Optionally, what would you have wanted to know before you bought one?
Thanks!
Edit: Hey, thank you all very very much for your comments and suggestions, I really appreciate. I will most likely save up more and get the 1TB OLED model rather than the LCD model I was initially planning on. A couple of reasons for that, one, I am not good with electronics and I’d probably screw something up putting a new storage drive in. And two this thing will most likely be a permanent replacement for my old gaming laptop, which at this point is more than 10 years old, and seems to be on its last legs (I installed Linux on it, which was a struggle, but that is probably on me rather than Linux or the computer being at fault).
Anyway, I appreciate everyone’s responses and thanks for helping a gal out!
It’s incredible as an emulation machine. And emudeck made it incredibly easy to set up.
Don’t buy it for AAA games. It thrives on AA and indie games, but AAA games will suck the battery like crazy (on the original model, at least) and you’ll be lucky to get 60 frames on any AAA games from the last few years.
30fps locked is perfectly reasonable for many games. I seriously don’t understand some people’s obsession with needing 60fps or higher at all times. A Steam Deck is a compromise on many levels, it’s not a gaming PC, so adjusting expectations is perfectly reasonable.
Yeah, hard disagree.
With the 30fps being good enough?
Yeah
Depends on the game. For example, on the Xbox Series X or PS5, I often elect for better graphics (raytracing, 4K, etc) at 30fps, especially with third-person titles where you can really appreciate the scenery. God of War Ragnarok in 4K with raytracing is a sight to behold on a big OLED TV. But some games (most first person titles, racing games, and perhaps surprisingly Diablo 4) I prefer the higher framerate.
If I were a squijillionaire, I’d have a 5090 and get both framerate and fidelity. But I am not. I am a humble console peasant taking his earliest steps in the PC gaming world.
To each their own. Personally, I can’t stomach it for 3D games. 2D / isometric is a different story, but most games from those perspectives don’t have the hardware requirements of 3D games.
I dunno, I grew up on the earliest 3D consoles and just never have had an issue with 30fps. Sure, when available, 60fps is great, but even that’s the limits of what I’ll push a device to do. People that push for 144fps+ for a turn-based game just confuse me honestly.
Tons of PS1 games ran at 60fps
(Sorry for the reddit link):
https://www.reddit.com/r/psx/comments/16onvdj/which_psx_games_ran_at_60_fps/
modern AAA but ps4 era works like 60-70% of the time and older than that youre usually goated too!
Don’t set charge limits, because odds are you can never get back to 100% battery charging ever again due to bugs (at best I get 99% now.)
Don’t expect your games to “just work” - even if they have a green check box, expect to have to troubleshoot like you always have, almost certainly even more.
Memorize Steam button + X to open the keyboard, you’re gonna need it.
Don’t go anywhere without a charger unless you’re playing a game that you know will last long on battery.
The more games you install, the more games you won’t play. A giant SD card and a giant SSD just means you have more shit that you look at and feel guilty before you power it off because you can’t decide what to play anyway (and that’s a big factor for why our backlogs have been growing all this time even before getting a deck. Too many games, not enough time and motivation.)
Know that a USB-C dock is gonna have issues. You’re gonna have to fuck with audio output settings each and every time you connect it, and sometimes when you resume it from sleep. It will not always gracefully recover when you unplug it either.
There’s gonna be a refresh to the hardware before you know it, and you’re gonna want that version.
It’s too big to fit in your pocket, you basically need a backpack for it.
You won’t need any kind of case, but a glass screen protector is a good idea.
The bottom plastic near the screws will crack from stress. It happens even moreso on the transparent model.
Expect very poor control schemes on any game that is not incredibly popular with official gamepad support. If you are patient and can setup the keybinds yourself you can do OK- but some games just don’t work well with a controller, period.
Sleep mode drains battery like a motherfucker. It seemed great on release, but now I lose what feels like 20% a day, or more. This means the deck you set down Sunday night will almost certainly be dead by Saturday when you get back to it.
Games that have poor save schemes like what has been found in older RPGs can be frustrating to deal with, because if you pause your session and come back to it… you still need to grind to the next save point or lose your progress. This is in a non-issue in tons of games, but can be an issue sometimes.
Some games sync in-game settings to the cloud, and overwrite what you have on your deck or PC depending on what was last used.
If you use an SD card, sometimes it can take minutes to hours to provision the storage necessary to begin downloading and installing the game on said SD card. This is after it’s properly formatted, no matter how many games have been installed and how much space is free. It’s a great mystery.
There’s hotkey combinations to turn up and down brightness. If you hold down the steam key long enough, it shows you many more of those combinations to do many more useful things.
When you’re changing settings in a game, you can specify changing global settings or hit a slider to make it per-game profile. It’s almost always better to change per-game profiles so your settings can be custom per game.
You can remote play on a ps5 incredibly well. Chiaki4deck is great.
Your GOG, Epic and other games do not work easily natively. There are fan projects like Heroic Games Launcher to have this functionality, but they aren’t native to the system.
It’s very easy to not have any of your steam playtime register with steam.
It’s very easy for your steam playtime to suddenly display dozens or hundreds of hours from sleep mode being utilized in some games.
That’s just what I can mention from personal experience.
Don’t set charge limits, because odds are you can never get back to 100% battery charging ever again due to bugs (at best I get 99% now.)
Where can I read more about this?
It’s been a sporadic issue across multiple steamOS versions for a long, long time. At one point they said they fixed it, but I have the bug on the current version.
I’m sure if you go through the process of factory resetting the device or re-loading the OS and blowing away your settings it can be fixed, but I look at that as way too much work.
This thread has someone with a very verbose set of instructions of how to fix it via command line https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/1/597404077749474647/
I have never had that issue with a sd card on either of my steam decks. That’s weird and shouldn’t happen.
I also haven’t had to do any trouble shooting for games with a green good to go.
But mostly that SD thing, something else must be an issue. I install only to the SD card, does that matter?
The SD card thing was something I definitely saw a ton of others with the issue of when I knew the exact description of what was happening, but it’s been a few months.
When you go to install a game it does something to the effect of “provisioning space for game” and it was taking me minutes to hours before it would install some games. Installing to the onboard nvme ssd would get very fast rates that were bottlenecked by wifi attenuation mostly, and said provisioning time is instant.
The card I have is this PNY one. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DM9NNMND So far i’m using only maybe 15% of the space. I noticed it when I first got it and was downloading a couple of games, not even necessarily large ones.
Yeah I haven’t had that problem at all and I have put some pretty big games on them. I think the latest one I am using is a SanDisk 1TB Extreme microSDXC UHS
Apparently the issue is games that have very many tiny files that aren’t all inside of one larger file. This is a thread that sounds about right: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/tcomih/reserving_space_extremely_slow_on_sd_card/
So if a game is like GW2 and has nothing but a couple of extramassive files, it’s very fast to allocate the space. If tha game has hundreds of thousands of very tiny files, it takes forever to allocate the space.
That is really interesting, Thanks!
Hard disagree on the case. The Steam Deck is not made to be dropped like your average Game Boy. Far too expensive, and far too fragile.
I have dropped it exactly 1 time, 2 feet off a couch and I had to replace both triggers on one side.
The cases are not expensive. I had the Spigen one for $15 and now I have the Jsaux Mod Case.
The Jsaux Mod Case which is nice because it allows you to slide a battery pack on, and it has a hard screen cover so you can slap it in a bag, and not worry.
But I mostly use it because it allows me to use a lanyard.
Also I’ve never seen the bottom crack “from stress” but again I only dropped it once.
Side note:
It is a heavy device, it is giving me cubital tunnel syndrome from propping my elbows on tables. No idea what to do about it other than play less.
With the case I just figure the one it comes with is the best case i’ve ever seen offered first party at no extra cost.
If you drop the thing though outside of said carrying case it’s toast. it’s way too big and heavy to survive any real fall. I’d be very surprised if even some kind of otterbox would work (but I admit i’ve never looked into it.)
Ah okay there’s 2 meanings of cases.
There is one for travel - that it comes with.
But there’s one that fits more like an otter box, an in-use case. The Spigen, Jsaux and KillSwitch all do that. Though I’m sure there are rip-offs all over Amazon by now for all 3.
With how big the thing is I really don’t want more bulk on it. My brother in law had a deck until his girlfriend knocked it off a table and destroyed the shell…
My wife has already knocked mine off a couch and caused the case to un-clip in one spot, but it could have very easily been much worse.
I get wanting a case on the thing lol
Many oled models have serious audio issues. Speakers and bt audio work fine, but the 3.5 mm jack is noisy. If this happens, you open a ticket right away, send it back and they will replace sound board for you. I got mine done. It’s better, but not perfect.
Oh man I didn’t know they were replacing these. I tried the 3.5mm jack for the first time the other day and it was awful. I thought it had sat around unused for too long and I needed to clean it out or something
The “fixed” board is still noisy, but the volume goes quiet very quickly if no sound is being reproduced. You still hear crackling but at least it falls off instead of always persisting.
I am no engineer, but I suspect the audio is not shielded enough. Perhaps oled uses more current than led? I noticed the noise corresponds to the amount of motion on the screen.
Getting your games from Epic and GoG to work on it takes a bit of work but overall not complicated.
Also if you use an external controller, sometimes it will show the wrong platform glyphs. Personally I just deal with it while using a PS controller but you can just have it show generic ones if you prefer that.
Get the 1TB with the etched screen if you’re considering it. It looks fantastic, and works great when not indoors. Like, in a car or airplane for example. I was debating between it and the 512GB because I often prefer a glossy screen, but the effect is small yet mighty.
Also, get Moonlight on your Steam Deck and Apollo on your PC. You can stream games from your PC with Apollo to Moonlight at much higher quality than Steam’s own streaming system. I send 1440p to my deck so after chroma subsampling I get fully defined 1280x720 pixels. It looks significantly better than just sending 1280x720 or 1280x800 to the Deck.
And finally, pick up Geometry Wars 3. It’s like the perfect pick-up-and-put-down game for the Deck.
I got the entry model and an etched screen protector and upgraded to a 1tb ssd and saved myself a couple hundred. This was pre OLED though so YMMV
The 1TB version came with a completely different screen is what he meant though. A screen protector won’t be able to replicate a physical display difference.
An etched screen protector can help, but isn’t as nice as the native etched glass. The underlying screen is the same OLED as the 512GB, I believe.
The OLED model is also just better. Got a few minor upgrades other than the screen. Faster RAM, better battery life, slightly lighter. Maybe some other changes.
The fan is more quiet. Wifi 6E, slightly larger screen, improved shoulder buttons. There’s a lot of improvements, definitely a worthy revision.
Oh I forgot about WiFi 6E. Suuuuuper good for streaming from your PC.
I know exactly what they meant and the only difference between the etched glass screen and the regular screen on the earlier models was the surface of the glass and that’s primarily due to the reduction in glare. Which is replicated 99% as effectively with a matte glass overlay. I have done side by side comparisons between mine and my friends one who got the etched glass and you cannot tell the difference. Especially since the first thing you want to do on the etched glass model is put a screen protector on top to protect it anyway.
The OLED is a significant upgrade on both.
I got the 512gb and upgraded the SDD to 2tb. I learned about this screen after! If I had known I would have gone that route instead.
You can get an etched glass screen protector that emulates the effect. The one I got isn’t as good as the base screen (which is essentially perfect), it has a very small amount of color scrambling if you look really closely due to the nature of the etching, but it’s not bad and I got used to it quickly.
The LCD model is not compatible with wifi 6 :(
So I got my steam deck as a late Christmas present and I loved mine. One thing I do in 3D games is set the R5 (right bottom back button) to A so I can play stuff like Deep rock or no man’s sky and be able to jump while still being able to look around
Both the back paddles and the trackpads have so much customization (and the normal buttons if you want) being able to bind them to normal controls like I did with the jumping thing. You can also create menus for the trackpads, I mostly use it on emulators with save/load state, full screen mode, some utilities
You can also make the buttons emulate pc controls, when I was feeling particularly insane I got planetside on my deck and mapped joysticks to WASD and mouse movement and triggers as mouse 1 and 2 with my left trackpad 1-9 for equipment
One thing I like to do in shooters is a half trigger pull only activates the trigger but a full trigger pull does trigger and activates gyro
The only exception is deep rock since right trigger is mine so I have one of the back paddles be a toggle
As far as games go if you stick to verified and playable you’ll have no problem. The playable games sometimes have small issues such as small text (the deck has a built in magnifier) a 16:9 resolution leading to small black bars at the top of the 16:10 screen
You can boot into desktop mode and have a full on desktop environment, not some half desktop but like a full on computer. It does use a Linux system so I can’t really say much about that as I don’t use Linux on my computer. But I did get Emudeck going which has a ton of emulators ready to go and makes it easy to use in game mode (the mode where you’re not in desktop)
I’m not sure what sort of information do you expect… it’s fun? It’s just a portable PC, not much more to it, I love mine.
That’s fair and honestly I don’t know either. I guess maybe I’m just trying to calm any fears that I would regret spending that much?
It has became my main gaming device over time, when my pc broke i took a guest buying it and no regret except maybe not waiting for the Oled version other than that back button suck ( L4-5 and R4-5 ) so i mostly use them for the system zoom which is nice to read small text some game have.
Really good for emulation if that something you want
Ps4 controller work nice with them as a controller when i play docked
Also, kinda silly but I regret not switching to Bazzite OS earlier. I still have not done it. In theory it’s got several benefits over stock SteamOS but being comfortable, I haven’t put in the effort to try the new thing.
What would be the benefits?
I only got interested in it because you could have gnome instead of Kde in desktop mode, but I haven’t heard about other benefits and there are pribably downsides too.
Main benefit for me is a more traditional Linux environment, whereas steamos basically has a single user without a password and encryption is difficult at best. Great for playing games but not for computer usability. Bazzite also supports full disk encryption, and recently I learned/was told that you can move your SD card between Bazzite devices like Nintendo cartridges to play wherever.
One downside would be arguably less support. It’s community driven so the hardware manufacturers aren’t going to necessarily help you get dysfunctional games working, etc. Not that they’re going to be much help even when you’re playing native.
Benefits:
- Changes are persistent. Unlike SteamOS, which uses an A/B partition scheme for upgrades, every update is a new system image but leaves your home directories alone, and you can easily rollback or rebase at will without much issue.
- Several built in tweak commands to set up or modify different settings/apps.
- Comes with many QoL bundled apps.
- Can utilize Distrobox to install other software from other distros.
- Active and responsive devs and community.
- Works on both desktop and handheld hardware.
Drawbacks:
- Does not always get updates as quickly as SteamOS (it’s nearly bleeding edge, but not quite).
- The fully Atomic nature has a learning curve, and system management may be challenging, depending on what kinds of tweaks a user intends.
There may be other technical aspects that differ, like battery life, but I don’t know enough to say if they are different in practice. Fwiw, I have Bazzite on a laptop and SteamOS on my Deck.
Thanks for the detailed answer👍
If you’re into cosmetics the only way (that I’m aware of) to get the fancy Steam profile stuff and special keyboards is to buy the 1TB version. If you’re interested in customising your Deck with themes, intro videos and the like the 1TB version is the way forward as space gets eaten up quickly.
It’s worth buying a screen protector and a small, fine paintbrush to dust out the grooves and vents.
Enjoy your Deck!
It’s also fairly simple to replace the lowest capacity drive with a 2TB.
Maybe there are more keyboards that I don’t know about but I got the 512 GB OLED version and was able to get all kinds of useless profile things and also keyboard skins, marked as Steamdeck exclusive.
If that is the case I could very well have misunderstood; my partner bought the 512GB and (as far as I know) didn’t receive the special profile, keyboards or intro video. Maybe they simply haven’t claimed them.
edit: we just checked and they did NOT receive any bonus profile flair, keyboard layouts etc… My original comment seems to be correct.
I do remember you have to go somewhere in the settings around keyboards and startup movies to be able to claim them. I am not sure you could just claim them in the actual points shop.
Finding a good USB-C Hub for your needs is a good thing to know before purchasing if you want it docked at all. Whether the official steam deck dock suits your needs, or a third-party hub on any tech website you can find.
Oh that’s a good point! I hadn’t thought about playing docked. Thank you!
Do you have one that lasted more than 18 months?
I have a discontinued verbatim usb 3 port x 3, ethernet, headphone, HDMI, MicroSD/SD Card usb-c input hub that has been rock solid and hasn’t died on me yet. there are a ton verbatim branded hubs but not this particular model unfortunately.
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Buy a nice case for transporting it. I like my JSAUX case, it has alot more storage space then the stock case.
Or don’t, because the original one is perfectly fine.
I never understood what people have against it.
The original one is solid, but takes up a lot of space. Which is fine in a car boot or something, but may be a problem in a backpack.
Having said that, if you’re putting it in a bag where it won’t be rattling around, protecting the front is probably enough, so a half-case which covers the front will probably suffice.
I have nothing against the original, I used it for a few months and it works great. I switched to a different case when I got a different charger and other cords to use with the external battery I added to the ‘entourage’ for the Deck. The original case didn’t have the room for all that, and things like earbuds didn’t like to stay in the elastic hollow of the original. Wasn’t a big deal, but it was a noticeable change after switching cases.
I think not having room for the charger is a valid complaint. Not enough for me to buy a 3rd party case, but I can see why people would want one.
I tend to put mine in its case, but put that case in a backpack with all of its accessories. Which kinda sucks, but also even if I didn’t have the deck I typically have enough other electronics to justify a dedicated backpack anyways- battery banks, chargers, my wife’s laptop and kindle, maybe our portable projector to throw things up on random spots. While I wish the Deck case had more space, unless it was badkpack-sized I would probably end up throwing it in a backpack anyways.
I think not having room for the charger is a valid complaint.
It fits great in the elastic-covered spot on the back, especially if you use something like this.
I hear you, but I’m not willing to trust the charger in there even with a 3D printed insert. Give me a proper pocket with a snap, Velcro, zipper, clip, etc.
That’s fair, but I can tell you from experience there’s no way it’s going to fall out during the lifetime of that elastic. I say this because it’s mildly annoying to extract it (which, admittedly, isn’t an issue with a dedicated pocket).
Seconded, never had any issue with the elastic strap holding in the power supply.
Okay, thank you! If I can ask a dumb question, what else do you take with you when you bring your steamdeck places?
Power brick, USB-C cable, external battery, earbud headphones.
Sometimes I also add a folding bluetooth keyboard, mini bluetooth mouse, and USB drives, but that’s only when I’m gonna use the Deck as a computer for 3D modeling or typing tasks.
I bring the power brick, a USB-C dongle, HDMI cable and one or two controllers.
That way I can plug it at my friends or in a hotel etc.
I have a portable USB-C display that I bring sometimes, if for example travelling by train for a longer period.
Not being snarky, but you bring a screen for your device with a screen? Any particular reason?
Haha, yeah I get that.
The screen is a 15" portable, with a much higher resolution. It goes together well with the controllers and a second player :)
OG case ftw.
Other cases seem like a waste of money.
You may become spoiled by the Steam Deck’s excellent controls, such that no gamepad currently for sale will ever come close.
For me and Rimworld, I became dependent on the four back buttons, and now I can’t stand playing it on desktop with a controller because no controller on the market offers four additional buttons that work like that (as far as I know)
Eh, I’d say it’s a mixed bag.
The Triggers? Yes, I’d say they are tied for the best option right now.
The sticks? Also yes. They are positioned great, feel great, work great. As someone who likes both the Dualsense and Xbox sticks a lot, the Steam Deck is even better. It’s worth mentioning that even after 2 years I still haven’t found a use for the capacitive touch pads. They’re a neat idea I suppose, but it seems like you need a VERY specific scenario to make it work. Even the one I see most often- gyro - I’d rather just use a button to toggle it than use the capacitive sensor on the right stick.
The face buttons? They’re okay. Not the worst I’ve used, but too rounded for me. They can really wear on your thumbs in games where you mash. I’d prefer the Dualsense, but this is better than the Xbox.
The Shoulder Buttons? Pretty garage actually. They work, but feel really mush and awkward to use. Give me a Dualsense, or most other controllers instead.
Start/Select? Fine, but placed in places that are difficult to reach without actively stretching. Like they often are on controllers anyways, so not a big deal.
D-Pad? Serviceable. It feels similar to the PS Vita of all things. It’s nowhere near the crisp, precise, harsh microswitches of JoyCons. It’s also nowhere near the fluid, smooth motion of the Sony style D-Pad. It’s somewhere in-between. It’s also more precise than traditional Nintendo d-pads. I’d say it’s fine, but I prefer Sony’s. My thumb gets tired easily from D-Pad heavy games on the Deck.
Back buttons are a nice bonus, but they don’t feel super great. They all feel more like toggles than buttons you are expected to constantly be actuating.
The track pass are great at first, but my right track pad wore out VERY quickly and it feels terrible. Clicking on it now is very unpleasant, to the point where in some games I map R2 or R4 to click just so I don’t have to use the track pad for it anymore. Hopefully Valve improves that. I’d absolutely love to see those track pads on standalone controllers.
I’ve used the right trackpad as a mouse. I haven’t tried it for an FPS, but it works well for menus, inventory management, or for lower stress mouse games like city builders.
In Valhiem, at least, I’ve configured the left track pad as an 8 position radial menu to quickly activate to any hotbar slot.
I like the gyro for fps games. It’s the only way it’s manageable on a controller imo
Your touchpad issue may be a fluke, both the steam decks in my house (one original, one OLED) still work great with both trackpada
I use the touchpads constantly, mostly for Rimworld, but also desktop usage and other games, and I find them to be outstanding
My right one worked great to start, and my left knee still does. Over the past year I could feel it slowly get worse. It feels like normal wear and tear to me, just that I used it hard with a few mouse-centric games.
I did look on iFixit but they don’t have replacements. I’m not too surprised, and I’m not really upset with Valve, because it’s a pretty new thing and they are still way better than their competition. I just hope that eventually they release an improved version.
The Triggers? Yes, I’d say they are tied for the best option right now.
I’m a huge fan of the Steam Deck, and it’s control scheme, but as far as I’m aware, only the DualSense has adaptive, analog triggers.
SD triggers aren’t even close.
I’m not sure what you mean? The Steam Deck, and a TON of other controllers have analog triggers. Sony has been using them since the PS3. The GameCube used them, though Nintendo has gone back-and-forth on analog vs digital triggers. Every Xbox controller has had analog triggers. Most VR systems have analog triggers. It’s hard to speak for an entire industry, but I think most 3rd party controllers have analog triggers unless they are soecifically intended to replace a Nintendo one that doesn’t have it (like the JoyCons).
For the ADAPTIVE part… Yeah the Dualsense has it and nothing else does. I suppose where you and I disagree is in judging how important that is. To me, that was a fun little gimmick in Astro’s Play Room and Ratchet & Clank, but I can’t even remember any other games supporting it. Even in those games I thought it was a bit tiring on my fingers after prolonged periods of use. If we could knock $10 off the price of the Dualsense by removing it I would totally do that. It’s also worth noting that 3rd parties like 8Bitdo have similar hair-trigger features that physically reduce the travel distance and turn them into digital inputs.
When it comes to all the other aspects- the material, the springs, the radius, the shape, the texture, the ability to customize in software - in my opinion the Deck is better than the Dualsense in all of those areas.
I don’t mean to come across as hating on the Dualsense. It’s a great controller and my 2nd favorite behind the Deck for most games. I actually bought a Dualsense for PC use more than a year before I bought my PS5. For triggers specifically,
For me personally, I would compare adaptive triggers to other gimmicks like analog face buttons, the light bar on the Dualshock 4 (which was ironically way better on PC than PlayStation), the built in speaker and microphone on the Dualshock 4 and Dualsense, the WiiU, the 3 prongs of the N64 controller, the VMU of the Dreamcast, the IR camera on the Right JoyCon, NFC readers, etc.
Somewhat related was that I did not mention haptics in my original comment. I’d say the Dualsense has the best haptics, but the Steam Deck is a close second. This is another feature where it’s cool when the Dualsense uses it like in Astro’s Playroom, but it’s so rare for games to actually use it in interesting ways that it doesn’t matter much. With the Deck, it’s quintessential to how the track pads work, and the operating system itself makes great use of it. It can’t do all of the spectacular haptic details, but the Deck has a nice subtle approach that makes the whole thing just feel more substantial. The Dualsense uses haptics for immersion while the Deck uses it more for feedback and feel.
Ok…Just saying, you said that they have the best triggers out of any controller and it’s just not true.
I gave my opinion and you have not changed it: I would still say that the Deck’s triggers are better than the Dualsense’s.
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The Back Buttons on their own are not great.
IF you are going to do some customization - I highly recommend swapping them out.
I only did the back plate and I keep it in a case so I barely notice the clear purple back but I Do notice the new, and much larger, back triggers. They feel so much better.
https://jsaux.com/products/transparent-back-plate-for-steam-deck-pc0106
It works so good I even use it as a portable Linux machine. Just for internet etc.
Yeah! I use mine as a media device sometimes. With the first party dock. And with KDE Connect on my phone already since I use KDE on both my work and personal machines, adding the Steam Deck to that works so incredibly well for remote input
I may catch some flack for this, but I was and still am a big fan of the original steam controller, so much so that I still use it on my aging gaming laptop. How do the steam deck controls and buttons compare to the steam controller?
I have an original Steam Controller as well. The Steam Deck is a lot better in my opinion because I can choose between thumbstick or thumbpad on each side, whereas with the old controller you have to live with the touchpads and the single stick on the right.
The build quality feels a bit better too, and the haptics a bit more refined.
Really, the Deck offers everything the Controller did aside from form factor. And maybe if some folks vastly prefer the bigger touchpads, that might possibly be a downside, but I doubt that’d be the case for most
The 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless has 2 back buttons and two extra shoulders, and it has full Steam Input support (must update the Controller and Dongle firmware and hold the B button when turning on)
No trackpads though…
I’m a big fan of using the thumb pads for games like City Skylines and Civ.
Also you can play cozy games in bed.
Or balatro at the bus stop.
Or… or… or… and… and… and…
It’s possible to use your steam deck as a controller on your pc. You can use steam link, but if your WiFi isn’t very good there will be problems, or virtualhere. I haven’t tried virtualhere but I have heard that it is good, unfortunately, the only good guide I found for it is on reddit :(
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/v22ddf/guide_how_to_use_your_deck_as_a_steam_input/
Playing rimworld on the deck seems tricky. Feels like a game where I want the precision of a mouse. What actions have you set your back buttons to?
I haven’t played Rimworld on it, but I have played other mouse-dependent games, and it’s amazing how quickly you can adapt to the thumbpads. They actually work very well for fine mouse control.
L4/R4: slow down or speedup time R5: move screen faster, also hold down to select multiple L5: something to do with the touchscreen but I don’t use it
Don’t the expensive (over $100) controllers that PlayStation and Xbox offer have paddle controls on the back? I think they are Elite and Edge controllers.
I have an aftermarket controller with back paddles (8bitdo pro) but they can only be bound to other existing controls or macros which I don’t find useful at all 😔
The Pro 2 can have those mapped to any control in D-input mode. It’s fully Steam Input compatible.
Only two and they don’t function as additional buttons sadly
Ah I see. Interesting! I always assumed the steam deck was just providing what high end console controllers were standardizing back there.
Nope! Both the Xbox Elite and Dualsense Edge controllers don’t add new buttons, they just add buttons that can only be copies of the regular Xbox/Playstation buttons.
Steam Deck does it better since the four back buttons can be used as completely independent buttons.
I’ve heard that the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 controller also can use its extra buttons as net new buttons, and I’ve been tempted to get one for that reason (and because I really liked the Ultimate “1” I had before my dog chewed it up!)
and now I can’t stand playing it on desktop with a controller
I mean… Yeah. Why would you not use a mouse for Rimworld on desktop?
I do a lot of couch gaming. I do have a wired lapboard for keyboard and mouse but it’s nice relaxing with a gamepad too
i really wanna get into rimworld on steamdeck so much. i played it on pc but never took the plunge back in on deck. What config are you using? Id love to get everything right so i can get hooked as fast as possible :3
Totally stock controls, dozens of hours. Works really really well!
I don’t know Rimworld but the GuliKit KK3 MAX has 4 back buttons and works great with the steam deck
From what I’m reading they are not independent buttons though. They can only be copies of other buttons. Utterly useless.
