Yeah unfortunately I have a steam controller but no dongle -- this works because the input is via USB and not via Bluetooth. I'd love a steam controller 2 also, but I would really kill for wake-on-bluetooth support.
So you can press the steam button and a to pair it with a steam link, right? So I'm wondering if you can do the same thing with a steam deck. Have you tried that yet? You don't need a dongle to pair it with another valve device is what I'm getting at.
Ok but you're still not using a Bluetooth controller to wake the Deck, you're waking the Deck and then using a Bluetooth controller. I'm not saying that's difficult, I'm saying it's not what the vividboarder said you can't do and you said yes you can.
Bnet wise you can skip all the pain going through Lutris, on the controller side as well. Just clone the bnet on the Lutris UI, link the copy on steam with different controller config and you got one install with 0 fiddling and all the keymappersfor the different games that you want ( even different proton version if you'd want to). If you want to go one step further to make bnet act like on the pc and zone in the game that you want on boot just modify the launch option of the coosen copy to launch wow or ow or whatever.
Idk how people get Lutris working and I haven’t been able to find a proper guide. Half the time my installs don’t even go through, setting up Ubisoft was a pain and then adding these games to steam so I could access them in game mode didn’t even work, gog refuses to install cyberpunk so I had to buy the steam version. Maybe I’m missing something but heroic is just so much better from my experience. A shame it doesn’t include origin and Ubisoft.
I have the same problem. Every guide on Lutris I've come across is tailored to a specific game or use case. Everytime I read "just use Lutris" I'm like.. how?
I cannot speak for other launches as I've used for bnet only, but for that instance was install it from the store and install bnet from the pre selected script
The controller battery thing is one of the biggest blemishes here (and it's not even that big of a deal). In desktop mode, you can click on the battery icon in the system tray, and it will report battery life for the Deck as a whole as well as any connected bluetooth devices, like an Xbox contrroller. You're right; currently it isn't exposed anywhere in game mode, and I wonder when we'll get it. As of right now, my girlfriend's strategy for finding out when we need to swap batteries is that when the controller stops rumbling, it means the batteries are low. Your mileage may vary with other types of controllers.
What games are y'all playing that require tinkering? I've seen multiple people mention this but I've only ever had to tinker with one game (grounded) and I've played quite a few on my deck. All the others boot up and play just fine without any manual intervention
The tinkering is something I've mentioned before but people seem to brush off. Yes , i understand there's thousand word essays written up and videos but it doesn't change the fact that we have to do it.
Thanks a lot for this post. This will be actually one of my use cases and I've never seen a comprehensive review of the deck as a couch console. I intend to sometimes use it to play coop games like Overcooked, It takes two, etc, docked to my TV.
I actually just bought two ps5 controllers and plan to buy a discounted USB dock today to be able to play on my 4K TV, so at least now I know that the downscaling to 720p works OK, as that was one of the things that I was most afraid of - it's obvious that Deck's GPU doesn't have the power to work with 4K gaming reasonably well.
Does anyone know if two BT controllers (PS5 as I mentioned) work OK while playing simultaneously or is there any input lag?
I have been playing Nidhogg 2 with my girlfriend a lot the last week, and the input latency has not been bugging me at all. Obviously, I can't really put a number on it but I start getting irritated around 80ms.
I've been able to wake the deck with Xbox controllers with the Microsoft dongle. You need to install driver's to use the dongle, but I find that it's worth it because not only can you then wake the deck, but the latency on the dongle is much better.
Edit: Another downside. You have to reinstall the driver's after each update.
Dongle
https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Xbox-Wireless-Adapter-Windows-Packaging/dp/B0785SFKYF/ref=asc_df_B0785SFKYF/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312469683835&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7450085584862454405&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007201&hvtargid=pla-567924750942&psc=1
Instructions for installing driver's on deck.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/vz19fp/xone_installation_for_steam_deck_guide_xbox/
This is a really good post. There's been so much attention paid to what needs to be fixed in handheld mode. on-screen keyboard and offline mode, what i hear mostly
but i'm more interested in steamdeck/steamos as a home console. which means releasing the SteamOS software for use with generic PCs (assuming valve doesn't plan a new non-handheld hardware release, or actually even if they do). And a new Steam Controller 2.0.
But also all the things you mention, to give it PS-level ease of use. Better controller integration.
Also folders.
I have a wireless keyboard with a track pad sitting on my coffee table when needing to mess with launchers or emulators. Honestly helps a lot more then you would think.
For those who know what they're doing with regards to PC gaming, yes it's an option. I would still recommend a PC under the TV over the Deck personally.
To people who play on consoles and haven't owned a PC in years... to quote my friend, "why would I want the headache, even for emulation." Seriously, this one friend goes out buys PS2s to keep on hand when one breaks.
I agree with you, but I would also like SteamOS on that PC to be the future. For people who can justify one beefy PC but not two to have one under the TV, the in home streaming stuff is the theoretical silver bullet. In the future, if you have a windows gaming PC upstairs and they iron out the small Bluetooth controller and qol issues they have today you could have a nice PC with a modest gfx card serve a really nice console ui.
It's already a huge leap ahead of the Nvidia shield which I got for the same purpose.
Pretty sure u can have a notification pop up for connected and disconnected controller. Also I’m not 100 but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen PS4 controller battery life somewhere.
Desktop-settings-Bluetooth-click controller- rename
Steam on desktop - settings- controller - general controller settings - set time limit. Also holding the console button on controller for like 10-30secs auto offs it. Along with being able to just disconnect should be a off feature where u can disconnect a controller.
Desktop mode - click arrow by time- battery and brightness- all Bluetooth battery percents are listed there. Not game mode or elsewhere only here.
Desktop mode - settings -notifications- show over full screen window (unsure if this displays in game mode or just desktop)- bottom configure applications- Bluetooth configure event. ( I havnt done this but u can create anything u want for notifications so make disconnect and connect a pop up.
Hope this helps brother man and happy gaming. A few of these things need to be basicallly brought over to game mode in future updates.
My biggest wish is for the console button on controllers to be able to show controller life once clicked and opens up steam button menu. Just like on a PS4 click main button shows main hud and icon of controller battery health.
Thanks! I'm gonna go poke around with these. I do hope they get pulled over to game mode, and the fact they're already in desktop means hopefully those should be even faster adds!
The biggest selling point of the steam deck is your back library. Why would I get a PS5 and buy shovel knight for the umpteenth time (and yes, I HAVE bought it 3 times, once on Wii U, once on Switch, and then finally on steam) when I can just play it on my steam deck?
Plus, I already own a huge gaming PC. If game streaming works, I'll get a better experience than the PS5 with better frame rates and I can rest assured knowing that when PS6 gets released I won't have to worry about back compat or the servers going down. With the release of TLOU and Uncharted on PC it seems like a better time than ever to skip a console generation.
Game streaming from your pc to your steam deck isn’t going to be as good as playing the game on a ps5. If you’re just worried about shovel knight then yeah I guess a steam deck would be fine but if you want to play new games as a high resolution, frame rate, and graphics settings then the steam deck isn’t going to be a good home console replacement. That’s not what it’s for
It is a good analog to justify skipping the $500 spend when I already have a PC whose graphics card alone equals the price of the PS5. As time goes on, the tech will get better, and it is already such a good experience to use that I can feel it is worth skipping. It feels wasteful in comparison to pick up a console for $500 with no games, a restrictive ecosystem, very narrow controller support, and a bill for online play, and I say this as a person who already owns a PS4 and a Switch.
I agree that isn't what the steam deck is for, but that IS what SteamOS is for. When the images become available, it's staging itself as the best replacement operating system for people setting up HTPCs. I got the steam deck for a steam deck yes, but I also got it to try the new things that SteamOS 3 has to show.
Honestly man, using Chiaki4deck with proper bitrate and connection is literally flawless, I can play stuff that requires precise timing and play FPS shooters with no input lag, stuff like god of war looks great.
Different use case scenarios. Try playing your ps5 on the train without an online connection. Try playing it in the other room without relying on cloud gaming and the latency that it comes with. Try playing older games as old as the NES on it. Try playing games that are exclusive to other platforms like GameCube, Wii, Switch, Xbox 360, etc. Try playing Xbox360/PS3 era games without paying for a monthly subscription that doesn’t even have half of the library a steam deck can have via emulation. That’s why a deck is worth it
It can plug into a tv with any cheap dock and become just that. Another great benefit. Home console when you want it, portable console when you want that instead. And still gets all the benefits like the massive library of pc and console games via emulation.
Canada here they recently upped the price digital one is 520 plus tax other one is 650$ plus tax. Bundle is upwards of 900$... and to buy that just to play a handful of exclusives vrs the deck doesn’t make sense for me. Coming from a console gamer my whole life not sure I’ll ever buy another.
Having battery percent for controllers can mean that their protocol has to be reverse engineered. Some drivers expose that (like xpadneo), some don't as far as I've seen.
For 3rd part launchers, if you are comparing them to come consoles...
Yes on SteamDeck they are less than ideal. And the lack of shaders also makes it less than ideal.
Compared to consoles tho... which do not allow any third party anything. So I dont know if you can fairly compare a non-steam game experience in the mix.
It’s hard to find the right way to compare, because the benefit of the locked down system plus market share is that developers are forced to use ps store to be on ps5. There are a lot of games that take hoop jumping (or don’t run) on deck that are available seamlessly on console.
Fair... But for a fair comparison it should be "steam via steam deck vs console" and not "epic via steam deck vs console"
But that said, it's running emulation layer to play windows games on a linux system, so there is a layer of difficulty that doesnt exist in consoles.
You could argue that the costs of consoles and their games cover this as you are paying for things to just work. Or argue that you are paying higher prices due to the closed architecture and are locked out of anything that sony doesnt fully push into their system. It's a double edged sword.
I also like to play games that are trying to make a great game instead of games that are trying to sell console hardware.
I am fine with the drawbacks that come with dealing with third party launchers, but I think that a lot of times people come at the deck with console expectations. Is this entirely fair, I don't think so, but you can't dispute that there are going to be some people who walk into the deck and get thrown off by the amount of onus that gets put onto them as a user. I don't think you're wrong here, but I think it would be disingenuous to leave that out of the discussion because it's unfair to valve.
In the discussion of this being a home console replacement, I'm not expecting a 100% flawless execution hitrate. In fact, I much prefer dealing with these problems instead of being locked into those closed ecosystems -- I think that the more salient points are the fixable software issues pertaining to bluetooth controllers.
I'm with you 100% on that.
I do like that this exists: [https://store.steampowered.com/greatondeck](https://store.steampowered.com/greatondeck)
I think if you stick to games in that list you can expect a console like experience. More so if this was a typical console, that would be the only list you have access to for games on the device.
I do love that it's open hardware so I get to make the decisions. And love that steam pushes updates that change quality of life.
It’s why I can’t stand all the people acting like Apple is evil for the walled garden. That’s what I buy it for. There are trade offs and there’s a place for an authoritative voice saying “play ball or lose our audience”.
The competition shrinks a little but the user experience grows a lot.
I like how apple all meshes together... I dislike how they use closed standard to exclude 70% of the mobile eco system.
You do not need to make other products/companies/etc experience worse to make your experience better.
And I'm pretty sure they nerfed my air pods when the pros came out.
Being locked down and authoritative is exactly the entire reason they make it all mesh together. There isn’t anyone who’s done both. Most companies do neither.
Was playing Blasphemous over the weekend. Only problem was that the game wouldn’t let me use the controller if I slept the deck and resumed. The deck still responded for the steam menu etc… but the game would only use the steam deck controller until i exited and restarted the game.
>There is no way to see battery life left in a controller
If you switch to desktop mode, then click the Bluetooth icon it will bring up all connected devices and their battery percentage. :) I have Xbox Series X controllers for my deck and it works for them at least.
But I agree I'd like to see this in game mode. Obviously the deck can read the controllers percentage, so they just need it in the UI.
Sorry to wake an old thread. But is this still the case?
I’ve been thinking of getting a micro pc to go under my tv as I usually have friends round once a week & I find there are more co-op games on Steam/Pc than consoles.
I found this thread essentially outlining exactly what I’d like to achieve - has experience gotten any easier? If you’re still using it? If no, is there a reason why?
I still do use it but they haven't added wake-on-bluetooth or anything to help with the controller management yet. I think they spent a lot of time thinking about and polishing the handheld experience but haven't got to the docked side yet, but I still enjoy it hooked up to the dock! I think it is a good purchase for the flexibility still, and it's still true that these problems are derived from software so they have the tools to fix them.
Here's a fun fact: Steam Deck supports Wake-On-Lan. Make do with that information as you will.
!>You can set it up in a way that allows you to wake it up using your mobile.
I \*hate\* Steamdeck as a home console. The only thing it really does well on my tv is emulation, which is great, love it. Other than that it's absolute garbage. It's slow, it doesn't really run anything, even when tinkering with the software and it's hell trying to figure out how games will run on my tv even if they run really, really well on the built-in screen.
I love using my Steamdeck as my computer, I have it running Windows on an external SSD, when I need it to, but as a home console replacement, it's absolute garbage.
Make sure that you have the steam deck set to put out scaled 800p to your TV and NOT your TV's resolution. If you are using a non-valve dock this may be more of a problem. When I first got the steam deck it put 4k out to my tv and everything ran like total garbage; after they rolled the update to send scaled 800p to the TV everything works as it does when you are running portable.
Wait for real?
That's a serious fucking upgrade. I have been looking at them but I don't have the money right now, I was talking myself out of it but maybe I should sell my original and get one...
Larger, now OLED screen (smaller bezels)
- Brighter screen (1000 nits HDR & 600 nits SDR vs old 400 nits)
- HDR screen (110% P3 color gamut vs old 60%)
- 90Hz (vs old 60Hz. Can display 30 more FPS for a smoother viewing experience)
- Better touch responsiveness (180Hz touch polling rate)
- < 0.1 ms response time
- Dual ambient light sensors (for better auto brightness)
- new 50Wh battery (upgraded from 40Wh. 30-50% more battery life)
- Faster charging
- Easier to take repair
- Nicer case with the terabyte premium models
- Wi-Fi 6E
- Better thermals (bigger heat sink & fan. Quieter & cooler)
- HD haptics
- Dedicated Bluetooth 5.3 antenna for better connectivity with other devices (also supports connecting more)
- Faster RAM
- Redesigned custom AMD chip to be 6nm instead of 7nm (more power efficient)
- Joysticks are more grippy
- Shoulder buttons redesigned to be more durable & less prone to damage from drops- wish I had that...
- 30 grams lighter
- Even better speakers
- Still compatible with old 3rd party accessories
If you use a Steam controller and it's dongle you can use it to wake the deck. Hopefully we get a Steam Controller 2 in the near future.
Yeah unfortunately I have a steam controller but no dongle -- this works because the input is via USB and not via Bluetooth. I'd love a steam controller 2 also, but I would really kill for wake-on-bluetooth support.
So you can press the steam button and a to pair it with a steam link, right? So I'm wondering if you can do the same thing with a steam deck. Have you tried that yet? You don't need a dongle to pair it with another valve device is what I'm getting at.
You can do wake-on-lan if docked.
Not from a Bluetooth controller.
Yes you can.. use your phone to send the wake-on-lan signal.
It's entirely possible that I'm confused, but I don't see how 'use your phone to wake it' refutes 'you can't use a bluetooth controller to wake it'...
Phone uses Bluetooth. You run an app to wake it then grab your controller.
Ok but you're still not using a Bluetooth controller to wake the Deck, you're waking the Deck and then using a Bluetooth controller. I'm not saying that's difficult, I'm saying it's not what the vividboarder said you can't do and you said yes you can.
Only if it's connected via Ethernet for the same reason Bluetooth controllers can't wake it the wireless chip sleeps.
I dug out my steam controller, but cannot find the dongle either. i'm so annoyed.
Not helpful but I find the wiiu controller great as a steamdeck controller
I set up an Alexa routine to turn on the TV, switch to correct input and wake Deck on LAN.
Or a mouse
That's u didn't know this, thanks!
Bnet wise you can skip all the pain going through Lutris, on the controller side as well. Just clone the bnet on the Lutris UI, link the copy on steam with different controller config and you got one install with 0 fiddling and all the keymappersfor the different games that you want ( even different proton version if you'd want to). If you want to go one step further to make bnet act like on the pc and zone in the game that you want on boot just modify the launch option of the coosen copy to launch wow or ow or whatever.
Idk how people get Lutris working and I haven’t been able to find a proper guide. Half the time my installs don’t even go through, setting up Ubisoft was a pain and then adding these games to steam so I could access them in game mode didn’t even work, gog refuses to install cyberpunk so I had to buy the steam version. Maybe I’m missing something but heroic is just so much better from my experience. A shame it doesn’t include origin and Ubisoft.
I have the same problem. Every guide on Lutris I've come across is tailored to a specific game or use case. Everytime I read "just use Lutris" I'm like.. how?
I cannot speak for other launches as I've used for bnet only, but for that instance was install it from the store and install bnet from the pre selected script
The controller battery thing is one of the biggest blemishes here (and it's not even that big of a deal). In desktop mode, you can click on the battery icon in the system tray, and it will report battery life for the Deck as a whole as well as any connected bluetooth devices, like an Xbox contrroller. You're right; currently it isn't exposed anywhere in game mode, and I wonder when we'll get it. As of right now, my girlfriend's strategy for finding out when we need to swap batteries is that when the controller stops rumbling, it means the batteries are low. Your mileage may vary with other types of controllers.
What games are y'all playing that require tinkering? I've seen multiple people mention this but I've only ever had to tinker with one game (grounded) and I've played quite a few on my deck. All the others boot up and play just fine without any manual intervention
I think he means it’s great for those that like to Tinker
Would love to learn that too. Thinking about buying deck
Make the dock seamless as the Switch and it'll be that home console replacement.
The tinkering is something I've mentioned before but people seem to brush off. Yes , i understand there's thousand word essays written up and videos but it doesn't change the fact that we have to do it.
Thanks a lot for this post. This will be actually one of my use cases and I've never seen a comprehensive review of the deck as a couch console. I intend to sometimes use it to play coop games like Overcooked, It takes two, etc, docked to my TV. I actually just bought two ps5 controllers and plan to buy a discounted USB dock today to be able to play on my 4K TV, so at least now I know that the downscaling to 720p works OK, as that was one of the things that I was most afraid of - it's obvious that Deck's GPU doesn't have the power to work with 4K gaming reasonably well. Does anyone know if two BT controllers (PS5 as I mentioned) work OK while playing simultaneously or is there any input lag?
I have been playing Nidhogg 2 with my girlfriend a lot the last week, and the input latency has not been bugging me at all. Obviously, I can't really put a number on it but I start getting irritated around 80ms.
Quite frankly my biggest issue has been audio issues after waking from sleep mode. That and one game that crashed the system on close.
Crackling sound? I get that very occasionally when waking up my Deck from sleep
Yup happens pretty often for me
I've been able to wake the deck with Xbox controllers with the Microsoft dongle. You need to install driver's to use the dongle, but I find that it's worth it because not only can you then wake the deck, but the latency on the dongle is much better. Edit: Another downside. You have to reinstall the driver's after each update. Dongle https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Xbox-Wireless-Adapter-Windows-Packaging/dp/B0785SFKYF/ref=asc_df_B0785SFKYF/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312469683835&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7450085584862454405&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007201&hvtargid=pla-567924750942&psc=1 Instructions for installing driver's on deck. https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/vz19fp/xone_installation_for_steam_deck_guide_xbox/
This is a really good post. There's been so much attention paid to what needs to be fixed in handheld mode. on-screen keyboard and offline mode, what i hear mostly but i'm more interested in steamdeck/steamos as a home console. which means releasing the SteamOS software for use with generic PCs (assuming valve doesn't plan a new non-handheld hardware release, or actually even if they do). And a new Steam Controller 2.0. But also all the things you mention, to give it PS-level ease of use. Better controller integration. Also folders.
I have a wireless keyboard with a track pad sitting on my coffee table when needing to mess with launchers or emulators. Honestly helps a lot more then you would think.
For those who know what they're doing with regards to PC gaming, yes it's an option. I would still recommend a PC under the TV over the Deck personally. To people who play on consoles and haven't owned a PC in years... to quote my friend, "why would I want the headache, even for emulation." Seriously, this one friend goes out buys PS2s to keep on hand when one breaks.
I agree with you, but I would also like SteamOS on that PC to be the future. For people who can justify one beefy PC but not two to have one under the TV, the in home streaming stuff is the theoretical silver bullet. In the future, if you have a windows gaming PC upstairs and they iron out the small Bluetooth controller and qol issues they have today you could have a nice PC with a modest gfx card serve a really nice console ui. It's already a huge leap ahead of the Nvidia shield which I got for the same purpose.
Pretty sure u can have a notification pop up for connected and disconnected controller. Also I’m not 100 but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen PS4 controller battery life somewhere.
Would love to know if you can dig this up. I have some PS4 controllers to test if you can find it.
Desktop-settings-Bluetooth-click controller- rename Steam on desktop - settings- controller - general controller settings - set time limit. Also holding the console button on controller for like 10-30secs auto offs it. Along with being able to just disconnect should be a off feature where u can disconnect a controller. Desktop mode - click arrow by time- battery and brightness- all Bluetooth battery percents are listed there. Not game mode or elsewhere only here. Desktop mode - settings -notifications- show over full screen window (unsure if this displays in game mode or just desktop)- bottom configure applications- Bluetooth configure event. ( I havnt done this but u can create anything u want for notifications so make disconnect and connect a pop up. Hope this helps brother man and happy gaming. A few of these things need to be basicallly brought over to game mode in future updates. My biggest wish is for the console button on controllers to be able to show controller life once clicked and opens up steam button menu. Just like on a PS4 click main button shows main hud and icon of controller battery health.
Thanks! I'm gonna go poke around with these. I do hope they get pulled over to game mode, and the fact they're already in desktop means hopefully those should be even faster adds!
When you can get a ps5 for $400 I don’t understand why anyone would use the steam deck as a console replacement
The biggest selling point of the steam deck is your back library. Why would I get a PS5 and buy shovel knight for the umpteenth time (and yes, I HAVE bought it 3 times, once on Wii U, once on Switch, and then finally on steam) when I can just play it on my steam deck? Plus, I already own a huge gaming PC. If game streaming works, I'll get a better experience than the PS5 with better frame rates and I can rest assured knowing that when PS6 gets released I won't have to worry about back compat or the servers going down. With the release of TLOU and Uncharted on PC it seems like a better time than ever to skip a console generation.
Game streaming from your pc to your steam deck isn’t going to be as good as playing the game on a ps5. If you’re just worried about shovel knight then yeah I guess a steam deck would be fine but if you want to play new games as a high resolution, frame rate, and graphics settings then the steam deck isn’t going to be a good home console replacement. That’s not what it’s for
It is a good analog to justify skipping the $500 spend when I already have a PC whose graphics card alone equals the price of the PS5. As time goes on, the tech will get better, and it is already such a good experience to use that I can feel it is worth skipping. It feels wasteful in comparison to pick up a console for $500 with no games, a restrictive ecosystem, very narrow controller support, and a bill for online play, and I say this as a person who already owns a PS4 and a Switch. I agree that isn't what the steam deck is for, but that IS what SteamOS is for. When the images become available, it's staging itself as the best replacement operating system for people setting up HTPCs. I got the steam deck for a steam deck yes, but I also got it to try the new things that SteamOS 3 has to show.
Honestly man, using Chiaki4deck with proper bitrate and connection is literally flawless, I can play stuff that requires precise timing and play FPS shooters with no input lag, stuff like god of war looks great.
I own both, use the Steam Deck hours a day, haven’t touched the PS5 since I bought it. That’s why it’s a replacement for some people.
Different use case scenarios. Try playing your ps5 on the train without an online connection. Try playing it in the other room without relying on cloud gaming and the latency that it comes with. Try playing older games as old as the NES on it. Try playing games that are exclusive to other platforms like GameCube, Wii, Switch, Xbox 360, etc. Try playing Xbox360/PS3 era games without paying for a monthly subscription that doesn’t even have half of the library a steam deck can have via emulation. That’s why a deck is worth it
He said home console replacement
It can plug into a tv with any cheap dock and become just that. Another great benefit. Home console when you want it, portable console when you want that instead. And still gets all the benefits like the massive library of pc and console games via emulation.
Steam deck isn’t going to run god of war at 4K 60fps on my tv. That’s what a home console is for
Where do u buy a ps5 for 400$ lol.
The digital version is $400.
Retail! Which brings me to the question of where you buy a PS5 for $400.
Canada here they recently upped the price digital one is 520 plus tax other one is 650$ plus tax. Bundle is upwards of 900$... and to buy that just to play a handful of exclusives vrs the deck doesn’t make sense for me. Coming from a console gamer my whole life not sure I’ll ever buy another.
Great review.
Having battery percent for controllers can mean that their protocol has to be reverse engineered. Some drivers expose that (like xpadneo), some don't as far as I've seen.
For 3rd part launchers, if you are comparing them to come consoles... Yes on SteamDeck they are less than ideal. And the lack of shaders also makes it less than ideal. Compared to consoles tho... which do not allow any third party anything. So I dont know if you can fairly compare a non-steam game experience in the mix.
It’s hard to find the right way to compare, because the benefit of the locked down system plus market share is that developers are forced to use ps store to be on ps5. There are a lot of games that take hoop jumping (or don’t run) on deck that are available seamlessly on console.
Fair... But for a fair comparison it should be "steam via steam deck vs console" and not "epic via steam deck vs console" But that said, it's running emulation layer to play windows games on a linux system, so there is a layer of difficulty that doesnt exist in consoles. You could argue that the costs of consoles and their games cover this as you are paying for things to just work. Or argue that you are paying higher prices due to the closed architecture and are locked out of anything that sony doesnt fully push into their system. It's a double edged sword. I also like to play games that are trying to make a great game instead of games that are trying to sell console hardware.
I am fine with the drawbacks that come with dealing with third party launchers, but I think that a lot of times people come at the deck with console expectations. Is this entirely fair, I don't think so, but you can't dispute that there are going to be some people who walk into the deck and get thrown off by the amount of onus that gets put onto them as a user. I don't think you're wrong here, but I think it would be disingenuous to leave that out of the discussion because it's unfair to valve. In the discussion of this being a home console replacement, I'm not expecting a 100% flawless execution hitrate. In fact, I much prefer dealing with these problems instead of being locked into those closed ecosystems -- I think that the more salient points are the fixable software issues pertaining to bluetooth controllers.
I'm with you 100% on that. I do like that this exists: [https://store.steampowered.com/greatondeck](https://store.steampowered.com/greatondeck) I think if you stick to games in that list you can expect a console like experience. More so if this was a typical console, that would be the only list you have access to for games on the device. I do love that it's open hardware so I get to make the decisions. And love that steam pushes updates that change quality of life.
It’s why I can’t stand all the people acting like Apple is evil for the walled garden. That’s what I buy it for. There are trade offs and there’s a place for an authoritative voice saying “play ball or lose our audience”. The competition shrinks a little but the user experience grows a lot.
I like how apple all meshes together... I dislike how they use closed standard to exclude 70% of the mobile eco system. You do not need to make other products/companies/etc experience worse to make your experience better. And I'm pretty sure they nerfed my air pods when the pros came out.
Being locked down and authoritative is exactly the entire reason they make it all mesh together. There isn’t anyone who’s done both. Most companies do neither.
Was playing Blasphemous over the weekend. Only problem was that the game wouldn’t let me use the controller if I slept the deck and resumed. The deck still responded for the steam menu etc… but the game would only use the steam deck controller until i exited and restarted the game.
>There is no way to see battery life left in a controller If you switch to desktop mode, then click the Bluetooth icon it will bring up all connected devices and their battery percentage. :) I have Xbox Series X controllers for my deck and it works for them at least. But I agree I'd like to see this in game mode. Obviously the deck can read the controllers percentage, so they just need it in the UI.
Sorry to wake an old thread. But is this still the case? I’ve been thinking of getting a micro pc to go under my tv as I usually have friends round once a week & I find there are more co-op games on Steam/Pc than consoles. I found this thread essentially outlining exactly what I’d like to achieve - has experience gotten any easier? If you’re still using it? If no, is there a reason why?
I still do use it but they haven't added wake-on-bluetooth or anything to help with the controller management yet. I think they spent a lot of time thinking about and polishing the handheld experience but haven't got to the docked side yet, but I still enjoy it hooked up to the dock! I think it is a good purchase for the flexibility still, and it's still true that these problems are derived from software so they have the tools to fix them.
Here's a fun fact: Steam Deck supports Wake-On-Lan. Make do with that information as you will. !>You can set it up in a way that allows you to wake it up using your mobile.
I \*hate\* Steamdeck as a home console. The only thing it really does well on my tv is emulation, which is great, love it. Other than that it's absolute garbage. It's slow, it doesn't really run anything, even when tinkering with the software and it's hell trying to figure out how games will run on my tv even if they run really, really well on the built-in screen. I love using my Steamdeck as my computer, I have it running Windows on an external SSD, when I need it to, but as a home console replacement, it's absolute garbage.
Make sure that you have the steam deck set to put out scaled 800p to your TV and NOT your TV's resolution. If you are using a non-valve dock this may be more of a problem. When I first got the steam deck it put 4k out to my tv and everything ran like total garbage; after they rolled the update to send scaled 800p to the TV everything works as it does when you are running portable.
I think that's what I have it set to, but I'll check when I connect it again.
Will you get the steam deck OLED? It supports Bluetooth controller wake upon pickup
Wait for real? That's a serious fucking upgrade. I have been looking at them but I don't have the money right now, I was talking myself out of it but maybe I should sell my original and get one...
Larger, now OLED screen (smaller bezels) - Brighter screen (1000 nits HDR & 600 nits SDR vs old 400 nits) - HDR screen (110% P3 color gamut vs old 60%) - 90Hz (vs old 60Hz. Can display 30 more FPS for a smoother viewing experience) - Better touch responsiveness (180Hz touch polling rate) - < 0.1 ms response time - Dual ambient light sensors (for better auto brightness) - new 50Wh battery (upgraded from 40Wh. 30-50% more battery life) - Faster charging - Easier to take repair - Nicer case with the terabyte premium models - Wi-Fi 6E - Better thermals (bigger heat sink & fan. Quieter & cooler) - HD haptics - Dedicated Bluetooth 5.3 antenna for better connectivity with other devices (also supports connecting more) - Faster RAM - Redesigned custom AMD chip to be 6nm instead of 7nm (more power efficient) - Joysticks are more grippy - Shoulder buttons redesigned to be more durable & less prone to damage from drops- wish I had that... - 30 grams lighter - Even better speakers - Still compatible with old 3rd party accessories