now that valve is shipping current steam
deck orders in some lucky parts of the
world a lot of people are wondering if
they should buy one I've been using my
deck almost daily for the last three
months and I feel like this is a
question that I can answer for anyone
that is on the fence to be clear there
are a lot of reasons why you should buy
a steam deck but there are also reasons
why you shouldn't and I'm going to
include both sets in this video so you
will know if this is the right device
for you if you like content like this a
sub would be massively appreciated I was
originally interested in the steam deck
because I thought it would be a great
way to work through my backlog of Steam
games I've had steam for over 15 years
and I picked up a lot of games directly
or through game bundles in that time the
good thing about these old games is that
they typically run flawlessly on the
steam deck given how much Headroom we
have on the device I think if you're
someone that is invested in the steam
ecosystem already buying a steam deck
makes a lot of sense because it's
tailored to the games that they offer
now not every game is fully supported so
you will want to check on any specific
ones that you're interested in but I
have found that I've completed or played
through a lot more games from this
platform that I already owned than I
ever did using a PC a lot of titles that
I wouldn't bother with on a desktop are
a lot more appealing when played on
mobile part of the reason for that is
that this device is more enjoyable to
play on than a PC with a keyboard and
mouse because of how ergonomic and
comfortable it is to use I've already
mentioned that this is something that I
did not expect and I think it is
something that doesn't seem like it
would be the case if you do not own a
steam deck and you've never used one the
best thing that I can say to this point
is that the steam deck has been my most
used handheld since I bought one and
that use was not tied towards making
videos on YouTube which is an important
distinction to make I use this device in
my free time because it provides one of
the best gaming experiences possible the
controls are great the screen is decent
with good minimum brightness levels at
night and the front firing speakers are
awesome it wasn't until this last month
that I also learned the steam deck is a
great travel companion this also might
seem counter-intuitive given the size of
the device but I found that the steam
deck could fit inside the bottom of my
backpack inside the protective case
without issues the steam deck weighs
about two pounds so I didn't find this
to be an issue especially after carrying
one around for a full day that day
included two cab rides and two
High-Speed Rail trips and I was able to
pull out my steam deck and game on each
of them the screen being as big as it is
helped here because I could easily play
this from my lap while still being able
to read all the things on screen those
first two points are important to most
people but I think the price versus
performance of the steam deck is one of
the biggest reasons to consider buying
one if you're new to this Market I can
sum up the current situation to help you
understand why the steam deck is as good
as it is valve purchased exclusive
access to a custom Apu from AMD this Apu
combines a very good GPU with the middle
of the rode mobile CPU when the steam
deck was in development and when it
launched AMD only offered mobile apus
with the older Vega gpus to commercial
custom customers those apus come with
better CPUs but the Vega gpus do not
hold a candle to the newer GPU in the
steam deck on top of having exclusive
access to newer GPU Tech than competing
products the Apu in the steam deck also
operates at a higher performance
Threshold at lower power levels this
means that it cannot only outperform
older PC handhelds based on AMD 4000 and
5000u series mobile chips but it is able
to destroy them while having
significantly better battery life
currently AMD widely sells mobile apus
with better CPU and GPU combos compared
to what is in the steam deck but those
apus namely the ryzen 6800u and the
ryzen 6600u do not compete with the
steam deck and the sub 12 watt TDP range
in some cases the steam deck can see
double the FPS of those processors in
the same workload at low TDP why is low
TDP performance so important in a
handheld the lower your TDP is the less
heat you have that you have to cool and
the less power you consume this can mean
that the steam deck can easily win out
on noise performance and battery life
compared to other products that don't
have exclusive access to the steam deck
Apu if those are the most important
things for you the steam deck will no
doubt have the best price for a
performance ratio on the market this is
even without taking into account that
this is in many cases the most
compelling product dollar for dollar at
four hundred dollars for the base price
when people buy products like this they
tend to care about potential resale
value down the line earlier this year a
lot of people scalped their steam decks
for well over the cost that they paid
but those days are long gone with resale
prices near MSRP in a market with
ever-evolving technology one of the
biggest impacts to resell value can be
the performance improvements from future
Generations consider for a moment that
you bought a ryzen 5000 or 4000 u-series
handheld for a set price and can now buy
a ryzen 6000 series handheld for about
the same price what do you think will
happen to the resale value of your older
handheld given that the ryzen 6000
series comes with a much better GPU that
wipes the floor with the older Vega GPU
and the 45000 series your resale value
should take a huge hit it might be too
early to say but I do not think that we
will see the steam deck become obsolete
to this degree by the Next Generation
the steam deck may still have the best
low TDP performance on the market until
we get to the ryzen 8000 series mobile
chips if this is the case the resale
value should be held up by the sheer
fact that the deck can provide a good
gaming experience versus other options
for the next year or two this is even
without considering all of the other
compelling reasons to buy into the
platform if you're someone that likes to
tweak and customize your device the
steam deck offers one of the best
platforms available what's more a lot of
these controls are easy to pick up even
for novices a single press of the right
menu button will open up an overlay menu
that gives you access to performance
stats frame rate limits refresh rate
limits tdb controls GBU clocks and
scaling filters the best part about all
of this is that you can enable per game
profile settings to tailor all of these
options to the game that you're playing
even though I can do most of this on
other PC handhelds the ease of use is a
big reason why the steam deck is my
preferred handheld for PC titles I play
the deck a lot at night and I've created
a bunch of profiles that make the most
out of the deck at low TDP levels this
ensures that my fan is always quiet and
the gains are as smooth as possible
beyond this the steam deck offers
unparalleled customization when it comes
to controls and nothing even comes close
in terms of ease of use and scope in any
game a single press of the steam button
will open up a game menu that gives you
access to controller settings once here
you have countless options available to
you from programming the back grip
buttons to changing how the gyro and
track pads are used this customization
is what made me like the trackpads as
much as I do for some of the games that
I play these have replaced my analog
sticks because of how precise I can be
with them compared to relying on the
sticks cells for the first month of
owning my deck I did not even bother
with emulation because I was happy with
the performance that I could get from
other handhelds that I own when I got my
second steam deck I decided to delve
into emulation to see if the deck could
completely replace all of the handhelds
that I used for emulation and for PC
gaming I recently did a video on this
and I was very surprised to learn that
the deck is one of the most capable
emulation machines out there especially
for the price if you're interested in
emulation you should take a look at that
video to get a good idea of what this
device can and cannot do the big
takeaway that I have after filming that
video and playing all the games that I
have is that the steam deck can do a lot
more than I expected at low power levels
when it comes to emulation unlike PC
gaming emulation benefits from a
powerful CPU which is not something that
the steam deck really has at this point
but it is more than capable of handling
big systems like GameCube Wii Wii U PS2
switch and some Xbox and PS3 depending
on what you're interested in from that
Bunch there really aren't many
compelling options on the market that
are near the price of the lowest config
deck or cheaper the Odin handhelds can
do some of these systems on par with the
deck but Android lacks access to a lot
of emulators that are available on PC at
this point if you're mainly interested
in GameCube Wii and PS2 there aren't
many compelling reasons to go out and
buy a product that is more expensive
than the deck because you will only see
minor improvements to those systems on
the other hand if you're more interested
in PS3 Xbox and Xbox 360 I would say
that you may find the experience on the
deck to not be quite up to scratch and
that may be a reason to consider
something based on a 6800u or better
there is one thing that I have not
touched on in any of my videos and it's
the fact that the steam deck holds up
very well as a PC in times where you
need one with the purchase of a dock
this allows you to gain a bunch of ports
that are missing on the deck and allows
you to use an external monitor given
that I have a lot of PCS available to
use this is not something that I have
given much thought to but there were
times in my life where I could see
myself using the deck as my only PC
given how capable it is the deck runs a
full Linux distro out of the box and you
can pop into it by using the steam menu
once here you'll be in a traditional
desktop experience that's a bit easier
to use than some other Linux distros out
there if there's an app that you need
that is not pre-installed you can head
over to discover and browse for a free
option back when I was in college I
would have been able to do everything
that I needed with a deck and a few open
source apps like LibreOffice everything
else that I needed was web-based and you
can easily install Firefox or chromium
for that valve now sells and ships their
own dock for this device but like the
deck itself it is not available where I
live thankfully there are a ton of
third-party options that all have
various features that make them stand
out but the main thing is that there are
a lot of affordable options out there if
you're on a budget if you want to use
the deck in this way but you don't like
to use Linux you always have the option
of installing Windows on your deck I
think the only disappointing part about
the deck is that it does not gain any
additional performance while while it is
in docked mode it's hard to complain
given what we have here but I think it
would have been cool if we were able to
push the TDP up a bit higher while the
deck is connected to a dock to get some
extra performance out of this Apu that
brings me to one of my final points
there's one thing that I like to use to
describe the steam deck that I think
encompasses the product very well the
steam deck is currently a winning team
product and I like to use that to
describe it because everyone knows what
it means to be on a winning team you win
games you get notoriety and things are
generally more fun because you're
surrounded by people that are good at
what they do that is what the steam deck
is right now there are a lot of reasons
why this is a winning team product and
most of them are things that I've
already described in this video valve
hasin publicly stated how many decks
they've shipped but it should be well
within six figures now with rough
estimates pointing from anywhere between
250 000 to over 1 million having a user
base that big comes with some tangible
benefits to Consumers of this product
and I want to go over a few the first
one comes in the form of direct support
from valve this might be an instance of
counting your chickens before they hatch
but this volume of sales should have
been more than enough to guarantee that
valve can comfortably cover the salaries
associated with continual software
support for this platform for at least
two years and for the record it is
highly uncommon for any company in this
market to provide software support for
their products after they sell them let
alone for more than the initial month of
sales there are probably only two
companies that do this from the products
that I review on this channel so far
anyone that's owned a steam deck has
received frequent software updates to
the various channels that you can select
on the device these updates have been a
mix of fixing bugs updating security
issues and adding new features I like
when I see these updates because it's a
clear sign to me as a customer that
valve continues to Value this platform
I'm sure many of you been on the
opposite side of this where updates
completely fall off and it sucks it's
very easy to tell when a company has
given up on supporting the thing that
they sold you even if we ignore valve's
direct support for the device the steam
deck is an attractive platform for
developers and there are a lot of
awesome projects that enhance the deck
and make it more accessible are you into
emulation but you don't know how to get
everything set up you can use mudek to
handle most of the groundwork there are
a lot of cool Community projects for
this device but I like the CSS loader
for custom theme support and vibrant
deck to increase the saturation of the
screen on the hardware front valve
opened up direct Supply Channels with
iFixit for replacement parts and this is
very beneficial if you end up having
something on your deck break after your
warranty is over and you want to repair
the device yourself this is also
something that is not common in this
Niche this is also an interesting
platform for third-party products given
the market size and you can find just
about anything that you could want from
Skins to protective cases and the
aforementioned docks I went out and
bought a bunch of skins locally due to
how cheap they are and I like being able
to upgrade the dull stock look of the
deck with something new this is also
possible on other handhelds in this
Niche but your options are a lot more
limited than they are with the deck so
far we've talked about some of the
biggest reasons to consider buying a
deck but I want to talk about some of
the reasons reasons why this might not
be the best option for you I think the
first and the biggest reason why you
might not want a deck is due to the size
but I have an interesting take on this
topic I am not of the belief that the
deck is too big for a gaming handheld
but it may be too big for you to get
enough use out of it to make it worth
buying the best way that I can explain
this point is by pulling up an anecdote
that I got from a subscriber about
another handheld several months ago that
person worked long hours on a night
shift and did not have a lot of free
time to game at home they had some down
time at work that they could use for
gaming but their gaming device needed to
be small enough to pick up and play
before quickly going back into a pocket
if you're in a similar situation or you
live a life that cannot accommodate a
gaming device as big as the deck you'd
be probably better off looking for a
smaller option I think if I were working
long hours at an office job without a
lot of free time at home during the
weekday I don't think that I would get
enough use out of the steam deck to make
it worth it for weekend use only I would
probably get a lot more enjoyment out of
something small enough to carry in a
pocket and pull out on breaks or during
a commute my next point is on the topic
of high-end performance the steam deck
is a very capable product but if you're
the kind of person that needs your
device to work at maximum graphical
options with very high screen
resolutions and you don't want to stream
games to your device I don't think
you'll be happy with the deck over
something with a ryzen 6800u that chip
would also have some compromises
depending on the game but it has a far
higher performance ceiling than the deck
and you'd be able to access much higher
graphical options if battery life wasn't
a concern my final point is an
interesting take for me to have but I
would not buy the steam deck if I lived
in an area where it was not officially
available unless I already owned a steam
deck that I could use for comparison or
the deck that I was buying was Factory
sealed as many of you know I did not do
this and I ended up buying a deck that
seemed to be decent enough but it was a
measurably worse product compared to the
sealed second deck that I got now this
only applies when the price you pay is
over the official MSRP of the deck if
you live in an unsupported region and
you can buy a deck in the future for
under the cost that it was brand new it
is probably worth taking the risk if
everything else seems fine when you test
it but that's going to wrap up this
video and I hope you have a good idea of
whether or not you should buy a steam
deck if you're currently considering one
it's a great device and I think you'll
really enjoy it especially if this is
your introduction to PC gaming handhelds
I've had a blast with mine and I think
it was well worth everything that I had
to go through to get one if you have any
questions you can leave those down below
or on Discord happy gaming everyone take
you out