4 points

Can anyone tell me where handhelds are supposed to go from here? Truly. I can’t really see what can be improved from the perspective of the Steam Deck - all the things that come from a next gen device seem a bit antithetical to how the portable device functions. Better specs to make use of the better screen (HZ+resolution) mean a bigger battery and more weight, so…

The OG Deck is about as heavy as any portable should ever be, the OLED is noticeably lighter. So are the console wars shifting to handhelds in the next gen hardware packaging competition? The future of the gaming industry is just making more powerful Nintendo Switches?

Note: I’m not against more handhelds being out there. I just genuinely don’t see where they can really improve from here in any meaningful way after the next screen improvement

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1 point

The Steam Deck leaves little to be desired, especially with the OLED model where Valve made so many small changes that just made it a great device overall.

That being said, a faster SoC would be very welcome, and architectural advancements as well as more modern process nodes would obviously allow for more performance in the same power envelope.

Some games aren’t a great experience on Deck, say Baldur’s Gate 3 in Act 3 especially, or also simply walking through a complex base in Valheim. Zen 5 vs. Zen 2 and RDNA4 vs. RDNA2 on 3nm vs. 6nm should vastly improve things.

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3 points

as a steam deck user, who would like to use it during shortish transits (20 minutes per ride) i’d like it to be a good bit smaller. the size of the ayn odin 2 mini would be ideal, with slightly recessed sticks, so you could easily pull it out of the backpack and put it back in quickly. yes, that’s conflicting with others who would like to have a bigger screen, using it more like a travel console being tied to wall power, but that’s personal preference.
outside of the usual spec bumps, that’s all i could think of in terms of upgrades for the deck.

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2 points

I can definitely see the benefit in smaller sized portables, but I do wonder at what point we reach diminishing returns. I can’t help but think about the 3DS and PSP and how silly it would be to be trying to play Battlefield and CoD in the Steam Deck style. At the same time, I played Monster Hunter all the time on those, and MH:W on my phone with a controller and steam remote play.

So then I think about the types of games, like Disgaea and other J/RPG’s and how a smaller Steam Deck would fit that well. Idk where I’m going with this, it’s just interesting to think about how gaming is fractured based on the genre and form factor. I use my Steam Deck a lot to play games, but I’m playing games that I stopped playing on PC, because indie 2D side scrollers feel weird there.

Are we just going to get to the point where gamers have their 3DS/PSP sized portable, the Steam Deck sized portable, and the large tablet sized portable, each for specific games? Lol

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2 points

This is mainly just looking at it being different consoles in the space. The Switch 2/PS handheld/Xbox handheld won’t have to compete on who has the best hardware, for Nintendo games you get the switch, PS games the PSP, and game pass you get the Xbox.

As for future PC handhelds, there will be linear improvements (better performance, better battery life, etc), different UI options (SteamOS versus windows with some program slapped on top), and different use cases (smaller more portable devices, etc).

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1 point

This isn’t new.

The list of handhelds goes back 50 years.

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10 points

MS and Sony can push their handhelds, but I’m not looking for a locked down device to play games on. The reason the Steam Deck was such a sell for me was that it is a full PC. That I can do what I want with. I don’t want “mobile” or console gaming, because they have turned them into predatory micro-transaction mess.

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9 points

Didn’t, like, steam deck and the switch already do THAT? Maybe they’ll force Sony to make a PSP2. I still love that little guy 😭

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4 points

The success of the Steam Deck alongside the Nintendo Switch I think is the primary reason MS is attempting to enter the market, and So y is giving it another try.

Out of curiosity, is there any reason why you don’t consider the Vita a PSP2?

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3 points

Honestly, just forgot. 😅 PSP3 then lmao

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8 points
*

Yeah, the consoles corpos might fight over who can make a more widely adopted locked down and limited handheld than Nintendo with none of the multiplayer features.

Preferably with underbuilt sticks that can’t handle more than a few months of use.

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0 points
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2 points

What? I don’t follow you at all.

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2 points

Me neither, I guess I left the phone unlocked in the pocket.

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Steam Deck

!steamdeck@sopuli.xyz

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A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.

Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.

As Lemmy doesn’t have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title

The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.

Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.

These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.

Rules:

  • Follow the rules of Sopuli
  • Posts must be related to the Steam Deck in an obvious way.
  • No piracy, there are other communities for that.
  • Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
  • This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
  • Have fun.

Link to our Matrix Space

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