If the system itself is misbehaving, you can feel safe knowing that there are thousands of others on the exact same configuration. If a game doesn't work, you can file a bug with Valve on Github about it and most of the time it'll be fixed within a week. It puts a lot of enthusiasts with a common interest on a highly reproducible and officially supported configuration. This may actually be one of the biggest lasting impacts of the Steam Deck. Tons of knowledge out there for getting it to do anything you can dream of. Many folks writing auto-config scripts for anything from turning it into a retro gaming powerhouse to tweaking the swap file performance characteristics. So many people hacking on their favorite game to improve performance or play experience. And if you really have the need, you can dual boot into windows.Ĥ. You plug in a usb-c hub and you have a full desktop, keyboard mouse experience. You pop it over into desktop mode and you have a Linux machine with ability to run most of the software out there for windows. Linux with great windows compatibility layer out of the box. It feels like curling up with a good book.ģ. Great feel in the hands, pleasant screen for gaming, and really just a much more comfortable experience than sitting at a desk or playing on the TV. The controls are great for both gaming and light desktop computing. I love the community contributed control layouts as well.Ģ. It's like a switch with a deeper library and better controls. The first party, deck verified steam experience is super smooth, feeling just like a game console. I had been thinking of waiting for an eventual v2, but it's honestly so cool today that it's not worth waiting. Bought one of these during the recent sale.

Stream deck tflops