Steam Deck here. Valve’s first hardware reviews

Steam Deck is now available. On February 25, Valve devices went on sale, so the first reviews appeared on the web. as he spoke While promoting the device, Valve CEO Gabe Newell, gamers and PC game developers have always wanted the option to “manual” play and play all the games away from home.

Steam Deck was supposed to give them that. Is it really so? Let’s find out.

How is Steam Deck envisioned?

Positives

In most of the material, reviewers agree that Steam Deck is some kind of replacement for the “lost” Nintendo Switch Pro.

underlinedwhich – which Valve hardware offers much more performance than Japanese control unitWhat about the many players who want to play for example Dark Souls 3 At 60fps on the go, it will be the crowning argument for your purchase. There is no problem to run multiple applications at the same time, such as the program for listening to podcasts and your favorite game.

Thanks to the microSD card slot Even the cheapest version of the equipment is to provide entertainment at a satisfactory level. praised and praised There is also a screen that displays the bright and vivid colors of the IPS panel.

The system is supposed to be Well protected against any interference from outside, which prevents even most Sunday users from jailbreaking the Console. At the same time, this means that – At least for now – buying games from platforms other than Steam is impossible.

The advantages of the device also include the interface, which is intuitive and in many cases superior to the Nintendo Switch. Here, however, the question must be asked, to what extent it is a real functionality question, and to what extent it relates to the reviewers’ relationship with Steam – because it is in the Valve Store for PC, of ​​course, the appearance is from SteamOS.

You can also connect peripherals to the Steam Deck, such as a keyboard or an external monitor, and thus use the Internet. There is no point in expecting a different use, because the device’s trackpads Do their job perfectly. Controls while operating products designed for keyboard and mouse should not be a problem.

cons

First of all: the price. I write about specific numbers below, but almost two thousand zlotys for the cheapest version of the portable “console” for many – especially in Poland – is an unaffordable cost. Steam Deck is also a device aimed at people with a large selection of games on Steam, and it is an addition to the traditional gameplay on PC, which may be another hindrance for a potential buyer. It is also worth noting that not all Steam games run on Deck.

reviewers keep it up Also, on the one hand, Steam Deck cannot replace a PC, and on the other – it is “less portable” than Switch. It’s like something like a pocket knife: it’s nice to have with you, but a full-size knife or scissors isn’t a substitute. It’s compact enough for a long trip, but too bulky to fit in a backpack for an entire day of work or study outside.

Another issue is battery life, as well as low liquidity when we’re playing high-budget AAA products. The indicated solution is Frame rate lock For similar items up to 30. In the current situation Deathloop It can “eat” 80 percent. Battery life in just one hour, a God of War in 83 minutes. With the aforementioned ban, the device’s unloading time increased to about 200 minutes in the PC Gamer written test.

Small flaws include some bugs that should have appeared with the premiere of a brand new device. Users report problems with setting up custom graphics in games, the console may not find updates or crash when installing it, and cloud save files are not always downloaded automatically, which leads to conflict between Steam Deck and PC. However, Valve regularly corrects any gaps, so it can be assumed that similar problems will soon be in memory.

Steam Deck Specifications and Price

price

Steam Deck is available in three variants:

Better memory for the two more expensive options will result in faster game loading. However, the remaining specifications are the same for each version.

hardware

When citing the official data about the “performance” of Steam Deck, it must be assumed that some of the features listed below “be proud” of the manufacturer. However, considering the most important things, it looks like this:

Dimensions and weight

Regarding the physical characteristics of the Steam Deck, this is the case:

Programming

Steam Deck runs SteamOS 3.0, based on the Linux architecture. The software is a guarantee that games intended to eventually run for “PCs” will work.

Summary

Steam Deck is recommended but it is still a bit underdeveloped hardware. If a person already has a large selection of games on Steam and has free money for similar pleasures, then he should definitely think about buying equipment.

However, if you just want to start your adventure playing through the Valve platform, it’s worth backing off that decision for now and seeing how the product will be developed. In the future, it will be possible, inter alia, to run Windows on Deck, which will significantly affect the competitiveness of the equipment. Offering such an option should now be a priority for the manufacturer, if he really dreamed of Steam Deck being a gaming laptop.. Otherwise, there will certainly be problems with the operation of individual games.

The hardware seems to be an excellent compromise between PC and console, something in between, and is best for playing indie games that require hardware, but not necessarily when playing the biggest titles. The question now is whether the market happens to be something “between” the two worlds.