I don’t think people understand that Valve also is going to own this space because of all the work they’ve done on Linux, them not being a trash company to their users (though, THAT bar is low).
So this is going to be very much a “Raspberry Pi” type of situation where - yeah, you can buy better SBC’s than a Raspberry Pi; but everyone buys the Pi because it’s got a lot of developer backing and an amazing ecosystem.
This is what always springs to mind to me.
Valve has a vested interest in keeping the Steam Deck 1 up-to-date even after they eventually release the 2.
Can we say the same about ASUS? And what about the smaller OEMs? Aya Neo has 14 handhelds out for gods’ sake
It has that performance at 65% resolution scaling.
- no touchpads
and assuming it’s like their other handhelds…
- no back buttons
- runs windows
Every. Single. Fucking. Time.
These people don’t fucking see the light urrghhhhhhhh
And most likely poor repairability
Imagine running windows on a handheld lol
You don’t “rival” the Steam Deck with better hardware alone.
Fan base is loyal, native linux support, no obvious UX advantage
Everyone is trying to make a “Steam Deck killer” but none of these companies understand what makes the Steam Deck so good. Its not the touchpads, the back peddles, the good motion controlls, the capacitive sticks, or the good grips (although they help), its the software that truly makes a steam deck different from every other PC handheld. Everything just works and everything works together. Fundamentally you cannot recreate that experience with another poorly designed launcher, you need a true controller UI.
With SteamOS getting patches specifically to make it work as the main OS on third-party handhelds, that’s less of an argument now. What’s left is the absolutely insane price point of the Deck.
As of now no 3rd party handhelds ship SteamOS by default
But can I get it for $400? Because if not, then why are we talking about the Steam Deck.
