The New Steam Deck Pros and Cons
The gaming collectively took notice when Valve unveilved the new Steam Deck. Sold as part mobile gaming console and part person computer, the Steam Deck is meant to revolutionised the gaming sector by giving gamers the chance to take all of their favourite games with them wherever they go.
It’s not been without its controversy, but many are eager to see how Valve has put the new portable gaming computer together, and whether it will be enough to boost sales in a market that has otherwise been completely dominated by Nintendo over the last few years. Here we will look at whether the Steam Deck is worth the purchase or not.
A Handheld Computer
When people picture a mobile gaming platform, they will most likely picture the Nintendo Switch, which found incredible success in the gaming market. But the Steam Deck is not a console in any regard; rather it’s a fully functional computer that comes with all the bells and whistles one would find in a regular laptop. This also means that there are some parts of the device that can be upgraded, such as the internal storage, and while it’s not possible to add many terabytes to it, it should be enough for most.
By that same token, it’s worth taking into consideration that because the Steam Deck is a computer, it’s otherwise small battery will not be able to keep it going for more than a few hours at a time.
The Operating System Conundrum
Most people are extremely familiar with Windows, but it’s not the only computer operating system on the market. GNU/Linux, or usually just called Linux, has made great strides in recent years, and has emerged as a great OS for just about everyone’s needs. The Steam Deck will be shipping with SteamOS, a custom-build operating system that’s based off of Arch Linux.
What this means is that owners of the Steam Deck will have the ability to take off SteamOS and replace it with virtually any PC-based operating system that they could think of. Of course, this is better suited for the technically minded – but it also means that those that want to be able to watch movies, listen to music, play games, and check out the latest crypto slots, will be able to do all of this easily with their Steam Deck.
Great Hardware
The Steam Deck, despite how small it is, comes packed with fairly powerful hardware that’s capable of running a lot of modern games at a solid 60 FPS. Of course, the frames will vary drastically depending on the game being played and what kind of quality settings are on, but for the most part the Steam Deck should theoretically be able to handle anything that most gamers throw at it.
The drawback here, of course, is that the beefier hardware means that players won’t be able to expect more than 2 to 4 hours of game play between charges, which might be a deal-breaker for many.
