I had a fairly opposite experience. I bought a Steam Deck when it first came out and had to return it during the refund period because of a software bug making it basically unusable with my account.
A year later, the bug was finally fixed and I rebought. And… I like the fact that it runs Linux and the efforts done to make windows games playable in Linux in general. But I’ve found that i actually don’t enjoy the form factor of the Steam Deck at all.
I find it to be too big and heavy to hold comfortably without resting it on something. The buttons are tiny and too close to the edge. The d-pad sucks, at least on mine. Staring at the little screen gives me a headache and text/icons are too small in a lot of games. The Wi-Fi is really slow (at least in the original LCD model) and downloading/installing takes absolutely forever. I’ve literally spent more time installing games and downloading updates than actually playing games in it.
It has been months since I last turned mine on. In hindsight, it was a poor purchase for me.
I do still like it as a concept and an happy to see it is successful. I welcome the new Linux users. I follow the steam deck communities and read the news.
I will note from experience the weight decrease with the OLED version was noticeable. So that was an improvement. I also have the official dock hardwired with ethernet so I tend to plug in for downloads. A lot of things have been fixed and improved since launch as well.
But you are right, it can be heavy, clunky, slow, and depending on what you wanna do, it may requiring a lot of tinkering. There’s also the occasional games that just won’t work at all or great on it, even with some tinkering.
I had a fairly opposite experience. I bought a Steam Deck when it first came out and had to return it during the refund period because of a software bug making it basically unusable with my account.
A year later, the bug was finally fixed and I rebought. And… I like the fact that it runs Linux and the efforts done to make windows games playable in Linux in general. But I’ve found that i actually don’t enjoy the form factor of the Steam Deck at all.
I find it to be too big and heavy to hold comfortably without resting it on something. The buttons are tiny and too close to the edge. The d-pad sucks, at least on mine. Staring at the little screen gives me a headache and text/icons are too small in a lot of games. The Wi-Fi is really slow (at least in the original LCD model) and downloading/installing takes absolutely forever. I’ve literally spent more time installing games and downloading updates than actually playing games in it.
It has been months since I last turned mine on. In hindsight, it was a poor purchase for me.
I do still like it as a concept and an happy to see it is successful. I welcome the new Linux users. I follow the steam deck communities and read the news.
… But it’s just not for me, apparently.
I will note from experience the weight decrease with the OLED version was noticeable. So that was an improvement. I also have the official dock hardwired with ethernet so I tend to plug in for downloads. A lot of things have been fixed and improved since launch as well.
But you are right, it can be heavy, clunky, slow, and depending on what you wanna do, it may requiring a lot of tinkering. There’s also the occasional games that just won’t work at all or great on it, even with some tinkering.
Despite all that i said, the OLED special editions were very tempting!