Steam Deck: Everything You Need To Know
The Steam Deck has become the hot topic of the gaming world recently since it is an attempt at revolutionizing the portable gaming console. Upon first glance, you may compare it to the Nintendo Switch. However, in reality, they are two completely different devices, where the Steam Deck is more comparable to a gaming laptop than the Switch.
If you placed your reservation for the Steam Deck after February 25th, then it will unfortunately not arrive until “after Q2 2022.” Unsurprisingly, it has experienced a massive influx of preorders so it is experiencing supply restraints.
There are three tiers of the Steam Deck, with the cheapest model costing a reasonable $399 and the high-end tier costing $649. The low-end model is restricted to 64GB of storage, which may sound fine at first, but it is very small considering how much storage games can consume. Some games can consume well over 100GB of storage, making many games unplayable. However, the Steam Deck does have a microSD card slot, so you can invest in a microSD card for all models to have additional storage. MicroSD is slower than internal storage, however, so the lower storage options may not be as appealing as at first glance.
Additionally, the low-end model uses eMMC internal storage rather than NVMe SSD in the mid and high-tier models, which is considerably slower than the latter. The main difference between eMMC and NVMe SSD, besides performance, is that eMMC storage is usually soldered in place, while owners of the mid and high-tier models can upgrade the storage later down the road with NVMe SSD relatively easily.
According to TechRadar’s review of the Steam Deck, the audio and microphone quality seems to be excellent, eliminating the need for a headset. One significant limitation of the Steam Deck that may very well drive away some potential buyers is the battery life since some games like God of War will only give you roughly one and a half hours of playtime, which is below Valve’s stated minimum of two hours. However, if you are playing some less intensive 2D games, you may be capable of hitting the eight-hour mark, which is Valve’s stated maximum battery life.
Game Compatibility
Valve took the approach of releasing an uncompleted version of the Steam Deck with many bugs and quirks to work out, which may have been a smart move since many gamers are eager to try out the Steam Deck even if there are some bugs and limitations.
Currently, Valve puts games on the console in one of four categories: verified, playable, unknown, and supported. Verified games are supposed to be guaranteed to play without any issues, but Sean Hollister from The Verge, who also reviewed the Steam Deck, says he has still experienced minor issues with a few verified games, so results may differ for many people. However, Matt Hanson from TechRadar reported no issues with verified games in his review.
Games that are “playable,” or ones that have a yellow tick, can be played but may still experience some bugs. Currently, according to Hanson, many games in this category, which make up the majority of games on the Steam Deck right now, play just fine with minimal issues. Games are constantly moving away from this category into the verified category, so hopefully, games that are designated as “playable” will constitute a minority of games on the console.
The third category, “unknown,” represents games that are not tested enough and, therefore, cannot be categorized as playable. The final category, “unsupported,” represents games that are definitely not playable on the Steam Deck currently, which thankfully is a small percentage of the total games on the console. Games in this category are most likely there due to hardware limitations such as games that require AR/VR functionality.
Unfortunately, some of the most popular games that many players were wanting to play on the Steam Deck will not run at all on the Steam Deck right now, which includes titles such as PUBG, Destiny 2, Apex Legends, GTA 5, and Lost Ark.
Bug Central
Valve took the approach of releasing the Steam Deck when the software is basically in its trial stages, with many bugs plaguing users. This sentiment is expressed by Hollister’s review on The Verge, which expresses that the console is “rushed, unfinished, buggy, and unstable.” Nevertheless, this does seem to have been the correct approach since many PC gamers were very eager to try out the Steam Deck anyway and were willing to deal with the bugs.
Although there are bugs, Valve has been continuously working on them and releasing fixes every single day, which has resulted in a much smoother experience for many people, with Hollister noting its more smooth nature compared to the software’s state two weeks ago.
Hollister notes the unresolved issues regarding Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity and the inability to run Windows properly due to Valve’s promised GPU drivers not yet materializing. Hanson from TechRadar reports a similar experience with Windows, stating that support for Windows 11 was a “bit flaky with some driver issues,” which hopefully will be ironed out in the weeks to head.
Display
The Steam Deck has a resolution of 1280x800px, which is a 16:10 aspect ratio, similar to the resolutions of many laptops. The display is seven inches diagonally with a typical peak brightness of 400 nits, which satisfies the average indoor gaming session and possibly a mild day outside, however it may suffer in bright sunlight. The Steam Deck’s screen is an LCD and has a relatively low resolution, and, according to Hanson from TechRadar, looks slightly inferior compared to the Nintendo Switch OLED. A low-resolution screen could have been both a cost-saving and battery-saving measure, which would check out due to the console’s already short battery life when playing more intensive game titles.
The screen is also a touch screen, which gives just one more input to the already high number of controls on the console. It has a maximum refresh rate of only 60Hz, but that is reasonable considering the price, compactness, and already poor battery performance with many titles, so it isn’t a surprise that we didn’t see a 120Hz display this go-around. For a battery-saving measure, you can knock down the refresh rate from 60FPS to 30FPS, which actually saw YouTuber Dave2D almost double the battery life of the Steam Deck from roughly one and a half hours to over three hours.
Battery Life and Performance
As stated previously, the battery life of the Steam Deck is not very impressive, especially considering the most popular games with intense graphics and gameplay killing the battery in as little as two hours. Many people got excited at the idea of having a portable PC to take on, for example, a long flight, but that may not be the reality unless you are playing less-intensive games. According to Hollister from The Verge, it takes approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes to charge, which is neither terrible nor great. A short battery life paired with a relatively long charging time results in this “portable” console not being so portable.
It begs one question: What is the point of having a portable console if I have to leave it plugged in? Would it be more reasonable to buy a gaming laptop or console? Actually, you can connect the Steam Deck to a dock and play games on your TV, however, it appears you cannot actually play games on your TV with the Steam Deck itself; you need to use either an external mouse and keyboard or possibly a separate controller. However, an assumption can be made that Valve is probably working on bringing this exact functionality.
One simply annoying aspect of this console is the loud and consistent fan. Although this may not be a problem for PC gamers, it may be annoying and off-putting for people who are used to quiet gaming experiences.
Hanson from TechRadar notes the unusually long load times for many titles, with even slower load times when using microSD, understandably. Since the console is still in its early stages, it is likely that Valve will work this out in the near future. Even so, Valve is still planning on adding support for running multiple apps at once. This could be useful for playing music from your music library and playing a game at the same time; or it could be used to have two apps open simultaneously, allowing you to switch between apps without having to wait. This would obviously present even more problems for performance, and it is likely that the system would even warn users who attempt to use this feature.
Oddly enough, unlike the Switch, the Steam Deck offers no extra performance when docking the console to play on a TV. Valve could possibly create a dock similar to that of the Switch to offer more performance for users who want a hybrid console.
Besides the loud fan and the persistent bugs throughout the software, I have found no real complaints regarding the performance of games, which is a great sign of a console that could potentially replace your gaming PC.
Summary
Overall, Valve has released a very promising handheld gaming console that ultimately sets the stage for more consoles of its kind to succeed it. Although the Switch does exist, it is not comparable to the PC-like functionality of the Steam Deck. Therefore, the Steam Deck is more comparable to a gaming laptop, not the Switch. Although there are some bugs to work out and game compatibility issues, the Steam Deck is a very promising product. If you plan on using the console at home and near an outlet, then the battery life may not bother you if you play particularly demanding games. Valve has promised to work out many of the bugs that currently plague the console, and they definitely have delivered on that promise by continuously updating the software and removing bugs every day for the past two weeks. Its potential performance is comparable to that of actual gaming laptops.
However, I would not buy the product based on future promises or optimisms regarding performance. If you are considering purchasing this, evaluate the product as is, not how the product may improve in the uncertain future.
