Console Review: Steam Deck LCD 256 GB

 Everyone has its own favourite console. Whether it's Xbox, which might also be a handheld next year, or PlayStation, whose this generation sucks and it's way too expensive. But there is a console that I've been searching for good deals on: Steam Deck. 

Some backstory

My previous console was Switch OLED, on which I mostly played Fortnite and some other games when I took it with me abroad. And I also had the original Switch that I gave away to my cousin. I also attempted to jailbreak it, but in the end it ended up in a repair shop. I requested a Switch OLED for Chistmas mainly because of its screen and faster CPU.

When Steam Deck was released, I hadn't requested it as a Christmas gift mainly because it'll be way too expensive to import to Slovakia. I learned that the hard way when I ordered a keyboard from the U.S., which costs 184 euros. Our import threshold is 150 euros. So add the difference between the threshold and the keyboard price plus shipping to the final cost. Same with Steam Deck.

I also said to myself that when Switch 2 will release, I'll buy it. 

So Matt, how'd you got your hands on it?

I searched Heureka (local price comparator) for deals on it. And since I'm 18 now and have an independent bank account (I won't say where for obvious reasons), I'm not limited by my spending limit, but I'm trying to be responsible with my money. So I sorted by the cheapest device and I found a used one for approximately 310 euros with VAT there. I ordered it to their brick-and-mortar store and when it arrived, I took a walk to it and brought it home.

Should this be done?

Absolutely not. But I did it because I was on budget. I know that e-shops that are listed on Heureka aren't officially sponsored by Valve, but I didn't want to pay customs on top of a 300 euro price tag. And I also wanted to do an activity many Americans don't know: Walking. 

Hardware and performance

Even though it's not top of the line (in comparision with my desktop computer that has Ryzen 7 5700X and GTX 1660s in it), it performs well, though upscaling technologies in supported games do a lot of heavy lifting for it. Which doesn't matter anyway, since the screen is small enough for you to not notice it.

As we all know, the Deck's screen is does not have the greatest resolution, but if we take into account the size of its screen, it starts to make sense. It's bright and it catches fingerprints as any other screen does.

When I looked at its design, I asked myself: "Why the heck does it have two touchpads?" And when I received it, I understood the purpose of them. Basically they work as "virtual fingers" if used on the virtual keyboard. And the right one is also usable on the desktop, which is very nice.

Since the 256GB version was the cheapest, I chose it. The read and write speeds were around 150 megabytes a second. This drive could go technically faster when writing data on it, but our ISP (pardon my French here) sucks ass.

Performance is pretty good. I tested Stellar Blade with mods on (if you know what I'm talking about, you know) and it ran on 30 FPS without FSR. After enabling it on the Maximum performace mode in the game's settings, it ran on smooth 60 FPS. I also tested No Man's Sky, Team Fortress 2, Mullet Madjack, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Helldivers 2. Every game that I named ran on good enough frame rates without major hiccups.

I was surprised that Team Fortress 2 is actually playable on controller and some tasks, like grenade jumping are actually easier on Steam Deck than on my desktop.

Software

This console is basically a Arch Linux (by the way :)) computer. And as far as I know, outside of computers with a certain Gentoo distribution that has Chrome preinstalled, it's the only Linux computer that you can buy here without much hassle. 

Steam Deck comes preinstalled with SteamOS, which in its first iterations was a Debian distribution, but the fine folks at Valve soon realised that Debian is not feasible for their consoles. So they switched to Arch as their base and made it immutable. This means you can't screw something up when poking around the system, which is a good thing considering that an package install can nuke your desktop and an average normie will panic after and will return his Steam Deck. And I must say that I don't feel the immutability of the system in day-to-day use.

Conclusion

Steam Deck is an amazing device. It just works. And it works even better than some of my devices, but that's an article on its own. 

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