The first Steam Deck reviews focus on cooling, controls, battery life and performance

[Shawn Knight]

What just happened? After months of waiting and an additional two-month delay, Valve’s Steam Deck is less than three weeks away from launching. The publisher, developer and distributor recently seeded review units to a handful of YouTube influencers to gauge their initial opinions, and the embargo has finally lifted.

Linus from Linus Tech Tips describes the Steam Deck as arguably the most innovative gaming PC in the last 20 years. It starts with the inputs, and while there are plenty of them, it may be difficult for those with smaller hands to reach everything comfortably without readjusting your grip.

As for the buttons, sticks and touch pads themselves, Linus said everything is on par quality-wise with controllers that ship alongside top-tier consoles.

Cooling also wasn’t an issue, as the handheld’s design keeps surface temps at or near skin temperature, even during extending gaming sessions.

As for performance, Linus said most users will be best served leaving the SoC profile on auto. But for enthusiasts, there is the option to fine-tune the power profile for your exact use case – for example, if you want to run a specific emulator that requires more CPU power than GPU power.

When looking at performance numbers, it’s worth mentioning that Valve did hand-pick which games could be run in the early preview. Still, there are some heavy-hitters here including Forza Horizon 5, Devil May Cry 5, Control, Ghostrunner and Street Fighter V: CE. There were some issues with Forza, but this could be a software issue that should get worked out once a Windows driver becomes available.

Linus was also impressed with battery life, but it was the Steam Deck’s screen that impressed him even more. It’s not shocking vibrant, nor does it exhibit over-the-top sharpness, but it excels in dimly-lit environments. He also praised the speakers as being excellent for their size.

Software could make or break the Steam Deck, Linus concludes, as the device could use a lot of work in this category.

Steve Burke from Gamers Nexus, meanwhile, has shared a 35-minute feature on the Steam Deck with a heavy focus on hardware (Valve is apparently still working on the software side, so not too much can be said there just yet).

He starts out with a Schlieren imaging test, which visualizes the density gradient change of the air coming out of the top of the Steam Deck. If you’ve never seen this sort of test in action, it’s worth checking out just to familiarize yourself with it.

Burke also wired up thermocouples to take direct measurements as close to the silicon as possible and conducted eight different scenarios with varying loads. No punches were pulled, as one torture test consisted of playing a game while charging from a low battery. Their results were largely in line with the in-house testing that Valve shared for validation purposes.

The team tested with the Steam Deck’s back cover removed and found that in many cases, the rear cover actually helps with cooling, no doubt aiding in airflow routing. Burke did think that Valve could do a better job with fan speed transition, as the ramp and deramp in fan speed is quite noticeable.

Speaking of fan speed and thus noise, under max power draw, noise was measures at around 37-38 dBA.

Gamers Nexus also put the unit’s 40Whr battery – and Valve’s claim of anywhere from two to eight hours of runtime – to the test. Of course, the game(s) you are playing will largely dictate battery life. There’s a lot of data to comb over in this section, so for the sake of brevity, we’ll let you explore the video on your own to gather those test results.

If you're still on the fence or simply want yet another perspective on the Steam Deck, I'd highly recommend checking out the above review from The Phawx. I'm personally not familiar with this YouTuber and it doesn't seem he has a huge following compared to Linus and Steve, but his feature is close to an hour long and looks to have high production quality. Also, props to Valve for supporting a "smaller" YouTuber.

The first batch of Steam Decks will start shipping to early buyers at the end of the month. Pricing starts at $399 for a model with 64GB and scales up to $649 if you want a unit with a 512GB NVMe SSD. Current expected order availability – meaning if you were to reserve a unit today – is listed as “after Q2 2022” for all variants.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/93314-first-steam-deck-reviews-focus-cooling-controls-battery.html

 

[Dimitriid]

This is not going to sit well with Linux fans but the first thing I would try on these would be to install Windows 10 on them instead of Steam OS.

At least for performance purposes I suspect that if this is a good product running on Linux, it would be even better on Windows 10 because I honestly don't believe Valve will get anywhere near their promised compatibility.

Sure if I am on a PC I can do lots of things like install lutris, look at posts and forums, try some settings, you know: troubleshoot games that might not work ideally or at all.

But would you really want troubleshoot esoteric Linux gaming issues on a tiny 7 inch class screen without a keyboard? Of course no: you'd most likely at the very least dock it so you can get a proper screen, keyboard and mouse going and at that point not being able to just download and play a game on a device is not going to end up well.

...Yet it could be as simple as "You click download, you wait a bit, then you launch and play" if it was running on Windows instead which is what I think most people using this as just a portable console should do.

 

[Lionvibez]

This is not going to sit well with Linux fans but the first thing I would try on these would be to install Windows 10 on them instead of Steam OS.

At least for performance purposes I suspect that if this is a good product running on Linux, it would be even better on Windows 10 because I honestly don't believe AMD will get anywhere near their promised compatibility.

Sure if I am on a PC I can do lots of things like install lutris, look at posts and forums, try some settings, you know: troubleshoot games that might not work ideally or at all.

But would you really want troubleshoot esoteric Linux gaming issues on a tiny 7 inch class screen without a keyboard? Of course no: you'd most likely at the very least dock it so you can get a proper screen, keyboard and mouse going and at that point not being able to just download and play a game on a device is not going to end up well.

...Yet it could be as simple as "You click download, you wait a bit, then you launch and play" if it was running on Windows instead which is what I think most people using this as just a portable console should do.

Valve and AMD have put in far more work in the Steam OS than a generic windows install. I'm expecting better performance on the linux side. And you will probably run into more weird janky stuff on the windows side because minimal testing was probably done there.

 

[psycros]

This is not going to sit well with Linux fans but the first thing I would try on these would be to install Windows 10 on them instead of Steam OS.

At least for performance purposes I suspect that if this is a good product running on Linux, it would be even better on Windows 10 because I honestly don't believe AMD will get anywhere near their promised compatibility.

Sure if I am on a PC I can do lots of things like install lutris, look at posts and forums, try some settings, you know: troubleshoot games that might not work ideally or at all.

But would you really want troubleshoot esoteric Linux gaming issues on a tiny 7 inch class screen without a keyboard? Of course no: you'd most likely at the very least dock it so you can get a proper screen, keyboard and mouse going and at that point not being able to just download and play a game on a device is not going to end up well.

...Yet it could be as simple as "You click download, you wait a bit, then you launch and play" if it was running on Windows instead which is what I think most people using this as just a portable console should do.

AMD has little to no issues on a standardized platform. For them, Steam Deck is just another console. Linux also has much less overhead than Windows so the potential for performance is higher.

 

[Dimitriid]

Valve and AMD have put in far more work in the Steam OS on this than a generic windows install. I'm expecting better performance on the linux side. And you will probably run into more weird janky stuff on the windows side because minimal testing was probably done there.

Based on what, exactly?

Performance could be good and even better on some cases I can concede that but do you understand just how big the steam library is?

Let's just get the easy ones out of the way: Online games and anti cheat basically break on wine, proton, etc. Valve said they'd be working but they also barred tech jesus from even talking software, less than a month away so you really think they've got everything ironed out?

Sorry but no: Valve failed at creating a linux based os once already. They've made a lot of progress since but they're nowhere near being able to run as many games from even their own store as they would like to claim.

I'll believe it when I see units in the wild and games get tested, beyond the handful of cherry picked examples.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Linus: "There aren't any competing handheld gaming PCs"

Linus can be excused for being ignorant of course. Alex at LowSpecGamer has been using and reviewing handheld gaming PCs for years. How did Valve come up with this idea? They cribbed it from Asian companies who actually developed and successfully marketed the products, thus showing they could be a viable platform.

 

[Dimitriid]

Linus: "There aren't any competing handheld gaming PCs"

Linus can be excused for being ignorant of course. Alex at LowSpecGamer has been using and reviewing handheld gaming PCs for years. How did Valve come up with this idea? They cribbed it from Asian companies who actually developed and successfully marketed the products, thus showing they could be a viable platform.

Take a look at his second channel, short circuit: Linus Media Group themselves have reviewed like a dozen such devices, 3 inside the last 2 months, where Linus himself was the host holding the devices and talking about them.

He probably thinks they're not comparable because of the higher price point or because Valve "got it right" (But again, I maintain my reservations about it at least the way it ships with Linux until someone tests it on Windows instead) but his own channels and him personally have reviewed many such devices in the past, one of them just 9 days ago in fact.

It's why I never consume any of his content and just become aware of it when other people reference it: He just talks and talks and talks and never thinks about anything he says and doesn't care how much stuff he gets wrong, makes up, etc. No corrections, no editorial rigor, just a fast talking ***** that spends more time trying to sell you water bottles than thinking about what he's about to say about tech.

 

[Kotters]

Linus: "There aren't any competing handheld gaming PCs"

Linus can be excused for being ignorant of course. Alex at LowSpecGamer has been using and reviewing handheld gaming PCs for years. How did Valve come up with this idea? They cribbed it from Asian companies who actually developed and successfully marketed the products, thus showing they could be a viable platform.

If you actually watch the video, you'd know that he's referring to the pricing. The Steam Deck has no competitors because it's more performant than the other handhelds for a third the price.

 

[Sausagemeat]

I don’t get the hype for this device. 720p 30hz PC gaming? Er no thanks. I’m currently playing Horizon Zero Dawn on PC and I’ve just finished God of War. I’d like to play these games on the sofa but never at 30fps. Skyrim would be good but I have that on my switch lite which I also basically don’t use.

And then there’s the size of this monster. It’s far too big to pack into a bag for a trip, it’s heavier than all my current electronics that I travel with added together (iPad, GoPro, phone) and with a 2 hour battery it’s going to need to be plugged in a lot.

Maybe I’m wrong but I feel like the hype train on this is a bit out of control. I mean it can’t even play minecraft!

 

[Nintenboy01]

An intriguing device but personally I probably wouldn't use it all that much if I had it. I'll wait for RDNA2-packing APUs in the next round of Chinese handheld PCs first to see how they match up.

 

[Aceseven]

I don’t get the hype for this device. 720p 30hz PC gaming? Er no thanks. I’m currently playing Horizon Zero Dawn on PC and I’ve just finished God of War. I’d like to play these games on the sofa but never at 30fps. Skyrim would be good but I have that on my switch lite which I also basically don’t use.

And then there’s the size of this monster. It’s far too big to pack into a bag for a trip, it’s heavier than all my current electronics that I travel with added together (iPad, GoPro, phone) and with a 2 hour battery it’s going to need to be plugged in a lot.

Maybe I’m wrong but I feel like the hype train on this is a bit out of control. I mean it can’t even play minecraft!

I've never understood this line of thought, its easy as pie to connect a pc to a tv, thats how ive been playing for years, doesnt even need to be a masive tower, there's plenty of sleek cases a person can use that'll just slide into an entertainment centre, can use a controller of your choice to.

 

[Sausagemeat]

I've never understood this line of thought, its easy as pie to connect a pc to a tv, thats how ive been playing for years, doesnt even need to be a masive tower, there's plenty of sleek cases a person can use that'll just slide into an entertainment centre, can use a controller of your choice to.

I do have my PC plugged into my TV. And sometimes I play games on it. I don’t see what that has to do with my comment?

 

[arrowflash]

I do have my PC plugged into my TV. And sometimes I play games on it. I don’t see what that has to do with my comment?

Maybe because of the way you worded it... when you said you "like to play games on sofa", given the context it might give the impression you're unaware that it's possible to plug a PC in a living room tv, plug a controller and play video games sitting on a sofa as if you were using a console. I mean, it's a misconception that many console fanboys with mindsets stuck in 2005 actually still say.

At first glance I made the same misconception about your comment but then realized it's not what you meant

 

[Dimitriid]

If you actually watch the video, you'd know that he's referring to the pricing. The Steam Deck has no competitors because it's more performant than the other handhelds for a third the price.

The steam deck could end up having no competition but a couple of caviats:

1) Those other devices have been available for almost a year for the AMD Ryzen ones and are not using the latest from AMD. So it's kinda true but not really all that fair, kind of the coverage of Alder Lake: People (Like Linus, just not on that case afaik) in the press love to say how Alder Lake is dominating Ryzen and they have no competition and while technically true, those chips have been out for like 2 months and Ryzen 5000 was uncontested for over a full year and while intel tried and failed to release other competing products.

Albeit to a lesser degree this is kind of what the steam deck might look like: Yes is far and above the competition but those are products that have been out for a substantially longer time and with tech that goes back a lot more so, true technically but not any kind of fair comparison and henceforth, not indicative of future competing products once they get access to RDNA 2 APUs for example

2) AMD could have no competition but just as easily could fail miserably to sell anything more than a tiny number of preorders. In fact given the chip shortages right now I can almost guaranteed that anyone that didn't immediately got on the waiting list as soon as it was announced probably won't get a steam deck available until at least 2023.

I'd love to be proven wrong (Not even just rethorically I'd put money down for a steam deck if I could, but I both don't trust in preorders at all and they were not even available in my country at all, still aren't) but again: Linus is someone who is paid to believe Valve's hype but you guys are not so don't assume Valve will somehow be fully immune to the on-going supply issues. In fact their supply issues could end up being so severe that by the time it normalizes we very well could have a competing portable PC device with that RDNA 2 APU available.

So tl;dr is the same as always: Never assume a new hardware launch (Or even a software one) will work as intended, they almost never do and Valve is not immune.

 

[grumblguts]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Gear

to be honest I would rather play this.
hand held haven't come that far in the time since the game gear.
entertainment wise at least.

 

[Sausagemeat]

Maybe because of the way you worded it... when you said you "like to play games on sofa", given the context it might give the impression you're unaware that it's possible to plug a PC in a living room tv, plug a controller and play video games sitting on a sofa as if you were using a console. I mean, it's a misconception that many console fanboys with mindsets stuck in 2005 actually still say.

At first glance I made the same misconception about your comment but then realized it's not what you meant

You assumed that I am unaware that a computer can plug into a TV? Wow! What an “***-umption”. I’ve never heard a “console fanboy” say that you can’t plug a PC into a TV. I don’t even know any “console fanboys” tbh.

 

[Sausagemeat]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Gear

to be honest I would rather play this.
hand held haven't come that far in the time since the game gear.
entertainment wise at least.

You’re going to laugh probably but the game gear is considerably smaller and lighter than the steam deck! And when I was a kid my mate hit his brother in the face with his game gear and he ended up needing 14 stitches .

Is anyone else baffled at the sheer size of this steam deck thing? It’s comically big for a portable games device imo.

 

[brucek]

This is not going to sit well with Linux fans but the first thing I would try on these would be to install Windows 10 on them instead of Steam OS.

At least for performance purposes I suspect that if this is a good product running on Linux, it would be even better on Windows 10 because I honestly don't believe AMD will get anywhere near their promised compatibility.

Sure if I am on a PC I can do lots of things like install lutris, look at posts and forums, try some settings, you know: troubleshoot games that might not work ideally or at all.

But would you really want troubleshoot esoteric Linux gaming issues on a tiny 7 inch class screen without a keyboard? Of course no: you'd most likely at the very least dock it so you can get a proper screen, keyboard and mouse going and at that point not being able to just download and play a game on a device is not going to end up well.

...Yet it could be as simple as "You click download, you wait a bit, then you launch and play" if it was running on Windows instead which is what I think most people using this as just a portable console should do.

I don't think this is meant to be seen as a Linux device or marketed to Linux fans. It needs to work just like you say: as straight forward as a console. Linux gaming has never been that to date, but then again how could it be with an audience of like 8 people. The point of Valve getting behind it with a major push is that it generates the critical mass audience so that it is the developers, Valve, and component suppliers like AMD who are ensuring that it all just works (including full performance).

And by the way, stock windows itself doesn't actually deliver that experience either. It's a desktop OS with a lot of updates, settings, user twiddling, etc baked into the user experience. The XBox OS comes a lot closer; that is the experience Valve needs to shoot for and if they don't achieve it this device will end up a curiosity like the Steam controllers did (which were also pretty cool pieces of hardware.)

 

[Dimitriid]

I don't think this is meant to be seen as a Linux device or marketed to Linux fans. It needs to work just like you say: as straight forward as a console. Linux gaming has never been that to date, but then again how could it be with an audience of like 8 people. The point of Valve getting behind it with a major push is that it generates the critical mass audience so that it is the developers, Valve, and component suppliers like AMD who are ensuring that it all just works (including full performance).

And by the way, stock windows itself doesn't actually deliver that experience either. It's a desktop OS with a lot of updates, settings, user twiddling, etc baked into the user experience. The XBox OS comes a lot closer; that is the experience Valve needs to shoot for and if they don't achieve it this device will end up a curiosity like the Steam controllers did (which were also pretty cool pieces of hardware.)

That's fair there's a bit more to Windows than get up and go. Perhaps in the days of 7 it was closer to that but I digress.

The thing that's going to make or break this device is how well people adhere to Valve's rating system and how they handle people going outside of it: If "just works" Platinum rating games start getting regressions (Which is a common occurrence with wine and proton through the years) then that's an issue.

The other part is how Valve handles a popular game that might not be launch and play at first. I could foresee that if there was a *HUGE* dedicated team and publishers willing to work with Valve in advance it could be minimized to say maybe a week after launch issues are addressed and now works on Steam OS

But realistically I think a lot of gamers will be disappointed to find "Oh I want to play a specific game on my steam deck but there's usually just like a 60% chance it will work on release or within the first week or so" and that could easily deflate things.

 

[Lionvibez]

Based on what, exactly?

Performance could be good and even better on some cases I can concede that but do you understand just how big the steam library is?

Let's just get the easy ones out of the way: Online games and anti cheat basically break on wine, proton, etc. Valve said they'd be working but they also barred tech jesus from even talking software, less than a month away so you really think they've got everything ironed out?

Sorry but no: Valve failed at creating a linux based os once already. They've made a lot of progress since but they're nowhere near being able to run as many games from even their own store as they would like to claim.

I'll believe it when I see units in the wild and games get tested, beyond the handful of cherry picked examples.

AMD and Valve are making progress on new CPPC Linux driver for the Steam Deck

Valve's upcoming Steam Deck will be able to run Windows 11 for those who want it, but the majority of users will likely stick with the company's...

www.techspot.com

 

[Lew Zealand]

But realistically I think a lot of gamers will be disappointed to find "Oh I want to play a specific game on my steam deck but there's usually just like a 60% chance it will work on release or within the first week or so" and that could easily deflate things.

Or for the cheapskates out there like me: I bought it on a GOG sale or got it free from Epic, but I can't play those out of the box unless I wipe it and install Windows. And the Steam games have the potential to be lower performance there. However I'm insanely curious about that last bit: will Steam games work worse or better with Windows 10 on it?

 

[Dimitriid]

Or for the cheapskates out there like me: I bought it on a GOG sale or got it free from Epic, but I can't play those out of the box unless I wipe it and install Windows. And the Steam games have the potential to be lower performance there. However I'm insanely curious about that last bit: will Steam games work worse or better with Windows 10 on it?

Well at least in theory, you can still run gog or epic (or Origin or Uplay) games on the steam deck: you might just need to go outside of the Steam big screen GUI (Or have a shortcut there) to other application frontends like Lutris which does support those other store fronts.

The thing is, we still don't know how feasible that is because Valve put an embargo on all of the OS stuff. So not the most promising of developments there but honestly, it's Linux so I fully expect custom repositories and workarounds to be developed fairly quickly just in case Valve doesn't supports it well on Steam OS by default.

Steam games that have a native Linux client or are very platform agnostic even without it should work better on Steam OS: It uses a lot less resources than Windows overall so there's a lot less overhead to worry about. But those are very few games.

Steam games that only have a native Windows client (Which is most of them) it's really a gamble: some of them could be on pair with Windows (No noticeable differences) with most being a little worst on Steam OS (I expect the majority of Silver and Gold games to land here, Google Proton db to see a list of games btw) with very few games being either better than Windows even if not native or being a lot worst than Windows with a huge performance issue or instability.

Valve will probably disagree with my assessment here, strongly even. But as you know a hardware compatibility layer like wine and proton always implies that there's at least some things that just won't perform ideally and will translate in anything from just a minor performance decrease of 10-15% or so (Most games) to anything from better than Windows to almost unplayable on Steam OS. The usual argument is that as time goes on Valve gets better and better at their compatibility layer and while this is true, it is also true that as time goes on many new games come out and more of them so even if you're making great progress in making compatibility seem almost seamless, the amount of games overall you have to maintain can quickly get out of control and I suspect that it will for many smaller and lesser known titles or older ones.

 

[grumblguts]

I dont see any need for such a device. just get a better chair problem solved.

 

[Kotters]

I dont see any need for such a device. just get a better chair problem solved.

Your mobility chair has autopilot?

 

[arrowflash]

You assumed that I am unaware that a computer can plug into a TV? Wow! What an “***-umption”. I’ve never heard a “console fanboy” say that you can’t plug a PC into a TV. I don’t even know any “console fanboys” tbh.

Whoa whoa... are you okay? No need to get so upset over a misunderstanding that didn't even actually play out... calm down.

You'd be surprised how many people I see who are unaware, or at least pretend to be to push their narrative. Just saying they do exist. I got that impression at first but then realized I was at TS and that you were talking about portables.