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The Steam Deck by Valve was arguably the first PC gaming handheld built to genuinely give PC gamers the portable console experience we’ve deserved all along. It comes in various specs ranging from an entry-level unit that is great for streaming, emulators and installed games that aren’t hugely GPU and CPU-taxing, to the beefy 512GB model, which gives you max performance from the 3.5GHz Zen 2 GPU (up to 448 GFlops FP32) and the 1.6GHz RDNA GPU (up to 1.6 TFlops FP32) and lots of room to install your games on a speedy 512GB high-speed NVMe SSD (note: you also get premium anti-glare glass with this model and a very nice case with all models).
Since its release, however, there have been a ton of new entries in the market, ranging from the Android-based Logitech G Cloud (see our review) built for streaming services and Play Store titles to the powerful ASUS ROG Ally (see our review), which can run nearly every PC gaming platform out of the box but runs on Windows, and new entries are being announced nearly every day. So, how does the Steam Deck stack up in this new mobile PC gaming era?
I would argue that the best thing about the Steam Deck is the Linux-based Steam OS. It is near flawless (as in I have had zero OS-related issues to date) in its seamless design and execution for the one thing it was born to do: Play Steam Games.
If the vast majority of your PC gaming library rests firmly snuggled in the warm and safe behemoth that is Steam, you will not go wrong with the Steam Deck. The topic of whether the light version or the flagship 512GB version (and there is an oft-forgot mid-level version to boot) is the best bang for your buck has been argued ad nauseam, but pick your poison and you’ll be fine. The slick and functional OS will be the same across all models and will be immediately familiar to anyone who has spent some time in Steam’s Big Screen mode. Â
Setup is snappy. You basically log in to your Steam account, choose a few games from your library to install and you’re up and running (not the case with the ROG Ally) with minimal effort. There is a Steam button on the left-hand side that essentially brings up the header menu from the Steam app on your PC, with the familiar Home, Store, Library and Friends buttons being the typical choices. The Library menu, in particular, feels slightly more streamlined even than the PC version, with simple tabs to sort by Installed, Favorites, Collections and my personal favourite, Works On Deck. Â
As someone with nearly 1500 games in my Steam library, this option widdled the selection down to 415 “Verified” games on Steam Deck. Any game from this list is plug-and-play with the Steam Deck button configuration. Just install and go, and you will likely have the best setup for that game with the unit’s form factor, and what a form factor it is!
The form factor for the Steam Deck is the best of any handheld unit I’ve played with. Despite being the heaviest of the units we’ve reviewed, it’s still very light. The D-pad next to the analog stick is a brilliant design choice and I find it annoying now whenever I play with any other handheld that they all chose to put it under the stick. Instead, Valve used this prime real estate for the glorious additions of track pads (aka mouse proxies), something also lacking in every other handheld we’ve reviewed. Top that off with four additional paddles on the back and you have the perfect gaming setup. Until it can plug directly into my brain, I’m not sure this design can even be improved upon other than minor tweaks. Â
The Steam Deck is no slouch in the hardware department either. While even the top 512GB falls a little short of the ASUS ROG Ally (on paper, at least; see our side-by-side comparison to understand), the Steam Deck is still a powerhouse in portable gaming.  Even the entry-level deck can outperform most of the competition. Yes, it would be nice to have an HD screen (coming soon) and it gets hotter than any other device we’ve reviewed, with some pretty loud fans to boot, but it has never let me down yet.
Admittedly, graphically taxing first-person shooters are not my top choice of genre, and when I do play them, I prefer a mouse and keyboard, but every single game I’ve played on the Steam Deck has worked flawlessly. The sound is nothing to write home about, but hey, it’s a portable unit and most of you will wear a headset or some earbuds with it anyway. The battery is truly astonishing and I can play most games for a few hours before having to plug it in.
While cloud gamers may find the price and the simplicity of the Logitech G Cloud and performance chasers and gamers with multiple platform libraries may splurge for the ASUS ROG Ally, most gamers’ entire libraries exist in Steam. For that reason, most gamers will find the Steam Deck the best unit. It’s an absolute win in form, battery, ease of use, and a close second in performance. Whether you choose to go with the entry, mid or top-level deck, very few people are going to have buyer’s remorse. Now you can Steam everywhere!
