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Right! SteamOS with sleep/resume, gyro, touchpads and back paddles are my absolute baseline for handhelds now.
I can't wait to see some REAL competition.
I’ve said it before, but what makes the Deck unique is the holistic experience it brings. Like a really good chili, it’s a culmination of all the ingredients, particularly the below;
- SteamOS out of the box
- Steam Input in combination with the extensive inputs on the Deck itself
- The ability to easily change core hardware settings via the options menu to influence performance or battery life
- The extensive third party support via software and peripherals (cases, skins, accessories)
- Price point
- Well documented upgradability (SSD replacement, thumbsticks, etc)
I’m all for better screens and hardware, but they always come at a cost to battery life. Not that the Deck has a huge battery life to begin with, but the reason it is passable is due in large part to the hardware it comes with.
The Ally may be beefier spec wise, but at detriment to battery life. Not to mention the Windows OS and lack of inputs (both trackpads and two extra back buttons).
The Legion Go at least accounts for the input selection and has a unique controller setup, but I’m curious to see the battery life to performance ratio. Again, Windows will still be a detriment overall.
Really what it comes down to in the handheld space is finding something that has no compromises from the Steam Deck and an overall increase to performance without affecting battery life so negatively that it becomes a glorified docked laptop.
If I never got a Deck to start, I may have jumped to the Legion Go on account of not having realized what SteamOS brings to the table, and being enticed the beefier specs and control scheme.
However - after having a dual boot setup on the Deck with both SteamOS and Windows, I find myself more and more trying to get games working on the SteamOS side versus the Windows side. This is due to the overall “streamlined” experience of just booting up Game Mode, selecting a game and going off to the races.
Conversely, when I’m on Windows, I can get games operational and semi streamlined via playnite and Glosi, but it still feels clunkier and more obtuse. I pretty much only use Windows for games that I have a single player server running on for some emulated MMOs and that’s about it. If I could get the servers running properly on SteamOS, I’d make the switch in a heartbeat. It’s just trying to find a way to get them running on it with the associated databases/libraries that won’t get it wiped upon update to newer versions.
I’m all for better screens and hardware, but they always come at a cost to battery life. Not that the Deck has a huge battery life to begin with, but the reason it is passable is due in large part to the hardware it comes with.
I honestly think the low-res display is the Deck's "killer feature". Everyone else trying to achieve 1080p or better on such a small display is ruining any potential battery life optimizations for something which is not really all that painful to lose anyway.
Agreed. I’d prefer the lower red and higher battery life. I looked into the “DeckHD” screen, but the biggest buzzkill with that was the custom BIOS flash that you had to do. To your point though, the higher resolution would come at cost to battery life too.
What I want is a screen, same resolution, but increased sRGB coverage, everything the same beyond that.
I wouldn't be surprised in the upcoming few years Microsoft starts implementing an handheld mode for Windows
they did. it was windows 8. we hated it
That's true but that was just tablet
I mean an closed interface ala Steam Deck versus Steam interfaces