„Steam Deck is a Full-fledged PC, Only Portable” - Impressions From the Press Show
A flood of information has appeared on the web after the press presentation of Valve's Steam Deck console. The impressions are very positive - it's a powerful PC, only in a small case.
- A press preview of the Steam Deck console was held in Seattle;
- There were a lot of subjective impressions and opinions;
- The measurements included the temperature of the device, input lag, cooperation with some peripherals;
- Journalists' impressions are very positive;
- The creators of the console call it "The Deck" among themselves.
The announcement of Valve's Steam Deck portable console has caused quite a stir. After all, it's supposed to be a full-fledged PC the size of the Nintendo Switch, capable of running almost all games available on Steam. Until now, we could only rely on official marketing materials and short impressions of IGN's journalists. Recently, however, the first large press demonstration took place at Valve headquarters in Seattle, after which a lot of interesting opinions about Steam Deck appeared on the Internet.
For dry figures and specs, we refer you to one of the previous news and data from the manufacturer. The most interesting thing in this case are these subjective reports and impressions and most of them were passed by Linus Sebastian - the head of the most watched channel about computer hardware on YouTube - Linus Tech Tips (13.7 million subscribers). Linus brought his considerable testing kit to the show - ranging from a 4K external monitor to a thermal imaging camera!
All journalists generally praise the console's ergonomics and convenient controls. Steam Deck, in addition to the standard set of buttons, knobs and crossbar, has four buttons underneath, two touch pads and a gyroscope with accelerometer. In addition, through a USB-C adapter you can also connect a standard mouse. The only drawback is just one USB-C port located on top, which sometimes will force you to play with a cable protruding in this place.
The device's weight isn't too annoying, although in this case Linus relied only on short sessions with the console in his hands. We learned very little about the noise generated by Steam Deck, which seems understandable in a noisy hall full of other journalists. The device's fans can indeed be heard and the noise level is comparable to the AYA NEO console but the sound itself has a slightly lower tone. Speakers, on the other hand, sound decent, and in addition there is an option to connect headphones via Bluetooth, which will not be available in the new Switch OLED.
The choice of a resolution of 1280x800 pixels was praised as completely sufficient for this screen size, especially if it makes it possible to achieve 60 fps in games. The most trouble with performance appeared in Control at default resolution, but Steam Deck enables us to not only lower it, but even run the game in windowed mode. 720p gets in the way only when watching movies, where Full HD and OLED quality would be very useful. However, no fault can be found with a very good color calibration. It is worth noting that the most expensive version of Steam Deck's screen has a special layer of glass to reduce glare and supposedly this makes a big difference.
Thermal imaging camera enabled the journalists to measure the device's heat. At the controls and generally where you usually rest your hands while playing, it was about 28 degrees, which is 6-8 degrees lower compared to the AYA NEO. Linus was also able to measure input lag in Counter Strike: GO and Steam Deck running on battery once again showed a slightly better result (68 ms) than the AYA NEO running on power (72 ms).
The rest of the testing consisted of a co-op multiplayer session where one player had Steam Deck at their disposal and the other a regular PC. Co-op gameplay in The Ascent ran without any problems. Connecting an external 4K monitor via USB-C - Display Port cable also went smooth. The image was displayed in full 4K resolution and 60Hz and Linus pointed out that it would be convenient to use Steam Deck as an additional display when playing on a large monitor.
In conclusion, journalists had a very positive response to the new Steam Deck console, especially considering that it was not the final version of selected components and software. Linus was critical only of the cheapest version of Steam Deck with a 64GB hard drive, which even with the ability to expand this space with a microSD card "seems completely out of date". The team from Giant Bomb, on the other hand, drew attention to the perceived loading time of games and levels. Overall, however Steam Deck supposedly leaves no doubt that it is "a full-fledged PC with the capabilities of modern gaming equipment only enclosed in a portable case," as stated by Linus Sebastian.
Steam Deck is scheduled for release in December 2021. Prices, depending on the version of the device, range from $399 to $699. At the moment, however, making a reservation for your copy means shipping after the second quarter of 2022.
