Yes, that’s all true.

It is not just a console, it is a full-on PC.

Run your own home media mode, browse the web, make stuff in Blender, writr and compile code, etc, I do all of that regularly with my docked Steam Deck.

But I went with Mini PC rather than Steam Deck for comparison because, though it very much literally is a Steam Deck 3.0, in a lot of ways… I think its closer to a mini PC than anything else.

MiniPCs are basically small boxes often comparable to, I dunno, a large jar of pickles, in size. They… also do not have the functionality of a gamepad controller, or built in screen, as actual physical parts of them.

And they basically always have integrated cpu+mobo, RAM is usually laptop SODIMM form factor, and then either the cpu they use is actually an apu, or an npu, as opposed to laptops often having a discrete but laptop sized gpu, or full-on pcs typically having full-on gpus.

Or, its becoming more common for a mini-pc to juat be designed with either an oculink port, or a usb 4.0/tbunderbolt port, with the idea being that its a decent general purpose work pc in its own, and if you want to game on it, you get an eGPU cradle, stick a power supply and desktop GPU in it, and then connect it to the miniPC, which can then use that GPU nearly as efficiently as if it were just directly plugged into it.