Getting Started With Valve Steam Deck: The Nintendo Switch Of PC Games

I held the Steam Deck, and I almost believe it.

Not quite, but I like what I see.

Three weeks after PC gaming giant Valve surprisingly announced its own $ 400 handheld game console, I headed to the company’s headquarters in Bellevue, Wash., For a whirlwind tour of the company’s latest prototypes – and a chance to compare them to the Nintendo Switch and an older AMD-powered portable gaming system, the Aya Neo.

I logged in with my Steam account, I picked up The Witcher 3 and Control where I left off weeks or months ago on my gaming desktop PC, and chewed up a few demons in Ultimate doom with joysticks, precision touchpads and gyroscopic aiming. While I didn’t get answers to burning questions like how easily you can install your own games, how the model would work with slower eMMC storage, or how it would work outdoors, I absolutely could. feel how comfortable this laptop could be and how much power it has on tap.

Upon entering, we knew we were expecting much better performance than a Nintendo Switch, but not a next-gen gaming console, as the Steam Deck has just under half the graphics muscle. raw from Microsoft’s entry-level Xbox Series S. But since it only has to power 720p games, not 1440p or even 1080p, you can get a surprising amount for your four hundred dollars: I was able to bring up some demanding sections of The Witcher 3 and Control to medium specs without feeling uncomfortable. It’s a full graphics level higher than Founder Aya Neo’s Edition, where I usually play these games on the lowest settings and sometimes still get bogged down.

What I hadn’t necessarily imagined when I walked into Valve’s lobby: how gigantic the Steam Deck is next to a Nintendo Switch – and yet, how more comfortable it is to hold. While it barely fits in a deep cargo pants pocket (if you can call “bulges in all directions” a fit), I now believe Valve when he says the Deck was sculpted for long gaming sessions.

The first time I picked it up, it felt like my fingers had just melted into its grips and grooves, putting all the controls within easy reach – including much meatier joysticks and a deeper throw. and smoother on its triggers than the stiff, clickable controls I’ve come to expect from PC Switch and Switch-like competitors. I’m not sure I’m a fan of the slick, flat joysticks, however. Even though you can do impressive gyro aiming by leaving your finger on the capacitive sensor hidden there, you can already shoot the same round with the precision touchpad, and I’m not sure it’s worth the compromise of the. grip of the joystick. I would still have to test more.

While I immediately noticed the half pound extra weight compared to the Switch, it didn’t bother me during my brief session. The Deck might be heavier, but these prototypes feel light for their size, with a slightly hollow feeling that – come to think of it – could be polarizing. I wonder if Valve will keep it that way and if the screen finish and plastics could improve. Inside, I didn’t really have a clear preference between Valve’s glossy screen and premium etched anti-glare treatment – since what you gain in anti-glare, you lose in vibrancy – and I do. spotted some scratches on the chassis.

I also really felt heat and battery drain, with one unit that was plugged in at the start of our session almost dead after an hour and a half. Since Valve promised four hours of real-world battery life Gate 2 and up to eight hours with a lower rate, I imagine that is not normal. Valve couldn’t say what specifically will change between these EV2 development units and the final version, but that build quality is still being improved.

There are a lot of things I really couldn’t do in an hour and a half at Valve HQ yesterday, like digging deeper into the new SteamOS (although I love how simpler it looks and how you can easily see which games you have an SD card and internal drive), try any online or multiplayer game, or connect it to a larger monitor. The team also didn’t let us take it apart – I asked!

But I was able to get partial answers to some lingering questions and the promise that this won’t be the last look at Steam Deck until it launches in late 2021 / early 2022.

As an example, Valve says they’re planning to produce their own video to explain exactly what it means to open the Steam Deck and access the interns, because that’s definitely something the company plans to let you do. (It has Philips head screws.) We’ve heard before that you can swap out the SSD, but the repair is also very much on the minds of the company. Valve’s Greg Coomer says the company has a full set of nuanced answers to your burning questions.

You might also remember that Valve plans to offer a docking station so the Steam Deck can easily pop out on a TV, and while it’s still in the works, the team says they’re hoping to ship it. with the laptop. You may be able to order one next to the Deck, but that’s not certain.

The team ruled out whether Valve would bring new games to the Steam Deck or if it was going to be profitable – “We’re not going to dive in there and lose a lot of money” – but they did. strongly suggest to me that they would not make exclusive games for laptops like they did Half-life: Alyx exclusive to VR, saying they don’t think of Steam Deck entrances the same way.

While the team believes some game makers might specifically optimize their orders for laptops, Valve says it didn’t design the Steam Deck in terms of giving the gamer hands, even though the Deck has buttons under eight of your fingers and can sense your thumb position. It was more about having more buttons to map for gamers and developers on PC, and a member of the team explained how the Xbox Elite controller gives you extra paddles so you don’t have to remove. your fingers sticks. “It’s more about the quality of the inputs and the quantity of the inputs,” said a team member.

But Coomer lit up when I suggested we could maybe see Steam Deck’s custom AMD APU in a standalone VR headset, like the Oculus Quest. He said he liked the question. “We’re not ready to say anything about it, but it would work well in this environment, with the TDP needed… it’s very relevant to us and our future plans,” he said.

Photograph by Sean Hollister / The Verge