2 x 32.55 mm square trackpads with haptic feedback (55% better latency compared to the Steam controllers) and theyâre pressure sensitive
Display
1280 x 800px (16:10 aspect ratio)
7" diagonal display size
60hz
Touch enabled
Connectivity
Bluetooth 5.0
Dual band wi-fi
Power
USB C
40 Whr Battery which they claim is 2-8 hours of gameplay
Size and weight
298mm x 117mm x 49mm
669 grams
Operating System
SteamOS (Arch)
KDE Plasma for desktop display
There is also an official dock that has HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4, 3x USB B ports, and an ethernet port
Pretty exciting news! $100 more then the Switch is interesting but I think this is definitely aimed more at an older audience. The idea that this can also function as a small portable computer that you can plug into a dock and use like a desktop is kind of cool.
The idea of a Switch that could access my entire Steam library is very appealing but âstarts at $400â is the kind of asterisk that makes me wonder how bad this could get.
Itâs really interesting as a full PC with SteamOS on it. Probably not for me because of the price, but Iâm listening. The inclusion of two trackpads, two sticks and a d-pad is amazing, the main weakness of the steam controller was not having a right stick.
This makes me realize that I actually have no idea how many things sitting in my forlorn âIâm not a PC gamer anymoreâ Steam library even run on their Linux distro
Is SteamOS, likeâŚwidely supported? I genuinely donât know
Valve has a compatibility layer called Proton that runs a lot of Windows games in Linux. Probably about 80% of your library will run fine, with little to no loss of performance on similar hardware.
I tried it out on an old gaming laptop with a fairly bad video card and was pretty impressed. Sometimes for games with an actual linux port, Proton did a better job than the port.
I kinda want one just because I can already see the weird software coming out for this thing that you normally do not see on a handheld just by the nature of it having a full desktop OS.
Also if I was still in college I think this is the tech gadget I would be dying to have? You can game on it, it has a full OS so you could run libre office to take notes in class with a wireless keyboard, and then when you go home for the day you can connect to your dock and use it for class work.
Honestly Iâm really excited to see people who have never used Linux before try this and realize that while itâs the OS of nerds itâs not as obtuse as you would think.
As someone who canât play a Switch handheld because the button placements wreck havoc on my jacked up hands. To hold a Switch with a straighter wrist and grip to my forearms means I have to move my thumb up and down way more than is comfortable. The Steam Deckâs layout hopefully would be more ergonomic for me requiring less movement to go from stick to buttons/d-pad.
Wouldnât be a bad thing if this takes off and causes PC spec requirements to remain low. I might even be able to squeeze another five years from my GTX 970!
Iâll be curious to see how at least a 150 GB model compares to some of the other handheld PC gaming âconsolesâ on the market. Most of those are Kickstarted, so the prices are , but some of them have interesting feature sets.
But if the âhas a decent amount of spaceâ model starts hitting 700, 800 dollars⌠one wonders what the benefit of this is over a gaming laptop.
Very much the same for me. When I heard this announcement I was like âhuh, neat I guessâ and then I went through all the usual stages of âWhat if Valve did literally ANYTHING else?â
What if they supported TF2 again? What if Counterstrike wasnât a hat market for money-laundering? What if they made a Half Life that most people could actually play? What if they made a new game for one of their beloved series of games that people are still playing?
The possibilities are endless and experimental hardware Valve is the most boring and annoying timeline.
Had about a week between being happy that I wouldnât have to shell out for a Switch Pro and seeing this and going âah yes, try as I might, I will absolutely end up with one of these.â
The Switch already works so well for the way I like to play games, and now I can just⌠cut through my massive Steam backlog on something similar? Itâs just inevitable.
, but some of them have interesting feature sets.
