Steam Deck Review: Valve's Handheld Has Big PC Energy

[harlan4096]

The Steam Deck needs some time to mature, but it's a comfortable, portable gaming machine.
Our Verdict

Valve's Steam Deck is a powerful, flexible gaming handheld that feels great and lets you take your games on the go. Just don't expect it to last too long, and know that some games may not work perfectly out of the box.

For

• + Comfortable to hold, with controls that feel great
  
• + Keeps cool where you hold it
  
• + Most games run fine off SD card
  
• + Anti-glare display is excellent
  

Against

• - Battery life isn't great for intense games
  
• - You may not be able to get one for months
  
• - Not every game works well yet or has been Steam reviewed
  
• - Non-Steam games require Windows install
  

It would be an understatement to say that PC gaming has seen a bit of a resurgence in the last few years, in spite of ongoing GPU supply issues and price gouging. So it's not entirely surprising that when Valve announced the Steam Deck ($399 to start, $649 as tested), players jumped at the opportunity to play their favorite games on what appeared to be a high-quality handheld device. After all, previous handheld PCs like the Aya Neo aren't exactly household names, and usually cost much more.

Following a hyped launch and one delay, it's now time for the Steam Deck to start shipping. And having spent quite a bit of time with it, I think this thing is pretty great, even when it's a bit wonky. As someone who started my life gaming on consoles before transitioning to being more platform agnostic, I find that the Steam Deck combines the simplicity I appreciate with the customization options I've learned to love.  It also lets me play games however I'm comfortable playing them, much like the Nintendo Switch.

The build quality is strong and solid, and the anti-glare display is beautiful. I don't think anyone will be surprised that the battery life isn't stellar for most titles. But what will compel some people and shock others is how much of a PC this is. Some of that comes from the fact that Valve is still tinkering on the software side, and based on the improvements I've seen in my time with the device, I expect it to seem more fully baked soon. Yet it's also due to the fact that there is so much you can change, and how there are little quirks you'll have to live with or try to fix.

Most people don't need a Steam Deck (not that you'll be able to buy one easily for a long time, anyway), but many will enjoy it, despite any oddities. It's good for single-player games, indies and for hobbyists who want to mess with Linux or install Windows.

Those who care most about playing their games on the go and are willing to sacrifice fidelity for the cause will be surprised just how much computer they're getting here.

One note: We got to spend more time with the Steam Deck than we do with some other products, but that came with the caveat that the software was being finished up until release. We didn't see any major performance changes as our testing progressed, but some features were still being worked on until the very end, and we may write more about those in updates to this review or in upcoming coverage.

Design and Comfort of Steam Deck

The Steam Deck is big. It makes the Nintendo Switch look even sleeker than it already is. Your childhood Game Gear was small in comparison. This thing takes up some serious space.

But it's surprisingly comfortable to use.

Valve's handheld is an imposing, black plastic machine, measuring 11.73 inches wide, 4.6 inches tall and 1.93 inches deep (298 x 117 x 49 mm). A standard Nintendo Switch is 9.4 x 4 x 0.5 inches, so this is far longer and thicker. Still it's much smaller than the best gaming laptops.

The build quality is really solid here. Everything feels nice, with the exception of seams that go around the sides. This, however, lets you open the device, which we'll get to later on. There are a handful of decorative lines that give it a bit of a gamer edge, but they're tone-on tone and don't stand out too much. A Valve logo is on the back of the system. There's a significant bezel around the 7-inch touchscreen. In practice, it didn't bother me much, but I wish it were smaller so Valve could have fit a slightly larger display in this chassis.

Valve has jammed a lot of inputs into a small space. There's a D-Pad, two thumbsticks, A/B/X/Y buttons, a pair of trackpads with haptic feedback, as well as view and menu buttons for games and "Steam" and a "..." options button for Steam OS (these two buttons appear to have pad printed legends, which is one of a very few areas about this thing that feels cheap). On the rear, there are four more buttons you can hit with your fingers, like you can see on many controllers aimed at gamers playing FPS titles who don't want to take their thumbs off the sticks. Additionally, you get standard bumpers and triggers.

The D-pad is next to the left thumb stick, and the A/B/X/Y buttons are to the right of the right stick. This is very unlike what has been popularized by Xbox and PlayStation, but it does work. I'm 5 feet, 8 inches tall and have fairly average-sized hands. For those with smaller hands, I could see an issue where you may have to stretch to reach both the thumbsticks and triggers. One such small-handed person in my life told me they felt they were using their "full wingspan" to get their hands around it.

When you first pick the Deck up, you'll notice how hefty it feels. It weighs just under 1.5 pounds, which is a lot compared to the Switch, which is about 0.88 pounds. But the Steam Deck has far more powerful hardware packed in.

At first, I did worry about the weight. But as I used it, I rarely had an issue with it. Yes, it's heavier than the Switch I played hours of Stardew Valley on, but my hands weren't cramping up after several hours of games I've been bouncing between, like Guardians of the Galaxy and Ace Attorney Chronicles.

I have to say, I love the inputs. The thumbsticks feel excellent: smooth with just a bit of heft. Most controllers do eventually drift, but the fact that these feel solid gives me the impression that they will last a while. The D-Pad, too, feels excellent, and I'm pretty picky about these things. I think some people might wish it were a bit larger, but there's just the right amount of resistance and click.

The A/B/X/Y buttons are a bit softer than on my go-to Xbox wireless controllers and make far less noise. That lack of a click felt a bit odd at first, but I grew to appreciate the buttons quietly popping up immediately so I could mash them down again.

The haptic feedback on the touchpads is, frankly, weak. I mostly used the touchpads in games where a mouse would be better than a joystick (or as the mouse on the KDE Plasma desktop), but at least it gave me a small sense of where the cursor was moving. Still, the touchpads work great as a mouse replacement in games like Civilization VI, which was surprisingly playable on the Steam Deck.

Those two Steam OS-focused buttons are inset with the rest of the chassis. This makes it extremely unlikely that you'll press them by accident during gameplay, but I found that it also made them harder to access than they should be when you need them. They require a much harder press than anything else on the system. Start strengthening those thumbs.

The system also never feels like it's getting hot. (It sounds like it, but that's a different story.) Valve was very smart about the way it laid out the inputs and the components, and my hands weren't any sweatier than if I had used a desktop after playing. The primary intake is on the back of the system, just far away enough from the right grip buttons that you don't notice it, while hot air exhausts out the top.
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