It is getting absurd at this poin. Just get a laptop and call it a day
I find it absolutely hilarious that every single company has a “Steam Deck killer” yet not a single one of them have any idea what made the Steam Deck popular, all they understand is PC handheld with controller (Lenovo is starting to catch on tho).
What are they missing thst the steam deck has? Price?
The steam deck the absolute most ergonomic handheld I’ve ever tried. It’s so fucking comfortable to game on. I love how they put the joystick the same level as the buttons where my thumb moves very naturally between the two. It has amazing touchpads. Great battery and performance. It’s just an amazing device.
Once I got a Steam Deck, going back to a Switch (for ToTK) feels super awkward for my right thumb. Like I have to hold it funny to adjust the camera and then shift to hit the buttons. Never noticed it before I got my Deck.
100%. I have a onexplayer and it’s very hard to play on it with the joystick directly under the buttons. I’m having to move my hand up and down constantly.
Price, software, hardware quality, touchpads, gyro, and a decent sized community
In short, Steam Deck was made so that the people at Valve would want to use the Deck. Meanwhile most of the competition is operating on “bigger numbers mean better product”.
I mean in a lot of ways they literally can’t compete on these things. Price/quality are difficult cause valve can sell their product at a loss (cause theyll make it back on steam sales), software is weird cause who is investing a whole OS to just sell hardware (valve can cause it’s directly tied to their marketplace).
Id give you TouchPad, but I don’t know what the patents are on those, cause I’ve only seen that design on valve products.
I don’t believe Valve is selling them at a loss, but they definitely have less pressure to profit because they are not a publicly traded company.
It’s not even about being publicly traded. I suspect they’re taking the console approach where you count on the attach rate (people buying steam games) to make you money.
Not people publicly traded or having to answer to investors is important because you don’t have to maintain forever increasing profits. You can take more risks and focus on your users needs. Most brands put out lame products because they are trying to keep a certain margin of profit.
My issue is power consumption. Where I live, I rely on solar panels and batteries, and the steam deck is less power hungry than a laptop with graphics card.
A pound heavier than a steam deck doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is in practice.
Also… Windows? Well it’s not good for handheld gaming right out of the gate.
I’m stoked about the removable controllers, though. I’m gimpy AF so even the steam deck is too heavy. I ended up with a Legion Go and love that I can use it with wireless controllers and the kickstand.
i agree. the reason steam deck and other handhelds work well is because of the smaller screen/resolution.
makes it light and games run ok due to the smaller resolution. a chonker like this completely defeats the purpose of a handheld imo.
Idk if I’d call the deck light.
compared to a laptop, I would. even a small one.
I’m not holding a laptop in front of my face while lounging on a sofa
mazel tov. enjoy.
edit: lol. i missed the “not” cause I read too fast. enjoy what you’re playing regardless.
Try the onexplayer and you’ll call it extremely light then. Lol
Just get a beer belly and rest your deck on it 👍
Every other PC handheld runs at 1080+. And while I agree 800p is the ideal resolution there’s clearly a market for higher resolution. Especially for those of us running lighter games.
oh I’m good where I am with the deck. in future I’m sure it will get smaller, not bigger.
that, and competitors can’t seem to come up with a decent trackpad the way steam deck has. so competitors will need more than a higher resolution and a huge fat monitor.
just my opinion, anyway.
I agree, steam decks res is high enough. It’s ppi destroys 4k screens and yet people think they want higher res screens??? All while complaining about battery life???
Absurdly massive and yet no space for some touchpads? 🤡
Yeah, how is it that none of these so-called “rivals” have even a single touchpad? I personally wouldn’t even consider a device that forces me to use a thumbstick as a mouse.
Gotta be honest, i hardly ever use them on the Deck.
If I don’t have it docked I use the right one for anything first-person. I hate aiming with a thumbstick, so it gets used as a mouse. The left one usually gets used as a hotbar.
nah babe just COVER your screen in fingerprints! everyone loves touch screens right??
“I appreciate covering my screen in fingerprints, obviously. But what really makes me happy is trying dozens of times to get my fat thumb to register on an interface designed for a mouse.”
- a quote by someone making hardware decisions at SteamDeck rival manufacturers, apparently.
The Legion Go has a touchpad. I think even the newer one that’s been announced has an (albeit much smaller) touchpad.
I’d even settle for a Lenovo-style nipple for mouse control.
I’ve never used the touchpads on mine outside of desktop mode. The vast majority of games have controller support.
It depends what you play. Strategy games benefit from the touchpads as mice.
Also I sometimes use the touchpads for touch menus.
Yes it does, but as I said, the games that necessitate trackpads are a super minority. That’s why they’re not included in most devices. They take up a lot of space. The Steam Deck is significantly wider than most of it’s competitors.
Lmfao. I didn’t even notice that. Damn. They didn’t even put the joystick next to the buttons on the right side like the steam deck for better ergonomic, they STILL put it under the buttons.
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The device in the OP is not the steam deck
Oops my b
Nah the steam decks are laptops but cheaper
Just get a little usbc > usbc/hdmi/usb and you can plug in a keyboard and mosue and then you have a gaming linux laptop for like $350
Show me another capable gaming laptop you can get for $350
You’re missing the actual point, at what point does it become cumbersome to hold a big ass screen in your hand that is also the controller?
The Steam Desk isn’t cumbersome tho, at least not more cumbersome than any laptop would be. I really struggle to see how any of the concerns in this thread are legit.
If there were competative gaming laptops that had the samr power as a Deck then people would be buying those instead of Steam Decks, that’s why they’re so popular.
TBH this thread sounds like a marketing campaign that idiot c-suies would assign to a troll farm instead of actually competing with their competitors.
You started your point by saying get this extra thing, to use extra things. It’s cumbersome.
It’s not a laptop, and the hardware sadly has been unreliable in my experience. It’s just a hobby piece of hardware, just less cool than the dedicated stuff like the Vita.
It’s cool that it has that flexibility, but it sadly isn’t a computer someone can regularly dedicate to unless they have all the extra time to sett it up on the go.
My Steam Deck has largely replaced my laptop, so there is some overlap, but I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. If you are carrying a keyboard & external screen to work on spreadsheets with you Steam Deck, you would be happier with a laptop.
I have a 60% Bluetooth keyboard and a relatively compact mouse that I can carry with me, but by that point a compact laptop would be more portable with a larger screen.
Using the on screen keyboard and built-in screen to edit spreadsheets would constitute a crime against humanity. Don’t do it, there’s so much more to live for.
The reason it’s replaced my laptop is that I mostly use my laptop for gaming, and the Steam Deck excels at that. Most places I would use a laptop for something else, I have ready access to surplus keyboards and mice. At my parents there is an old TV with HDMI, and I stashed a basic USB mouse and keyboard there over a decade ago. My Steam Deck and a small hub is all I need.
Because of the need of external devices, I kind of consider the Steam Deck a combination of a handheld and a really portable desktop tower.
Honestly it’d help if they switched to a touch friendly desktop interface like gnome. Yep! Its definitely a nice way to have your game on the go.
Sadly I notice that’s the 2 types of use cases. Commuter vs traveler. I take public transport often and I’d care too much about the steam deck being taken. Back when it was just me traveling to a place I’d be at for a while, like my fiancee’s it was nice.
Size means I need to be near an outlet usually, since ideally the goal is play bit more demanding games. Again, I feel it’s still too early for it to be the multitool it can be.
I really wanted to like the steam deck. I’ve had one for nearly a year now and I’ve yet to find a use for it. It’s been unplugged and probably dead on my tv stand for at least six months now.
I’ve had the opposite experience, I almost exclusively game on it because I can use it lying in bed. So much more comfortable than sitting at a desk for me.
Are you using it’s native power or streaming?
Native. Streaming doesn’t seem to work smooth enough on my home WiFi.
Honestly the deck is already pushing how big a handheld can be and still be portable/handheld. I don’t think I would want anything larger
Agreed, sometimes I even wish there is a “Deck Lite” model.
Yeah if they could find a way to shave even 30-50 grams that would make a big difference
Yah, it appears that 650g is the maximum weight im willing to hold for more than 30 minutes. Even then I’d rather use my ipad as a steam link.
Not big enough. I want to carry a 55’’ “mobile” gaming device with me. Make it bigger!
Hot take, but I see it having a market for people who just want to play on a tablet dedicated to gaming without futzing with peripherals. During break I stole my daughter’s tablet to play Gameboy games and it was possibly better than my deck (lighter weight, bigger screen, and shaders that give it a pixel grid w/ a GBC border frame).
This big thing is still not for me, though, as I’d prefer the versatility of going portrait mode because I would likely use it as a 3DS emulator depending on how good the touch is. DS screens fit quite comfortably on tablets in portrait mode. (Assuming I even have the disposable income, which I do not).
Someone was always going to do an XL version for people who want something thats more “portable gaming station” than “handheld”. I dont know why people seem to be bitching about having options.
My hands are tired just looking at it
😂
Yes, but how can you train your beautiful gamer biceps then? You can have all that beautiful extra train and stay in shape while playing your favorite games. A double win!
As much hilarious as smartphones, increasing screen size bit by bit over 6", but never reaching 7" cause that would make them tablets, I guess?
I agree. So big screen and controllers that Nintendo Switch looks like a lilliputian. Not so portable.
This is far too big, but still preferable over laptops if you just wanna game
This is also a killer tablet, actually
Linux tablets when?
Install bazzite! I have a Legion Go and I love it with Bazzite.
Does everything work on it running BazziteOS? Including hardware like TDP and wattage limit and all that? I’ve been thinking of the legion go. It looks nice
I also own a legion go and yes. Yes it does.
Nice, thank you so much for confirming. I’ll be getting one hopefully soon
Be warned that it’s big. The screen is beautiful and I really like that aspect of it, but I’m more comfortable with the ROG Ally x because of the size. That being said, I have small hands and I know others didn’t have this problem with it.
I don’t mind its size that much, I have a onexplayer 8.8" screen. It’s massive and heavy, too. I hate one thing about it, though. The placement of the right joystick. It’s very awkward and very hard to play any game that requires the joystick. I’m having to move my whole hand up and down constantly. Other than that, it’s beautiful. I love the 2560x1600 resolution. It’s stunning.
I’ll confirm what they said, everything works fine. I actually get better performance in some games versus windows.
Thank you <3
Some people have been running linux on surface tablets I think?
I don’t think 11 inch is absurdely big. That’s the screen size of the current iPad air.
The iPad probably weights less than half what this thing does, and probably takes up a lot less space.
Also it’s probably faster and almost certainly gets better battery life.
You’re probably right on the battery, as this thing has a tiny (compared to its screen and res) battery of 55wah
Such an Acer move to put a tiny battery in such a big (relatively) power hungry device. That’s what I hate the most about cheap PC manufacturers.
My next question is is this going to be built like an Acer as well?
Faster in what way?
iPads have ridiculously powerful cpus and gpus
If an iPad ran steamos and supported steam controller in some kind of wacky timeline it would clean up all the competition. This thing is like 400g for 13 inch oled m4 beast battery all day. The numbers squeezed into this thin sleek and light thing are pure insanity
Yea? Are the graphics of the ipad that good? They have iphone level chips right (except for the pro ones, but those are like $1000+)
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They have laptop level chips right now
There is no more iPad, just pro, air, mini, and the newest air has an M2 chip, though it’s a bit handicapped with one less GPU core
That being said, no, an M2 chip on an iPad Air is nowhere near dedicated GPU hardware like on these handhelds.
https://gfxbench.com/device.jsp?benchmark=gfx50&D=Apple+iPad+Air+6th+Gen+(M2)&testgroup=overall
As you said, maybe once you get into iPad Pro ranges with the M4 chip, but at that price point it’s way more.
Still very cool that it is even possible on arm chips in such slim devices. The future of handhelds might just be a lot slimmer an energy efficient if ARM really catches on.
Absolutely, I’m definitely not criticizing the devices, I have an iPad Pro and the thing is very impressive in terms of computing capability for such a thin and light device and especially considering its battery life.
My only gripe is with the restrictions on the OS. I’d love to be able to use Darwin on iPadOS the same way I do on Mac for local development tasks.
With Apple opening up restrictions so we can use things like https://apps.apple.com/us/app/utm-se-retro-pc-emulator/id1564628856 for emulating other OS’s it’s certainly a step in the right direction, but I do wish they would consider the other “pro” side of potential mobile computing users, one side is creative professionals (photo/video/audio/writing), but they don’t have that same support for the development side of the pro world.
Hell, I’d buy an 11 inch MacBook Pro or Air with an M series chip in a heartbeat, but it’d probably be easier if they just opened up the iPad to a local dev environment
If an iPad ran SteamOS, it would choke on running out of memory before Steam was done loading.
Thats both true and not really relevant, considering the iPad’s game library.
Edit: It would be really interesting to see an Apple-made portable game console, featuring it’s M-Series chips.
That’s why it is so frustrating, the OS sucks for many things and is very limiting but admittedly what it can do it does solid. Gaming isn’t one of these things
iPads have been overpowered for a long time. Long before Apple Silicon came around.
True, but iPads don’t have inbuilt controllers, and packing one would inherently make it less portable than a deck. I think if you’re making a portable gaming system, your maximum screen size is sharply constrained by the form factor of the controller around it.
This device is basically a windows tablet with detatchable controllers. This will probably me more portable than if the controllers were always connected.
