Windows on a handheld is just bad. It’s that simple. A Steam Deck competitor needs a handheld friendly controller focused interface that is at least as good as Valve’s. Our just straight up ship with Steam OS and use Valve’s.
SteamOS still has many instances of awkward UX and some frankly broken behavior, especially while trying to use community features, it’s just that every other offering has been worse.
It’s heavily rumored that Microsoft is working on their own handheld, and it will be interesting to see how that shakes up the market. If microsoft just makes windows controller/handheld friendly, it will greatly improve all the windows handhelds.
However I strongly suspect that we’ll instead see the microsoft handheld be locked down, only able to run microsoft store games. It’ll still probably do better than all the other non-deck handhelds that way, but won’t really be a handheld “PC” if locked down that way.
Third possibility is that Microsoft might do both, release and locked down handheld and release some lesser improvements for navigating windows with a controller. This outcome would make sense if they have different teams working on both at the same time.
If microsoft would release a gaming handheld, it would probably be locked down like the xbox console.
Considering Microsoft is dropping support for Windows Mixed Reality devices with Windows 11 24H2, effectively sending millions of otherwise perfectly fine VR headsets to landfill with no recourse. I can see them releasing a handheld with a “custom” version of Windows that allows users to install Steam, GOG, Epic, etc… then bait and switch with a future “feature update” that makes compatibility “too hard” to support or a “security risk”. Maybe the desktop mode is a “developer only” option that gets disabled, or you have to enable third party apps like in windows 10 S and that ability gets taken away. I wouldn’t put it past Microsoft.
Maybe I’m just peeved at Microsoft for deciding that my VR headset will be E-waste even though the hardware is fine, or ignoring the concept of user consent by enabling OneDrive cloud backups for local folders by default while basically forcing you to create a Microsoft account to install Windows if you don’t know the right sequence of arcane f-ing rituals to create a local account. But I don’t trust them…
It’s really funny to see how out of touch those companies are with the portable consoles. They clearly don’t understand what makes the Steam Deck a good console. They focus on the hardware specs and that’s it, minimal work on the software side (ROG Ally is at least trying). Valve nailed it with the Steam Deck in various aspects: hardware is good, CAD files are available so it’s highly customizable, but the cherry on top is the software integration, it is amazing and it’s always improving. IMHO software is the real reason for Deck’s success (OS, Proton, compatibility badges, etc).
I bought it specifically because it directly and indirectly supports the Linux community at large. I’m now working on moving away from Windows for gaming, because they’ve made it possible with what they’ve done with tools like Proton and gamescope.
This is so true. Some vendors try with larger screens, 120 hz and other stuff, but the steam deck is loved most for its software.
I agree it is just silly and it really shows how far up their own ass a lot of high power business people are, they have no idea what the hell they are doing. The place to compete with steam is the slickness and polish of the software not the raw power of the hardware, that is the stupidest basket to put all your eggs in here as a steam deck competitor.
I think it speaks to a much bigger dysfunction in the video game hardware and software development world, people that get their dream job at a AAA game studio or hardware maker like ROG I think end up developing and testing with dream hardware setups and then totally lose sight of the importance of developing games and hardware that prioritizes accessibility in a cost sense but also in a usability sense.
I think these people pick up a steam deck, try to play Elden Ring at max settings, think “this is intolerably bad performance and graphics compared to my $3000 gaming rig, no one will play this” and don’t realize the kind of betrayal that represents to the rest of us who can’t afford much more than a steamdeck anyways, and have always gamed this way mainly focusing on indie games and extremely crunchy minimal graphics strategy games and playing a cool Battlefield 2 mod like Forgotten Hope 2 while we look at the latest battlefield and think “how much time could they have spent making that game good instead of making it graphically impressive for people that can afford $3000 gaming computer?”.
The fact that it is a open linux device and I can launch in to KDE is the reason I got it. If it was some proprietary OS like other games consoles or Windows, I wouldn’t have bought it. The Steam Deck is such a breath of fresh air compared to how hostile other consumer electronics have become.
Steam deck feels like a product people at Valve would use while the competition is making products they think would sell well. Turns out the product that feels good to use is much better than the product that looks better on paper.
NONE of them have touchpads either. I dont understand why these high end computer companies are trying to sell a laptop that doesnt have even a single touchpad
And it would be even more useful with Windows than SteamOS, Windows only has the desktop mode.
Steam deck 2.
Something might but it has to meet a bunch of criteria. A lot of these handheld have flaws or drawbacks and none of them are perfect:
- powerful APU to run latest games
- OLED screen
- VRR
- Front firing speakers
- comfortable to hold
- back buttons not in the way, but easy to reach
- hall effect sticks and triggers
- trackpad(s)
- good software for device control
- large battery
- lots of fast ram (24gb)
- full size nvme expansion
Most handhelds I see meet a bunch of those but not all of them.
Nope.
The big thing is that the Deck uses Linux which allows Steam to provide an amazing interface.
All the “competition” still tries to use Windows, and the experience is appalling.
The big thing is that the Deck uses Linux which allows Steam to provide an amazing interface
For most people, i think it’s just that it has a good UI. They don’t bother whether it’s linux-powered. Maybe it’s possible to create a good UI in windows as well, but it will be bogged down by 100s of unwanted processes.
No, Microsoft don’t allow it. As part of the distribution licence you are not allowed to customise the OOB interface.
People don’t know it’s Linux, but it’s absolutely because of Linux that it works.
It’s almost everything. You can play most games on Linux. You can’t bolt-on the quality of life features that Valve has on Windows.
There’s a reason most Steam Deck users don’t install Windows on it, even though you can.
This is just my experience, but I have had next to zero issues running games on the Deck that were related to the platform. Most problems I’ve encountered are along the lines of the game being KBM-centric and it being difficult to play with the controller inputs.
The only Linux-specific issues I can’t think of are related to trying to install or mod games outside of Steam (Skyrim in particular is far more difficult to mod on Linux than I expected).
So much good hardware, but lazy obsession to enshittify them with Windows.
Some of that reflects poorly on the hardware too. With a few exceptions, they’ve shipped a mouse-based operating system on hardware that lacks a good way to control a mouse. If they know that the hardware is running windows ahead of time, wouldn’t it make sense to give users some good options for using windows?
There’s also more obvious hardware issues like the ROG Ally burning up MicroSD cards.
NONE of them have the dual touchpads the steamdeck has either. Fucking seriously… Even if having to deal with windows wasnt a dealbreaker for me, having only thumbsticks to control a computer with is a hard pass for me
Other companies are fools for not almost directly copying the steamdecks control scheme, it should be a standard, that is what the deck is, a standard setter.
I think the Windows thing is spot on. You’re going to be using a handheld gaming device for gaming mostly (if not entirely). You don’t need to run Excel.
I think the justification for Windows on a gaming device though is kernel level anti-cheat. The problem is that you are chasing a pretty select audience. People who will play one of those games on a handheld, and will also only buy a handheld that can pay those games. Also won’t install Windows on a Deck either.
An aside, I probably use Desktop mode more than average, and I have LibreOffice installed on my deck. Jokes on Microsoft though, I’ve been using Linux primarily for ages anyways, so I don’t even need Windows for that.
Only reason I have overclocked Raspberry Pi 400 for net, office and bank stuff are those shitty spyware anti-cheats. This way I don’t have to worry what kind of monstrosities are installed on my deck, because it’s only used for gaming, but you are right, you can manage with just the deck, unless you need some high end proprietary windows software for your self-employed work.
