The most impressive portable gaming system ever made is not the most impressive portable gaming system made by Valve. It is also not finished.
Like other hot electronics in 2022, Valve's first bespoke PC launch is limited by a strained supply chain and an ongoing chip shortage. If you want to feel better about missing the first wave of preorders or seeing a delayed shipping estimate for new orders, this review is for you.
The best Nintendo Switch-like PC on the market is easily the Steam Deck. Its processing power, build quality, software flexibility, and Linux-to-Windows wizardry can breathe new life into your PC gaming back catalog. The Deck is the best option in this space. The right game, running at a smooth 30 frames per second with visual bells and whistles enabled, might convince you to put your Switch into storage.
The Steam Deck looks good, feels sturdy, and performs well, even though it's a first-generation piece of hardware. The software side of the Deck is not very good.
The Deck has bugs, quirks, and failures that are very different from the Switch. You may find yourself saying to the Deck, "Just work, please!" in too many situations where the Nintendo Switch works.
One of the biggest problems with this review is that the Deck doesn't have a selling point. The Windows drivers for the Steam Deck were not ready after Valve gave Ars Technica review hardware. As I finished this review, that remained the case.
During the review period, I had the option to dual-boot Windows 10 and Linux, but I didn't feel like it was fair to do so without full OS-level support. We will take a closer look at the Steam Deck's Windows 10 experience once drivers are ready, but based on what I've found with the device's built-in fork of Linux, I'm not confident that using Windows.
Speaking of Linux, I've moved my testing of the Deck's version of Arch Linux into a separate article. Can you go into the command line and install whatever you want? Can you bring Linux apps into SteamOS? Do you love Flatpak? Click here to dive into that stuff. Advertisement
The first stab at creating its own PC form factor is the Steam Deck. That separates the Deck from the desktop gaming PCs that Valve did not produce. The idea of making the Steam games work on non-Windows machines was the same as the idea of making the devs patch or update their existing code.
In 2012 Valve co-founder Gabe Newell criticized Microsoft for its approach to software installation on Windows. Microsoft's public statements and development efforts suggested that a "closed garden" might come to Windows, which would threaten Valve's ability to sell games on millions of PCs.
Valve and Microsoft have a different relationship a decade later. Most of the major Microsoft games will be available on Steam. Phil Spencer was sent his own prerelease Steam Deck by Valve last year. Valve still likes the idea of gaming PCs that can run games from its Steam storefront.
This might be related to money. Valve has sunk years of work and money into its Steam Proton initiative, which combines a Wine compatibility layer and appropriate drivers to boot Windows games inside of Linux. The company could make out like a bandit or keep the Deck's launch prices down if it could get most of its popular games running on the Deck without paying a per-device Windows license fee.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
