Comment on Does anyone else use their steam deck as a PC? How's it?
MudMan@fedia.io 5 days ago
That's a bad use case, honestly. I mean, sure, you can do it, but... why?
The deck starts at 400 bucks (yeah, I know there's a sale now, that's not the base price). And it comes with 256 Gigs of storage and 16 gigs of RAM. You need a keyboard, mouse, monitor and dock to use it as a desktop PC, and now... well, it's a desktop PC, you can't move that set up with you to do anything other than play games.
What you want is... you know, a laptop. If you want some gaming ASUS will throw in a dedicated GPU for the price of all that loose hardware. And, you know, your keyboard and monitor can go in your backpack instead of being locked to a desk.
It's fine if you really really want a handheld and your other tasks are a secondary concern, but if you can only afford one cheap device and you want an all-rounder to do both desktop replacement and on-the-go entertainment you want a laptop.
shaytan@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 days ago
I wanted a gaming device to play anywhere; at home, car, etc. Laptop was too big and I would have to bring a controller with me to play the way I like.
The steam deck was the better option in that case, and I just feel in “love” with it. I like that I can be gaming, want to watch a movie, I have another dock on the living room, so I just bring it over and in 30 seconds I’m on the couch watching whatever, or I can go back to gaming on the go. Also I enjoy being in the bed as I can’t stand being on a chair for more than 3hours or so.
Steam deck is less bulky, the ecosystem is better, the community is better, and has linux by default, good repairability and compatibility with extra pieces in the market. It fitted my interests.
I agree, a laptop can do what I described, but you would also have to consider the ergonomics of playing daily with a keyboard, mouse and dedicated monitor vs the laptop keyboard and monitor + extra mouse, are way different. So if I want this desktop experience, for both laptop and steam deck I would need all peripherals, and for all other user cases steam deck seems like the better option.
As a all in one device, laptop is the best option always (besides gaming on the go like car or similar), but I was mainly talking about gaming on the go + home setup with it, I think the steam deck is the best all rounder at a good price, but sure, laptops are great too, if you’re lucky with all specs, durability, battery life, seller support, etc, at this price point, anyway, different things, both great :)
MudMan@fedia.io 5 days ago
Cool, so you really really wanted a handheld.
Which is fine. Go nuts. Love me a handheld.
But "the best all rounder" it definitely is not. There is a big difference between needing a dock, a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse versus just a mouse for fundamentally the same experience. If you're into the ergonomics of a separate monitor then you're looking for something else than "an all rounder", you're looking for a desktop replacement specifically. That's not the same thing. And then I'd say the Deck still wouldn't be how I fix that problem, honestly.
Also, FWIW, I don't think the Deck is particularly good at anything that is not gaming. The 800p screen is not good enough for media consumption, specially given that the thing has no easy way to handle it other than gripping it with both hands. No stand, no easy way to one-hand it, tiny screen... Yeah, not how you want to watch a movie. Especially not on the LCD model, which is the only one under 500.
I agree that it's a good cheap PC handheld. I don't think it's anything but that, though. If it's the only device you can afford I genuinely don't think it makes much sense, and in almost every other circumstance either spending more on a better desktop/laptop or splitting your budget between a cheaper work PC and a Deck is a better solution.
I think if you're considering a Deck or a console it's a different conversation, but as your main computing device? Yeah, no, not a recommendation from me at all.
morgan_423@lemmy.world 5 days ago
As someone who replaced a dying laptop with a Deck, I can tell you that it’s simply this: it functions great as BOTH a handheld and a regular portable PC, both docked and not docked.
Granted, I was lucky in that I already had one of the more expensive needed extra components (a really good 1440 gaming monitor that my sister gave me after she upgraded to 4k for her rig), but I literally only had to grab a dock, a couple of cables, and a bluetooth keyboard / mouse / headphone combo, and I was good to go. Far cheaper than a new (even-low tier) laptop, and it still would have been even if I would have had to buy a monitor… and honestly, I don’t miss getting crouch-heat blasted in the least.
Honestly, that feels like an opinion from someone who hasn’t used it in that way. It works great for non-gaming stuff, even while mobile. 800p is totally okay on a sub-8 inch screen, which isn’t too small at the distance you view it from when not docked. I also don’t have issues with needing to one-hand the Deck often, but when that happens, laps and chests exist, depending on where I’m using it, so it’s never really been a problem.
As far as desktop navigation goes, it’s great. It has a touch screen, but if you’re someone like me who doesn’t like to touch the screen and print it up, you can just make up whatever control scheme is most comfortable to you. I use the joystick instead of the touch pad, I just find it easiest.
All in all, the Deck a great experience while mobile, and isn’t anywhere near as bulky as a gaming laptop to carry around.
Literally the only thing I ever miss is the ability to easily text chat in games while docked, but most stuff I play now, I can just use the mic if I have to talk to other players.
MudMan@fedia.io 5 days ago
I mean... I own both a LCD and an OLED Deck.
I would absolutely not use it as a computer without a dock and I certainly wouldn't use it as a media player.
Other handhelds maaaaybe. The Legion Go has a stand and detachable controllers, so it could be a thing if it didn't have the worst speakers ever devised by a human being. The GPD Win 4, the GPD Win Mini, the Ayaneo Slide and the Aya Flip all have some semblance of a keyboard, so you can get away with some stuff you can't on the Deck or the Ally. I don't think they make sense as a main computing device for the money, though, as they don't have even the Deck's low entry point as an excuse.
FWIW, the optical nub on the Win 4 is the best pointer device in any of these, and even with that and the physical keyboard I still wouldn't use it to replace a laptop for media consumption if given the option. If I had a single device I could pick up I would sooner look into the ASUS Flow line of convertibles than into any current handheld, although you can certainly get a much cheaper all-rounder laptop than that.