Some really good info here.
Have a +1 to somewhat compensate the "low rated" posts...

I'm very, VERY, VERY interested on Steam Deck. I would like a bigger touch screen and/or another aspect ratio but since it's a device mainly made to play games I guess the 16/10 ratio is ok-ish.
As pointed several times before, at this time the hardware is extremely cheap even if it's locked to 15W. Probably there are ways around it and even if don't, 15W is plenty enough to play most titles at 1280x800.

As kohlrak mentioned, reviews can be hit or miss. They are a huge marketing tool at the moment and must be taken with a grain of salt. However I'll wait to check some good reviews about the D-pad and if is possible to repair the device, if by any chance the device is not repairable (mainly the buttons of course, maybe upgrade the SSD) it's a pass for me... A tablet with gamepad do exactly the same with better size and aspect ratio.

And for un-repairable x86 devices we already have too much of them (see Surface pro's)

Edit: oh, one more thing, let's hope Valve release drivers so we can run whatever OS we like because such a device without proper drivers is nearly unusable. Good haptic feedback on those touchpads are a must to serve as mouse input. Touchscreen with Windows and 7" screen is a laughable experience (for those who prefer Windows). Steam has it's own built in tool to use the analog joysticks as mouse input but I want to pay for the harwdare only if can run without Steam.


Edit nº 2: Fuck that big picture style menus... Trying to chat on those is slow and annoying.

I used to have a pretty decent post:rep ratio. But i got on an "ignore list" which works by low-rating every post certain users see. It's against gog's rules, but the karens running the place don't care. I've had a few users admit they're doing it openly on the forums, but not even an investigation is done. Not that rep matters, though: just do what i did a long time ago and disable hiding low-rated posts. There's a few other settings in there worth looking at, like number of posts per page, too. If this doesn't flop, it'll likely set a standard that devs will try to optimize their games for. This would actually be the best thing about it, IMO. Right now we're full-speed-ahead into oblivion with requirements. That's an absolute shame, really. My server has a pentium 4 in there. There's alot of potential in old hardware, and throwing it away is a waste. Daresay it's pollutant, yet with our campaigns against bottles and such, we still see people throwing away phones every 2 years.

Probably it will have screws so hopefully easy to repair, at least the controller part.

you get a hat which it hangs from in front of your eyes obviously

I wish that's how they did it. No, we need to have a plugin thingy that plugs into the controller which you hope hangs tight onto the more expensive piece of equipment.

+1

There's literally nothing a laptop will not do better than this steam gimmick. A laptop can be serviced and upgraded easily, using parts available the world over, from many manufacturers, at competitive costs. The batteries will last much longer (and are easily changed), and it comes with a nice big screen and keyboard.

The longer battery life figure is probably for someone playing Zork. ANY modern game with decent graphics will certainly be at the low end of the estimate.

I wonder. Can this machine be used without having a steam account? They say that you can install a different OS, but will you need the steam account first, to get started?

Not really true for many recent consumer grade laptops with soldered in memory, disks and no easy access inside.

That's for sure. I don't even see how could it be different. You install clean windows and it won't let you in before logging to steam? No way. Steamos is just linux distro, I don't think it requires account.

Like others have stated, it would probably be like SteamOS and Steam Machines. I picked up a few Steam Machines when they we on super sale for under $200 and installed other distros and re-sold them on CL for a mark up and you never needed a Steam account at all during the process.

Duckduckgo search:

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=palemoonsp&q=tablet+controller&iax=images&ia=images

Didn't bother to look for a specific exemple but there are some options. I do not use them myself but for anyone wanting a hand held it may be good.

Agree!!!

Would be a waste to throw up a reasonable powered device away because some messed up button.
The only gamepad that I have that seem to hold up more than 6 months of abuse is the Razer Raion, wich has still great feedback after 1 year. Never the less, after a couple of months it started to develop button sticking, wich was easily solved with some drops of "WD-40" and a good cleaning.
Harsh enviroment (reads: fighting and copetitive games) will put the Steam thingy to test , lets hope it can handle that.

If they get the computer hardware right it's more than enough to last a couple of years, let's hope the battery and buttons hold up as well.

As a more general feature wishing, a bigger screen would be great as many touch enabled games will be un-playable on this thing, even writing on virtual keyboard will be annoying. Let's hope Valve can make a Virtual Keyboard feel as good as Android or Windows because the OnBoard program typical on Linux distros don't, it's usable but not awsome.

What will make this thing good or bad will be those small details (that susprisingly are never seen on major reviews). Games will be available by the thousands...

I do not know all of the potential issues -- and I still hate that Steam games are DRM'd -- but I'm modestly interested in Steam Deck.

Be for sale at £350-400?

I've not read or researched anything about the Steam Deck, but I assume that the battery is sealed (user non-accessible/replaceable), much like most electronics nowadays ?.

Only if you attempt to use it as a hammer. :P