I think I got mine in the second or third wave or pre-order shipping. The right trackpad is worn smooth in the centre, I’ve replaced the joysticks with the Hall effect ones, not as an upgrade but because the originals finally failed. I upgraded the SSD to a 1TB. It’s been my constant companion for years now.

One day, there will be a Steam Deck 2, and I’ll probably upgrade. In the meantime I’m excited to see the Legion Go, especially the Steam OS version, because it means the market is there.

Always comes to mind. Why buy it if you need to crack the DRM someday and become a criminal? Just pirate it in the first place.

In theory, higher voltage × lower amps = same power (W=V×A, you can double V and halve A and get the same power). Or in this case, double the double the voltage, same current, double the power maybe?

There is still some voodoo happening with the batteries to be able to take the charge so quickly. More battery cells charging in parallel is probably part of it, but it couldn’t be all of it.

Really tough to speculate off of this thin announcement.

I play it from the rocking chair, while my (admittedly obsolete) desktop mostly gathers dust in the basement. I bring it with me on errands and appointments.

It’s just so handy! I already use Linux as my daily driver OS, but Proton has made compatibility so versatile.

Finally, it’s powerful enough. Sure, on an external monitor when docked you might notice on some games,but the whole SD is cheaper than a decent graphics card.

There are still advantages to a fixed platform like the Steam Deck. It makes a fixed hardware platform to optimize for. Anything that runs on Deck should also run on another PC.

Likewise, a Steam Box that was popular enough would provide a target hardware platform with higher spec.

Most hardware manufacturers will have too high paced a release schedule, so unlikely to provide a stable hardware spec.

I’ve got so many Golden Keys for opening Ultra-Elite chests in BG3, but it won’t give me the exclusive Golden Helm of Baldur with the alternate mod slot unless I upgrade my golden Keys with exclusive in-game currency.

</s> is a conversation I’ve never heard around BG3.

Just think, soon you can have ever more expensive graphics cards without having to wait for be graphics cards!

For sure. In the right hands you could do so much. Even without a plot as such, or much lore, just imagine the material for a “Game Theory” video. Why is the “Mad Forest” now a dumping ground for evil? What was it like before the vampire? Does the Astral Stair connect to the Tiny Bridge? What is the Legacy of Moonspell? Where is the fried chicken?

Pretty much the default for Steam Deck keyboard+mouse.

Works surprisingly well, just bind some keyboard shortcuts to the various other buttons and such.

Downside is that my right track pad is polished a little smooth in the middle. I blame the Master of Magic remake.

HODL! (For Steam sale or Humble Bundle)

My Steam Deck has largely replaced my laptop, so there is some overlap, but I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. If you are carrying a keyboard & external screen to work on spreadsheets with you Steam Deck, you would be happier with a laptop.

I have a 60% Bluetooth keyboard and a relatively compact mouse that I can carry with me, but by that point a compact laptop would be more portable with a larger screen.

Using the on screen keyboard and built-in screen to edit spreadsheets would constitute a crime against humanity. Don’t do it, there’s so much more to live for.

The reason it’s replaced my laptop is that I mostly use my laptop for gaming, and the Steam Deck excels at that. Most places I would use a laptop for something else, I have ready access to surplus keyboards and mice. At my parents there is an old TV with HDMI, and I stashed a basic USB mouse and keyboard there over a decade ago. My Steam Deck and a small hub is all I need.

Because of the need of external devices, I kind of consider the Steam Deck a combination of a handheld and a really portable desktop tower.

Yeah, I remember Wubi! That was 20-ish years ago now. It kind of got made irrelevant by VM’s I guess. I wonder if it’s still around.

Over two years with mine, battery aging isn’t noticeable. I’m pretty sure when plugged in and fully charged, the Deck runs off of external power. I don’t know if it shunts around the battery or not, but it certainly isn’t cycling the battery.

I mostly use my deck in a few fixed locations, so it’s mostly plugged in.

I’ve got some “fancy” $20 headphones right now. I used to use $10 headphones from Miniso, but they only last a year before one ear bud will go dead.

I’ve had expensive headphones, and have a nice pair of Sennheisers, but really it’s cheap in ear headphones most of the time for me.

They are small, and I keep them rolled up in a little pouch with a USB drive that’s pretty much always in my pocket. They never need to be charged. The audio quality is good enough that unless I start listening to FLACC files on my SD, I’m never going to notice. Their wired, so no lag or syncing issues ever. If something happens to them, I have another $10 pair tucked in a drawer, plus I can always buy more.

The Steam Deck is portable, can’t beat wired earbuds for portability and reliability.

Also, the mic is fine. The mic is on a wire, close to my mouth. It’s simple, but it makes the audio about as good as my Sennheisers. Or at least I’ve never noticed.

Yes, but Valve just evoked a cyberdeck, OP took it the rest of the way.

I’ve got a 60% mechanical keyboard I use with my SD a lot, some street if combined carry case would be cool.

One of the first ones I thought of as well. Lots of indie games that are lots of fun that I’ve gotten for less than $10. I’ll add Stardew Valley and Slay the Spire, but they might be more than $10.

Stop Russia in Ukraine today or in Warsaw tomorrow I guess.

You probably could really help gaming by setting up an incubator fund to help indie developers.

Other ways a little bit of money could go a long way is by contributing to open source development of projects like Godot.

Finally, contribute to games preservation. This could take a couple of different forms, but just a fund to back something like the Free Software Foundation or Archive.org, maybe to set up an Abandonware project.

The guy is a mega-billionaire. He could accomplish some very positive gamer related things for a fraction of a fraction of a percent of his wealth.

I used the old Stardock/Impulse/GameStop game platform as well! I’d mostly switched to GoG (and Steam) by the time it shut down, but there are certainly some games that were lost to the platform shutting down.

I don’t think I even signed up for Steam until 2010 or so. Certainly it was pretty clear that Steam had “won” by the time I made an account

It’s an interesting technology, a solution in search of a problem.