surpassed in what? sales? doubt! quality? doubt.
what is this AI Slob blog ad?
today’s best handheld
no trackpads, I rest my case.
One of the appealing things about the Steam Deck is its repairability. Valve even made the analog sticks modular, published a teardown video, and partnered with iFixit to make replacement parts available, IIRC.
It would be hard to convince me that a device that doesn’t beat the Deck in this area is “today’s best”. It’s important.
The ROG ally is extremely easy to repair and replace parts.
Not the case for me (at least for the original model). I used it a lot for a few month before it just… stopped charging, not with the supplied power cable, not with any other cable capable of charging it.
Weirdest of all it still detects usb-c for files & stuff, and charges with a phone cable, but the power delivery is so crap that it doesn’t even show up as charging on the taskbar.
Sent it to general repair many times, they could not find out why it does that. It could be a windows problem, and i wish i was in the minority here, but it basically dead weight now.
As someone who owns neither but is impressed by this new boom in handhelds, I’m just happy that there are multiple options that are repairable and modular.
Me too, I came from a switch, I really enjoyed it but the move for me was for the bigger variety of games and the are more specials on steam, gog etc compared to Nintendo. But bear in mind that not all games are handheld friendly.
Steam Deck is more than software and a slightly old APU, its also the controlls and build quality. Tbh I dont think any company can truly surpass the Steam Deck.
People have the wrong ideas. Steam Deck LCD was a pure test object anyway, where they saw that there was a market, which is why Valve also released the Oled version. Valve has left the hardware open so that you can also install other OS. Valve may also see competition there, even if the competition releases more powerful hardware. Valve’s hardware is still secondary and steam, which is installed everywhere, is still their core product. The better hardware the competition brings, the more power-hungry games people will buy.
Steam Deck vs … is just nonsense.
As always, I’m not going to be able to play half my usual games without touchpads.
Analog sticks do not make a good mouse replacement.
That’s why I loved the steam controllers…
I really love the deck’s layout, the original steam controller only having one analogue stick killed it in my opinion. I could never get used to trackpads joystick emulation in games that were designed for an Xbox controller.
Valve leaked a Steam Controller 2 thumbnail in their SteamVR drivers recently:
I’m hype.
Like, you are the human embodiment of hype? Hype made manifest?
I have become hype, destroyer of expectations.
10/10 save
That looks soo uncomfortable to hold
Honestly I said the same about the Deck when I bought it… Fast forward 1 and half year later, my playtime is now 99% on the Deck 😅.
I haven’t seen one of these in person. Is it roughly the size of a Sega Game gear?
The screen is roughly the size of a Game Gear. (Not my photo.)
What are your top faves that you use the touchpads for? I usually only played verified have that use the joysticks.
In desktop mode I also find the touchpads a little difficult to use primarily because the lack of a physical wheel and left and right click.
Desktop mode I find just fine, steam controller was how we operated a htpc for a few years. Gamepad control worked for kodi, but anything else I had to drop into desktop and mouse around with the touchpads and triggers. Little bit more finnicky with the deck because of the size of the pads though.
I’ve been in Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island (1-3 are my jam) lately. Technobabylon. I’ve been working my way through games I haven’t had time for because of work, like Gemini Rue, the Rusty Lake games. I never played Day of the Tentacle back in the day either so I’m keen for that one. Va-11 Hall-a.
I could not get handy with fps games on the deck at all. I really wanted to run Borderlands 1 again but I was just getting murdred trying to aim with gamepad controls. Touch on right pad activating gyro set me on the right path, and that technique translates to my steam controller when I dock too. It feels more natural to be able to flick around like with a mouse as week. I briefly had a ps3 in 2010. I could not play fps well with a pad. I went from Sega to Dos, to Win 95/98, back to Sega. So I never played around with thumb joysticks. They were never part of my life until I bought a ps3 and just fumbled around with it.
Also Blood. I’m through the first two episodes but put it away for a while.
Been on a Kknd kick in the last few months. But it’s worked so well I’ll move into some other favourites when I’m done - Dark Reign, Total Annihilation, Blood and Magic.
Last year I did my 3000th Fallout 2 run on my desktop pc, but now I’ve got a deck I’m planning to do my first ever fallout 1 play.
In Torchlight 2 (this has been my deck go-to for hack and slash), I play using both pads to move mouse. Getting into the rhythm of it, I easily cover the entire screen by flicking over one pad and setting off in the other. It’s a technique I started using on steam controller some years ago.
I haven’t played Grim Dawn on deck yet, but I understand people are playing it with native gamepad control, I’ll see how that goes.
Grim Dawn, Factorio, Project Zomboid, FTL, Rimworld, Crusader Kings, Papers Please, Red Alert, Stacklands… the list goes on.
The Steam Deck’s trackpads (and Steam Input in general) are the most underrated and game changing aspects of the Deck and the old Steam Controller.
Playing keyboard and mouse, or mouse only games is totally doable and a joy on the Deck.
I’ve actually chosen to change some games from using gamepad to Keyboard and Mouse since the Deck is so good (for instance Factorio does do gamepad but it’s much better to just use KB&M via Steam Input).
I’d argue Grim Dawn is better on the Deck as I’ve got so many fancy radial menus etc set up, it’s actually easier to play than pressing the number row etc. And with the touch screen, you can rapidly tap different enemies without needing to touch the “mouse”.
I’m pleasantly surprised with how well Grim Dawn and Rimworld play on the deck, tweaked both a bit for personal preferences but actually solid experience. I did cities skylines and ksp on the og steam controller, I can’t get into trackpad as trackball though on the steamdeck for whatever reason, did that with the steam controller for warframe, was great to be able to turn quickly on a controller.
No trackpad really would be a non starter to me, just adds so much flexibility, and the haptics do totally work for me.
I’ll stick with the deck. I’d rather a Linux first approach and to support the people putting in the work.
Agree. Asus never really put much of an effort to support Linux, for example, for the big companies, fwupd, we only see Dell and Lenovo support.
Agreed. It’s hard to believe anyone still recommends Asus after the whole GN debacle.
Steam Deck has the OLED display, better efficiency/battery life, is hundreds of dollars cheaper, is supported by a company that actually cares about it’s customers, and doesn’t need to mess around with installing a different OS.
What’s the GN debacle?
Agreed. It’s hard to believe anyone still recommends Asus after the whole GN debacle.
If you’re in Asia, that debacle is a non-issue. Their support in Asia has been great for me. I’m on the Steam Deck camp but they’re still my go to for gaming laptops.
Just because you haven’t personally experienced issues doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Not sure why you’re trying to invalidate the experiences of people in my region and me but sure whatever makes you happy.
Read your original comment and then read this comment you posted.
I didn’t invalidate anything.
I’ll be honest, the Ally as a complete product is not appealing to me whatsoever. Yes, it’s much faster and better on paper, but it’s not better in reality. Admittedly Bazzite makes it a lot better, but it still has way too many drawbacks, compared to Deck. Even more so, it can be said about whatever MSI made
For me it’s just that the deck is a better low power device and has trackpads. I can play RPGs from the 90s at 3 watts for 8 hours on a single charge. The thing I’m most excited for in a deck2 would be even better performance under 10W.
No touchpads. OOTB experience questionable and Bazzite is a community project, compared to first party support from Valve for the Deck.
And the display isn’t definitely better. Yes it’s 120 Hz, higher resolution and VRR, but the Deck’s OLED has proper HDR support and 90 Hz is probably enough for this type of device (as is the resolution, although I’d take a higher res screen as well for 2D games). The main thing that the Deck’s screen is missing is VRR imo.
I’m sure Valve loves the fact that more people are locked into the Steam store.
Steam is great, and there’s workarounds for using other installed games/stores, but… kinda feels bad that this stuff is so integrated into the Valve/Steam experience.
Don’t get me wrong, I use my steam deck… a lot… and I buy most of my games on Steam… I just wish GOG and Epic integration was a little more integrated, just so I don’t feel so locked in to one company. (yes, I’m aware of heroic launcher, and other options, but they’re still just hacked on extra steps that don’t always work)
There’s nothing stopping epic or GOG from distributing a flatpak for their experiences/stores, the question is where are they?
yes, I’m aware of heroic launcher, and other options, but they’re still just hacked on extra steps that don’t always work)
I mean, this requires buying a windows powered handheld and then loading an entire OS on it.
So I don’t think people are locked to steam with it, but I’m honestly not sure.
