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Less than a month after its initial announcement, Valve invited a group of techies to put their mitts on the upcoming Steam Deck handheld. Valve handed them over to several different sites to take a tour with a selection of games including Control, Doom Eternal, Hades and others. Not your RPS team, alas, unless I massively missed a memo about Katharine being in Seattle.
In case we got our hands on the thing, here’s what everyone who has had to say about it. The long and the short are pretty positive: Comfortable controls despite the large size and good performance even though battery life may tend towards the lower end of Valve’s goals.
Now, inevitably, everyone will be comparing the Steam Deck to the Nintendo Switch. It’s still definitely a benchmark for just about anyone who’s got their hands on the thing this week, everything from the size of the machine itself to performance to peripheral support and more.
A common comment from just about everyone so far seems to be that the thing looks even bigger in person. Compared to the Switch, that is to say. It’s not very heavy, however, reaching 1.47 lbs (669 grams) compared to the 0.88 lbs (399g) of the original Switch.
When it comes to comfort, almost everyone mentions that the Deck actually fits quite comfortably in the hand. “It took me maybe 10 seconds with the analog sticks to make sure I much prefer them to the Nintendo Switch joycons. It helps that they’re a lot bigger, with a smooth spin, and a design that I would compare. to an Xbox analog stick. ”says PC Gamer. “Don’t worry about that B Button, it may look like it’s hanging from the edge of the Deck, but when in use that’s okay.”
Giant Bomb covers all kinds of topics in their video here. At first, they do a quick side-by-side test of the Deck and Switch, each charging Hades, which the Deck was able to do faster.
Giant Bomb also spoke a bit about battery life, claiming that they actively used the Deck for around an hour and a half, which reduced the device to around 30% battery power. It’s worth taking into account, given Valve’s initial announcement predicting 2-8 hours of battery life. You might be able to play eight hours of Solitaire, but not Doom Eternal, obviously.
Starting a game from your library is supposedly as easy as it gets. “While playing the game, it was so easy to forget that I was there to test a new machine and play on a working prototype, because there was no friction,” says GamesRadar. “The game felt so good to me that my brain went straight into game mode.”
For a different comparison, Linus Tech Tips spends some time judging the Deck against the AYA NEO handheld. There are also more compliments on the Deck’s analog sticks here, although LTT again emphasizes that the Deck is a larger device with a thicker profile. When it comes to portable devices, the Deck will definitely be on the beefy side.
It’s good to see some initial positivity about analog sticks, which Valve has said they don’t want to take any chances on. I have a bad stick drift case on one of my own Switch joycons and I would definitely be disappointed to see this issue pop up again in another portable device.
The first practical impressions therefore seem rather positive. Of course, this is the Steam Deck in a controlled environment. The real test will be when thousands of enthusiastic pre-orders start to get their hands on the Decks.
In a recent interview, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell said gamers never had a good portable gaming option. I love my Switch as much as the next person, but it does indeed come with Nintendo’s restrictions. If the Steam Deck is truly as dummy-proof as people claim, or as dummy-proof as PC games, anyway, the Steam Deck may really have a chance to be a new option. ubiquitous portable gaming device.
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