Steam Deck

I think realistically the most important thing is how big your steam library is. In general, I've hated handhelds. The DS was great but the screen was too small and I've never been motivated to use it to try new experiences but I've never had that issue with the steam deck. I think it's due to (a) the library size (b) the first attempt at an all digital console (c) the ease of emulating my physical retro library to quickly jump on my impulses to play them.

I really had every reason to hate this since it was an impulse FOMO purchase which I could afford but probably should not have.

Is there actually a way to see how many hours you've used it for?

Having no idea how much I've used it total, I'd still say it's a good purchase.

I don't have one, so I can't speak for myself.

But my coworker, who works later into the night (before I take over the night shift) seems to falll asleep playing it most days.

While I disagree with this on a professional level, I'm not about to stir the pot if his work is getting done.

So, I don't really play much, tbh. But that's just me. I go through, like, phases where I play video games a lot for several weeks, and then don't touch a game for several months. What I can say is, with the exception of TOTK on switch, the only thing I use is the SD. It's the best game (or really, tech in general) purchase I've ever made. I'm poor as a MF, and I'd make that purchase over again if I had the option. Absolutely zero regrets. It's perfect, and I love that I have it when I want it.

I use it several times a week usually. But I use it almost exclusively docked. I got mine to be a bridge to a newer laptop or pc. I have an old gaming laptop that I primarily would just hook up to a TV. I play almost all games with a controller if I can.

So it works like the Switch for me. I can easily move it from the living room tv to the bedroom if I want.

When I get the itch to play a game I'll play the Deck an hour or 2 I've the course of a few days until I beat the game or I'm distracted. If I'm not doing that the deck can sit dormant for months at a time. I'm not a huge gamer but I am a tech enthusiast. I think it's worth it but I can't get into a lot of games. I have trouble finding games that get me hooked. I'd like to play Jedi Survivor at some point but not at the current price.

I use it almost everyday. I'm getting through my steam library more so than I was on my PC. It makes me want to play more games. I also use it to play emulators which with a bigger screen and power it's better than my switch. I dock it to my TV and take it on the go and recently on the plane.

I use it pretty much daily since I got it last year. Ive predominantly using it to clear my backlog of games that ive accumulated over the years.

In the past 12 months, ive finished GTA 4

GTA 5

Red Dead Redemption 2

Sniper Elite 3

Sniper Elite 4

Metro 2033

Final Fantasy 15

Fallout 4 + DLCs

Fallout New Vegas + DLCs

Bastion

Bomber Crew

Guacamelee

Halo Spartan Strike

Halo Spartan Assault

Portal

Portal 2

Star Wars Jefi Fallen Order

I'm currently playing Doom 2016 and its amazing.

Plenty of other games to get through like Cyberpunk, Witcher 3 and maybe another play through of Skyrim and Fallout 3. Ive played through them several times on Xbox but I want to do it again on Steam Deck.

Sometimes every day, sometimes not for a week or so. I usually play with it docked to my tv, I have a wireless mouse and 2 wireless controllers. I get interested in certain games I think would be fun playing on the TV, like coop games and right now Just Cause 3. I also got back into emulators, they are fun on the deck and TV.

I play for maybe an hour or 2 every couple of days. I recently docked it to the living room TV and now the wife plays a couple of hours a week now too.

Probably the best gaming hardware purchase I've ever made. Play weekly, take it with us on vacation so we can hook it to hotel tvs and not put up with cable or smart tv BS. Absolutely love it.

I bought a decent dock for it so it kinda spends more time plugged into TV than not but yeah had one for about 6 months still use it.

I use mine just about every day. I still have a great time with it and use it as my main gaming machine. No regrets here.

I use it as a steam link when I'm home and load it up with emulators in case I'm away from my gaming PC.

the proton support this great, I just love having less fan noise and pleanty of battery.

I use it more than I have any previous hand-helds

That is to say, occasionally haha but still love it

Everyday. Playing wow right now.

I had an initial period where I played it a bunch, then I decided I have a few more Switch games to get through and then that will become a dust collector mostly, until I want to replay something many years from now. After this year or so I imagine it will be seeing tons of usage.

I suppose I could say I bought it a bit prematurely, but given that I have been using it and so has my son its been a fine purchase

Recently I realized I had 350 dollars worth of CSGO creates sitting in my inventory. So I bought a steam deck. I'm a game developer so I have a desktop with a 1080 and 64 GB of ram, a desktop with a 4070 and 64 GB of ram. A laptop with a 1660 and 16 GB of ram, and now a Steam deck with 64 GB of storage and a 1 tb micro sd. I use my Steam deck rarely at most. I have so many devices I don't really need a Steam deck but I had enough to get the Steam deck and honestly, I probably would have bought 350 dollars worth of games but I thought the investment in hardware would help me test games for Steam deck compatibility. Besides it's something to add to my collection.

Overall, I don't use it though. I don't even really use my laptop. If I am going to play games I usually do so on one of my desktops. Also, I will say I think I made the mistake of not dishing out 200 more dollars for the 512 GB version that comes with an anti-glare screen. The load times for micro SDs are really long and I am surprised they only support UHS-I instead of something faster. The anti-glare screen also helps it be a more viable device as I'm likely to use it in the car on road trips or someplace like the living room where we keep the curtains open.

I also didn't realize it got so hot. I wouldn't really want to give the device to my kids to play. My oldest is 5 and he loves the Nintendo Switch but we don't have a ton of games for it. I'd love to give him my steam deck to mess around with but the deck seems fragile and gets extremely hot compared to the switch or even his Samsung A7 tablet. I wouldn't want him to feel the back of the Deck, get burnt, and drop it or get scared of it. It's really not a young-kid-friendly device like I thought it might be.

Closing thoughts, I got the hardware essentially for free and I like it. It's a great little device and I certainly love messing around with Steam OS in desktop mode. It's a cool little experiment. I feel like if I was a consumer I'd likely would have been a bit disappointed with the 64 GB version. It might be worth it to pop it open and install a better drive in it someday but I'll stick with the slow SD card for now. Most of the time I use I'm just trying to waste time anyways.

Very happy with it. $400 MSRP feels right, I don't think I would feel so positively if it was more. I'm on vacation right now and using it a lot to wind down in the evenings.

It's my only PC, so I've used it quite a bit, although not as much as I thought I would?
I got it day one and played it a fair bit last year (about as much as my PS5), but recently I've been playing on PS5 (and Series X, to a lesser extent) a lot more. It hasn't been collecting dust too much, as I'm still using it as a regular old PC, but certainly not daily.

Once a month, on average, I’d guess. I just thought it’d be a nice way to game in the living room. It is, and I’d buy it again. Prior to opening it I would go months between times that I play. I wish I had more time to customize it, really, as the control scheme offers so many possibilities. But I can game or I can bind, and not both.

Missus doesn't let me near it. Overall, it was a good purchase but next time I'd go for one with smaller breasts... and no gaming addiction 🤭

I mean I knew about the breast at the time of purchase, but gaming addiction...