Biggest improvement is probably the 30-50% increase in battery life. The deck already gets much better battery life than the ROG Ally or Lenovo Go (especially on low demanding games, it can get 2-4x the battery life), so this will further cement it as the best handheld PC for actually playing without the device plugged in.
this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
275 points (98.9% liked)
Steam
10023 readers
32 users here now
Steam is a video game digital distribution service by Valve.
Steam News | Steam Beta Client news
Useful tools:
SteamDB
SteamCharts
Issue tracker for Linux version of Steam
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
The deck already gets much better battery life than the ROG Ally or Lenovo Go
That's mostly because it's significantly less powerful. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, it's just a different approach to mobile gaming.
I'm usually not far from a power cable/outlet, and I usually stream from desktop at home, so power consumption isn't an issue for me, personally.
I mean running the same game at the same settings/resolution/etc the Deck will get significantly better battery life. You can offset this somewhat by using task manager to close background processes in windows, but it still takes a lot more power to run stuff on the ROG Ally than the deck.
An example from Ally reviews was Stardew valley ran at 6-8w on the deck, but was pulling 16-20w on the Ally with same settings. Using task manager to close windows processes for the Ally down to the 12-15w range, but that's still a huge jump. This isn't even taking into consideration that you can tweak deck performance settings to run Stardew valley at a much lower power setting, I've seen people go as low as 3.8w giving them 10+ hours of battery life.
I mean running the same game at the same settings/resolution/etc the Deck will get significantly better battery life.
Yes, that is, as I said, because it is much less powerful.
I keep getting tempted to buy this or the LCD version, but I don't even play on the go. Anybody with a powerful desktop (mine is 6800xt) have a steam deck? Do you prefer one over the other!
I have a 6600xt and a Steam Deck. I don’t really prefer either, and end up playing both.
Indie titles I’ll play on the Deck, and AAA titles I’ll play mostly on my pc but occasionally swap to the Deck if I’m in bed or something. I also now pretty much exclusively emulate on the Deck instead of my pc.
Spider-man, for example, I played through on both. I did main story missions on my pc for the graphical fidelity during cutscenes or more cinematic sequences, while all the side quests, collectibles, and challenges I did on the Steam Deck.
How powerful is it for emulation? I have a razer kishi for my s22, and emulate various consoles like gbc, gba, nes, snes, etc. I assume the deck would be more powerful than that, but is it powerful enough to emulate switch? I currently emulate switch on my desktop using yuzu.
Yup, there are a few exceptions with games that just don’t run well on Yuzu regardless of specs, but in general it runs Switch great!
You should look into EmuDeck. I’ve been emulating for years and never experienced anything make it all so easy like EmuDeck does, it’s wild. Especially all the hotkeys it sets up for you, for stuff like save states.
I mostly play GBA, DS, 3DS, and PSP, but I also emulate GameCube, PS2, WiiU, and Switch too and without issue.
Check out RetroGameCorps’ video if you’re curious. It goes over everything and is literally the video that the EmuDeck website itself links to.
The pause functionality is awesome. You pause/suspend the deck with one button. Then whenever you come back to the game you hit the same button and boom right where you left off. Perfect for short sessions here and there. I've completed more games on the Deck in the past year than I have on my desktop in the past 5 years.
I mostly game stream to mine but I still get AAA mileage out of it when there's no network available. I've been chipping away at TotK, streamed from my desktop.
How good does streaming work? I have a steam link box attached to my tv on an ethernet cable, and it's always hit or miss, more miss than hits, so i've given up using it. How does steam deck compare to that?
I don't use the Steam Remote Play thing, I use Moonlight. Also streaming works better outside my home than in it, I think perhaps my router is insufficient
Hey, I don’t have a powerful desktop any more, however I opted for the steam deck over a new desktop just for lifestyle reasons. I don’t have very much free time, and what free time I have isn’t spent entirely on gaming. For me the steam decks secret weapon is that it goes from ‘off’ to ‘gaming’ in seconds, then if I’m needed, off again in seconds even mid cutscene, then when I am free again I press the button and I’m resumed. I can get some gameplay in a precious spare moment which I could never get in if I had to boot my pc, launch steam, install updates etc. it’s too slow. Also I can play anywhere in the house, which means I’m not glued like a recluse to the pc upstairs. With a pair of open backed headphones I can still interact and talk to people in the room with me, whilst not disturbing someone watching the tv (I recommend the Koss KSC75s, super cheap, sound good and they fit in the weird hollow in the back of the deck case when you’re not using them). I do have a usb c dock with connected screens and mouse and keyboard which I could plug the deck into for a desktop style pc experience, it works well but I don’t often plug it in. It’s just better to play on the sofa. For me it’s the only way I’d find any time at all to game. 10 years ago: different story, but now, if I had a desktop pc it would just gather dust.
You want one cause everyone is talking about it. You already said
you dont need it.
Mine sits next to my other
computers, and I dont really
use it, and Yes, I dare say
it, I put win11 on it!!!!
I use it to play roms and
test linux distros.
I have a 8 inch laptop
for bed, that perfect.
Light, not to bright.
easy on the eyes.
I love my steam-deck.
Its great for those long
streaks in the bathroom.
Ill never sell it-
Yeah I'm a sucker for small electronics. I have a GPD Win that wouldn't turn on anymore, but liked it when I had it. I stopped using it after a while for whatever reason, and it's not turning on now.
I love my steam deck, I also just got it like 2 months ago. If I knew this was coming, I might've waited. Either way, my girlfriend is probably going to get a cool hand me down in the next couple months.
When I purchased mine recently, I resigned myself to seeing them being given away for free later that day.
So who wants to buy my 512gb LCD? 😅
Same
*Deck
thanks, I didn't notice
Steam hog
CRANK THAT HOG! AROOOOOOOO!
So glad I held off on buying one before. Now if I do decide to get one, I'm definitely gonna go for a beefy 1TB model.
Can you play all your normal steam games on a steam deck?
Pretty much everything but some online multiplayer games. Destiny, COD, and a few others use this anticheat that's not compatible.
But virtually everything else, yes.
not all AFAIK. usually it's specified on the game's listing if it's compatible with steam deck.
I have a few games on steam that my poor computer won’t run. I’ll have to look on the pages to see if they’ll work. Thank you
Check ProtonDB for an accurate picture
SteamDB also has that option now AFAIK.
About 99%.
It doesn't look to bad, and knowing I don't currently have a Steam Deck I'd love to get one at some stage.
I have an OLED TV and one of the warnings on it is 'WHATEVER YOU DO DON'T TRANSPORT HORIZONTALLY ALWAYS VERTICAL'
Really hoping this doesn't have that issue
Oled works fine on phones doesn't it?
Shit man I don't know, I'm clearly not that well informed about handheld OLEDs
Fuck yo warning
Puts TV in jeans pocket
That's because the oled tvs are so thin you risk bending the display if you lay it down. A thick mobile device provides plenty of support. The display itself isn't affected by orientation.
That's just how TVs are, it relates to the expected stresses on the panel and body. It doesn't support itself well in any way except standing up.
Luckily this is not an issue on handhelds!
Well the Switch OLEDhas never had an issue with that so i would assume neither would this