One Week Later: Steam Deck First Impressions

 The Middleman's Opinion

One Week Later: Steam Deck First Impressions

Ever since its first conception I wanted to get a Steam Deck but after seeing its price tags and seeing that it was sold out on the first day pre-orders were available I decided to hold off on buying one. So I gave it a good year to be in production and at the end of December I figured it was now or never as the cheapest model had once again become available for purchase. As always before making the purchase I did a bunch of research on the Steam Deck to make sure I was getting what I needed out of it. I think a good way to look at it, it's a handheld gaming laptop as much as it's a handheld console. It's as cheap as most basic office laptops, it can play games at 30fps-60fps depending on the titles and it's probably the cheapest way to get into gaming on pc currently. 

 

 So How Does It Stack Up Against Gaming PC's And The Nintendo Switch? 

Well I'm glad you asked. I've had years to experience the Switch V2 and a few months to experience my previous daily handheld driver the Switch Lite. I think for the most fair comparison's to draw you would pit the Steam Deck against the Switch V2 or the Lite. In terms of screen quality the Switch OLED will destroy the Steam Deck in image quality due to how OLED's work. However I stand by the statement that the Steam Deck offers much more value for what it does and doesn't try to be. The Steam Deck isn't just another handheld, it's a full blown gaming computer. With a 1280x800p screen in handheld mode this little dude can absolutely crush the Switch in performance on virtually any game. It can't quite emulate Switch or Wii U games extensively yet however I truly believe a Steam Deck second generation or even a third generation of its family would probably have the power to do so. Especially if you consider that other handheld gaming pc's are popping up with a more powerful APU that can run RPCS3 (PS3 Emulator) games significantly more stable than the Steam Deck. So if you're wanting to play Switch games on handheld, you're probably better off just buying a cheap Switch Lite or Switch V2 and buying the games you want to play. 

If you don't care much for performance outside of 30fps, the Switch V2, Lite or OLED models would be up your alley. If you want the crispiest image quality I would go for the Switch OLED. If performance is something that matters to you I would consider the cheapest Steam Deck model then work on buying accessories to better encapsulate your experience. It's also important to remember that while the Steam Deck will get better performance on average vs the Switch, the battery life will be drained on nearly any game due to how much power is used for the Steam Deck. If you're just using it as a standard pc, it will have around 4-8 hours of battery life. If you're gaming on it that number can go drastically down to just under 3 hours. Luckily charging the battery is actually rather fast and only takes me about 2 hours to get a full charge from 15%. It is important to note there is accessories that can help with battery life. Such as charging banks to charge at home then take with you on the go to charge your devices anywhere without the need to plug the bank in since it has a huge battery. They can be a bit costly but browsing amazon you can find some amazing products. Just make sure it has a port that can charge at 45W as that's required to charge and game at the same time. There's also battery packs you can velcro onto the back of your Steam Deck and plug it into the Type C charging port which extends your batteries life by around an hour or two when gaming. You can also extend your batteries life by manually adjusting it's GPU's clock speed in the side bar. Usually the safest bet is 1200 as the GPU usually hovers around 1100-1300 at all times. The spikes to higher clocks can shorten your battery life by around 30 minutes. If you install Decky Loader, which is a plugin loader which can run community made and verified safe plugins that can also help your Steam Deck's battery life, increase performance and also offer better customization! 

So, Which One Is More Enjoyable?

So with all of that which device do I prefer after owning the Steam Deck for over a week now? I will say what I said earlier. I enjoy the Steam Deck as a means to take my Steam library wherever I want. I enjoy the Nintendo Switch for Nintendo Switch games. So I enjoy them both but I have far more of a use case with my Steam Deck considering I already own over 300 games and half of them are playable start to finish on the Steam Deck. 

But That's Not All 

This is just the surface of the Steam Deck. The true Steam Deck experience comes from the last part you can do with it along with promised features coming from Valve that will likely release later this year. You can dual boot Windows 10/11 through a wide variety of methods and run Windows 10/11 on the Steam Deck itself. Allowing you to play games that have Anti-Cheat / Tampering services built into the game. Considering any game with a anti-cheat is immediately not supported by Steam OS outside of very basic level anti-cheats. If it's a kernel based anti-cheat like Battle Eye or Easy Anti Cheat, goodluck running games that use them. But anti-cheat that run at the surface level just scanning the games memory such as Valve Anti Cheat, will run great on Steam OS. 

So the ability to run Windows 10/11 on the Deck will be a huge help, I mean you can technically load any OS onto the Steam Deck but only Steam OS and Windows 10/11 have officially supported drivers from Valve. 

So, The Final Verdict?

If you want a experience that's nearly-guaranteed to work on any game released for it and you're okay at playing said game with at 720p 30fps and without any real customization towards changing around graphics settings then the Nintendo Switch will be your best bet for a handheld console. It is still the king on handheld "console" gaming. It has a strong battery and the OLED variant will allow you to play outdoors in moderate sunlight conditions. 

If you want a experience that works on a majority of titles but requires slightly more work to see what's compatible, if you need to run the game in a compatible mode or generally have more time to tinker with your games to get them running, changing around settings in-game to best suit you as the player for performance and can run a majority of games at 800p30fps-40fps and some older games and unique indie games at 800p60fps while in handheld mode then the Steam Deck will be the best device for you. 

The best way to figure out what you want is to think about the pro's and con's of any device you decide to buy. The Switch is a good gaming handheld console but lacks a lot of features that proper computers have. The Steam Deck has less limitations but still has its own issues when it comes to compatibility and battery life. A decent gaming laptop that costs around $900-$1200 USD will out perform the Steam Deck in performance and battery life but isn't nearly as portable and typically requires a external mouse to play most games meaning you will mostly be gaming on a table, desk or other flat surface whilst the Steam Deck and Switch can be taken virtually anywhere. 

Then comes the prices of the device you decide to buy. 

• The cheapest Switch which is the Lite model is $200 USD and lacks many features that the Switch V1,V2 and OLED models keep.
• The Switch V2 is $300 USD and the Switch OLED is $400 USD. 
• The Steam Deck's base model is $400 USD
• Decent Gaming Laptops range from $700-$1500 but generally can be found for $900-$1200. 
  

So for me the clear winner is the Steam Deck. But it may not be the winner for you. However with all of that said I hope you can enjoy the rest of your week and stay safe.

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