GREAT JOB VALVE! Steam Deck Review [512GB Model]

Portable gaming has finally grown up with Valve's new Steam Deck. With the power to play top tier games in a handheld form factor, the Steam Deck has been impressing us. After almost 6 months of playing, here's our review.

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Steam Deck Accessories

SlimQ 100W GaN Charger

CHAPTERS
==========
0:00 Intro
1:23 Pre-ordering
1:41 Steam Deck Overview, Specs and Models
3:46 SSD Speed
5:24 Tech Specs
6:19 Display
7:03 RAM
7:17 Controls
8:44 Don't Break It!
9:38 Comfort & Heat
10:23 More Specs
11:04 Charger & Battery Life
11:50 USB Port
12:23 Linux Desktop, Windows Installation, Spare Parts
13:23 Game Support
16:00 Performance Overlay
16:54 Steam Button, Library & Store
18:14 Games & Innovation
20:14 Steam Deck vs Nintendo Switch?
20:35 Concluding Thoughts

#steamdeck #valve #gaming

[sveeny]

I've had mine for about 2 months now and I have to say, high school me would've been completely mind blown by this. And honestly, adult me is pretty stoked too. Have played so many different games on it already and having an absolute blast!

[insparks]

I'm pleased to report that we're now at the point where the Steam Deck is generally available for everyone. I ordered a 512GB model completely on a whim yesterday and it has already shipped. No preorder whatsoever.

[ashep]

This was probably the most thorough tech evaluation video I have ever watched. You did an amazing job in describing the pros and cons.

[aronfaine]

Just took delivery of my 512GB Deck about an hour ago. I live in the US. I really love it, and I really love your videos. So clean and concise and well presented, and you pretty much gave me a Getting Started Guide for my own Deck! Thanks for that, and keep up the excellent work!

[Werdiknight]

I just discovered the steam deck 3 days ago - must be living behind the moon... 😁 And right now I am getting rid of my 30 year old Game Boy, SNES and even older Atari console (which I could NEVER sell before)... and I am probably even selling my old desktop PC (just keeping the 2020 model to play newer games). This is just mindblowing! It feels like the start of a new era and still it also feels like the unification of everything I ever loved gaming-wise. ☺

[Jromelife]

I got rid of my ps4 and switch and got a deck love it so far got ps2 games running on it as well. I got tired of the console maker charging for everything online should be free. Steam sales you can’t beat them.

[Gingerlion]

I like the option to play at 40 fps 40 hz. I can play with high settings instead of low settings 60 fps.. and to be honest i don’t notice much difference between 40 and 60! But the higher graphics i do notice. Nice in depth review!

[Web]

People were able to play MW2 Beta at near constant 60fps at native resolution around low-medium on TDM/DOM/Normal Gamemodes with Windows on it. Now that is pretty impressive.

Steam also has Family Sharing, where you can share your entire library with a friend.

[Filmenthusiast-hdkl]

What an awesome & a genuine review.
The calmness in your personality is admirable. I clicked the video just to see how you'd review a product for may be 10 seconds & stayed for over 20 mints, if that doesnt speak volumes, then I dont know what does. TWO THUMBS UP. 👍 👍

[FalkoJoseph]

Damn, this is the gadget I’ve dreamed about when I was a kid 😅

[ThePantheons]

Really appreciate the considered and mature approach you have to presenting, can't wait for mine to arrive!

[Laddima]

I got the 64 GB version, SteamOS takes around 10-15 GBs so you're left with <50GBs. This is pretty tough if you'd like to load one AAA which is around 40-60GBs.
I opted out to purchase a 1TB M.2 2230 NVME for ~200 bucks and an Anti-Glare screen for 20 bucks. This brings me up to the cost of 512GB Steam Deck but is twice as much storage.

[ArachnidSoul]

Solid review. After spending a week with my Steam Deck, I wouldn't even compare it to the Nintendo Wii past the fact they are both handhelds. I'd compare the Steam Deck to modern next gen consoles and say it blows them out of the water. The more I mess around with the Steam Deck the more things I figure out it can do. For only $400 at the low end, this is the best gaming console I've ever had. If I want to, with a $15 USBC to HDMI cable I can hook this Steam Deck up to my TV, and then connect wirelessly to it with my PS4 controller via blue tooth. I ran Cyberpunk 2077 on here the other day without issues. ...Well with only the usual Cyberpunk 2077 in game issues, but the Steam Deck did it's part well. I'd honestly tell people to buy a Steam Deck before buying a next gen Xbox or PlayStation. Try to find anyone who's not both blown away by the over-performance of the Steam Deck, and who think it's not well worth the money after purchase.

[Mizufluffy]

The grip buttons (L4/L5/R4/R5) and the trackpads are some of my favorite features on the Deck. I don't use or need them for every game but for in some games I'm really glad they are there. I enjoyed Valve's Steam Controller but I'm glad the Steam Deck's inputs improved on it by having two sticks instead of one and a d-pad, and four grip buttons instead of just two. In some situations I really like using a trackpad, sometimes a d-pad and sometimes a stick. The Deck has all three on the left side, and basically the same on the right side too except ABXY instead of the d-pad. This way it's up to the player to decide whichever method they prefer. You may not find use for some of those but then someone else might so I like that it was planned with multiple different type of gamers in mind.

Something I've noticed about the games that have been rated by Valve into those categories is that there are even some games that are listed as unsupported but may still work. The verification is work in progress so it is possible those games may have indeed not worked when Valve rated them but then updates to SteamOS, Proton or the games themselves may have fixed some issues. I typically take the ratings with grain of salt. I trust the verified games to work on the Deck because otherwise I feel like Valve is making empty promises, and I pay attention to playable games and what kind of problems they may have. I try to avoid buying games for the Deck that are listed as unsupported, especially if the reason is known such as anti-cheat. For the unknown games I may look at the Steam discussions for the game and see if any users have provided feedback there.

For the games that are already in my Steam library I may try anything because all I lose is basically some time spent on downloading and installing a game. However, unsupported games that I don't have yet come with a risk of losing money if I can't play them on the Deck. For the most part many of the problems listed in playable category are often minor enough that I don't mind those issues. Something like having to navigate through a launcher once per a session doesn't really affect the gameplay much but very small text or the game constantly showing keyboard and mouse glyphs could potentially be annoying during the game.

Overall the Deck is a fantastic piece of technology, and it has clearly increased my time spent on playing games, and despite of a few small issues I've been very much satisfied with it.

[matthiasb]

One of the best reviews I've seen so far. I like that you get the details right. Almost no one else mentioned the menu and view buttons, for instance, which left me confused, because I don't have controller experience.

[TheSlowGrowth]

A small addition: Unsupported games CAN actually run just fine - sometimes all you need is a Proton GE installation on the Deck. I'd recommend to search the web when in doubt, many games actually work just fine.

[DiThi]

When talking about quick settings you should mention that you can limit the framerate of the screen and the game to 40 Hz and 40 FPS for an improved battery life.

[Canian.]

I've had my steam deck for about a week now and I love it so much. I have hardly even touched my gaming PC since it arrived. The performance is top notch for a handheld and even better than I imagined it would be. Almost every game I have tried has worked although some need tinkering with controls but once you got it set up for each game, steam remembers the settings so you don't have to do it again later. Steam deck is the most well designed and implemented gaming hardware I have ever owned. If you are on the fence, I say just buy it, you won't regret it.

[fitch]

One again a terrific review. 

I don't own any games. Never did. But your genuine excitement about the Steam Deck has me reconsidering that. I suspect if I bought one, my wife would take it over. She used to love to play games on the Apple II.

[funkamnkey]

After gaming since 1978, I recently fell out of love with it. I sold my PC components and my console too. I've not played anything since Jan this year until I decided to give the Deck a try after finding a brand new 256gb model for £400 on Facebook Marketplace.

I've not had much time to play on it but the experience I've had so far is excellent. I've been trying to complete Max Payne 3 and Half Life 2. Games that sat in my Steam library for years. I've also tried to run through the paid of Overwatch 2's shader load in. I'm at an hour or so now and it's still no compiled.

Hopefully other companies realise that the Deck is a big part of gaming now and take advantage of it.