My thoughts on Steam Deck:

- I always have much better and more important ways to spend my money than to spend several hundreds of dollars on a handheld console.

- I don't have a large library on Steam. as most of my PC games are on GOG, so Steam Deck would not have that much value for me for that reason.

- Trying to play FPS and/or TPS games and/or RTS games without a mouse, that makes for a terrible gameplay experience, so those games would not be worth playing on Steam Deck (with the exception of FPS/TPS games in which the devs build-in aimbots for controller users, which is quite common in these modern times, and which makes using a mouse the worst option in those controller-aimbot-based games, so that partially thwarts my initial point in this paragraph).

- I have no idea what owners of a Steam Deck device are supposed to do at the time when their analog thumbsticks either wear out, and/or start to suffer from stick drift. Does Steam offer an official solution to those problems, so that customers can easily replace their thumbsticks, and also the potentiometers parts below the thumbsticks?

If not, then wow, then they'd be stuck with a garbage device, and if that is so, then what a colossal scam the Steam Deck device is! Sure glad I have experience with knowing about those kinds of issues, and therefore I could never get scammed as a result of not knowing about them. But no doubt, most people can & will be and I'm sure it happens all the time.

I'm looking at the bottom placement on the Steam Deck. They line up horizontally, when a lot of portable systems go for vertical alignment of buttons. I don't own a Switch, but I know the detachable controller buttons line up vertically. This means that everything could be really cramped for people with big boy hands (very unlikely) or the analog buttons will be out of my reach (possibly true.) It's one of the reasons why I won't mail order purchase game systems. If I can't check out the controllers in a store to ensure that they are just the right size, I don't need to own it.

You can actually get switch controllers with the joysticks line up horizontally. I bought this one in the link below.

https://www.amazon.com/Gammeefy-Controller-Replacement-Controler%EF%BC%8CSwitch-Controllers/dp/B09QPWT86S/ref=sr_1_60?crid=GRDS3F6ZHLL7&keywords=switch+controllers&qid=1697677884&sprefix=switch%2Caps%2C169&sr=8-60

It does make the switch bigger than it needs to be. Even with this controller my hands fall asleep, but at least they are not aching while playing. lol That is one reason why I don't enjoy handhelds too much. Just not comfortable for me.

Yes.
https://ifixit.com/Device/Steam_Deck

I don't have big hands and have no problem with the button layout. It took me bit to get used to the size though. I guess it's true for anyone used to hold a controller, suddently it's 30cm wide instead of ~15cm.

I do understand your sentiment but want to make clear that you (or anyone alse really) want to run any other Operating System, there's no issue in that, I've run Linux Mint on a SD Card for a while without issues.
As for buying, a Steam account is indeed needed unless using reselers.

I also want to add that the Deck went in sale last year with the base 64GB model going for around 350Euros.

was just going to say the same thing. i have small hands and, apart from the deck being wider than i thought, it is actually quite comfortable to hold and use

AMD 6800U handhelds have about 20% better performance than the Steam Deck for native PC games. Depends on the TDP as well, of course. 7840U Will obviously have a slightly better performance than 6800U.

When it comes to PS3 emulation, the 6800U is literally 3 times better than the Steam Deck, because the CPU in the Steam Deck sucks. Something like God of War 3/Ascension will get ~30 FPS on 6800U, while Steam Deck will get about 8.
The Steam deck is significantly cheaper. That's its main advantage. Valve prints money passively, so they can afford to sell cheap. Everyone else has to actually make profit on the hardware.

I am curious about something in particular, to anyone that has a Steamdeck.

I cannot find any information past 1 year ago, regarding the physical controls working with games when SteamOS is removed and replaced with other Linux flavors.

I read about the linux kernel being updated to v6.1+. May or may not allow for the built in controller to function. Really curious if anyone could tell me or test out a few os like, Ubuntu, Kubuntu or other debian flavors. Trying out Batocera would be of interest as well.


For context, I like x86 machines, but all the competiors I have tried are garbage.(rant/warning begins)
2 top brands use knockoff components, GPD and One Next. The screens are trash. The batteries bloat. The ports and chips for those ports are non standardized(and fail in many ways). Bad customer service to string you along to get you to give up trying. Plus crap designs. Remove able controllers....using bluetooth....while physically attached(insert facepalm reaction). No bios/cmos batteries. So when your battery bloats, you have to reset your bios every time.....


FYI they give youtubers the true high quality samples, then change online store specs for mass market versions. To get high marks from youtuber reviews, while selling trash after it hits the masses.

I have a Steamdeck and I can say that it depends on the game. Some games that have properly resizeable interface elements fit perfectly on the deck. Luckly Steam/Valve does a good job curating what games earn the Steamdeck verified checkmark. Basically any game with the green, verified checkmark will have readable interface elements.

I see alot of people talking about other consoles that have better screens and better APUs. The problem is that all of that comes at the cost of battery life. If all you want is a brick you can play on for 1 hour, then sure get a 1080p or higher screen with double the APU power. Steam put out the Steamdeck because the AMD APU they had available at the time, turned out being staggerinly power efficient at 7W-10W.

Also I've never had a more comfortable handheld than the Steamdeck. I own a retroid pocket 2, nintendo ds, 3ds, 2ds, sony vita, and an anbernic 350. I also tried some controlers for the android and iphone, and none of them are as comfortable when you're in your bed playing.

The Steamdeck was designed to be easily fixable and replaceable parts are available from ifixit. Just look at how many parts you can replace for yourself. I also remember seeing that hall sensor thumbsticks(that won't develop drift) are available for the steamdeck, but they don't seem to be available from ifixit...

That's the issue. None of the handhelds you listed where ever comfortable using.

Hows the heat while playing with the deck?

I played it over the summer and It never bothered me. The controls were always room/hand temperature. The battery and screen are the only parts that get warmer, but they were always warmer, never hot.

Other than some android/iphone controllers that I tried, yes the consoles I own are much smaller form factor, than the steamdeck. In fact, I think some/all are smaller than the screen of the deck. :))

I never got to try out a Nintendo Switch or a Retroid Pocket 3.

I would be interested in one of these gaming handhelds, but most are considerably more than what I'm looking for.

My preferences would be something like the following:
* Size: Small enough to fit in my purse.
* Controls: Gaming controls, but also a physical keyboard.
* Tech specs: Something like my "small" laptop would be quite suitable for my purposes. In particualr, I'd like it to be fanless, use solid state storage, and an x86 processor (likely something like a Celeron or Atom) would be preferred to run games compiled for x86. Needs good battery life; that's more important than performance for me.
* OS: Need to be able to run Linux. Many of the programs I use (I'm thinking the likes of gcc/clang, rustc, python3, node) are easiest to install and use in a Linux environment. A hard requirement is not being restricted to what the manufacturer would let me run. (Yes, sometimes I might want to try a bit of code while away from my computer.) Android *might* be acceptable, provided I can run termux, though not ideal, (For Windows I'd need WSL to be comfortable.)
* It needs to be cheap; that steam deck is too expensive for what I'd be looking for (and is also too big and has higher specs than what I'd want).

None of the handhelds mentioned here are what I'd be looking for; they're all too expensive, too big, and target higher performance than what I'm looking for.

This right here, dismisses 99.99% of all available handleds. I think only GPD has anything that would fit this requirement.

Honestly, you would be better served by a small laptop and a small bluetooth/wireless controller.