should I get the 215 or the 500gb model?

[Dova]

about to pull the trigger, which one should I go for? I need opinions from gamers.

[abbyzero]

I got the 512 and I personally like the reflection resistant screen. The extra storage is handy (I got a Samsung 512 storage card and it’s got enough storage for my gaming needs-I can always upgrade at some point if needs be

[OGNocturnal]

I picked up the 512 for the screen mainly, my other hobbies and duties are outside so it made sense to. It also meant that i didn't have to take apart the deck to upgrade or accidentally cause any other issues in doing so. Its been a sealed unit since it was bought.

All i needed was a few SD cards to get my library on, a dock (when i'm home and want to relax) and a few wireless peripherals to make it more accessible which did add on to the cost. That's personal choice though, i would think about how you want it to be before making the jump

[Dova]

Originally posted by ßr⊕†hεr ßεdﾚαm:

I picked up the 512 for the screen mainly, my other hobbies and duties are outside so it made sense to. It also meant that i didn't have to take apart the deck to upgrade or accidentally cause any other issues in doing so. Its been a sealed unit since it was bought.

All i needed was a few SD cards to get my library on, a dock (when i'm home and want to relax) and a few wireless peripherals to make it more accessible which did add on to the cost. That's personal choice though, i would think about how you want it to be before making the jump :cozybethesda:

I have a gaming laptop, a ps5...an xbox S...lol I don't need it, but it's nice you know?

[OGNocturnal]

Originally posted by Dovaroar:

I have a gaming laptop, a ps5...an xbox S...lol I don't need it, but it's nice you know?

Oh yeah, its good to have options. Especially when travelling, it fits in a rucksack nicely.

[Mahjik]

If you want to play in conditions where you cannot control the lighting, then go for the 512GB model for the screen.

[Dova]

Originally posted by Mahjik:

If you want to play in conditions where you cannot control the lighting, then go for the 512GB model for the screen.

will be in my room or house most of the time for sure. is the case and screen worth it in that case?

[Mahjik]

Originally posted by Dovaroar:

Originally posted by Mahjik:

If you want to play in conditions where you cannot control the lighting, then go for the 512GB model for the screen.

will be in my room or house most of the time for sure. is the case and screen worth it in that case?

IMO, no.

[OGNocturnal]

Originally posted by Dovaroar:

will be in my room or house most of the time for sure. is the case and screen worth it in that case?

I would say no also.

[Dova]

thank you for your input everyone.

[shimsham29]

If value is your main criteria then the 64 is actually the way to go since you can just use SD cards and/or replace the internal drive with something bigger for less than it'd cost going for the 256 or 512. This also holds true if you go for the 256 as you could replace the drive for less than the 512 costs. Sure, this requires opening it up and you swapping out the drives yet videos online show it is clearly not difficult or time consuming to do.

For what it is worth, I'm usually the type of person that gets the top choice of tech things but I went with the 64 for a few reasons:

a) I wasn't certain I'd like the Deck enough and didn't want to sink more cash into it in case I didn't like it.

b) tests showed that regular games run just fine on micro sd cards and my download speed isn't high enough where it would be throttled by downloading to the card. Some load times are longer but it's not that huge a difference. I can wait an extra few seconds for a game to load.

c) my original plan wasn't to fill it up with Steam games as since I plan to only really use this inside my house, I figured I would rather just stream most of them from my higher end gaming desktop since this increases battery life and they'll look better and always run at 60fps.

Turns out I don't like trying to play most PC games that require a lot of camera movement or have a lot of smaller objects or HUD/text to try and see on this because I find the screen is still too small for that so I probably made a good decision in not blowing more cash on the larger drive. My 512GB sd card holds my emulated games and the current couple Steam games I have installed just fine and I have enough space left to add a couple more Steam games if I want. Also, streaming with Moonlight works as well as I was hoping as it feels like I am playing natively so that will still be the way I plan to play any PC games other than the 2 I have installed.

If value isn't that important and you want something that you don't have to maybe tinker with then I guess the 512 would be the way to go.

I will add that when I was doing my research back in August before ordering, I saw a comparison of the 512's screen and the regular screen. This comparison showed that the 512's screen loses out a bit on clarity but you do get a better perceived black level and perceived contrast ratio from the etched glass of the 512 (because it's dimmer) so there's that. Personally, I would rather have the 512's advantage vs the slight decrease in clarity yet it wasn't worth the difference in price for me.

If you want to see the video, go to Youtube and type in steam decks compared 64 vs 512 and a video by Retro Game Corps should be one of the results. I would directly link to it yet I don't know if links are allowed at these Steam forums even though the post/community guidelines seem to indicate it would be fine.

Another thing is the screen uses PWM and at what seems to be a lower frequency to handle the dimming so if you are sensitive to PWM flicker where it gives you eye strain and headaches then be warned. I found out I am sensitive to this when I got my Deck and started to get a headache and felt a bit nauseous after not too long a time. I don't perceive the actual flicker but it's clear it is messing with my eyes and causing these issues. I now have to run the screen at max brightness since that disables the PWM and use the Vibrant Deck plugin to lower the brightness to a level I can actually stand looking at (screen is way too bright at 100%) with the plugin's gamma adjustment. Sucks having to do this but better than setting the screen brightness slider to a more normal setting and getting headaches and feeling bad after 20+ minutes.

[Dova]

Originally posted by shimsham29:

If value is your main criteria then the 64 is actually the way to go since you can just use SD cards and/or replace the internal drive with something bigger for less than it'd cost going for the 256 or 512. This also holds true if you go for the 256 as you could replace the drive for less than the 512 costs. Sure, this requires opening it up and you swapping out the drives yet videos online show it is clearly not difficult or time consuming to do.

For what it is worth, I'm usually the type of person that gets the top choice of tech things but I went with the 64 for a few reasons:

a) I wasn't certain I'd like the Deck enough and didn't want to sink more cash into it in case I didn't like it.

b) tests showed that regular games run just fine on micro sd cards and my download speed isn't high enough where it would be throttled by downloading to the card. Some load times are longer but it's not that huge a difference. I can wait an extra few seconds for a game to load.

c) my original plan wasn't to fill it up with Steam games as since I plan to only really use this inside my house, I figured I would rather just stream most of them from my higher end gaming desktop since this increases battery life and they'll look better and always run at 60fps.

Turns out I don't like trying to play most PC games that require a lot of camera movement or have a lot of smaller objects or HUD/text to try and see on this because I find the screen is still too small for that so I probably made a good decision in not blowing more cash on the larger drive. My 512GB sd card holds my emulated games and the current couple Steam games I have installed just fine and I have enough space left to add a couple more Steam games if I want. Also, streaming with Moonlight works as well as I was hoping as it feels like I am playing natively so that will still be the way I plan to play any PC games other than the 2 I have installed.

If value isn't that important and you want something that you don't have to maybe tinker with then I guess the 512 would be the way to go.

I will add that when I was doing my research back in August before ordering, I saw a comparison of the 512's screen and the regular screen. This comparison showed that the 512's screen loses out a bit on clarity but you do get a better perceived black level and perceived contrast ratio from the etched glass of the 512 (because it's dimmer) so there's that. Personally, I would rather have the 512's advantage vs the slight decrease in clarity yet it wasn't worth the difference in price for me.

If you want to see the video, go to Youtube and type in steam decks compared 64 vs 512 and a video by Retro Game Corps should be one of the results. I would directly link to it yet I don't know if links are allowed at these Steam forums even though the post/community guidelines seem to indicate it would be fine.

Another thing is the screen uses PWM and at what seems to be a lower frequency to handle the dimming so if you are sensitive to PWM flicker where it gives you eye strain and headaches then be warned. I found out I am sensitive to this when I got my Deck and started to get a headache and felt a bit nauseous after not too long a time. I don't perceive the actual flicker but it's clear it is messing with my eyes and causing these issues. I now have to run the screen at max brightness since that disables the PWM and use the Vibrant Deck plugin to lower the brightness to a level I can actually stand looking at (screen is way too bright at 100%) with the plugin's gamma adjustment. Sucks having to do this but better than setting the screen brightness slider to a more normal setting and getting headaches and feeling bad after 20+ minutes.

I went for the middle choice! thanks for the feed back friend!

[Jcee]

I actually reserved the 64gb version, on day 1 then canceled my reservation and picked the 256gb version, because information at the time led me to believe the pcie socket in the 64gb model was actually slower. (its Not afaik, but this was right after release and all information was fresh)

That said I still feel the 64gb model is a better value even without throwing a new drive inside it, because playing games off the SD seems to work just fine.