I Purchased a Steam Deck: My Thoughts

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Over the last six months or so, I have turned on my desktop PC probably no more than once a week. Part of the reasoning behind this lack of desktop PC use is the summer heat. The Ryzen 9 5900X CPU I have in my desktop runs like a blast furnace sometimes, and I certainly do not want the additional heat when it's already 30+ degrees Celsius.

My daily driver has been a MacBook Air M4 base model instead, which has been perfect for writing notes for tabletop RPG sessions and editing the occasional bit of footage for a project that's underway.

Jess, my partner, enjoys a handheld experience over a desktop or a console one. So it seemed like a good time to get a Steam Deck. This occurred after seeing my friend and co-host playing Baldur's Gate 3 on his LCD Steam Deck. I was amazed at how well it was running while plugged into a TV. Seeing this made me want to try one out too, so I purchased the 512GB OLED model.

Having now been using it for the last few days, I can say that it's quickly become a permanent fixture in our gaming setups. I purchased the Deck with the dock as well, and it's plugged into our living room TV with a controller plugged in, which is how I will use it, as I find I am unable to hold onto the deck for too long without fatigue in my arms and wrists.

The fact that the Deck can run games like Baldur's Gate 3, The Witcher 3, and Red Dead Redemption 2, among so many other games in our Steam libraries, amazes me. Also, being able to play smaller games like the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters, and even more recently, Slay the Spire, makes it such a versatile machine. To me, this purchase makes so much more sense in place of a Nintendo Switch 2 currently...

I do believe the Steam Deck's official Dock by Valve is a little steeply priced at £69.99, especially when there are 3rd party docks that can be found on Amazon for a 3rd of the cost of the official dock. Lesson learned on that front.

The fact that it comes packaged in a carry case instead of a box full of packaging is awesome to see. It means that I don't need to go out and spend more money on getting a carry case on top of buying the Deck and dock.

I think overall Valve has done an amazing job with the Steam Deck, and it seems that the emergence of competitors proves that. More competition is good for everyone, and I am interested to see how Xbox's & Asus's new handheld ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X might be the next step up needed. Shame the competitors use Windows though...

  • Do you have a Steam Deck? 
  • What are your thoughts on it?
  • Do you enjoy using it?
  • Do you use it handheld or docked?

Let me know in the comments :)

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