A two-month delay in shipping the $400 Steam Deck gaming portable has finally come to an end, but you won’t have to wait much longer to see what the $400 device looks like in the hands of reviewers. The final version of the Steam Deck has been reviewed by GamersNexus, Linus Tech Tips, and The Phawx, who have all given lengthy YouTube impressions of its ergonomics, performance, battery life, and more.
I’m sure you can obtain some important information from each of these evaluations, even if you’re still undecided about whether or not to get a Steam Deck, since Valve only allowed them to evaluate games and not the operating system.
A significant issue with portable gaming devices, such as these, is that none of them are delivering on Valve’s battery life promises. On higher settings, neither The Phawx nor GamersNexus could get to Valve’s recommended eight hours of light play / remote play in the time it took them to play Devil May Cry 5 on higher settings without VSync.
A few different battery life tests, such as the following:
- A whole two hours playing Devil May Cry 5 with VSync on high settings (GamersNexus)
- a 3 hour playback at 50% brightness using VLC 4K 60fps (GamersNexus)
- At 50% brightness, Dead Cells lasted for six hours (The Phawx, GamersNexus)
- At 50% brightness, I was able to stream for six hours (GamersNexus)
- Over five hours and forty minutes of Portal 2 gameplay, limited at 30 frames per second (The Phawx)
- Forza 5 capped at 30fps for four hours (The Phawx)
- Ghoulrunner is restricted at 30 frames per second for 3 hours and 21 minutes (LTT)
Battery life has a positive and negative aspect, but on the plus side, everyone appears to be delighted with the performance. Since its release, the Steam Deck has dominated the portable PC market, eclipsing the likes of the Aya Neo and GPD Win 3, and you don’t have to take our word for it: If you’d want to see for yourself, the Phawx contains 10 minutes of side-by-side video with comprehensive performance information.
As far as creature comforts go, I’d recommend checking out Linus Tech Tips’ video on how to get the most from the joysticks and speakers, as well as the screen’s several brightness settings (including one for night use). This device’s haptics “are a poo stain on an otherwise clean white sheet,” he explains.
According to The Phawx, the Steam Deck offers quite a deal of flexibility in adjusting the Aerith chip’s parameters, and he was able to observe a 20% performance gain in an early scenario in Control by removing two cores. Even while tweaking isn’t unprecedented, it’ll be fascinating to see what the community comes up with in terms of best practises for the Deck.
Do you wonder when The Verge will weigh in on this? In the meanwhile, I’m going to check out the one I have in front of me right now and report back to you. You may reach me at @starfire2258 on Twitter with any questions, and I’ll do my best to answer as many as I possibly can!
Also Read: Battlefield 2042: Why players want their money
nearly three hours of impressions
Steam Deck orders will not be sent until the 25th of February by Valve. As a result, most gamers won’t be able to get their hands on the console until at least March. As LinusTechTips and Gamers Nexus found while seeking for early Steam Deck units, having a very popular YouTube channel helps. It’s safe to assume that anyone who buys the Steam Deck after reading these reviews will be pleased with their purchase.
The findings of the two reviewers were summarised by PC World. As a whole, the Steam Deck does what it sets out to achieve. It’s a portable, handheld PC that can run most games at respectable settings without charging too much. For $399, you can get a basic console, and the most expensive one is just $649. When compared to the cost of a full-blown gaming PC, the Steam Deck is a bargain.)
Devil May Cry 5 was one of the best-performing games we’ve ever evaluated. In 2019, this game performed at 60 fps per second at 1080p, beating out its PS4 and Xbox One competitors. Forza Horizon 5 maintained a consistent 60 frames per second whereas Ghostrunner fluctuated between 40 and 90. Dead Cells, a simple 2D roguelike, can run at more than 100 frames per second.
Remedy’s action/adventure game Control was the only true exception, chugging along at 30 fps at times. There are several reasons to play the game at 30 frames per second, but one of the most important is the fact that the game can now be played practically anywhere.
The views of hardware reviewers on the subject of battery life were divided. The Steam Deck, according to Valve, has a battery life of between two and eight hours. The large range is due to the fact that more demanding games need a lot of processing power. The battery life varies from 90 minutes to six hours, according to Gamers Nexus, despite this. Comparing the two sets of results, Linus Tech Tips found that it took three hours minimum and up to eight hours maximum for his measurements to match Valve’s findings.
Since PC games have such a wide variety of system requirements and graphical settings, it’s probable that a standard battery life for the Steam Deck won’t be attainable. As far as I can tell, the Steam Deck can play basic games for hours at a time; more demanding fare may empty the battery in less time than it would take to fly.
To begin with, it looks and feels wonderful. For a gadget of this size and weight, both reviewers found the button arrangement and the device’s weight to be comfortable. Although the Steam Deck lacks the powerful input gamers have come to expect since the period of the N64, it does offer certain advantages. In spite of the Steam Deck having some haptic feedback, it doesn’t seem to be as good as Sony DualSense or other similar products.
A little over an hour of in-depth research using Valve’s newest machine may be yours to watch if you have the time. Tom’s Guide is expected to get its hands on the smartphone within the next few weeks. Let us wait and see whether the portable PC gaming era has finally arrived.