Steam Deck / Handheld PC owners

A

agentmilo

Disciple
Any Steam Deck / Ally / handheld PC gamers here?

I got a deck a few weeks back and pretty much been only playing No Man's Sky on it. Its like the perfect handheld game for me- very pick up and play type and gels very well with the SteamOS's suspend feature. So I get to play for a few minutes at night, drop it off, and get back right where I left off, the next day. Have already crossed 20 hours!

This device has changed gaming for me. I work remotely, and I hated the feeling of gaming in the same space I was working out of- so much that I couldn't bring myself to play games anymore, other than the odd game here and there. Now I can sneak in a session at night, before sleeping.

I find the screen adequate (as long as you don't compare with OLEDs), battery life decent (3 hours on NMS) and ergonomics really good. I know its not the most powerful device, but I find it kinda silly trying to play AAAs on such a small screen. The overall experience has been great for the kind of games I play (AAs and Indies).

What's your experience been like?
 
In short, laptop gaming works much better across home. Handheld is great on the move but the current battery life makes it pointless.

Probably is useful in your case if you need to play on a bed or sofa but for me eventually the effect became the same, as gaming started feeling a bit of work after work.
 
t3chg33k said:
In short, laptop gaming works much better across home. Handheld is great on the move but the current battery life makes it pointless.

Probably is useful in your case if you need to play on a bed or sofa but for me eventually the effect became the same, as gaming started feeling a bit of work after work.
Click to expand...
Unlike the intended use, I won't travel with this. Its just nice to have an integrated device dedicated to one thing. Like a Kindle.

The battery is pathetic for demanding games. Since last week, I've been playing it mostly plugged in. With some indies and emulators, it shows 6-7 hours, but I haven't played for more than 30-45mins in a go.
 
Not to hijack the thread or anything, but I own a switch lite and I use it for the same purposes OP. Never the one to travel, but hate to game on same space. I'm paying The Outer Worlds, of which I have a copy on steam too. But playing on pc has been become a tedious job that I'm playing on Switch lite the entire time. And I think most of my games on the Switch lite are mostly ported from PC. No matter what, it helps me reduce my backlog.
 
I have the same experience as OP, work remotely and hate playing in the same space I work. So SD is perfect for me, there are a few games I enjoy more on SD than my PS5, indies like Hades and Cult of lamb.
 
I got a rog ally recently..
For me its a triple treat.. At home i use it to remote stream from PC via moonlight so that keeps the battery life really high. I also use it for ps5 streaming.
while i have tried using other combinations in the past for this but something about this makes it rather nice and easy to use

game saves anyway sync up on gamepass while other installs sync via GBM so i can carry the same games in continuation when i go out for local play.
On the flip side, having a beefy (45W output or above) is a must have as local play chews through the battery.


My son has a switch, i would still rate the switch better as its a very family oriented device and feels a whole lot more refined and accessible...

I would surmise that the ally (or deck) has two kinds of target audience.
Either a college student who is looking for an All-in-one at a reasonable cost - the ally is very easily dockable and actually works extremely well with an external monitor/kb/mouse
Or someone looking for a companion device for an existing gaming PC to add a bit of flexibility and spice
 
superczar said:
I would surmise that the ally (or deck) has two kinds of target audience.
Either a college student who is looking for an All-in-one at a reasonable cost - the ally is very easily dockable and actually works extremely well with an external monitor/kb/mouse
Or someone looking for a companion device for an existing gaming PC to add a bit of flexibility and spice
Click to expand...
Yeah, 100%- it surely is more of a companion device- even if you have a midrange PC. I tried streaming via Link for the first time, but felt its pretty strange that you can't really do anything else with your PC during that time. I expected to be able to do something else on it, while it 'streamed' in the background. That ignorance is on me though
 
agentmilo said:
Yeah, 100%- it surely is more of a companion device- even if you have a midrange PC. I tried streaming via Link for the first time, but felt its pretty strange that you can't really do anything else with your PC during that time. I expected to be able to do something else on it, while it 'streamed' in the background. That ignorance is on me though
Click to expand...
try moonlight + nvidia gamestream (or sunshine)
Siginificantly better expereince than steam link.. almost native
 
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