In recent years, gaming on the go has become increasingly popular. Mobile games and portable consoles like the Nintendo Switch have taken the market by storm. However, Valve, the company behind the popular PC gaming platform Steam, has now thrown its hat in the ring with its latest product: the Steam Deck. In this review, we will take a closer look at the Steam Deck and see if it lives up to the hype.
Design and Build Quality
The Steam Deck is a sleek and stylish device that looks like a cross between a tablet and a controller. It features a 7-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1280 x 800, and it also has a built-in controller with analog sticks, D-pad, and buttons. The device is relatively lightweight at 669 grams, and it feels solid and well-built. One of the standout features of the Steam Deck is its ergonomic design. The device fits comfortably in your hands, and the buttons and controls are placed in a way that feels natural and intuitive. The back of the device has a textured grip that provides additional support and stability during gameplay.
Under the hood, the Steam Deck is powered by a custom AMD APU that features a quad-core Zen 2 CPU and an RDNA 2 GPU. The device comes in three different storage configurations: 64GB eMMC, 256GB NVMe SSD, and 512GB NVMe SSD. It also has 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, which should be more than enough for most games. In terms of performance, the Steam Deck is impressive. It can run most modern games at 720p with no problems, and even more demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 can run at around 30fps with some tweaks to the graphics settings. The device also has a built-in fan that keeps it cool during gameplay, so you don’t have to worry about overheating.
Software and Compatibility
The Steam Deck runs on Valve’s custom SteamOS 3.0, which is based on the Linux operating system. This means that not all games will be compatible with the device out of the box, as many games are designed to run on Windows. However, Valve has stated that they are working with developers to ensure that as many games as possible are compatible with the Steam Deck. In addition to SteamOS, the Steam Deck also has a desktop mode that allows you to install and run other operating systems like Windows or Linux. This opens up a whole world of possibilities, as it means that you can use the device for more than just gaming.
One of the potential drawbacks of the Steam Deck is its battery life. Valve claims that the device can last up to 8 hours on a single charge, but this will depend on the intensity of the games you’re playing. More demanding games will drain the battery faster, so you may need to carry a charger with you if you’re planning on using the device for extended periods. The Steam Deck comes with a USB-C charging port that supports fast charging, so you can get back to gaming quickly if the battery does run out.
The Steam Deck is priced starting at $399 for the 64GB model, $529 for the 256GB model, and $649 for the 512GB model. While this may seem expensive compared to other portable gaming devices, it’s important to remember that the Steam Deck is essentially a full-fledged PC that can run most modern games.
