Steam Deck: First Anniversary

I find they excel at different things. I don't feel locked to a desk with the deck - I can grab it and go chill on the couch with my wife while she's watching a show.

I can also lug it around on vacation/trips as an alternative to my personal laptop, since it's a real linux machine. I've done work on it while travelling without any problems (although I did have an external mouse/keyboard for that).

Where it doesn't really excel is information dense games - I really enjoy rimworld/factorio/ck3/df style games, and honestly - I still prefer playing them on the large screens because it's just hard to deal with the much smaller screen real-estate on the deck. It's doable - but it's not as fun.

On the other hand - I hadn't touched a pokemon game since I was a kid, and I've played through several of them on the deck. They're a blast. Most games that are designed for a small screen/controller are really great on the deck.

Most rpg style games are pretty solid as well. Again - the only games I've really felt limited on were the ones where I just needed more screen real-estate, because the game was designed entirely around PC play on a large screen.

I have not personally bought the dock from valve since I already have a usb-c dock and it works fine with the deck. It handles being docked to a 4k monitor without any issues, although I don't game much in that setup - I mostly do productive/work tasks.

As for controls - I think the most revolutionary part of the deck is the control overlay they have going on. Being able to customize any button to almost any input is very, very cool. there's a LOT of power there, and I really haven't felt the need to plug in a mouse/keyboard for gaming (even for very mouse-centric games). The only exception is text input: it's still fairly slow and clunky with the default controls.

You won't be playing "Mavis Beacon teaches typing" on it. But it can handle pretty much every other game I've tried (some better than others, but none so bad I couldn't play at all).

My opinion: It's a complete steal for the price. I still probably do more gaming on the desktop, but not by all that much, and the fact that it's a true general purpose computer and not a hamstrung, locked-down, consumption only device is a huge breath of fresh air. Makes for a great little travel computer.

What actually has worked far better for me is Xbox Game pass. It means I can easily give games a try without paying a lot of money upfront to buy them. Instead I can dip my toes in and see if a game takes my interest.

Just my 2 cents as someone that has gamed a lot in their childhood but largely stopped past their 20s.

I don’t know if I’m in the minority or not, but I have never owned a gaming PC, and have not had a console since I was a teenager with an Xbox 360. I’m now 30, and I bought the Steam Deck precisely because of its portability.