I’ve dabbled with the Steam Deck over the years and whilst it was mighty tempting to import one, I always wanted to wait until it was officially available in Australia to properly spend time with one to review it, and that day has finally arrived with the console launching in Australia this week.
I’ve had a multitude of experience with PC handhelds, reviewing a bunch of AYANEO handhelds, the ROG Ally and Ally X, the Lenovo Legion Go and spent a significant time with the MSI Claw, and they’ve come a long, long way over the last 12-18 months, but I was very curious to see how the Steam Deck OLED experience would compare, and it’s absolutely an entirely different experience.
In short, the biggest compliment that I can give the Steam Deck in comparison to the dozens of Windows handhelds that I’ve tested is that it just works. It’s the Nintendo Switch of PC handhelds in the sense that anyone can turn it on and get going within seconds, with a user experience that feels like it was built for to the console, rather than Windows.
From the second you turn on the Steam Deck OLED, you can literally be downloading games within a minute or two. If you’ve got the app on your phone, you can scan a QR code and be straight in, which couldn’t be more opposite of an experience from other handhelds.
Similarly, scrolling through your Steam library is as seamless as it is as using Steam on your PC, with the operating system feeling like it’s at once with the handheld. For those that want the basics such as changing your brightness, or seeing how much battery is left, it’s su[er easy to navigate, and for those that want to tinker and mess with things such as TDP, or lock down frame rates, you can easily do that too, but it’s almost never needed.
Steam does a great job at telling you which games have been verified for Steam Deck use, which basically means that you can boot in without having to worry as it’s been verified to run perfectly. Most games don’t have this certification, but this doesn’t mean that it won’t run, it just means that it might be a less than perfect situation, require some tinkering of settings, or not run at all.
Whilst Steam can run Windows, it severely dampens the experience and isn’t easy to get running, so whilst the Steam Deck offers a much better experience than Windows handhelds, you obviously lose the ability to easily run games from other launchers, with the biggest loss coming in the loss of Xbox Game Pass games, which I’ve really enjoyed on other handhelds. If you’ve got a massive Steam library, this won’t be an issue, but if you’re primarily a console gamer that doesn’t want to buy all your games again, know that you can’t just boot into Xbox Game Pass as you can on the likes of the ASUS ROG Ally.
When it comes to performance, for 80-90% of the games that I tested, it was totally fine running at 60 FPS at 800p, without touching anything, but for newer games, you definitely will see a bit of a performance dip compared to running the ASUS ROG Ally X at 30w, which is expected, and the battery life and experience would still mean that I’d recommend this to most people over other options.
Playing games such as God Of War Ragnarok, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart or Even Cyberpunk 2077 ran totally fine on the Steam Deck, and the few games that did stutter a bit, I was able to just lock the frame rate to 30 FPS and get it to run nicely.
The display on the Steam Deck OLED is absolutely phenomenal. It’s a 7.4-inch 90HZ OLED display that has absolutely stunning vibrancy and brightness. If you opt for the 1TB mode you’ll get an anti-glare display, which I think is always the way to go for a handheld.
The battery life was equally impressive, blowing all other handhelds (except maybe the Ally X) out of the park, with 2.5-3.5 hours minimum playing AAA games and well beyond that playing indie games. I never felt like I needed to be within reach of a charger like I did with almost every other Windows handheld that I did.
Similarly, the value that you’re getting at $649 for the LCD model or $899 for the OLED model is phenomenal compared to other handhelds, although probably a little less so than it was 1-2 years ago, for reasons that I’ve mentioned.
Whilst the Steam Deck OLED looks chonky, it’s extremely comfortable to hold, with the ergonomics being second to none, and the weight also feeling well distributed to the point that it’s never an issue. The build quality also oozes quality and feels extremely premium in its design. ugh v
As far as control options to go, the Steam Deck is still unmatched with all of the expected buttons and triggers, four back buttons, super seamless gyro support and two trackpads that have haptic feedback and a great for games that rely on a mouse or don’t have controller support.
Whilst the Steam Deck is releasing in Australia quite late in the game, it’s still a fantastic value for money way for gamers to play their Steam Library on the go, with Steam’s Cloud Sync being absolutely fantastic. If you want the best performance on the market, want to utilise Xbox Game Pass (or other launchers), or maybe don’t have a huge Steam library, there’s probably other options I’d recommend looking at.