Should You Buy The Steam Deck OLED For Emulation?

Join us as we take a look at the Steam Deck OLED's incredible emulation capabilities. We're looking at the initial setting up process, some advanced emulator configuration, how retro games benefit from the Deck's hardware and of course, we're testing a load of games from every era!

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🔗 LINKS 🔗
Steam Deck Official Store:

💻 CHAPTERS 💻
00:00 - Introduction
01:15 - Setting The Steam Deck Up For Emulation
04:30 - Additional Files Needed For Certain Emulators
06:03 - What Makes The Steam Deck Special?
08:57 - Game Performance Testing
12:02 - Battery Life
12:45 - Is The Steam Deck Worth Buying For Emulation?
14:37 - Price Of The Steam Deck
15:29 - Conclusion

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#steamdeck #emulation #emulator

[ArtistMarkFlynn]

I'm blown away by the OLED, I liked the original anyway but the Battery improvement on the LCD along with the screen is just insane.

[herrmayhem]

I bought myself my first Steam Deck for Christmas. The OLED is very expensive here in Australia ($1279/£660) because we have to import it. Absolutely no regrets. It's an amazing handheld. Ive bought a few Android handhelds in the past, primarily for emulation but theyve always felt lacking in some area. The Steam Deck is great.

[davidtobin]

I genuinely think that the video stuff from RetroDojo has quickly become their most impressive content. It’s all because of their new video host who just smashes out hit after hit. outstanding stuff!

[ChaoSJino]

There seems to be one way of transferring files, which every reviewer never mentions, but I use often... I make their folders "shared" on the network. Then from the Steam Deck's "Dekstop Mode" file browser you can copy them from the PC to the Deck. Admittedly, it's over wi-fi, so it's not the fastest option, but it is relatively easy and simple to set up, and if you keep saving files to these shared folders they are always available to be moved to the deck.

[tatecheddar]

Haven't even watched the video yet, but I've had my Deck OLED since launch and this is primarily what I use it for. It's incredible. I would HIGHLY recommend this for emulation simply because it's perfect in almost any emulation use case and it does everything else as well. Such an amazing piece of hardware.

[Anna_Rae]

One of the biggest reasons i use my oled steam deck as an emulation device is because of the amazing docked experience.

Being able to take the same device with the same games, saves, etc and play it on a TV, while being able to use any controller i want is incredible 💝

[SlightlyMisunderstood]

Emulation is the number one usage category for my steam deck. Emudeck is fantastic and so easy to setup and use.

[TheCoolDave]

Just a tip for people who are new looking into a Deck.... The OLED model is like $549. With some hunting around you can find the LCD model used (Facebook marketplace, ebay, etc) for around $200-275. No question less than 1/2 the price, and a steal at that for what you're getting. A 64gb model with a 512gb MicroSD card and you're ready for almost every rom you can think about.

If you have seen the difference an OLED display makes, it's amazing but, the LCD screen is still really nice. Battery in the OLED deck is 50wh, on the LCD it's 40wh. So, the OLED is better but, it's not like crazy better. The memory and processing power is about the same (OLED uses faster memory so seeing 1-3 fps faster is possible), performance is going to be very close to each other.

What I am saying, do not dismiss the LCD model if budget is a factor here, you can get a lot of bang for your buck with an LCD model and get the same overall experience.

And one of the HUGE features of the EmuDeck, is cloud sync of saves/states. This will be coming to a Windows version too. You can play a game on your PC, boot up your deck and continue exactly where you were. This works across the board too, even Switch games....

[yaknow]

I'm a recent steam deck owner and I'm very happy with my purchase. I have the 528bg OLED version. And it's hard to pick between the PS5 and steam deck sometimes. Because of the emulation.

[thegrumpygamer]

Yep the Deck is great, I upgraded to the OLED and what a difference. I normally use the Deck for the higher end systems like the Switch. For travelling light I have the Retroid Pocket flip and for ultra light the Miyoo Mini + Obviously that is for the low end systems, but I get my fix of Metroid when travelling.

[killingtime]

The cheaper option is to go with the LCD model, works great. I've finally gotten around to installing emulators on mine.

One advantage with the deck are the track pads, I've been using them when navigating settings menu's for emulators, for when you want to quickly change some settings. Really useful.

[jorelplay]

3:12 you could also share a folder on your pc over the network (smb) and copy the roms that way. No need for a dock or waiting for slow usb thumb drives.

[sunriseshell]

FYI on your computer you can format the SD to exFAT and it will work on PC, Mac, and the Steam Deck to make file transfer easy.
EMUDeck runs on the internal SSD and the ROM stay on the SD saving space on the Deck.

[clap]

Playing Metroid prime trilogy with prime hack on the OLED deck is…a dream come true. It’s smooth. There’s a slight pause when you open a door but other than that it feels like it was made for the damn thing.

[jacktheripper]

I have the O.G LCD Steam deck bought it on release date and more than happy with it do not need to upgrade to OLED maybe in time I will.
But agree the emulation is great on it been enjoying playing The Last Story on Wii!

[Cappurnikus]

I prefer to add my games individually to my Steam Library so that they can each have their own unique controller settings. If you launch everything through emulation station, you'll have to change settings when you switch systems.

[dabom]

You don't need a seperate device to transfer files between SteamOS and Windows. You can do it via Wifi transfer with various programs. At the moment, I'm using KDE Link on Windows.

[DerivitivFilms]

you actually dont need to use a usb stick to transfer your roms, you can connect to your pc through network folder sharing in desktop mode.

[davidhoffman]

Great video. It’s what I needed to finally get me to buy a SD

[GeminiNight]

This is a really great video! It gives me a really good idea of what I can do with my deck. Thank you and keep up the great work! I have dropped a subscribe ^_^