Easily. Aside from the first party titles, there’s literally no reason to get a Switch 2. Everything else is objectively better on a PC handheld (especially the Deck).
Yes everything is better on a handheld PC. But the Deck is not a very good handheld PC. It is priced to be at the same tier as contemporary handheld PCs like the Rog Ally, the Legion Go, The MSI claw, the GPD Win 4, but all those handheld PCs can play current AAA titles while the Steamdeck is so underpowered that it struggles to emulate PS3 games. There are more recent devices that can play the same catalog as the steamdeck but cost a lot less, are more portable, and are just better built like the Odin 2 or the Retroid Pocket 5. At this point I am not sure what the use case is for the deck anymore. Every thing that the Deck can do, there are other devices that do it better and for less money.
This is exactly why we have these issues like we’re dealing with with the Switch 2. Console gamers are only focused on hardware and exclusivity, they’re not focused on the operating system of the device, the build quality of the product itself (including the ergonomics), nor do they care about the company that produces it beyond their basic fanboy tendencies.
Steam Deck’s competitors might have slightly better hardware or a higher resolution, but none of them are right to repair friendly. None of them have custom software literally designed for the product, and none of them have the sort of ergonomics that the Steam Deck has. Not to mention the fact that Valve is an American company, which might not be important to everybody, but it is important to me. They’re also a company that has proven themselves to be largely consumer-friendly.
While I’m not dissing anybody who does make the choice to go for an Ally or a Legion Go, the problem I have is that those devices are literally just another hardware company jumping on a band wagon. The Steam Deck completely revolutionized the way that we play on PC. Sure, it took inspiration from the original Switch. There’s no question about that. But that doesn’t mean that Valve was just jumping on a band wagon the way that ASUS and Lenovo are doing.
Valve literally spent years working with Linux developers on software that makes Linux gaming truly viable in order to create devices that allow you to run virtually any game on a handheld that you fully own, are allowed to put any game on (including games from other launchers, which they didn’t have to allow) and you’re fully allowed to self-repair it if any issues arise. Meanwhile, companies like ASUS and Lenovo treat their customers more like smartphone suckers customers, not to mention the fact that they went the cheap and easy route of just using Windows, which isn’t optimized for a device like these. And guess what? Lenovo is bending the knee to the Steam Deck supremacy by allowing you to get a version with SteamOS in the future. That alone proves that Valve is one step ahead of their competition.
To summarize all that I said, the reason the Steam Deck is so good is not just the hardware, it’s not just the screen, it’s the fact that it’s a very capable device at the hardware level, combined with very, very good software and a very consumer-friendly company behind it all.
Steamdecks competitors not being right to repair friendly is simply false. I have expanded my storage and upgraded my heat sink on my LeGo and it was super easy. I see people swapping all kinds of components out on their Ally’s all the time, and the only mods I ever see from the Steamdeck community are really cheap looking 3d printed snap-on covers and grip protectors. The only time I see someone actually opening up a deck is to upgrade to hall effect joysticks which every other handheld PC just comes with out of the box because it is the industry standard now for everyone except for the Deck. I completely agree with you on right to repair which is precisely why I would recommend any PC over the Deck.
Steam OS is very polished but why would I want to limit my handheld PC to only gaming when with Windows it is capable of so much more. I use my go as a portable laptop for work and then after work I slap on the controllers and play a game. With SteamOS I would lose so much functionality. If you love steam so much you can just run steam in windows and just make it full screen, it’s not that hard. Why do you even need a launcher that bad? How hard is it to just click on an icon on a desktop to open your game? Other launchers like Playnite are pretty polished as well.
Steam isn’t the only large community with discord channels and modders and developers working together. Have you seen the community that SBC retro handhelds or android handhelds have? Have you seen the onionOS and spruceOS communities? Yes Steam is a much bigger community but that’s just cuz they have spent much more on marketing.
The steamOS version of the Legion go doesn’t look good, I’ll take the original Go any day. But people kept pushing bazzite and now here we are with a native steamOS. I may not like it but I would argue that is definitely Lenovo listening to their community.
The Ally, Legion, Claw and Win 4 are all more expensive than the Steam Deck. The Odin 2 and Pocket 5 are not, but they don’t run steam, so you can definitely not play all the same games as the steam deck
Serious question. Do ANY of those have track pads? Because so far those seem to be something that only the deck has and I find them to be its most important feature.
There are thousands of games that come out every year, even after filtering out the asset flips and hentai games. A handful of those will have kernel-level anti cheat that make them incompatible by design. Fewer still will be pushing minimum specs that are too hefty for the Steam Deck to handle. So the thousands of remaining games are your use case for the Steam Deck, which tends to be cheaper than its competition and comes with a better OS. A device like those Android ones are fine for emulation, but you’re not playing newer releases on it, and newer releases are far, far, far more than just AAA games with hefty system requirements; it’s also Mouse: P.I. for Hire, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Warside, Descenders Next, Dispatch, and on and on.
Easily. Aside from the first party titles, there’s literally no reason to get a Switch 2. Everything else is objectively better on a PC handheld (especially the Deck).
It’s way too big for kids too.
Yes everything is better on a handheld PC. But the Deck is not a very good handheld PC. It is priced to be at the same tier as contemporary handheld PCs like the Rog Ally, the Legion Go, The MSI claw, the GPD Win 4, but all those handheld PCs can play current AAA titles while the Steamdeck is so underpowered that it struggles to emulate PS3 games. There are more recent devices that can play the same catalog as the steamdeck but cost a lot less, are more portable, and are just better built like the Odin 2 or the Retroid Pocket 5. At this point I am not sure what the use case is for the deck anymore. Every thing that the Deck can do, there are other devices that do it better and for less money.
This is exactly why we have these issues like we’re dealing with with the Switch 2. Console gamers are only focused on hardware and exclusivity, they’re not focused on the operating system of the device, the build quality of the product itself (including the ergonomics), nor do they care about the company that produces it beyond their basic fanboy tendencies.
Steam Deck’s competitors might have slightly better hardware or a higher resolution, but none of them are right to repair friendly. None of them have custom software literally designed for the product, and none of them have the sort of ergonomics that the Steam Deck has. Not to mention the fact that Valve is an American company, which might not be important to everybody, but it is important to me. They’re also a company that has proven themselves to be largely consumer-friendly.
While I’m not dissing anybody who does make the choice to go for an Ally or a Legion Go, the problem I have is that those devices are literally just another hardware company jumping on a band wagon. The Steam Deck completely revolutionized the way that we play on PC. Sure, it took inspiration from the original Switch. There’s no question about that. But that doesn’t mean that Valve was just jumping on a band wagon the way that ASUS and Lenovo are doing.
Valve literally spent years working with Linux developers on software that makes Linux gaming truly viable in order to create devices that allow you to run virtually any game on a handheld that you fully own, are allowed to put any game on (including games from other launchers, which they didn’t have to allow) and you’re fully allowed to self-repair it if any issues arise. Meanwhile, companies like ASUS and Lenovo treat their customers more like smartphone
suckerscustomers, not to mention the fact that they went the cheap and easy route of just using Windows, which isn’t optimized for a device like these. And guess what? Lenovo is bending the knee to the Steam Deck supremacy by allowing you to get a version with SteamOS in the future. That alone proves that Valve is one step ahead of their competition.To summarize all that I said, the reason the Steam Deck is so good is not just the hardware, it’s not just the screen, it’s the fact that it’s a very capable device at the hardware level, combined with very, very good software and a very consumer-friendly company behind it all.
Steamdecks competitors not being right to repair friendly is simply false. I have expanded my storage and upgraded my heat sink on my LeGo and it was super easy. I see people swapping all kinds of components out on their Ally’s all the time, and the only mods I ever see from the Steamdeck community are really cheap looking 3d printed snap-on covers and grip protectors. The only time I see someone actually opening up a deck is to upgrade to hall effect joysticks which every other handheld PC just comes with out of the box because it is the industry standard now for everyone except for the Deck. I completely agree with you on right to repair which is precisely why I would recommend any PC over the Deck.
Steam OS is very polished but why would I want to limit my handheld PC to only gaming when with Windows it is capable of so much more. I use my go as a portable laptop for work and then after work I slap on the controllers and play a game. With SteamOS I would lose so much functionality. If you love steam so much you can just run steam in windows and just make it full screen, it’s not that hard. Why do you even need a launcher that bad? How hard is it to just click on an icon on a desktop to open your game? Other launchers like Playnite are pretty polished as well.
Steam isn’t the only large community with discord channels and modders and developers working together. Have you seen the community that SBC retro handhelds or android handhelds have? Have you seen the onionOS and spruceOS communities? Yes Steam is a much bigger community but that’s just cuz they have spent much more on marketing.
The steamOS version of the Legion go doesn’t look good, I’ll take the original Go any day. But people kept pushing bazzite and now here we are with a native steamOS. I may not like it but I would argue that is definitely Lenovo listening to their community.
The Ally, Legion, Claw and Win 4 are all more expensive than the Steam Deck. The Odin 2 and Pocket 5 are not, but they don’t run steam, so you can definitely not play all the same games as the steam deck
Reparability? Robustness? Software support? Community support?
It isn’t all about comparing performance numbers.
Serious question. Do ANY of those have track pads? Because so far those seem to be something that only the deck has and I find them to be its most important feature.
The Legion Go has a track pad, also the controllers detach and the right side controller can be used as a mouse
There are thousands of games that come out every year, even after filtering out the asset flips and hentai games. A handful of those will have kernel-level anti cheat that make them incompatible by design. Fewer still will be pushing minimum specs that are too hefty for the Steam Deck to handle. So the thousands of remaining games are your use case for the Steam Deck, which tends to be cheaper than its competition and comes with a better OS. A device like those Android ones are fine for emulation, but you’re not playing newer releases on it, and newer releases are far, far, far more than just AAA games with hefty system requirements; it’s also Mouse: P.I. for Hire, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Warside, Descenders Next, Dispatch, and on and on.