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I think the steam os side is VERY approachable for casual players or people who don't want to mess with things, most of it works fine and if not a quick control change or proton version switch and you are good to go. The tinkerers and advanced users of course will love the full control desktop mode gives and how you can easily link it back to the simple steam os mode.
The standby option is excellent, playing a game, sleep it quick to grab door or whatever, come back later power button, boom back where you were.
My only complaints at this moment are that sometimes the per-game performance settings aren't sticking (non-steam game seems to be the issue?) it hilariously keeps setting the FPS to 20, instead of locked 40 /shrug. The other complaints are hardware related, maybe once I use it more it will feel better, but the sticks are kind of slippery, because the tops are like mini touch panels, it's smooth and doesn't curve down like an xbox controller's sticks. The other big meh is the haptics/rumble, for typing feedback they are fine but in their current form they are really meh for controller rumble/feedback, sucks coming from series x controllers, and REALLLY sucks coming from PS5 controllers.
The complaints about other things either don't bother me or are really exaggerated , colors are fine, it's not OLED but whatever we know that?!, the anti-reflective screen is REALLY nice, like for my wife, I'm going to have no choice but to buy her an anti reflective screen protector for her 64gb model after her using mine, I no longer see my glasses on the screen lol
Honestly, any other questions feel free to ask I'm still learning myself but yeah pretty good experience overall so far.
I haven't tested this out yet myself, there's a lot of Reddit posts on it too, seems the first time you format it's OK, but second time it's dead for some people, I haven't been able to narrow down a brand or reason for it. But yeah be careful if you need to reformat after the initial one maybe use a different PC to be safe >.>
To go a few more into detail it seems when I set it up to run at my external monitor's native resolution while in desktop sometimes its glitches a bit with the background and is a bit of a mess.
And I see a lot of people only saying how good the touch pad things are for mouse but they just feel so slow when I use them idk if I'm doing something wrong or what. Also with some emulators I can't quite get the settings to the way I want them and they have a bit of glitching in things such as Persona 3 Portable but its mostly during the dialogue still images and not during gameplay (if you're gonna use Emulators I highly recommend using EmuDeck though)
I think you can change how the trackpad works. I think it is default set to trackball mode. I haven't messed with it too much but you could change it with the Steam Controllers.
I'm very happy, but I'm probably a niche player and my opinion might not be enough to answer your "will it be mainstream" question.
I always loved portable consoles, even more now that I have a daughter and that being able to sit on the desktop for hours is not an option anymore.
So far I own and used N3DSXL, PSVita lite and my Switch V2 often, the ability to pick up anywhere, play and suspend games was what made these devices great for me.
The deck came to smash every expectation I had, I can now play most of my PC games in the same way I played on those consoles, I also found out I want to double dip on games I already purchased on the switch just to have them on my deck.
For someone used to play on the switch, the battery life isn't that bad, I'm used to regularly charge the devices I mentioned before.
If you need the deck for let's say, a plane trip that lasts 28h for example, I recommend getting a good quality power bank, with enough capacity and enough output to charge the deck fast enough.
Many games work really well out of the box, and the deck really feels like a console to me if you're limiting to those titles, but if you want to try anything no deck verified or need to tinker with the system to get the games working, it's there where it doesn't feel like a console experience anymore. But for me, this is a plus, you can have your console experience, but if you're willing to put the effort, you can tinker with the system to get more out of it.
I do have a couple of issues,
1. The "steam" and "..." buttons, serve an important part of the experience but have no embossing or enough height to make them stand out in the dark. To make matters worse they are just above the speaker slits which make them hard to feel in the dark.
Before I got my deck I had read reviews that warned about this issue, I ignored it thinking it shouldn't be that bad, but after experiencing it I must admit, it is infuriating when playing in the dark.
2. The touch screen has a bad performance, I'm, no expert on touch screens but the touch screen fails to register sometimes, most the most noticeable issue is when you're trying to type using the touch screen, if you don't type slow enough it won't register letter inputs.
In the end the base experience is very console like, as long as you stick to deck verified, yes, you're going to have a good time and it feels mainstream.
I do have quite a few issues tho, for one comparability still needs to be improved of course.
Another thing that really bothered me was valves OS V-sync, it may be the best when it comes to consistent frame pacing, but the input lag it adds feels terrible to me, luckily you can use launch options to use a different frame limiter that doesn't feel as laggy.
I also may have a faulty steam deck since the left stick feels kinda weird when moving around in the upper portion, and im pretty sure the time for me to return it is over ):
It also plays AAA third party titles better than the switch does and has a larger selection of indie games and retro classics, heck you can even run a switch emulator on it.
You won't find a better price/performance handheld on the market. Like Aya selling a handheld for more than a grand that still uses Vega Graphics? Please what kind of competition is that ?
I think the Steam Deck has a chance to expand the category for PC gaming. However, the category it’s appealing to is a niche market. I love Steam, I wanted the Steam Machines to be successful, but the ease of use case for ALL consoles isn’t something the non-tech person is just going to jump away from. With some “tinkering” options available on consoles, most of the crowd doesn’t use it or care to do it. They’re happy with turning on the system and getting into their playing sessions. I doubt the Deck will change the perception.
Especially the mobile crowd, most of them left their PC behind in the early to mid 2010s and haven’t came back. I’m surprised it isn’t covered more often the people who daily drive their phones and tablets rather than use a PC. Could this bridge? Maybe. The Deck is a useful computer.
Another thing, PC sales have sharply declined this year as we’re entering this new normal with COVID. People have diverted their funds away from games and technology to vacations, or just going out. Apple is the only one growing in the single digits and the other manufacturers have seen double digit declines. When Windows and the PC world begins it’s Arm transition, then I think we’ll have another boon. Or Google finally leverages its Android audience and Steam comes to it.
Now that SteamOS will be shipping with OneXPlayer and GPD as an option, I think it will help grow the audience, but it’ll be slow. If Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo decide to continue their current platforms (along with the digital games), you’ll be hard pressed to have someone buy games once again if they own them on those consoles already.
I think the Deck will help push Windows out of gaming, plus get PlayStation and Xbox users thinking differently. Nintendo… I think it’ll hit 10-15% of their audience, but the Switch’s broad appeal as a mobile gaming device helps its selling point since it behaves like a mobile phone or tablet.
For now, the Deck will be niche, especially since they’ve got some heavy competition coming from GPD, Aya Neo, Ayn (Odin) and OneXPlayer that still offer Windows as a default option. Aya Neo is releasing some very compelling low cost options too, which will be paired with their Linux OS and Windows. If Microsoft allows one of those OEMs to find a way to control it with their gamepad, it might really slow the Linux migration. Which I don’t think GPD, Aya Neo and Ayn are too far away from figuring out with Windows 11. Microsoft is the big issue to hurt portable PCs.
What Valve is doing is great for PC gaming. They were incredibly smart in working with NVIDIA to put the Portal collection on the Switch too. It has sold very well and hit the audience that probably will never buy a Deck. Gabe see the Switch as a companion in his fight against Microsoft, I wouldn’t be surprised if a Half-Life collection shows up on the Switch in the future. It was already on the Shield. However, Valve has ZERO plans to put Portal on Xbox and PlayStation.
I’ll be getting my Deck in Q4. Looking forward to playing around with it.
the last time i was this excited for a tech item was the gen 1 ipod touch which seemed like unreal future tech at the time. using the steam deck gives me the same feeling. it’ll probably be more on the niche side unless steam deck eventually becomes fully stocked and available for purchase.