![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
t1337duder
Gawd
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2014
- Messages
- 783
I didn't see a thread for this, so I'm putting my first impressions here and inviting others to share their first impressions as well.
- Initial Steam setup process kept failing for me. A little research revealed it doesn't play well with 5.0 Ghz Wifi during initial setup. Manually set it to 2.4 on my router, reset my Deck a few times, and it finally worked. I could imagine a bug like this causing people headaches.
- This device is made for faster internet connections. I'm in queue for Starlink (eta: 2023+) and live rurally with 25mbps internet. Doing anything takes ages. My premeditated solution was putting all my desired Steam Deck games onto my NAS and then copying it from there onto my Deck. This way it only took 20 minutes to put Elden Ring on my Deck. Unfortunately once the existing files were detected by Steam, it needs to download additional files for Proton or Linux, and then it needs to download controller configurations after that. You'd think that stuff would be quick but it adds an additional 10 minutes to each game I want to install due to my slow internet.
- The device performance is impressive. It can easily play (most) games that weren't made in the last couple years at highest settings. My first test game was Black Mesa, which isn't Steam Deck verified, but played very nicely at highest settings nonetheless. Arkham Knight runs well at max settings and looks breathtaking for a handheld title.
- This device is a tweaker's dream, particularly if you know your way around Linux. Yet even just in the Steam OS, a single button press brings up a menu that let's you adjust power usage as well as GPU clocks. This will confuse newbies but leaves a lot of flexibility in the hands of people who know how to use these settings, giving people the option to optimize the Deck's power and battery life on a per-game basis. This type of feature alone makes puts this device in a much different class than the Nintendo Switch.
- Compatability with old PC titles is impressive. I hopped into Max Payne 2 (was surprised to see Proton emulate the configuration launcher) and it played perfectly. The Steam controller's community configuration archive laid groundwork for this portable console as the emulated Steam Deck controls worked perfectly out of the gate, even with gyro aiming (which is a treat to use). Even non-Steam games I tested worked well, which exceeded my expectations.
- The joysticks are touch-sensitive, which allows you to add gyro aiming to games where you primarily use the joystick (also works well for FPS).
- My screen has light bleed at the bottom of my screen, which can be noticeable on dark content. My left joystick has an unpleasant "roughness" when the stick rubs along the top edge when pushing it forward and moving it left and right. Having scanned Reddit and discussions here for the last couple weeks, there appears to be no shortage of minor issues which indicates the QC is what I'd describe as "B grade". My experience returning items with B-grade QC is that you are likely to receive another item with a different minor flaw (e.g. similar to playing the panel lottery for certain high end displays). For this reason, I think I will keep my Deck despite these minor flaws.
- The fan noise has yet to bother me, and more often than not you can keep it quiet using per-game performance profiles if you felt inclined.
My overall impression is that this is a game-changing portable device, but only if you are willing to put forward the time and patience to properly set up and get working. For people who get off on that type of deal, the possibilities are truly endless for this device. It's no less than a satisfying culmination of all of Valve's prior successes and failures. Some aspects of the hardware leave a bit to be desired, but the open-ended software of the device gives users options to tune the device to their needs. The fact that it's not reliant on Apple or Microsoft makes it all the sweeter.
Thanks for reading and hopefully sharing.
- Initial Steam setup process kept failing for me. A little research revealed it doesn't play well with 5.0 Ghz Wifi during initial setup. Manually set it to 2.4 on my router, reset my Deck a few times, and it finally worked. I could imagine a bug like this causing people headaches.
- This device is made for faster internet connections. I'm in queue for Starlink (eta: 2023+) and live rurally with 25mbps internet. Doing anything takes ages. My premeditated solution was putting all my desired Steam Deck games onto my NAS and then copying it from there onto my Deck. This way it only took 20 minutes to put Elden Ring on my Deck. Unfortunately once the existing files were detected by Steam, it needs to download additional files for Proton or Linux, and then it needs to download controller configurations after that. You'd think that stuff would be quick but it adds an additional 10 minutes to each game I want to install due to my slow internet.
- The device performance is impressive. It can easily play (most) games that weren't made in the last couple years at highest settings. My first test game was Black Mesa, which isn't Steam Deck verified, but played very nicely at highest settings nonetheless. Arkham Knight runs well at max settings and looks breathtaking for a handheld title.
- This device is a tweaker's dream, particularly if you know your way around Linux. Yet even just in the Steam OS, a single button press brings up a menu that let's you adjust power usage as well as GPU clocks. This will confuse newbies but leaves a lot of flexibility in the hands of people who know how to use these settings, giving people the option to optimize the Deck's power and battery life on a per-game basis. This type of feature alone makes puts this device in a much different class than the Nintendo Switch.
- Compatability with old PC titles is impressive. I hopped into Max Payne 2 (was surprised to see Proton emulate the configuration launcher) and it played perfectly. The Steam controller's community configuration archive laid groundwork for this portable console as the emulated Steam Deck controls worked perfectly out of the gate, even with gyro aiming (which is a treat to use). Even non-Steam games I tested worked well, which exceeded my expectations.
- The joysticks are touch-sensitive, which allows you to add gyro aiming to games where you primarily use the joystick (also works well for FPS).
- My screen has light bleed at the bottom of my screen, which can be noticeable on dark content. My left joystick has an unpleasant "roughness" when the stick rubs along the top edge when pushing it forward and moving it left and right. Having scanned Reddit and discussions here for the last couple weeks, there appears to be no shortage of minor issues which indicates the QC is what I'd describe as "B grade". My experience returning items with B-grade QC is that you are likely to receive another item with a different minor flaw (e.g. similar to playing the panel lottery for certain high end displays). For this reason, I think I will keep my Deck despite these minor flaws.
- The fan noise has yet to bother me, and more often than not you can keep it quiet using per-game performance profiles if you felt inclined.
My overall impression is that this is a game-changing portable device, but only if you are willing to put forward the time and patience to properly set up and get working. For people who get off on that type of deal, the possibilities are truly endless for this device. It's no less than a satisfying culmination of all of Valve's prior successes and failures. Some aspects of the hardware leave a bit to be desired, but the open-ended software of the device gives users options to tune the device to their needs. The fact that it's not reliant on Apple or Microsoft makes it all the sweeter.
Thanks for reading and hopefully sharing.
. Doesn't look like there is a way to transfer via a direct SteamDeck to PC via USB-C. So I canceled the transfer, I think SSH has too much overhead because steam itself downloads at 60MB/s (now attempting Spider-man).