Last Monday I received my Steam Deck and it has taken up a lot of my time. After playing with it for a while here are my first impressions.
It’s Big.
The Steam Deck is huge. It’s not uncomfortable to hold or play on, but it is much larger than any other portable I used. Unlike my 3DS which mostly lives in my backpack, the Steam Deck fits but is too bulky to leave in unless I plan on using it. The casing is very smooth so I will be adding a skin soon.
Most of my games work.
I’m sure the fact that my main PC is Linux (Pop!_OS) is a factor but most of my games work on the Steam Deck with little or no modifications. Steam cloud saves seem to work flawlessly. Proton DB will be your friend.
You need a memory card.
You will probably need a few. I have the 256GB model and space gets used up fast. GTA IV takes up most of it. There are better cards out there but the SanDisk 1TB Ultra microSDXC UHS-I Memory Card seems to work good for the price.
Get a dock.
I don’t plan on playing the Steam Deck while docked. I can just use my PC, but a dock is helpful while using Desktop Mode. It’s possible to use Desktop Mode without a dock but that is not ideal. If you want to do anything in Desktop Mode you will want to attach a mouse and keyboard. I have used the Anker USB C Hub and the JSAUX Docking Station. They both work fine.
More to come.
In the near future I plan on the following:
- Custom boot screen
- Add emulators
- Add skin