Gaming Steam Deck - Handheld PC from Valve

[Stactix]

Bit of an impulse buy but the idea of playing steam games in bed was a bit of a sell.
Was holding on for a PS5 but I'd limited myself to buying from amazon due to building up amazon vouchers via referral schemes/GPT sites. Couldn't justify spending salary/savings when I had more than enough in vouchers.

I had quite a bit of fun trying to find ways to use my amazon balance to get a steam deck, I'd almost gave up when I realised Currys sell Steam vouchers and you can buy currys vouchers on amazon! It probably looked a little dodgy buying almost £500 worth of steam vouchers, 5x £20 an order..
I'm now keeping the thick wad of vouchers as a souvenir for the lengths I'll go for impulse purchases..

Overall, I'm very impressed. Just being able to put it down, play it anywhere and carry on from where I left it..waking up to Elden ring in bed...
It's surprisingly very comfy and feels nice to hold, despite having small hands I'm a huge fan of the design.

Some minor issues here & there but definetly very happy with it!

 

[weetee]

Bit of an impulse buy but the idea of playing steam games in bed was a bit of a sell.
Was holding on for a PS5 but I'd limited myself to buying from amazon due to building up amazon vouchers via referral schemes/GPT sites. Couldn't justify spending salary/savings when I had more than enough in vouchers.

I had quite a bit of fun trying to find ways to use my amazon balance to get a steam deck, I'd almost gave up when I realised Currys sell Steam vouchers and you can buy currys vouchers on amazon! It probably looked a little dodgy buying almost £500 worth of steam vouchers, 5x £20 an order..
I'm now keeping the thick wad of vouchers as a souvenir for the lengths I'll go for impulse purchases..

Overall, I'm very impressed. Just being able to put it down, play it anywhere and carry on from where I left it..waking up to Elden ring in bed...
It's surprisingly very comfy and feels nice to hold, despite having small hands I'm a huge fan of the design.

Some minor issues here & there but definetly very happy with it!

That's good to read. I was, despite a plethora of problems, very pleased with the WiiU for those very reasons. It was almost perfect except it lacked the games. But I have to say I'm quite wary of the sticks as I don't think they will hold forever, given the price that's a bit of a gamble.

 

[Drawfull]

That's good to read. I was, despite a plethora of problems, very pleased with the WiiU for those very reasons. It was almost perfect except it lacked the games. But I have to say I'm quite wary of the sticks as I don't think they will hold forever, given the price that's a bit of a gamble.

Replacement sticks are available at iFixit and are easy to swap. If you're bothered about stick drift, Guli make drop in replacements too.

 

[Chairman Steve]

I hope this sells well as I think Valve and AMD could probably do better with tech advancements and consumer feedback. I’ve read that they’ve gone past a million units being sold which is great. I can see it being a popular device in the Japanese market where handheld is king. Valve absolutely don’t need the money from Deck sales to progress forward but if enough people take notice then they’ll do it.

Then in typical Valve fashion, they can release a second iteration that is a critically acclaimed technical masterpiece and exposes even more people to it, and then everyones waiting for the third iteration.

Speaking of which, I hope they’re thinking about doing a Steam Controller 2. Maybe Deck performance will push that forward too. Seems commonsense to have one and on top of the fact the Deck handheld itself is a great controller.

 

[weetee]

Replacement sticks are available at iFixit and are easy to swap. If you're bothered about stick drift, Guli make drop in replacements too.

Thanks, good to know.

 

[0le]

Bit of an impulse buy but the idea of playing steam games in bed was a bit of a sell.
Was holding on for a PS5 but I'd limited myself to buying from amazon due to building up amazon vouchers via referral schemes/GPT sites. Couldn't justify spending salary/savings when I had more than enough in vouchers.

I had quite a bit of fun trying to find ways to use my amazon balance to get a steam deck, I'd almost gave up when I realised Currys sell Steam vouchers and you can buy currys vouchers on amazon! It probably looked a little dodgy buying almost £500 worth of steam vouchers, 5x £20 an order..
I'm now keeping the thick wad of vouchers as a souvenir for the lengths I'll go for impulse purchases..

Overall, I'm very impressed. Just being able to put it down, play it anywhere and carry on from where I left it..waking up to Elden ring in bed...
It's surprisingly very comfy and feels nice to hold, despite having small hands I'm a huge fan of the design.

Some minor issues here & there but definetly very happy with it!

dude, thank you for this advice. I got a £400+ colleague bonus at work but was figuring out how to use the gift cards on steam. Going to do this now

 

[Dave_MUFC]

Best decision I made to upgrade my Ayn Odin to this, last week.

Been downloading nostalgia games that I played as a kid, like FEAR, Empire at War, SC Chaos Theory etc.

 

[Chairman Steve]

Has anyone got any good deals through the Steam sales on their Deck? I got Stardew Valley and Death Stranding Directors Cut for a combined amount of just over £25 or so.

Stardew Valley is really suited to the Deck and I’ve yet to try DS on it. I found it poetically funny to myself how the two games I bought so far this month have been polar opposites of each other, in that one is a low budget Harvest Moon tribute and the other is a AAA budget Kojima project.

 

[SuperiorXI]

I just got mine, a bit late I know but I've only now had the finances to get one. I had a real trouble with the whole process... firstly the stock is non-existent right now so I had to go with ebay. Eventually got one... I opted to go with the 64GB version. Now I did this because if you look online everyone talks about how it's easy and cheaper to just buy an SSD and screen protector which will make it even more powerful than the most powerful one you can buy. Sounds great in theory but the first model I received from ebay unfortunately had an issue with a stripped screw... it had to go back to steam and they sent me a replacement.

I got the replacement today, got all screws out but one... same issue as last time. I almost threw it out the window but with perseverance and precision screws I got it out. So for anyone thinking of doing the old 64GB upgrade, be wary, the screws that come with these are temperamental.

Finally got it going and it looks great. Can't believe how much stuff this can emulate, it's a dream for me as I love older games much more than the new stuff and with the SSD and microSD I bought, I've got 1.5 TB of space to fill which is more than I should ever need. It's also gonna be great playing some of the newer games on the crapper.

 

[Dan]

There’s a new version coming out next week. I’m so tempted.

 

[Grib]

Always been in the back of mind interested to buy one, but would I be right in assuming this probably isnt worth it if your library is mostly RTS/management sims etc

What do people who have one play on it?

 

[Massive Spanner]

I bought it earlier in the year when it went on sale for 10% off and have used it feck all really regret not waiting now.

 

[Chairman Steve]

Always been in the back of mind interested to buy one, but would I be right in assuming this probably isnt worth it if your library is mostly RTS/management sims etc

What do people who have one play on it?

If you get a Docking Station (either the official Valve one or one of the very good third party ones), it‘s much more suited to playing RTS/Management sims. I’ve played C&C Remastered and Two Point Hospital on it in docked mode and it’s pretty good.

As a handheld, I‘ve played indie games like Stardew Valley, driving games like Wreckfest and I’ve even played AAA games Doom Eternal and Resident Evil 2 Remake. They were all good experiences.

 

[CallyRed]

Really tempted to get one, now the 256gb version has gone down to 349 from 479 Im even more tempted. What something to play FM on and can't be bothered looking for a laptop that isn't going to lift off.

 

[SuperiorXI]

Always been in the back of mind interested to buy one, but would I be right in assuming this probably isnt worth it if your library is mostly RTS/management sims etc

What do people who have one play on it?

You can play pretty much anything on it, even newer games. The beauty of it is you can get into the backend and mod stuff. I just finished a playthrough of the original FFVII with the SYW mod (pretty much modernises the experience). Also enjoyed a few games of CIV V which actually plays like a dream, surprising as you'd think that needs a mouse & keyboard.

I just got round to setting up Zelda Wind Waker HD and it runs perfectly which is cool as I never played some of these games so now have the opportunity. PS1 & PS2 games emulate perfectly such as MGS (1, 2 & 3), Tomb Raider, GTA (San Andreas, Vice City etc).

It's absolutely worth the money and I'd challenge you to get bored with it, the library is humongous when you consider what it can emulate.

 

[Grib]

I see, I'll try and take a more in depth look into it then

 

[Shark]

What do folks make of the new Steam Deck OLED. For the first time I'm heavily considering one now, screen looks absolutely gorgeous, and reviews also mention an improvement in performance and battery life.

 

[Dan]

Hopefully buying one when they’re released at 6pm today.

 

[Shark]

Hopefully buying one when they’re released at 6pm today.

Yeah, think I'm going to be among the hunt, actually had no idea it was bang on 6pm so cheers!

 

[Dan]

Yeah, think I'm going to be among the hunt, actually had no idea it was bang on 6pm so cheers!

Trying to buy one but I keep getting a something went wrong message.

 

[Shark]

Trying to buy one but I keep getting a something went wrong message.

Any luck now? apparently it's something that comes up with Paypal, but think entering card details sends it through fine.

 

[Dan]

Any luck now? apparently it's something that comes up with Paypal, but think entering card details sends it through fine.

I gave up will try again today. Did you get one?

 

[Shark]

I gave up will try again today. Did you get one?

I talked myself out of it, just not sure I can afford it at this moment coming up to Xmas, but still might yet. Did it go through for you in the end?

 

[SmashedHombre]

Feel like the Legion Go trumps the Deck, but as it's not available in the UK I'll probably pick up the Deck or the ROG Ally in January. Handheld gaming is getting seriously impressive.

 

[owlo]

Having seen them side by side, I'd only get the OLED one now. It's a hardware/gpu improvement too, not just the screen. (I'm waiting for the CS loot packs I invested in to mature as I'm tight.)

 

[Dan]

I talked myself out of it, just not sure I can afford it at this moment coming up to Xmas, but still might yet. Did it go through for you in the end?

I just did it.

 

[gormless]

One of the best purchases I have made recently. Use it as an emulation machine and it is excellent. That and F1 manager

 

[Shark]

I just did it.

Good stuff, congrats!

 

[SilentWitness]

Got an Xmas bonus and debating whether getting this or a new PC. How powerful is it really? Capable of playing some of the top end games?

 

[SuperiorXI]

Got an Xmas bonus and debating whether getting this or a new PC. How powerful is it really? Capable of playing some of the top end games?

For a handheld it's extremely powerful. Just have a look on YouTube and type in your favourite games + steam deck.

 

[SilentWitness]

For a handheld it's extremely powerful. Just have a look on YouTube and type in your favourite games + steam deck.

Yeah, it looks good. Even some of the games not fully supported seem to run well.

Ideally it being able to play FM and strat games like CK3 and EU4 is nice amongst regular games.

 

[SuperiorXI]

Yeah, it looks good. Even some of the games not fully supported seem to run well.

Ideally it being able to play FM and strat games like CK3 and EU4 is nice amongst regular games.

Oh it should easily deal with those. The thing with the SD as well is it allows you lots of flexibility, you can cap game framerates for example.

A few months back I was playing CIV V on it which played perfectly and was actually really fun, I'd go as far to say it's probably the definitive way I've played it so far.

Edit: A tip I have for you is if you're not bothered about the OLED, you can get the cheapest version and upgrade it yourself which will save you a few quid - you can even beef it up so it's even more powerful than their most powerful version.