Q1? My reservation is some unknown date in Q2. I was going to wait out of curiosity and just in case I change my mind but that’s getting more and more unlikely so maybe it would be a kindness to get out of the queue and let others move up.
Yeah, there’s no point in it for me. The idea was to use it like a NUC docked with a monitor most of the time. But my SLS is serving as a desktop quite well. For couch duty I switch from AAA PC games to a) reading, b) light gaming (iPad mini 6 or Galaxy Book 12), c) videos, or d) playing with the cat (on demand). I don’t have a desire or need for a handheld tiny-screen AAA gaming device at this time.
@Hifihedgehog @Dellaster Gah, you guys are killing me! I was so looking forward to your early reviews! 
One thing I’ve noticed over many years of tech addiction, is that no device ever gets truly ‘wasted’, especially versatile devices like the Steam Deck.
Even if it never ends up being used for your intended purpose (the rose-tinted purchase 
), you often find a niche down the road that suits it perfectly. In fact I’ve found, it is this new usecase—enabled by the instant prototype device you happened to have on hand—that ends up truly expanding your computing horizons, ultimately altering your future tech perspective.
I can think of several ‘side’ devices like this:
All of these devices I had reservations about and nearly didn’t order or outright attempted to cancel. And even after receiving each, I didn’t end up truly using them until I found a particular usecase months to a year later. It always took a little experimentation, but in each case allowed me to see a new way of using technology ever after.
So long story, short—don’t cancel your pre-orders!（Or return it after, so we can all learn from your experiences. )
Watching a lot of videos, I noticed reviewers tend to just show gameplay or talk about the UI without actually showing the navigation experience on SteamOS.
I found this video by ETA Prime @4:38, where he shows all the stick/button presses and menu selections to switch to the desktop and configure the power and fps limits, rendering options, and bring up the stats overlay:
Very nifty.
It seems that the UI was under embargo for longer.
It’s not anymore, but in the rush to get videos out, people might have avoided it.
That and some fanboyism or fear of being targetted by them if you call out something not so great.
I guess I spoke prematurely and I have been hanging around you guys too long and have gotten the tech bug incurably. I am ending up going to keep my Steam Deck for at least a little bit to see what it’s really like if not just because it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I am pretty sure I will dstrauss it but I am curious to see what it can do. I have a silicone case and screen protectors arriving tomorrow but it will probably be a week or so before I get some impressions out. Sorry for the last-minute switcheroo.
This terminology should definitely be explained in the “TPCR lore” thread if we ever make one.
Glad to hear you’re keeping your reservation. Or have I misunderstood and you already have it in hand? Either way, looking forward to hearing your impressions. Especially given my “after Q3” status.
If you decide not to keep it, I hope you consider offering it up for sale here (though I probably wouldn’t be able to take advantage given my recent Ayn Odin purchase that I’m also waiting on).
So I thought I’d gone beyond wanting a Steam Deck, but this its tempting me again.
One of my very favorite PS4 games…
I can say from personal experience too that the GuliKit’s hall sensor joysticks and the 2TB Micron 2400 series SSD work like magic in the Steam Deck. 
Dang, the “lesser PC” in the article already has much more powerful spec than my budget gaming laptop, which should run a bit better than th Steam Deck. It’s definitely software optimization that is at fault here.
Sometime things doesn’t really work as we expected them to be, like an art program should run better on a Celeron with 8GB RAM than an Atom with 2GB RAM but in practice it is the opposite. 
The Steam Deck’s custom APU fares exceptionally well against the Ryzen 7 6800U and thanks to its power optimizations, far surpasses it at 10W-and-under usage:
Yup, it’s been shown in numerous tests that the 680M isn’t impressive at <15w and doesn’t really shine till >28w. It’s one of the reasons I went for the 35w TDP 6800HS for my light gaming laptop.
The AYANEO 2, a more expensive and more powerful Steam Deck alternative, is getting reviews. Here’s one by Dave2D.
Hall sensors in the sticks and triggers courtesy of the folks who make the Gulikit KingKong2 controller I mentioned in the Gaming topic. Which is quite nice BTW. I’m liking the feel and performance. 
The major deterrent is the price: it starts at $1011 on Indiegogo and it starts at retail for $1099. Sadly, that price range is gaming laptop territory. If it were more sanely priced at around $700-$800, I would be far more inclined to purchase. Further, if I am plunking down over a grand, I would expect at least an OLED display at $1000+ for a handheld gaming PC. Hard pass.
