Why I preordered the Steam Deck

20 Jul 2021 - mrtn

Last week the pre-order phase for Valves new Steam Deck went live.

I’ve heard about the device for the first time, when a colleague shared it in our company slack. I had a look at the specs, watched the video presentation and decided to order it.

Before I’ll explain the why, let me first give you a quick run-down of the specs:

it’s a pc
AMD Zen 2 CPU (4 cores, 8 threads)
2.4 to 3.5Ghz clock speed
AMD RDNA 2 GPU
16GB RAM
three different configurations for storage
- 64GB eMMC
- 256GB NVME drive
- 512GB faster NVME drive
7 inch touch screen display
- 1280x800
- 60Hz
Bluetooth
USB-C
approx. 700g weight
later: there will be a dock

The device is available in 3 configuration - whose most imprtant part is the disk space. The 512GB NVME version also comes with a premium anti-glare etched glass display (in addition to an exclusive carrying case and some digital nonsense like a steam community profile bundle and a virtual keyboard theme.

So, after I thought a few hours about it, I decided to buy that thing. Why? Mostly because I thought about buying a switch lite for quite some time, because i don’t like to play in my office, where I also work a big part of the day. What turned me off of the switch (lite) was the fact, that i would have had to buy every game seperately that I wanted to play on it. So it might look cheaper at first, but the games drive that price up significantly.

Looking in my steam library, I have the result of several summer, winter, whatever sales sitting there untouched, waiting for me to finally play them - so why not on the steam deck? without any additional costs!

The next reason was that i love the steam controllers touch & gyro input - but hate the fact that there was no thumbstick for movement on the left. The steam deck has both on both sides. A touchpad and a thumbstick - I’m sure it’ll work great!

What games do i want to play on it? I guess I’ll start with some games i started but never finished quite some time ago, that play great with a controller: WItcher 3 and Skyrim. I also have loads of Indie Games and I’m sure I’ll have some fun with it.

But besides the games themselves, there is another reason i look forward to this: It’s a pc. With bluetooth - So i’ll be able to pair my headset to it, join a teamspeak server or discord and play with folks together, as if I’m sitting on my desktop pc. While being able to lounge in the garden or living room.

Speaking of living room - The steam deck can be plugged in at any screen - with the necessary usb-c to hdmi/display port cable and can be used as a “traditional” console as well. Even with mouse and keyboard, if you might want to play a shooter or strategy game.

So I don’t know about you - but I’m definately hyped for this device and look forwared on the delivery in Q1 next year!

What about you? Would you buy it as well or what are you missing on a device like this?