Is it worth buying a steam deck?

[Franek]

I have been thinking about buying a portable console for a long time but I am wondering between choosing steamdeck and nintendo. Both have great potential and efficiency but I wonder which one has greater possibilities

[Mahjik]

What games do you want to play? If you like Nintendo games, get a Switch. If you have a sizeable Steam library already, no reason not to consider the Steam Deck (or other PC handheld).

[Haruspex]

Worth it to who? Depends on what you intend to do with it.

In terms of pure performance, the Steam Deck handily has the Switch beat. It's not even fair it's such a big jump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7JxilOLKFk&t
If pure performance is your metric on what makes a system "better" though, there are more powerful handhelds out there than the Steam Deck. I personally think there's more to it than just performance. It's why I prefer the Steam Deck even though the ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go exist.

Library? As of this year, there are well over 100,000 games on Steam and growing. Even accounting that compatibility isn't quite 100%, that's still tens of thousands of games available to play on the Steam Deck on Steam alone. That's not even counting running games from other launchers like GOG. We won't even mention emulation because it's already not fair to the Switch, but if we did that would add hundreds of thousands more titles available to play on the Deck across decades of gaming history. More games than any one person could play in their lifetime even if they lived to 100 and dedicated their whole life to it from birth. The Switch in comparison has about 5,000 titles available.

Then there's library longevity. I can still install and play Half Life 2 on my Steam Deck, a game I bought 20 years ago. I fully expect that in another 20 years I'll be able to install and play it on whatever modern system I have then. Meanwhile, can you play your Gamecube games on your Switch? No. The Switch 2 is confirmed to be backwards compatible with the Switch, but what about the system after that? How will you continue to play your Switch games after Nintendo has shut the servers down because they want you to move on to the new hardware?

Of course if you want to play Nintendo games, you should buy the Nintendo system. No matter how good the Steam Deck is, if you want to play Mario and Zelda, you're going to want a Switch. (Excepting of course if your morals are a bit more flexible. Technically, unofficially, the Deck plays more Nintendo titles than the Nintendo system does, and it plays them better.)

Really that's what it boils down to is which games you want to play. Want to play Nintendo games? Get a Switch. Want to play Steam games? Get a Steam Deck. Want to play Fortnite or various other multiplayer PC games that have aggressive kernel-level anti-cheat? Get some other machine running Windows.

Ease of use is another matter to consider. Something like the Switch is going to be dead simple that even a toddler than was dropped on his head several times could use it. The Steam Deck sort of models itself as a kind of console, but ultimately it's still a PC. Sure, you can use it like a console. Never leave game mode. Stick to "Steam Deck Verified" games. (There are thousands.) I think some people could be very happy using it like this, but if you're like anyone you're going to want to explore a bit, and if you don't have patience, a willingness to learn and research, and if you easily get overwhelmed by anything technical, be wary of the Steam Deck (or any PC really). Outside of the curated game mode it's a Linux PC, and this can be scary, unfamiliar territory for some people. Stick to consoles like the Switch if you need those cushioned walls to keep you safe from the world outside.

[🌎Earth]

the deck is definitely worth buying. not only would you be able to play the pc version of multi-platform titles, but you can also emulate the switch and of course just about every console that came before it.

you would not have to wait for nintendo to eventually add your favorite snes or n64 game to their online service either.

the one and only thing a switch has over the deck is that online multiplayer on switch is more seamless - it's still easy to do switch online multiplayer on deck/pc, but it takes a couple more clicks and not all games can do it.

if there are specific Switch games holding you back because you really want to try them, I would suggest looking up how well those games run on Steam Deck. That way you can get a better idea if you'd prefer a mini PC that runs a lot of games including some switch titles, or a device that only runs switch titles.

[invision2212]

You can buy a switch on Craigslist for 100.00 if saving money is your main objective

If having the most possible things to play is your objective than the steam deck will win every time