[HN Gopher] Valve's Steam Deck wows reviewers: 'The most innovat...
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Valve's Steam Deck wows reviewers: 'The most innovative gaming PC
in 20 years'
Author : mywacaday
Score : 60 points
Date : 2022-02-09 16:30 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.pcworld.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.pcworld.com)
| Karsteski wrote:
| I didn't pre-order one, because I don't have the money, but I'm
| very much hoping SteamOS 3 provides a large amount of momentum
| for the Linux gaming ecosystem :)
| parkingrift wrote:
| I've watched these reviews and their overall conclusion of the
| product seems completely divorced from all the details leading up
| to the conclusion. It runs hot, barely manages acceptable frame
| rates at 1280x800 on older games, and has pretty abysmal battery
| life. The performance, poor as it is, requires the most expensive
| model at $630.
|
| But then at the end it's the most innovative gaming PC in 20
| years. Really? It's an expensive handheld with poor performance
| and poor battery life for a niche use case of PC gaming on the go
| and a relatively small subset of the Steam library.
| rtznprmpftl wrote:
| The only difference between the versions is the screen and
| storage, so the performance should be the same in most cases.
|
| and a portable PC for 420EUR is not cheap, but an interesting
| pricepoint, especially compared to similar devices like the gdp
| win
| gloryjulio wrote:
| It's already sold at cost, especially the base model. You can
| replace the ssd by urself
| Havoc wrote:
| Not sure I'd call it poor performance. The fact that it runs PC
| games largely unmodified at all in handheld form factor is
| quite a feat.
|
| Relative to a mains powered desktop with massive thermal
| capacity it is poor performance yes but I'd say that is an
| unreasonable expectation.
|
| And similarly using other handheld platforms running code
| designed specifically for it doesn't seem like a good
| comparison either.
|
| That said I'm not buying one either. Mobile gaming doesn't
| appeal
| Gigachad wrote:
| I'd love to see mobile pc gaming get resource usage under
| control. It seems these days everyone is perfectly fine with
| gaming requiring 500w and 32gb of ram. Playing the switch is
| a real eye opening experience because you see how little
| having the latest graphics actually matter for enjoying the
| game. VR being the exception.
| lonjil wrote:
| > The performance, poor as it is, requires the most expensive
| model at $630.
|
| Why does it require the most expensive model?
| joeman1000 wrote:
| How is the most expensive model 'required'? The only difference
| in models is screen texture and storage.
| yaniqt wrote:
| Work on your sentence comprehension.
| canti wrote:
| Calling it a "relatively small subset of the Steam library"
| seems like a bit of a stretch. Proton is promising, and it
| doesn't seem like performance will be an issue for the vast
| majority of Steam games.
| coolso wrote:
| YouTube reviews are typically not actual reviews. They are
| usually hype videos containing "influencers" talking excitedly
| about the product they received for free under the condition
| that they sugarcoat everything.
|
| A minimum of 60 jump cuts per minute is typically mandatory as
| well.
| lonjil wrote:
| near hour long discussions with game performance tests,
| thermal imaging, airflow testing, etc, don't seem to be the
| kind of stuff you're talking about
| LegitShady wrote:
| >YouTube reviews are typically not actual reviews
|
| Disagree. "Youtube reviews" doesn't mean anything valuable
| because there are a million reviewers on youtube, some very
| good and some worse. Disregarding reviews because they're on
| youtube actually disregards some of the best reviews around.
|
| Half the tech journals and websites turn out complete garbage
| that I rarely agree with, while many youtubers do a good job.
|
| It's the specific reviewer, and I wouldn't call the big
| reviewers on youtube (LTT, GN, etc) worse than any magazine
| or trade journal.
| Ekaros wrote:
| Getting one, but just because it is essentially free as I can't
| withdraw wallet funds on Steam...
|
| At worst I get a PC for something... Maybe for TV-box... At best
| something relatively portable.
| MaxikCZ wrote:
| Never done this and never researched, but maybe buying some
| expensive skins and reselling it on websites for real money?
| Ekaros wrote:
| It is possible but prefer not to risk my account with that.
| And I don't really like accepting money on online for
| anything. So would need to find something with SEPA transfer.
| yurishimo wrote:
| At this point, I'm not really interested in buying one, but I'm
| pretty excited for the Steam Deck from the perspective of mobile
| computing and repairability.
|
| Nintendo has made repairing the Switch a pain and is very anti-
| consumer in giving you access to your save data without forking
| over more money.
|
| In a similar vein, I think it's cool to see Sony take a more
| repair friendly approach with the PS5. Taking the sides off for
| cleaning or replacement is super easy and as a bonus creates an
| extra revenue stream for new accessories.
|
| The amount of really cool stuff hacker types are going to get out
| of the Deck is one area to look forward to. Heck, this could be
| the mobile workstation tons on this site have been asking for
| since the iPad debuted.
|
| When demand for the Deck dies down, I think I'll buy one if only
| to show Valve that I support the product and their respect for
| consumers.
| windmark wrote:
| > In a similar vein, I think it's cool to see Sony take a more
| repair friendly approach with the PS5. Taking the sides off for
| cleaning or replacement is super easy and as a bonus creates an
| extra revenue stream for new accessories.
|
| Too bad Sony was so anti-competetive and sued Dbrand (and
| others?) for making custom side panels.
|
| https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgdqwz/custom-ps5-plate-comp...
| john567 wrote:
| I'm considering using a SteamDeck as a portable workstation. It's
| no powerhouse but you'd be able to get a lot of stuff done on
| something like that. I'd connect it to a keyboard, mouse and
| external monitor. I've been thinking about not using Windows as
| my primary platform and Valve has put together something I think
| I could really get behind.
| LegitShady wrote:
| if you're not gaming I'm not sure why you wouldn't just get a
| laptop.
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| I was in a similar boat, but then I realized that (at least for
| me) at that point it made more sense to just get a regular
| laptop.
| TillE wrote:
| If you're not even using the screen, why bother? There are a
| zillion tiny computers out there.
| tdsamardzhiev wrote:
| I'd insta-preorder a cooler running, less powerful, fanless
| version.
| tehbeard wrote:
| Have others found issues with the heat? From the reviews I've
| seen they kept it away from the user's hands.
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| If Steam Deck is a success then I expect knock-off Steam Decks
| with such alternatives would be available in the near future.
| Havoc wrote:
| Given the heat output I'd not count on a cool fanless version
| showing up anytime soon. Not without significantly less
| performance
| RF_Savage wrote:
| Couldn't you just underclock and undervolt the current day
| SteamDeck to achieve that?
|
| Or in general set a really strict power envelope for the AMD
| APU used in it?
| janfoeh wrote:
| I'm looking for a small, hassle-free machine for my SO to play
| Cities: Skylines on. The screen would be wasted since it would
| only ever run docked, but if it turns out to be powerful enough,
| I'd be very tempted to get one.
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