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It’s only been a month of owning one, but I’m already convinced that the Steam Deck has become the leader in portable computers, at the same time replacing the need for other portable computers.
The Steam Deck is Valve’s latest effort to expand its Steam service to a different platform. During the last years it tries to collaborate with other developers so that games run on Linux, together with Windows and macOS. The Steam Deck is the culmination of this effort, and it’s a great one at that.
However, I didn’t fancy owning one to begin with. I’d read our own Matt Hanson’s feature about using it as a work machine and I’d be amazed, but with a Gaming PC in my office, I couldn’t justify it.
And then I was shown that it could be even better than the Gaming PC I used to own, and I’m at the point where the PC was sold, and the Steam Deck is now my go-to for PC gaming.
I made a reservation in July, and suddenly in September, Steam sent me an email confirming that my Steam Deck was ready to be paid for in full and delivered to me.
The original plan was to sell the Gaming PC before the Steam Deck arrived, as the delivery dates put mine as December, but both made some things much easier for me, as I will explain later.
Three days later and the Steam Deck arrived in a barrage of environmentally friendly cartons. The first thoughts were about how huge it was, but eventually you get used to it, much like the notch on iPhone 13 and below.
I chose the 512GB model because the games I play are usually around 150GB, so if it was the 256GB model it would be Red Dead Redemption 2 and a few Dreamcast ports, along with Sonic Origins.
The unspoken use of Steam Deck
Saving in games is something I’ve believed in ever since the PlayStation 2 introduced the concept of “Backwards Compatibility”, where you could put in 99% of PlayStation 1 games and they would play without a problem.
While Sony has faltered in this effort in recent years, with PC it’s a non-issue. You can download Tomb Raider II without worrying if it is available and playable, but after a little configuration, you play it without problems, and somehow better.
But there are some who used the Steam Deck as an emulation machine. While we don’t condone this, the ease of playing Onimusha 2, followed by Metal Gear Solid 3, and then Wind Waker HD is amazing.
Everything plays at full speed, and you can expect a good six hours of battery life playing each of these. And yet there’s a sense that it shouldn’t to be this easy
The template for laptops
There’s no getting away from the feeling that after so many years of handhelds trying to make an impact, Valve has, in my eyes, nailed it.
The constant updates that the company has been rolling out have been impressive as we are at a point where the boot screen can be changed to almost anything you want.
Combine this with the ease of customizing it further thanks to SteamOS and Linux, the huge library available on Steam, and the great design of the Deck makes it the best in its category, and it only makes me wonder what the second one might contain generation
But please Valve, at least let us download games and updates when it’s on standby.
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