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After many attempts, the Steam Deck is Valve’s first successful foray into the gaming hardware space, and is one of the first handheld gaming PCs that has garnered mainstream appeal. Riding the coattails of the hybrid nature of the Nintendo Switch, the Steam Deck aims to bring your vast Steam library to the palm of your hands.

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With a steady stream of updates and continued support from Valve, the Steam Deck is a portable powerhouse that seems to be getting better with age. However, its questionable battery life and unapproachable nature have led some to ask - is the Steam Deck worth it? In order to answer that question, you need to look at what sets it apart from the competition, its price and people’s opinions on the system. Here, we’re going to go over it all.

Review

Steam Deck console on its home screen

Features editor Ben Sledge reviewed the Steam Deck back in 2022, when it launched. He was initially impressed with the console’s form factor and the powerful tech under the hood. He praised its design, touting that “every button gives just the right amount of tactile feedback” and that it has an overall “luxurious” and “sleek'' feel to it.

However, he was quick to discredit Valve’s “generous” battery estimate and was heavily critical of the system’s less-than-ideal battery life. He has stated that many games he tested “only last for a couple of hours” and questions whether the console is “fit for purpose” as a portable console.

One of Ben’s biggest criticisms of the Steam Deck lies in how “unapproachable” it is to more general audiences, and went on to say that it tends to lock “many of its best features behind unintelligible barriers”. He regarded the system’s user experience as generally obtuse and unintuitive in its launch state, needing to rely on “watching hours of YouTube tutorials to unlock the Deck’s potential”.

“The Steam Deck is unintuitive and unapproachable, even for people fairly well versed in PC building and the more technical aspects of gaming. However, Valve is clearly targeting a hardcore audience, and it’s that audience who will get the most out of the handheld’s impressive hardware”

He emphasised how it is perhaps more suitable for more of a “hardcore” audience who tend to “enjoy getting into the nitty-gritty of things” and tinkering with the system’s BIOSto set it up on a granular level.” This is supported by Features Editor Mike Drucker, who says that, more often than not, you have to “play with settings and get deep into the guts of a game to get it to work”.

Despite its shortcomings, Ben went on to praise the Steam Deck’s powerful hardware and was “consistently amazed at how good games looked and how smoothly things ran” on the console. Features Editor Eric Switzer applauded the fact that most new “big triple-A single-player games” run surprisingly well on the system, which supports Lead Features Editor Jade King’s sentiment that the Steam Deck is a more than ideal way of ploughing through many gamer’s large “untouched Steam library backlog”.

It’s important to note that the Steam Deck has since gained a huge variety of consistent updates that have further streamlined the user experience, as well as a whole host of new features to increase optimisation and stability for an ever-growing library of "Verified" and “Playable” Steam games.

Despite its issues, Feature Writer Shubhendu Vatsa is confident that the Steam Deck’s “flaws and kinks can be ironed out and built upon with future iterations”, which is supported by Valve’s persistent and continued support for its flagship handheld.

Time Expenditure

Close-up of the Steam Deck's right joystick and face buttons

As a video games console, the time you can spend playing games on the Steam Deck is unlimited. As long as you have games in your Steam library, you’ll be able to play as much and as often as you want. This is especially true for the huge library of games that most users who already have a Steam account have probably spent years accruing and building. All you have to do is dip into the game of your choice and enjoy.

As mentioned, the only issue with time is the somewhat disappointing battery life, meaning if you are away from a power outlet while out and about, you’ll only manage a few hours for the more demanding games played on the system. Of course, this can be increased if you bring along an external power bank or battery accessory which can increase play time, but these added extras will cost you more money.

Cost

Steam Deck and exclusive carrying case

Currently, the only official ways to buy the Steam Deck are directly through Steam itself (in the US, CA, EU and the UK) and from Komodo (JP, KR, TW or HK). There are three models of the Steam Deck, with the more expensive options offering more and faster storage, and an anti-glare etched glass screen for the most expensive model.

The 64GB model is $399, the 256GB model is $529, and the 512GB model is $649. This is not taking into account the accessories and SD card storage expansions you may want to purchase alongside it, though, it does come with its own carrying case which is a nice touch. It’s also important to mention that Steam regularly hosts seasonal and weekly sales that offer deep discounts for some of the most popular games available on the platform, which you may want to factor into your purchasing decision.

Details of the three Steam Deck models and what they offer can be found below.

First Model

Second Model

Third Model

$399

$529

$649

64GB eMMC storage

256GB NVMe SSD (Faster Storage)

512GB NVMe SSD (Fastest Storage)

Carrying Case

Carrying Case

Exclusive Carrying Case

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Exclusive Steam Community profile bundle

Exclusive Steam Community profile bundle

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Exclusive virtual keyboard theme

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Premium anti-glare etched glass

What Players Are Saying

The Pinnacle Of Handheld Gaming - Alpay Dedezade

As someone who fell in love with the Game Boy in the 90s, the Steam Deck is a dream come true and my natural next step in the handheld gaming space. It’s a great entry point for those new to PC gaming, especially with Steam’s seasonal sales that will have you dipping into your wallet to see what this portable powerhouse is capable of playing next.

Sure, it’s not perfect, a little pricey, and takes some getting used to, but beneath it all there’s a console here that is hard not to fall for. For gamers who want to play a nice selection of triple-A and indie games in bed or on the move, the Steam Deck is definitely worth it.

The Best Handheld I've Ever Bought - Joe Parlock

The Steam Deck was the upset the handheld gaming market needed. Powerful and intuitive, with first-class haptic feedback and a nice, large screen are important, but the library is the real appeal.

Tens of thousands of games on Steam, and thousands of them already approved to work on the Deck, it's changed both how I play games, and how I look at my own Steam library. I was a day-one buyer and definitely don't regret it.

A Luxurious New Handheld - David Duffy

The Steam Deck is a great handheld console, but a luxury for those who can afford it. It's not going to revolutionise AAA gameplay, and the battery certainly won't afford all-day sessions, but it will let you play a sizeable chunk of your Steam library on the go — and that can breathe new life into games you'd forgotten you owned.

The Linux-based PC experience can be fiddly and limiting, but there's a massive community out there to help you install whatever it is you need — from ways to play your favourite retro games to dual-booting Windows.

My Doorway Back Into PC Gaming - James Troughton

Growing up, I loved PC gaming. I spent my first big paycheck on an RTX 3060 laptop to fulfil those childhood dreams of having a rig capable of running Minecraft with ray-tracing.

Okay, maybe not that, but being able to play new games on the highest settings was amazing considering my old laptop could barely run Overwatch. But as I worked more and more, I got sick of sitting at my desk, so the idea of staying around after my shift to play on my PC was exhausting.

I fell into the world of consoles, leaving behind a library of over 600 games. Most of that was, thanks to sales, a hefty backlog. Then the Steam Deck came along, and having the ability to tap back into my library was huge, but more than that, I could do it away from my desk at an affordable price without the hassle of setting up another gaming rig. It made PC gaming as accessible as console gaming, and that's more than enough for me.

Next: Is The PlayStation 5 Worth It?