Purchase here:
https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck
You Should Buy a Steam Deck If
- You like playing games in a handheld style.
- With the steam deck, the console is the controller.
- You have a decently built up steam library. Indie titles work particularly well.
- Note: If you want to build up your steam library, check out https://gg.deals/.
- You're interested in emulation (can do up to certain xbox360 / PS3 Games)
- (Bonus) You have an interest in tinkering with computers. In this case Linux.
- If you don't want to tinker, you can stay within the console-esque path and not really dive into the Linux stuff, but I find it hecka fun to do so.
Don't Buy If
- You want to play AAA games for hours on end away from an outlet.
- You only like playing with keyboard + mouse as opposed to a controller.
- You'll depend on the steam deck as a dedicated desktop / workstation.
- While it does work for this with a dock, a monitor, a keyboard+mouse; you're sort of just reinventing the laptop. Also the built-in OS doesn't lend itself that well to a fully hackable Arch / Pacman experience due to its immutable filesystem.
tldr: if you want to play video games, get the deck. If instead you want a workstation, get a laptop.
- While it does work for this with a dock, a monitor, a keyboard+mouse; you're sort of just reinventing the laptop. Also the built-in OS doesn't lend itself that well to a fully hackable Arch / Pacman experience due to its immutable filesystem.
- You mainly want to use it for windows.
- Installing windows on steam deck seems like a bad idea to me, though I've never tried it. You'd be better of with an actual windows handheld.
- You want high resolution + high refresh rate.
- Steam deck's built in screen is 800p@60hz. This is a fine level of clarity for the small screen size and it performs well in terms of FPS / power efficency. If you use an external monitor, 1080p@30-40 is often possible, but anything beyond that is likely out of reach except for the most basic of titles. OLED model has an 800p 90hz screen.