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).
this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2025
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Steam Deck
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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.
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.
Try the onexplayer and you'll call it extremely light then. Lol
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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.
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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.
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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
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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?
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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.
Not big enough. I want to carry a 55'' "mobile" gaming device with me. Make it bigger!
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!
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
Give it one of those detachable cardboard keyboards and it it would be an overgrown Surface competitor.
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.
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