When I got it I wasn’t sure why exactly. I have fast PCs, and my Switch is under a mountain of dust too. Now It’s one of my favorite machines. So versatile. My wife hates sitting at her desk for gaming so it has reignited her passion for it. And it gets me out of my office so we can hang out more when we’re winding down after a day.
this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2025
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Steam Deck
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A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
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When it originally launched, I feared it would go the same way as Valve's previous inventions in the VR
What the hell is she talking about?
Index still gets regular updates and it still doesn't really have any competition at its price point (Quest with its ridiculous account requirements doesn't count).
Just because Index was not a massive success due to its significantly higher cost doesn't mean it's a failure, and it's far from abandoned.
They barely did Steam Link (the little physical streaming box from like 2015) and ended production quickly and the remaining units were heavily discounted, and they still send updates for it.
It's one of many reasons I like Steam and have moved more towards Steam gaming and away from Playstation.
Steam link moved beyond its hardware quickly.
The link hardware is no longer required.
AppleTV, nvidia shield, chromecast ultra, he’ll even LG webos all have apps for streaming stream games.
They discontinued the hardware because it’s no longer needed.
In fact, when I switched to my appleTV for steam, it became even better quality and less dropped frames. It also seems to be lower latency.
It's absolutely needed. I don't have any other practical way to stream from my PC to my TV. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a new dedicated Steam Link box for any streaming above 1080p.
The app only works so well and only on specific devices, and I just don't have any simple plug and play answers that'll work for me.
There's absolutely a use case and market for Valve to bring it back. I still use mine a lot.
Buy an appletv or one other compatible devices
How is the index? I’ve been thinking about getting one but I feel like there’s a new version right around the corner.
It's great, especially the controllers - there's nothing else like it.
And, well, it's the only headset making any claims about Linux compatibility, which is also a big thing for me.
But your concern is the exact reason I'm not sure I can recommend it.
Of course, Valve works on Valve Time, so the chances Deckard will release next month are basically the same as it releasing anytime in the next decade.
You had my attention, now you have my interest
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It's great! Mine is five years old and still working just fine.
I have needed to replace the cable (was getting weird green static), but that was really easy to do myself and Valve directly sells replacements.
Also my right speaker is a bit loose so I have to adjust it occasionally during gameplay.
Otherwise it's been solid. Easy recommendation.
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I soooo wish I had a use case for one. They’re completely amazing devices and in my more mobile days, it would have been the perfect device for me. But now I’m home all the time and my partner and I have desktops set up next to each other, so I don’t have a use for one.
The biggest thing for me is being able to put games to sleep and pick them up later. Being able to instantly stop playing a game, and then instantly start playing back at that same spot later has really freed me up to play in a lot of small sessions.
I've majorly cut down on how much time I spend on my phone, and replaced it with bite sized chunks of playing real games.
That is an awesome feature! I don’t find myself playing short sessions nowadays. That would be super useful if I did though!
It helps me play games that I would otherwise avoid on my desktop (usually low-requirement games like Vampire Survivor-likes or action platformers). If I gotta pick up a controller to play it, the Deck is probably better. I can also play in shorter bursts, so if I have ten minutes of nothing to do, that's ten minutes I can make progress on a game.
And because of that I've finished a lot more games than I did with only my desktop.
Ask me how I have several Steam games with over 4k hours logged.
I have this problem... I ended up getting one anyway and do kind of regret it. It's a great machine and I've enjoyed having it for the occasional flight or train ride, but when I'm at home I'd rather just be hooked up to my desktop or TV. If I was still commuting an hour to the office everyday I'd probably get a lot more use out of it
If I left the house more I would 100% get one hahahaha
I'm home constantly. I have a nice gaming PC with a comfy chair AND a nice big screen TV.
I got the original asap and then upgraded to OLED asap. Both were absolutely worth it. I almost play on it more than anything. I even stream the more graphic heavy games from desktop to Steam Deck, and stream PS5 or PS Plus Streaming games to my Steam Deck.
Handheld gaming is just nicer for me. More comfortable. More personal. I can see everything better. Everything looks more crisp on it.
I have no real use case for one and am basically never mobile yet I use it like crazy.
I had a fairly opposite experience. I bought a Steam Deck when it first came out and had to return it during the refund period because of a software bug making it basically unusable with my account.
A year later, the bug was finally fixed and I rebought. And... I like the fact that it runs Linux and the efforts done to make windows games playable in Linux in general. But I've found that i actually don't enjoy the form factor of the Steam Deck at all.
I find it to be too big and heavy to hold comfortably without resting it on something. The buttons are tiny and too close to the edge. The d-pad sucks, at least on mine. Staring at the little screen gives me a headache and text/icons are too small in a lot of games. The Wi-Fi is really slow (at least in the original LCD model) and downloading/installing takes absolutely forever. I've literally spent more time installing games and downloading updates than actually playing games in it.
It has been months since I last turned mine on. In hindsight, it was a poor purchase for me.
I do still like it as a concept and an happy to see it is successful. I welcome the new Linux users. I follow the steam deck communities and read the news.
... But it's just not for me, apparently.
I will note from experience the weight decrease with the OLED version was noticeable. So that was an improvement. I also have the official dock hardwired with ethernet so I tend to plug in for downloads. A lot of things have been fixed and improved since launch as well.
But you are right, it can be heavy, clunky, slow, and depending on what you wanna do, it may requiring a lot of tinkering. There's also the occasional games that just won't work at all or great on it, even with some tinkering.
Despite all that i said, the OLED special editions were very tempting!
You're not the only one. I bought a Steam deck because why not. I didn't have a use case.
But every month for a year, I continued to play more and more on Steam deck over PC.
It's reaching a point where if i had to choose between upgrading my graphic card or buying the next iteration of a Steam Deck, I'm going for that next Steam Deck.
That makes sense! If I ever used my switch undocked, I would maybe consider it. But 100% of the time I played it docked. My place of comfort is the room with my computer and some screens and the comfiest furniture. I don’t hang out anywhere else in my house and I’m a homebody, so I’m not gonna bring it anywhere.
If I’m gonna dock a Steamdeck, I might as well just use my dope computer!
I have a nice desktop, but I still play the deck. Sitting in a chair for a while gets painful at times, especially when you work from home ON a computer. Lol.
That’s fair! With our setup I can sit in a chair, or lay back in bed and still play games! If we didn’t have that option, I’d probably have a use-case for a deck hahaha
It’s tough for me to go back to 100FPS or less after a long time playing at 165hz!
Man, you know what I've been dying to do? Build a steam machine and connect it to my TV in my bedroom. That would be epic. Find a smaller PC or collect some used parts from Facebook market place and slap BazziteOS on it and go to town.
Hell yeah! That sounds dope! I have computers connected to all of my screen in our house, but they’re moooostly running Windows 10. Just a couple pis running Linux… the GUI on a Pi5 is laggy but it runs 1080p YouTube perfectly so that’s fine. I should start converting my machines to Linux… my main game machines I think I’ll keep on Windows 10 until Linux is closer to 100% compatibility. It’s getting there!
Honestly, good job. Fucking tvs nowadays are absolute garbage anyway. So are those stupid little fire sticks and their likes. If you think Linux doesn't fully work for you (understandable), Check out Titus's debloat tool. Make yourself a micro windows 11 ISO and use it instead of the official build. I got one running in a dualboot setup, and it's extremely light. You may be missing some drivers, but they're easily installable. I've been thinking of this, too, myself. Tvs have some of the most spying software ever.
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I used to think I didn't have a use case for one either but you know how sitting at your desk takes slightly more than zero effort? Well, that tiny amount of effort made it so whenever I actually sat my ass down, I would end up only playing "heavy" games like Skyrim while ignoring stuff like Bastion, Cuphead, Hollow Night, the LEGO Games, Pacman World, etc. Like, I'm not gonna drag my ass to my office to play Thimbleweed Park. Having a handheld got rid of that mental block and I've finally finished several games I otherwise wouldn't have, like pretty much anything that needs to be emulated. I even started buying games specifically because I wanted to play them on it.
I understand, but I can use my desktop from the place I relax, in addition to my desk chair! I can play stuff from relaxation station with zero effort. I’ve only ever used my switch docked (and now I just emulate it for better performance.)
I’ve never personally had an issue booting up my dope rig to play Stardew Valley or Vampire Survivors!
Here we have desktops set up next to each other but since we work remotely we don't want to spent our time on the office all day, so we play things on the couch/living room and the steam decks are used almost all the time. You can basically run the game on your desktop and play it remotely on the SD, on hand-held mode or docked plugged on the TV.
It is also the perfect companion for travel. We had a 5 hours flight in November which passed very quickly playing Balatro, lol.
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When I got mine originally (pre ordered like 2 days in so I got mine 6 months after launch lol) I was doing a TON of travel and it replaced my switch
It then sat mostly unused for almost 2 years because I never gamed away from home and fuck paying for their dock
Finally got the JSAUX dock a couple weeks back and now it's almost fully replaced our entire main TV entertainment center
So fuck paying for the official deck, but … unfuck? paying for a 3rd party one? I don’t get it
The official one is more expensive
It comes with a 65W USB-C power brick, the same that comes with the Deck.
The 3rd party ones don’t.
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Me hooking up my PC to the TV. 🤮
Me using Steam Deck to play on my TV. 🤩
I sometimes use a steamdeck out and about but most of the time I use it at home streaming my desktop using sunshine/moonlight. I don’t notice the lag, just enjoy the high quality visuals and extended battery. You can even use wake on lan to wake up your PC from moonlight on the steam deck.
Man, moonlight/sunshine was a gamechanger for my PC, I can play on my TV then on my phone then on my desktop, it's awesome!
Is this better than steams built in streaming system?
Honest question, never used anything else
Actually I don't own a Deck, though if it's similar to Steam Link on PC I'd say moonlight let's me tweak a little bit more stuff like bandwidth and allows for up to 120fps on all my client devices.
The setup process for moonlight/sunshine is pretty easy so I'd say give it a shot.
Thanks. I'll look into it, I've got plans to repurpose an old wiiu into a deck-like couch gaming machine.
Right now my wife is using the Deck pretty heavily, so I'm using steam to stream a game to my old Chromebook, it's working pretty well actually 🤷♂️
In way way did valve stop supporting streaming? Did they mean in-home game, remote play, friend remote play?
I think they mean how they stopped selling Steam Link devices. They still support the software side of streaming, they just don't sell dedicated hardware for it anymore.
Didn't they stop selling the hardware because most users already have a phone, computer, or TV which can run the Steam Link app?
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