Imagine being able to play your entire Steam library on the go. Not using a Windows tablet but a dedicated video game deck complete with controls. Well imagine no more because that’s exactly what the Steam Deck is. I have quite a number of games on Steam, purchased over the years (usually during sales) but never could find the time to play them, you know with work and other familial commitments. So they’re just stuck there in my Steam Library waiting for me to play them. I’m resigned to the fact that I could only play most of them when I retire.
So when the Steam Deck came out, it was godsend. This is perfect for me, I thought. But then they were released in a limited market and were priced prohibitively expensive. Fast-forward a year later, the grey import set has come down considerably in price and they’re readily available in the local market at the price of mid range smartphones. That’s when I know it’s time to save up and get myself this Steam Deck.
The basic 64GB eMMC Steam Deck costs from as low as RM2K here but I opted for the faster 256GB NVMe SSD at 500 ringgit more. The local drive is replaceable despite the DIY guide looking a bit scary. In addition to that there’s a microSD card slot which theoretically supports up to 512GB of external storage. If you put in a microSD card in there, it will be treated as a local drive so you can install games straight onto it. The console comes with a Valve-branded hard case so you don’t need to buy a separate case for it. There’s a small indent/hole at the bottom meant for you to store the charger and cable. The charger brick is US type because this is a direct import unit.
First impression: it’s a pretty big and heavy device, especially if you compare it with the Nintendo Switch. The 7” touch screen is flanked by a pair of controllers and small touchpad meaning to replace a mouse/trackpad. Powering the Steam Deck is a custom AMD APU (CPU plus GPU combined) and SteamOS which is a modified Arch Linux distribution. It also uses the Proton compatibility later that allows most games developed for Windows to be played there. The Deck loads the Steam app by default although you can switch to the (Linux) desktop mode with a few clicks. Going into the Steam Library brings you a new tab which lists games that are “Great on Deck”, meaning they were verified to be fully compatible to be played on the Steam Deck.
Now there are three types of games for the Steam Deck. Games that were fully verified will be marked as Verified, currently about one third of my Steam Library are marked as verified. The next type is playable, meaning the games should be playable on the Deck but certain parts of the games will require touch input either the built in touchpad or using the touchscreen. Compared to the verified type which can be fully maneuvered using the controller. The last type is unplayable meaning that games that still can be installed on the Steam Deck but may encounter multiple bugs and issues should you proceed to play the game.
My favorite game, Football Manager is marked as playable on the Deck so does Rise of Industry and Need for Speed. Horizon 4 which I just purchased is marked as verified and plays beautifully on the console. FIFA 22 which is part of the EA Play subscription is marked as unplayable but I installed it anyway without any issues. Launching the game however requires a few tries because it usually does not load on the first two tries. Once you get past the launch menu, you should be able to play FIFA fine on the Steam Deck. The built-in controller works fine and so does the PS4 controller connected via Bluetooth. Since the Deck is heavy, the external controller support is godsend. Apart from Playstation, it should connect to Xbox and Nintendo controllers fine too. Many games marked as unplayable employ some kind of anti-cheat controls or digital rights management (DRM) such as FIFA and PUBG.
As I remarked earlier, this Steam Deck console is quite heavy at 670 grams. The screen is pretty big at 7” but I usually connect it to my 24” monitor or big 55” living room TV for a better viewing experience. I just used a regular USB-C to HDMI adapter for the connection. There is a USD89 official Steam Deck dock but as you can see it’s pretty expensive and difficult to get your hands on. The connected display, scales reasonably well although you will see a double blank space on each side of your display for some games.
Apart from games from the official Steam library, you can also install games from outside the library like Epic or Origin and most of them will run fine. If you install an emulator software like Emudeck, you can also play all the classic NES, Genesis and Playstation games on the Deck as well. Portability is the major benefit of getting a Steam Deck although the battery does not last very long. Playing FIFA 22 for example will get from 100% to 16 percent in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Other less graphic and processor intensive games should last a bit longer. Since the Deck requires 25W of power, you will need to plug it into the power socket often, unless you have a power bank/station with that much power output. Forget about regular power banks or in-car power supply.
Storage space is another aspect you should consider. The Steam Deck does come with up to 512GB of local nVME drive and up to another 512GB of microSD slot but PC games these days are huge and you could use those space up with less than a dozen games. I suppose the same can be said for desktop or laptop PCs but at least you can upgrade to multiple internal hard drives on those computers.
Gaming experience has been fine so far. Horizon 4, a supposedly verified Steam Deck game only hung on me once although it was connected to a monitor and my PS4 controller. Playing FIFA 22 is even more buggy, especially if you’re connected to an external display. If the display gets turned off, you will lose access to all external controller functions and you will not be able to resume the game with the built-in controller. That’s why I often save my FIFA game first before leaving it for long or just to be safe. Playing emulator games though has been nothing short of a pleasure, without any issues whatsoever.
Who is the Steam Deck perfect for? If you already have a sizable Steam library or other PC-based games library, yes. If you’ve been collecting Nintendo or Playstation games before, then you should probably stick with them, unless you want to play PC-based games as well. Yes it is portable but the battery quality is under par at the moment plus you might want to connect to an external display to make the screen bigger. If you already got a maxed out gaming laptop, then that could provide a better experience. But if your personal PC or laptop is medium or low specced then the Steam Deck is great for you.
One final tip: if you want to put a screen protector on the screen of the Deck, avoid using the matte type because it will make the screen less clear.
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