Based on a photo by Liam Dawe (Wikimedia Commons)
I recently bought a Steam Deck. Living across the country from my friends and family means I spend many hours sitting in an airport. That seemed like it would be less bad if I could bring my whole Steam library with me.
I purchased the OLED model with 512 GB of onboard storage. It has been a phenomenal gaming machine, perfect in every way but one.
Recap
The Steam Deck is a handheld computer. It runs SteamOS, a Debian 8 variant customized for running Steam. It uses Proton as a compatibility layer to play Windows games. The computer comes with a full controller and 16:10 1280x800 OLED screen attached. Imagine a large, heavy Switch.
Game library and compatibility
The value of any console is its library. Gaming hardware is, first and foremost, a way to play great software. The Nintendo Switch uses CPU chips from 2012, but I bought one because it had Mario, Zelda and Super Smash Bros.
Judged by its library, the Steam Deck excels. It plays 70% of the tens of thousands of games on Steam. It puts the majority of PC gaming on a handheld.
As a longtime PC gamer, this is delightful. PC gaming offers many fantastic games unavailable on other portables.
For example, as a huge From Software fan, I loved playing the majority of Dark Souls II on the Deck. It felt amazing to have a large, compelling virtual world on a handheld finetuned with From’s best-in-class gameplay. The game was head-and-shoulders better than other games on Switch or mobile, and it’s the worst Dark Souls.
Best of all, I did not have to buy any new games to have something to play on Deck. The Steam Deck worked with the majority of my existing Steam library on day one. It’s a huge value-add for longtime PC players.
For those with a large library in other launchers like the Epic Games Store or GOG, you can install those launchers with community tools.
Proton
The Steam Deck offers wide compatibility because it uses Proton, a compatibility layer for running Windows games on Linux. After a large download on day one of owning my Deck, Proton had most games running out of the box flawlessly.
Dark Souls II ran at a buttery-smooth 60 frames per second. It worked perfectly out of the box, except for having to sync my own save.
The only things Proton can’t handle are games that rely on Windows-only anti-cheat tools, like Destiny 2 and some Call of Dutys.
Mods
I also missed the rich library of mod tools on Windows. Many PC games have invaluable community mods. Skyrim, for example, can be almost modded into a new game. One of my favorite games, Persona 4 Golden, runs much smoother with the Community Enhancement Pack.
Many of these tools are unfortunately Windows-only. You can try to get them going on the Steam Deck using Wine, but it’s a lot of fiddling for something that was already fiddly.
Software
SteamOS is good. Valve has built enough features into Steam that it works as a full OS. I especially like the custom controller setups.
For things SteamOS can’t do, the Deck lets you drop down into the KDE desktop environment. At that point, the Deck just becomes a Linux computer. This was useful when I installed Maestral to sync my saves between my Deck and PC.
There are a few rough edges, though. I couldn’t get my Bluetooth headphones to connect to the Deck when in SteamOS mode.
The other major rough edge is the Deck’s complexity. I navigated it fine because I’m a longtime PC gamer who’s used Linux before. Less technical users may struggle with this. A Steam Deck requires all the fiddling of PC gaming, which is not insignificant, plus Proton compatibility issues, plus Linux nonsense. Put it this way: if I were buying a console for a kid under 10, I would buy them a Switch.
Hardware
The Steam Deck’s hardware is almost perfect. I love its large, bright OLED display. The colors and brightness look great in the dark and outdoors. The resolution is the absolute lower bound of acceptable for modern gaming, but it works. Probably helps performance a lot.
The hardware controls are excellent. Buttons are clicky and receive input correctly. The sticks are responsive and accurate. I downloaded an emulator and used Super Smash Bros. Melee to really put the controller through its paces. The Steam Deck never missed a beat.
Battery life is decent. A full charge gets you a couple hours, more if you turn off WiFi, turn down the high brightness and play less intensive games.
There is also one touchpad on each side of the screen. These can be used as analog sticks, but also to move the mouse. I found them excellent for using the Deck in desktop mode.
Like I said, almost perfect.
Weight
The Steam Deck is too big and heavy. If that doesn’t bother you, great, but this thing is just a little too heavy for long gaming sessions.
I found that if I played it for too long, the weight of the console compressed a nerve in my hand, cutting off feeling in my pinky and half my ring finger. There are many threads on /r/SteamDeck about ways to solve “arm tingles”, but few solutions other than “have good posture and take breaks”.
The weight is one of the few ways the Steam Deck is strictly worse than traditional PC gaming. The Xbox One controller I use to play games on my PC is incredibly light and never cuts off circulation in my hands. This is because, obviously, an Xbox controller is plastic, a couple circuit boards and two AA batteries. A Steam Deck is an entire computer.
My current workaround is to just not play long sessions on the Deck, which is a shame. Sometimes you want to get lost in a big gaming world, you know?
Almost perfect
The Steam Deck is so close to being the perfect gaming handheld. If Valve can shave a few pounds off this thing, they would have the ideal portable gaming machine.
Still, I’m happy to have purchased one. I can’t wait until my first flight back home. Taking the Lands Between on the plane with me will be worth the price of admission.