Buying a Steam Deck in 2025 - but why? | Review

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[@lilyrubyify]

To me the touch pads coupled with Steam Input just make the Deck irreplaceable. It takes awhile to figure everything out, but it's truly the only way to enjoy PC games on handheld.

[@jamesstewart7784]

Mine came yesterday, so far I've played some hades and monster hunter rise on the couch with higher frame rates than the switch, and I'm about to start playing modded Final Fantasy 9 with upscaled graphics and higher frame rates, for the versitality alone is worth it in my opinion. I don't want the greatest hardware, I just wanted good price to performance which the Steam Deck gives.

[@mravg79]

It all depends on the needs. For me it is a device for indie and backlog titles. Also from my drm free game library there was some games which had issues but most work just fine. I also use it in desktop mode when docked (not for gaming, and it works just fine: web browsing, video streaming services, some programming).

[@RobertSmith-tu7rl]

make sure u get emudeck

[@Michaela-ii8wl]

Love it! Thanks 😁

[@mojao0102]

I'm waiting for the Lenovo Legion go s with steam os. See if it can replace steam deck or not

[@hazzehummuz6688]

That is what we all waiting for, 8 inch screen vrr and little stronger than SD Oled

[@MoonlightLunaMoonlight]

great video, any advice on where to pick one up? is amazon the best option?

[@reviewrattlesnake]

You can buy Steam Decks directly from the Steam page.

[@grayfox6930]

What rev said but also, steam sells refurbished steam decks from time to time. They are out of stock right now but they are still a good deal and I think they are warranted but don't quote me on that.

[@jamesstewart7784]

I got mine from the steam page, ordered on Monday (3rd Feb 2025) and arrived at my door on the Friday (7th Feb 2025)

[@kevinguaman525]

What do you think about the LCD version is still worth it in 2025 too?

[@reviewrattlesnake]

Oh absolutely, especially on the used market.

[@rigoon290]

i have one and its georgous buy it :D

[@triggeredsydney]

The entire Call of Duty Series is unplayable in Steam Deck. Then why should we buy Steam Deck instead of ASUS or Legion Go???

[@Lee_Kmanatz]

they only work on the rog and legion because they run on windows, you can install windows on the steam deck too. Of course the rog and legion are also stronger but valve has a way better customer support and the aftermarket is also better imo

[@mravg79]

You should not. Each of handheld PCs have their quirks and limitations. For Steam Deck it is issues with anti-cheat software (among others) If you mostly play games which has such system a windows based handheld will simply be a better choice. For me windows on a small screen shows this system was not build for such devices. The good thing is that there is at least a few devices to choose from and people should be able to find one which suits the best.

[@fishfood8711]

if you have a console or pc at home you can play cod on those and have a significantly more enjoyable experience than on a handheld at least in my opinion

[@joesackbaron]

Steam Deck is awesome. Ive got over 500 games I can play on it, spanning all decades. If I buy a Switch 2, I have 0 games to play. There is no need to purchases a more powerful handheld either- there's no added benefit to it for portable gaming.

[@thomaszinecker1785]

Yeah there's TONS of benefits to purchase a better not outdated junk that can't run AAA

[@edwardlashley3572]

To each their own but I don’t see how a serious hardcore gamer can see this device as having enough power. It just doesn’t. I’ve already moved on to 64 gigs of RAM lool but imo if you aren’t rocking 32 gigs of RAM you really aren’t doing it right. Understand that these devices all use integrated graphics. Shared memory. Anyone who has come to portable from any other previous form of pc gaming was likely using something where the graphics were dedicated, but with portables dedicated isn’t an option. Shared memory means a big load on upper end performance. Meaning mid tier settings for gaming is doable. But you are gonna get bottle necked by that RAM at the upper end. You can hit ultra graphical settings & even enable ray tracing options with more RAM.

[@Omegashin]

Ppl Who play on handled dont care about ultra setting

[@fishfood8711]

you can’t really expect incredible performance out of a handheld device. Just use a pc or a console if you want more power and better graphics

[@edwardlashley3572]

the performance is better then you might think factoring in 1080p being the standard & 7 inch or less displays often times. I have a device that is 6 or 6.5 inches. It’s definitely less than 7. & its resolution is 1080p. It can run many games at 1080p ultra settings. The rest it will run at 720p ultra settings upscaled. This is native. It can run Spider-man 2 1080p ultra settings easily & then you can top it off with lossless scaling a 3rd party frame gen app. With this I can run Spider-Man 2 at ultra settings 1080p & 90fps. This is without ray tracing. You can mess around w/ ray tracing a little, but if you drop it out entirely, you are hitting very high thresholds at 1080p with 7 inch or a little smaller displays.

[@fishfood8711]

@@edwardlashley3572 curious, but which device are you referencing? it sounds pretty great

[@edwardlashley3572]

I own a Aya Neo slide 32 gigs but I don’t think the make & model is super important. If you own any handheld pc with a 7840u chip & it has 32 gigs of RAM you are going to get ridiculous performance at 1080p & 720p. Every game is going to run ultra settings 720p & exceed 30fps . Literally, every single game. Many games will exceed 30fps with ultra settings & 1080p, including Spider-man 2. It will be able to run lossless scaling x3 frame gen on basically everything w/ no discernible side effects, & it will be able to run many games at x5. I just purchased 64 gigs & I can’t say if performance will increase… yet. But it’s mostly curiosity & a good deal that prompted the purchase. 32 gigs is really all you need. 64 is likely excessive, but it was sold to be dirt cheap, relatively speaking.