Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ll go against the grain and say I don’t actually like mine very much and here’s why. I’ll caveat it with saying I got it for trips. - it’s underpowered. I knew that going in but so many games have to be played at either a really low setting or you chew through battery life quicker than i can manage. - battery life is pretty poor. Most games give me an hour or two of use. While I rarely game that long in a stretch,…
Maybe you were one of the unlucky ones and got the loud fan. They switched to a much quieter fan in the newer machines. You can try to replace it with some parts from ifixit or somewhere else. I refunded my first too because it was just too loud and I didn't had the right situation for it. Now one kid later and a newer deck with a silent fan, I'm very happy with the deck again.
It’s not that it’s making an unpleasant whining sound like what the older fan was meant to be, it’s that it’s trying to push out so much heat all the time that it’s perceptibly loud.
It’s the difference between tone and volume.
All my other devices in the house are relatively quiet compared to it. My switch, my Macs, even my PS5. None of them are fanless but they’re pushing out much less air at any point.
The steamdeck is fine for some games, but once it hits the thermal ceiling it gets so loud.