Steam Deck, an Australian Review

Valve’s Steam Deck is available through third-party sellers in Australia, so it’s the perfect time to pick one up!

I’ve been waiting for this handheld for a year, even though it is not yet officially released in Australia, you can easily pick one up through third-party sellers in Australia. Stores such as Kogan, Catch of the Day, and Mobileciti. It is listed from a starting price of around $849 for the 64GB version of the console to $1,299 for the top-of-the-line 512GB version.

The Build

The Steam Deck build is pretty nice, the casing is entirely plastic, so it’s pretty light, for a handheld console that big. The controls and buttons on the Steam Deck are excellent. It also features two trackpads with impressive haptic feedback. I own the 512GB model with an anti-glare screen, the images look great and sharp. Games are running at 1280×800 which may seem low, but on a 7-inch screen, it looks good.

The Steam Deck has a micro SD card slot allowing further storage expansion. Loading times for games stored on the M.2 vs SD card is not that noticeable. I got myself a 1TB San Disk Extreme Micro SD Card and the number of games I have on there are ridiculous. As for onboard storage, I upgraded from 512GB to a 1TB NVME with no issues. Opening the back of the Steam Deck is a bit of a challenge without the right tools, but it took me no longer than 30 minutes. If you’re on a budget, this is a cheap way to increase storage.

The differences between each model are the following:

• The 64GB model utilises EMMC storage, which is a cheap form of storage but offers good performance. You’ll require an SD card to be installed to download any large games.
  
• The 256GB model has an NVME, which is an expensive form of storage but offers the best performance. This model of the Steam Deck should be good to go out of the box.
  
• The 512GB model is the top offering which includes NVME storage, an anti-glare finish and comes in a different case.

Specifications

The Steam Deck has pretty decent specs that make it competitive, here is a quick rundown on the specs:

• 7″ Touch Screen IPS LCD Display
• 16GB LPDDR5 Memory
• 60Hz refresh rate
• Bluetooth 5.0 (with support for controllers, accessories and audio)
• Dual-band Wi-Fi radio, 2.4GHz and 5GHz, 2×2 MIMO, IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
• 40W/hr battery offers about 2-8 hours of gameplay.
• Running Steam OS (Arch-based)

Gaming on the Steam Deck

Gaming on the Steam Deck is a pleasure, being able to take my games with me is amazing. Some games do require some configuration to have it running, but mostly they run right out of the box. Since owning my Steam Deck, I have received many updates from Valve, which shows their commitment to the handheld.

I have played Red Dead Redemption 2, Grand Theft Auto V, Football Manager 23, and many indies and they all run smoothly. The more graphically intense games will not reach 60 FPS, and if you’re playing on battery, you’ll most likely configure the game to run in the 30 FPS range to increase the battery life. If you’re plugged into the wall socket, you could configure the game for better performance.

I have also paired the Steam Deck with the TCL NXTWEAR S XR smart glasses which provided a more immersive experience and allowed me to play while lying in bed. This works perfectly, and when plugged in, the Steam Decks screen turns off, thus saving battery life.

As the Steam Deck is running on a Linux distro, not all games are supported, or games with anti-cheat. Valve does its best to verify which games will work on the Steam Deck. There is a website called ProtonDB, where users can provide feedback on whether the game can be run on Steam Deck, and how to have it running if it does run.

How does it stack up against its competitors

There any now a few alternatives available and here is how they stack up:

• Ayaneo: Ayaneo is available in Australia from a variety of stores. Pricing, they are on par with the Steam Deck and are running Windows instead of Linux, which supports more games. Depending on the model you get, the performance you can get could be better than the Steam Deck. The Ayaneo 2 has the AMD 7 6800u which is newer and faster than the Steam Deck. The only downside is that the support can be terrible if you have any issues.

• Asus ROG Ally: The Asus ROG Ally is one of the most mainstream and accessible handhelds out there. It’s also available in Australia through JB Hi-Fi and a few other retailers, and almost the same price as the top-of-the-line Steam Deck. The ROG Ally has a better screen, a 7″ 1080p IPS display with 120Hz fresh rate, dual fan cooling, AMD Zen4 CPU, and running Windows. This is an alternative I would recommend, however do note, that games also need to be tinkered with to have them running smoothly.

• Lenovo Legio Go: This recently released handheld from Lenovo packs so many features. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to use this device, but it does look promising. The device runs Windows 11 and comes with their application Legion Space, which appears subpar compared to the ROG Ally’s interface. Price point, this is a bit pricer than the other two. You should also take into account the bulk size of the device.

Should you buy one?

If you’re a PC gamer already, or looking at getting into PC gaming, the Steam Deck is an affordable means of starting and allowing portability. I highly recommend this to anyone! As the Steam Deck OLED has just been announced, offering a bit of an upgrade, there will be an increase of second-hand Steam Deck on eBay and Facebook Marketplace, you could pick up one for a discount.