GOOD Console, LIMITED PC - Steam Deck Review
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00:00 Intro
00:45 Sponsor: 100$ credit for your Linux or Gaming server
01:37 Hardware
03:55 Display
04:35 Software
07:13 Performance
09:13 Battery Life
10:45 Compatibility
13:39 As a Linux Computer?
18:14 Final Thoughts
18:52 Sponsor: Get your Linux Laptop or Desktop
19:21 Support the Channel
As a console, the Deck delivers. The Deck is amazingly built and surprisingly lightweight.
The feel in hand is really great, and even after a few hours, your hands won't cramp, and your fingers lie comfortably on the controls. The sticks are really nice and responsive, the D-Pad is serviceable. The triggers feel really good, and the shoulder buttons are clicky, and quick to press.
The touch surfaces feel like it should have been more soft touch plastic, and the Steam and Quick settings buttons are mushy. The back paddles, though, are amazing.
The screen is OK. It's a bit washed out, colors don't really pop, it's not super vibrant, but it's responsive, and the 800p resolution doesn't matter at all here.
The settings are plentiful, with a fortunate way to disable the UI sounds that are the bane of my existence on consoles, the ability to disable steam haptics, the rumble, changing the keyboard theme, and much more.
Generally, all the games I tested got their 60fps at medium settings, which, I don't think you really need to go past in most games, on that small a screen. Only The Witcher 3, even on Low, and Cyberpunk couldn't hit that target reliably, but you can get a nice 45 FPS on medium on The Witcher.
Games will use control layouts that have been created either by the developers, or by the community, but you can switch between various layouts and inputs. You can tweak and get any layout you want, whether you prefer sticks, or the touch surfaces,or even the gyro
Now, about battery life, it's just Ok. If you limit don't play titles with insanely intensive graphics details, you're up for 4 or 5 hours easy, which is more than what I would play on a handheld device in a single sitting.
There is some noticeable fan noise as well, even just when downloading titles.
In terms of the game library, for games that are certified, or playable, I don't think the general gaming enthusiast will ever notice they're not running Windows.
The Deck runs SteamOS 3, based on Arch Linux, and while the default interface is an appliance, specifically tailored for gaming, you can access a KDE plasma desktop.
But before that, you also have access to a plethora of options for just your gaming. I talked about the framerate limiter, which lets you lock everything at 30fps, but there's a lot more. You can set a thermal limit for the CPU, to use less power, you can manually control the GPU clock, you can change the scaling filter for dynamic resolution tools, like FSR.
Of course, you get access to all the graphical options in game, just like on a PC, but you also get access to MangoHUD.
You can definitely just set the deck on your desk and plug it into a monitor and other input devices, and use that. As a matter of fact, a dock is also planned to do just that. And through that, you could also use that Steam Deck as a complete Linux PC.
It uses Plasma 5.23.5, and X11, with the Linux kernel; 5.13. Once you're inside, you can do a lot, as long as it's using Flatpak.
So you can't access the whole filesystem, and you can't just install anything you'd like. It's going to be a more locked down experience than most of you might expect: while it IS Linux underneath, it's not a general purpose distro.