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Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Sunshine@piefed.ca⁩ to ⁨steamdeck@sopuli.xyz⁩

https://www.tomsguide.com/gaming/handheld-gaming/is-the-steam-deck-still-worth-it-in-2025-id-argue-yes-but-with-caveats

Is the Steam Deck still worth it in 2025? I'd argue yes — but with caveats

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Comments

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  • memo@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I think an important factor people seem to forget about the steam deck is that it won’t simply cease to be supported like sony or nintendo does with their consoles. If a game comes out on steam and works on linux, it’ll work on the deck. Considering the amount of people developing wonderful but lightweight games, I doubt you’ll ever think 'this platform is dead".

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    • PlasticExistence@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      And if you buy a game on PC, it doesn’t stop being playable in a generation or two like consoles.

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      • Soup@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Speaking of consoles, if you buy a game for PC boom, it’s also on your Steam Deck.

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    • callouscomic@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      But also Valve will support it.

      I bought one of those physical Steam Links nobody cared about. They didn’t do well and Valve ended it fairly quickly. 10 years later it still gets occasional updates from them and benefits from broader Steam Big Picture updates.

      Steam Deck has been a huge success. Of course they’ll continue to support it.

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    • dukemirage@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Well, Valve may drop support for the firmware.

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      • Trihilis@ani.social ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        The Deck is a regular computer and you can run any OS on it.

        Not having firmware updates doesn’t mean software suddenly stops working on it.

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      • Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        No they won’t

        source: literally everything Valve has ever made still works.

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      • LiveLM@lemmy.zip ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Sure, but since Valve makes their money back via game sales instead of hardware like other OEMs, I find that they have a much bigger incentive in keeping the firmware update to date than let’s say AYANEO or even ASUS.

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      • DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Bro it’s fucking Linux based. Did you not think before speaking?

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  • cRazi_man@europe.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Depends on what your usecase is.

    My brother wants to play demanding AAA games on a big screen. He doesn’t see the point of a Steam Deck and is about to sell his.

    I play indie games and emulated retro games. The Steam Deck is perfect for me to play. I can sit with my kids when they play in the back yard.

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    • Nima@leminal.space ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      i play both AAA and indie titles. works fine, its just not going to run at 120fps with all the trimmings.

      in most bigger titles I get like 25-30fps. which to me works perfectly. especially on such a small display.

      performance doesn’t annoy me. the size of games nowadays annoys me. i can’t have more than one triple A title installed at any time because the damn things are like 200 gb now. i long for the days of 30gb downloads. even on big games.

      but I can understand how if you’re looking for a smooth experience, the steam deck might not be as powerful as a full desktop.

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      • Romkslrqusz@lemmy.zip ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        not going to run 120fps with all the trimmings

        Requires a separate gaming PC, but with Steam Link / Sunshine / Moonlight it can!

        Don’t really see a reason to run games like Cyberpunk on low settings at 30FPS when I can pipe it in from the other room at 60FPS+ high / ultra settings

        Came in clutch with the poor optimization of MH:Wilds. It was a struggle to run at my monitor’a resolution, but running at 1080P to send to my deck made for a decent experience.

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    • boboliosisjones@feddit.nu ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      can’t agree more. I have no ambition to play graphically intense shooters on my deck. It’s for chill controller games, which usually are not very heavy to run.

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      • TheRealKuni@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Graphically intense games can be good too, especially in bed, streaming from a PC in the other room.

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    • Katana314@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I’d say that’s probably a better use case for a console like a PS5 than a Steam Deck.

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    • Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      It’s an outstanding machine for little rogue-likes at the bus stop, or some Star Fox, but I’m not even going to try to load something like Expedition 33 on it.

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      • survirtual@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I tweaked the settings for Expedition 33 and played it on the steamdeck beautifully. Did nearly everything. Runs great.

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  • moody@lemmings.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Steam Deck? Oh, you mean the Balatro machine!

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    • leftthegroup@lemmings.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yesssss

      I just wish Slay the Spire worked as well. I mean it works, but you can tell controller support was definitely an afterthought. But those 2 games are probably most of my played hours on it.

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      • LiveLM@lemmy.zip ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        eh? the controls for slay the spire are very simple, you could easily get away with mapping keyboard keys to the controls or just using the touchpad…

        If you wanted to get fancy you could even map the touchpad to the card selection area (for easy peek and choose) and use the buttons for everything else.

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      • monk@lemmy.unboiled.info ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Slay the spire works fine on your previous phone. You know, that 3x lighter machine with 2x the Pixel count you already carry everywhere anyway.

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  • Aquaphobi@lemmy.zip ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Wtf kind of question is this? Of course it is. And in 10 years it still will be.

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    • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      In 10 years I would expect a SteamDeck 2 with updated hardware.

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    • monk@lemmy.unboiled.info ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      10 years ago, maybe? It’s a 1 (one) megapixel brick.

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  • noxypaws@pawb.social ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    and I say yes, without caveats.

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  • Sunshine@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    The steamdeck still holds up well halfway through a console’s generation.

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    • jagermo@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I have about 100 games i have yet to play on the SD - so, yeah, it holds up.

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  • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I’ll probably still be using my Steam Deck in 2035 lol. It’s just so perfect for the types of games I play - mostly older stuff and modern pixel art / 2D games. I just beat Spiritfarer on it after beating Graveyard Keeper, and I’m nearly to the “end” of Stardew. I’ve played through FFVIII, FFIX, and FFX on it. My gaming time has quadrupled now that I can play all my games in bed or on the toilet or at the park. Just an amazing little machine.

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  • SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Got one last year for my bday

    It’s 100% worth imo

    Even if you don’t play games, it’s a fully functional linux computer for like <$400 that can play most modern games and handle anything less intensive than gaming no prob

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    • MeaanBeaan@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      While I wholeheartedly agree. I do want to make one small note for anyone that reads this and thinks like I did.

      Don’t get one if you want to use it for professional audio work. It’s a niche use case I know but I thought I’d be able to install Reaper and use it as a little music workstation since reaper is just right in the discover store. Unfortunately, the Steam Deck’s audio drivers are basically only good for playing back audio. When trying to do audio work they were unusably buggy and had a bunch of latency.

      If you want a little computer to make music with get a raspberry pi instead. Use the steam deck for gaming like it was intended for and don’t be dumb like I was.

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      • lime@feddit.nu ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        yeah you’d probably want to run JACK instead of PipeWire if you’re doing audio workstation stuff, and with its immutable core there’s no good way to swap them.

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  • ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    My brother has a Lenovo Legion Go, and I can’t lie, the much bigger 144hz display and more powerful chipset make the Steam Deck look outdated when side by side and running more graphically demanding games (RDR2 for example).

    However, the ergonomics of the Steam Deck are superior. SteamOS as well, but that doesn’t really count since you can get it on other devices now. Also the fact that you can actually buy replacement parts for the Deck is amazing.

    The sooner we get another Steam Deck, the better. Pls Valve, bigger display and more power. And a second USB-C port. That’s all I ask.

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    • Chee_Koala@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      It’s over 200% of the price though, comparing the cheapest options. I payed 320 for a refurbished SD. Cheapest Legion go I could find was 700+.

      Bigger screen and another usb C would be great, agreed, but im gonna ride this Steamdeck all the way to hell if it’ll let me .

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    • artyom@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      The Steam Deck was never supposed to be a powerhouse. It was intended to be extremely high efficiency and long-lasting and to this day no one competes with them on that. Nor do they compete on peripherals or cost effectiveness.

      We won't see another Steam Deck soon, and I think that's a good thing. Gives developers a hardware target for their games.

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      • Nima@leminal.space ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        the steam deck fits a different market than a lot of PC gamers. they’re used to upgrading every 2 years. they’re used to obsessing over even the smallest fps or slight performance increase.

        the fact that the steam deck wasn’t made for that kind of consumer but is being consumed by them is why we get people crying out for an upgrade constantly.

        they’re trying to buy a compact version of their huge desktop gaming rigs. or trying to force a future where Valve releases a new model every year. that (as you said) is not what the steam deck was made for.

        i am also glad that Valve is sticking to this model for as long as they can.

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      • ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        That’s true. I guess what I’m saying is, I personally want a powerhouse Steam Deck. If it costs twice the price of the current one, I’d still buy it.

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    • neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Yeah, I have no problem running the games I’m interested in and no interest in buying a new handheld if it’s not a steamdeck 2.

      I hardly play newer games anyway, so maybe I’ll just get a new battery for the steamdeck in a few years.

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    • zewm@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I have both and my biggest gripe about the Lenovo is the abysmal battery life. It feels like a portable that constantly needs to be near a plug.

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      • ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Yeah I’ve played it a bit myself and its dreadful. Its portability feels limited for this reason.

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    • leftthegroup@lemmings.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      And a USB-A wouldn’t hurt. Having just one port means you’re charging and that’s it unless you have a dock or splitter handy. Crazy.

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  • Ch3rry314@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I have a decent desktop with a wide screen display, but I love the portability of the Steam Deck. It just works with syncing save files and continuing my game when I am not at home or want to lie in bed.

    I know what I'm getting when I'm not at my desk, and want usability over specs.

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  • pepperprepper@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I use it to stream from a gaming PC, super long battery life and no loud fan. Amazing way to use the deck.

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    • rustydrd@sh.itjust.works ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Can you describe how you do this? I have mixed experience with in-home streaming via Steam (latency, disconnects, inability to connect when the host is running Windows with no monitor) but would be very interested in giving it another go with a Linux host and the Deck.

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      • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        You can install Moonshine on the Deck, then install Sunlight on the desktop. Sunshine is an alternative streaming server software and Moonlight is the client. The setup has lower latency and is capable of 4k 60fps if your desktop and router can handle the throughput

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  • Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Time for a successor, though. Sometimes I think Valve really doesn’t like money. They could make a crapton by bringing out a new Steam Deck and a Steam console.

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    • mercano@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      It’s a PC, essentially, so the hardware is always evolving, they could upgrade whenever they choose to. The advantage of any console, the Steam Deck included, is it offers a very consistent set of specs the developers can target for years. If Valve iterates too quickly, then two problems arise: One, there’s one performance goal for devs interested in making a portable game to work towards, there’s many. In addition, the Steam Deck Verified program gets a lot harder to maintain if there are too many flavors of Deck to manage. I think Valve is planing on a lifecycle similar to the major consoles.

      The upside is it is all PC hardware, and there are other handheld manufacturers out there, some even running SteamOS, so if you want a higher performance rig before Valve’s ready for the SD2, you can certainly find what you’re looking for.

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      • Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        The steam deck is getting long in the tooth and will increasingly have trouble playing newer titles. In PC gaming, you can’t have console-like product cycles.

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