Steam Deck, Review

Valve entered the handheld market this year with the Steam Deck. A super portable console with its own operating system - SteamOS. The pre-order stage was a long old wait, but I finally got my hands on one, and I've been playing around with it a lot for the past month.

Move over, Switch, it's Steam Deck time!

I love my Nintendo Switch. It's a fantastic little console. The Steam Deck is bigger and heavier, and I've not turned my Switch on once in the past month. That'll change with Pokemon Violet is delivered. In the meantime, it's all about the Steam Deck! And what a console it is.

The Hardware

The Steam Deck comes in three configurations. Each comes with something different. The lower end comes with a 64GB eMMC drive. Mid-range, and the update is a 256GB NVMe SSD. Higher-end, and it's a 512GB NVMe SSD and an anti-glare etched glass screen. Other than that, the tech specs are the same.

I went with the mid-range model (although I slightly regret that because I want the anti-glare screen). You can upgrade the SSD yourself if you go for the lower-end model. Valve doesn't recommend it, but they also provide guides on how to do it, so they've giving mixed messages. It is possible, though. If you have an NVMe SSD spare that will fit, there's no reason why you couldn't save a fair bit by getting the low-end model and upgrading yourself.

The battery is a 5313mAh battery, which is larger than the one in the Nintendo Switch. And unlike with the Nintendo Switch, you can battery optimise so that you can make games last a bit longer than usual.

There are thumbsticks and trackpads on either side, which can be quite useful. I've found in some games, using the trackpads to control the mouse works well, but in others, it's a bit wild and far too sensitive to do anything. The same can be said about the thumbsticks - although their sensitivity is much better than the trackpads in most games.

Key Features of all models:

• Custom AMD APU based on Zen 2 CPU with 4 cores and 8 threads - Up to 448 GFlops.
• Custom AMD APU with 8 RDNA 2 CUs with speeds of 1.0-1.6GHz - Up to 1.6 TFlops.
• 4 watts through to 15 watts for the power of the APU.
• 16Gb LPDDR5 on-board RAM - 5500MT/s quad 32-bit channels.
• Three storage options - 64Gb EMMC / 256Gb NVMe SSD PCIe Gen 3x4 / 512Gb High-Speed NVMe SSD PCIe Gen 3x4.
• 7" diagonal 1280x800 (16:10 aspect ratio) 60Hz IPS LCD touch-enabled Screen.
• High-speed MicroSD card slot.
• Bluetooth 5.0 and WiFi 5 (AC).

Design and Functionality

Whilst there are not many places you can go when it comes to designing handheld devices, there is still a fine line between a great-looking device and one you'd be embarrassed to hold. Thankfully, the Steam Deck is pretty great looking.

Surprisingly, at 699 grams, it's not too heavy. That was a surprise, as I was expecting to find it uncomfortable after a short gameplay. The Nintendo Switch is half the weight and now feels like barely anything. The Steam Deck still feels super portable, though, which was a concern I had when getting it. Is it going to make my arms ache? Will my hands cramp, holding something heavier than I'm used to with a portable console? Is it really portable if it's weighty? Those concerns were unnecessary.

If you check out the Steam Deck webpage, you'll notice they talk about their massive design process. They designed over 100 prototypes before they settled on the final design. That level of commitment to making something that not only looks great but will also be comfortable to hold and easily portable is commendable.

It comes with more buttons than you'd think is necessary, but it all depends on how and what you play. The rear buttons are ones that I didn't think I'd get any use out of, but whilst replaying the two Portal games, I found using them instead of the ABXY buttons was super comfortable and actually quicker to use. Colour me impressed! They're the only games I've used them on, but I will definitely keep them under consideration for more games in the future.

There are so many input options for the Steam Deck that all your bases are covered. There are two thumb sticks with buttons with touch detection, two trackpads with clickable buttons (although I wouldn't recommend that as they're so sensitive that using them to click also moves the pointer), eight buttons, four triggers, four paddles, and a touchscreen. There is also some built-in hotkeys so you can take a screenshot or bring up the onscreen keyboard, which has really come in handy.

My only problem is that some games don't like the onscreen keyboard. Football Manager, for example, is one of my favourite and most played games. I regularly get close to 1000 hours a year, if not more, sometimes. The keyboard loads up, but typing doesn't input anything into search boxes. It's quite annoying, as when loading up FM23 for the first time, I couldn't create my manager profile as I couldn't input a name. I had the same with Skyrim.

The Steam Deck is an emulation powerhouse, though, and handles a lot of games with ease. Others, like Kena: Bridge of Spirits, send the fans into overdrive. It's a beautiful game, so it obviously drives the GPU processing up more than some of the other games I've played. I'm still waiting to come across one that has stuttered, which is nice. However, I do have the screen to 40Hz to save on the battery a bit.

Connection and Software

For connections, there's Bluetooth 5.0 (not 5.2 - boo Value, boo!) for connecting controllers, keyboards, mice and headphones. And there's a WiFi-5 chip for some pretty good speeds if your home WiFi allows it.

One of my favourite parts of the Steam Deck is SteamOS. A custom OS based on an Arch-based Linux distro with the KDE Plasma desktop environment. It looks incredible. SteamOS 3.0 also introduced Proton, which Valve has customised for some added compatibility with their game library. Proton, if you don't know, is a Windows-compatibility layer that allows you to run Windows software on Linux, which is pretty essential for SteamOS to work as many games are not compatible with Linux natively.

The Steam Deck has two modes. Gaming mode and desktop mode. The gaming mode looks so good that Valve has since updated Big Picture mode on the PC version of Steam to match. Desktop mode is, well, a desktop. It's Linux, as it would be on a laptop or PC, which you can as the default option, and then open Steam via an app just like you would on a PC. Handy if you want to use the Steam Deck as a PC.

My only complaint is the lack of USB-C on the bottom. There's a single USB-C port at the top, which is okay when docked but also quite limiting. One on the bottom, like with the Nintendo Switch, would be ideal for the official Steam Deck dock, which, unfortunately, isn't an option. And for charging whilst holding it without having a cable hanging out the top - it just makes more sense to me that it comes out of the bottom. Having a secondary one underneath would have been an excellent addition, and it really surprised me that there wasn't one.

Conclusions

Overall, my girlfriend hates the Steam Deck. That's her exact words. "Ben, I hate that thing, and I hate that you have it because every time I see you, you're on it." She hates it. I love it. I was on the fence over whether I wanted or needed a Steam Deck, but the moment I held it in my hands, I knew this was the gaming companion I always wanted. I've played more PC games than I have in years. I've bought more recently than I have in years. The Steam Deck has reignited my love for desktop gaming whilst being a portable console.

Sorry Xbox and Nintendo Switch, unfortunately, I have a new love in my life, and it's the Steam Deck.

Rating: 5/5