Right! SteamOS with sleep/resume, gyro, touchpads and back paddles are my absolute baseline for handhelds now.
I can't wait to see some REAL competition.
this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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Steam Deck
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A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
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I’ve said it before, but what makes the Deck unique is the holistic experience it brings. Like a really good chili, it’s a culmination of all the ingredients, particularly the below;
- SteamOS out of the box
- Steam Input in combination with the extensive inputs on the Deck itself
- The ability to easily change core hardware settings via the options menu to influence performance or battery life
- The extensive third party support via software and peripherals (cases, skins, accessories)
- Price point
- Well documented upgradability (SSD replacement, thumbsticks, etc)
I’m all for better screens and hardware, but they always come at a cost to battery life. Not that the Deck has a huge battery life to begin with, but the reason it is passable is due in large part to the hardware it comes with.
The Ally may be beefier spec wise, but at detriment to battery life. Not to mention the Windows OS and lack of inputs (both trackpads and two extra back buttons).
The Legion Go at least accounts for the input selection and has a unique controller setup, but I’m curious to see the battery life to performance ratio. Again, Windows will still be a detriment overall.
Really what it comes down to in the handheld space is finding something that has no compromises from the Steam Deck and an overall increase to performance without affecting battery life so negatively that it becomes a glorified docked laptop.
If I never got a Deck to start, I may have jumped to the Legion Go on account of not having realized what SteamOS brings to the table, and being enticed the beefier specs and control scheme.
However - after having a dual boot setup on the Deck with both SteamOS and Windows, I find myself more and more trying to get games working on the SteamOS side versus the Windows side. This is due to the overall “streamlined” experience of just booting up Game Mode, selecting a game and going off to the races.
Conversely, when I’m on Windows, I can get games operational and semi streamlined via playnite and Glosi, but it still feels clunkier and more obtuse. I pretty much only use Windows for games that I have a single player server running on for some emulated MMOs and that’s about it. If I could get the servers running properly on SteamOS, I’d make the switch in a heartbeat. It’s just trying to find a way to get them running on it with the associated databases/libraries that won’t get it wiped upon update to newer versions.
I’m all for better screens and hardware, but they always come at a cost to battery life. Not that the Deck has a huge battery life to begin with, but the reason it is passable is due in large part to the hardware it comes with.
I honestly think the low-res display is the Deck's "killer feature". Everyone else trying to achieve 1080p or better on such a small display is ruining any potential battery life optimizations for something which is not really all that painful to lose anyway.
Agreed. I’d prefer the lower red and higher battery life. I looked into the “DeckHD” screen, but the biggest buzzkill with that was the custom BIOS flash that you had to do. To your point though, the higher resolution would come at cost to battery life too.
What I want is a screen, same resolution, but increased sRGB coverage, everything the same beyond that.
I wouldn't be surprised in the upcoming few years Microsoft starts implementing an handheld mode for Windows
they did. it was windows 8. we hated it
That's true but that was just tablet
I mean an closed interface ala Steam Deck versus Steam interfaces
Exactly. I'd be more interested in that Lenovo console if it ran Linux or if someone gets it running SteamOS.
This is the smallest obstacle, IMO. You could get rid of (or leave a small dual boot partition of) Windows, and use one of the good Linux distros tailored to a Steam OS-like experience, like Chimera or Bazzite, and just keep ticking along without missing a beat.
I love my Deck, but I'm already researching the process of eventually transitioning off of it simply because the screen is too tiny for my 40s eyes, and I don't get to use it handheld as much as I'd like. This upcoming wave of Deck-like handhelds with 9 and 10 inch screens will be looking very good in this upcoming year.
Unfortunately it doesn't really work that way. Those distros need to be adjusted to work properly with the hardware. For instance, if you got a ROG Ally and slapped Chimera on there you would have no sound, no WiFi, and you have to manually adjust the resolution for each game.
This would be a fairly trivial task for Asus or Lenovo, so I don't really understand why they don't do it, but they don't.
Have you actually installed chimera on the rog or are you just dredging up old linux problems that aren't true anymore like how Nvidia fanboys say AMD drivers don't work on Linux to this day despite AMD having higher compatibility?
No. I have not. I don't have an Ally. But these are issues mentioned in Chimera's own documents, among others. So I assume that they're not fabricating issues with their own software.
They may be outdated, but the point stands.
I've never heard anyone say Nvidia has better compatibility with Linux. Usually the opposite.
Nobara Linux has a Steam Deck edition (basically with gamescope-session and KDE), and I believe it includes patches for complete compatibility with the ROG Ally.
They both do.
Many of those "Steam Deck killers" market themselves that they use Windows to have better game compatibility though, average casual users don't notice the different on Windows and on Linux. Also it seems like currently only Valve is the only one being interested on Linux gaming and taking serious, if any measure to improve Linux gaming. Even GOG with their anti-DRM stance (which may align more to Linux users) and Epic Game Store with their anti-monopoly stance (which also align with many Linux users too) haven't done anything to improve Linux gaming or even port their store/launcher to Linux, and many manufacturers and machines don't support Linux adequately or maybe even not at all (especially gaming machines). So it wouldn't be so surprising though
average casual users don't notice the different on Windows and on Linux.
If they don't notice, that's great. But if you use a Windows handheld and a SteamDeck, they WILL notice a vast difference in usability, because one is simply taken from the desktop and slapped into a handheld, and the other is built from the ground up to deliver an exceptional experience on a single specific piece of hardware.
If it doesn't work out of the box, it's a failure of a device.
Ignoring drivers not being available.
If they actually put trackpads on them then Windows wouldn't be as much of an idiotic decision.
Windows with only sticks is absolutely insane, Windows with trackpads is just less smart.
suspend will always be broken on windows.
even distro like Ubuntu can't s0 properly because of hardware issues.
valve specifically fixed this for the steam deck and no one else has bothered.
Modern suspend is a complete joke IMO. Put the laptop to sleep in your backpack, and after a couple mins your back will literally start baking. Arrive at your destination and the battery is flat
What was wrong with good ol' S2/S3 sleep 😭
I don't get it either. My thinkpad has option to switch s0 sleep on/off and I don't understand why I would want to drain my battery and bake a backpack so it wakes up just a little faster.
a workaround is making sure the device is unplugged before suspend.
there's apparently no will to fix this through UEFI or Microsoft so always unplug first.
If they actually put trackpads on them then Windows wouldn’t be as much of an idiotic decision.
Lenovo does this with theirs and Windows is still an idiotic decision. It's not a console-like experience when Windows throws the user out of the custom launcher to nag about Windows stuff. Windows handhelds exist way longer than Steam Deck and even among the better-earning people, very few actually bought them. It's just no fun to use them.
So I might be the only one who does this (never seen anyone else mention this setup), but I like to do mouse navigation with stick+gyro. So no track pad wouldn't bug me in this respect, but I would still like to have a track pad for virtual menus and scrolling.
Windows is a choice. Vendors don't have to choose it.
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