Switch to Mint Mobile TODAY in 15 minutes using my link www.trymintmobile.com/jasonwitmer to save big bucks on your wireless bill! Thanks to Mint for partnering on this video.

I actually kinda want that cow wallpaper.

I went with Steam Deck because the wide availability and ease of having replacement batteries in the long run removed all my worries. (I haven't done thorough research but from what I've seen, non standardized batteries for laptops are difficult to replace) Also as a mechanical keyboard hobbyist, it did benefit me of not having redundantly two keyboards in use (the laptop keyboard and the mechanical keyboard) for a cleaner setup

Well, it's a different use case. You won't play on the go with your gaming laptop.

So, I used to have a non-gaming laptop. A big factor for me was weight, as I used to commute rather far for university. It served me well and was handier than a gaming laptops are, and I coped alright with limited performance... But I wanted an upgrade. Cue the Steam Deck. Much better battery life, better performance even when docked, and half the weight. For what I wanted it, Steam deck was perfect choice. I feel that this review lacks low load, long-endurance comparison between these devices, as that is very much a factor for many of us. I deal with ~4h power outages, and my old laptop wouldn't last half an hour even in indie games on battery alone, and 2h watching videos/reading. With deck, I can game through whole outage, and even have extra charge should it last longer than planned. Another thing to consider is if you use a PC as well, how does your mobile computer complement it. There's hardly a reason to use laptop at home if you have a stronger PC, there is not much extra comfort to be gained. But with Deck, you can make the case for lazing in bed, which just isn't that good with laptops.

One thing not talked about with the steam deck: Due to the handheld having some of the best gyro built in, you also get precision on par with a mouse in-games + flick stick. So you don’t have to suffer through ghost runner with stick controls. (disclaimer: accessibility over everything else, if gyro controls make you motion sick please don’t use them 👍)

Good comparison, and I’m really impressed with the laptop for that price. If cost isn’t a factor (which I get goes against the whole point of this video), it’s ideal to have both. I tried going deck only for a while (it was my entry point to pc gaming), but then I got a gaming laptop, and I’m finding they complement each other really well.

Great video and good questions at the end!

Very thoughtful. Thanks for the video!

A good 3rd party dock for the Steam Deck helps with some of the expandability. I picked one of the JSAUX docks that allows you to install a full size SSD NVMe drive in it. It also has an HDMI and several USB ports to attach other things. A portable screen and wireless keyboard and mouse help you get the most out of it.

Excellent video Jason

In Eastern Europe and Western Asia, where I'm currently writing from(armenia), laptops with a 3050 graphics card start at a price of $750. while the Steam Deck still costs +-$400.

Hey! Great video, and I don't mean to be this guy, but for the CyberPunk section of your video you didn't have "FSR on" on the DECK itself. You can squeeze more performance on the deck if you go to your settings in the game>change to windowed mode>select a screen size smaller then 720p. That will enable your FSR on the deck. With a small tweek like that I'm able to play Aliens Fireteam Elite at 50-60fps when originally I was only getting 30-40 FPS. Hope it helps and I hope to see more videos from ya!

Have my Steam Deck since December I love it.

With the advent of the oled deck id proposition that it's the best mobile gaming machine around. Switch and vita coming in second and third respectively. I bricked my deck day 2 but for the time I used it I was in love. Can't wait to flash the bios when my 1.8v eeprom flasher arrives. Then I'll be able to tune in the perfect OC.

for kiddys first gaming laptop or just a budget beast i respect that this thing has not bad specifications

As much as I love handhelds, I have to take the Gaming laptop, it offers so much value.

As someone whose second home is essentially my friends house, toting around my laptop every time I go over there, when there's a chance I won't even use it, and also having a flimsy, thin backpack, the Steam Deck 100% wins in convenience and portability, and it's not even close. I know the pain of packing up my laptop, charger, keyboard, and mouse. Trust me it is *not* fun. Especially not when I'm leaving my friend's house, constantly worrying if I'm forgetting something or if the charger or keyboard could break the screen.

Great vid

My dad used to work at Gateway! Nice to see them up and running

I went from gaming desktop and gaming laptops to steam deck and only use it now for gaming. Steam deck is worth the price it is at and worth for the portability.

I have been walking the line between my EliteBook G7 and my steam deck and a desktop for years and looking for that all in one that will do it all to sell the rest and go all in on one device. This is tempting me that's for sure...

Oled versions are decent upgrade for value, they provide a battery, storage improvements + the OLED screen. Not sure if they are easier to upgrade then LCD versions. I found finding decently priced Laptops annoying and already have a pc so decided to try steam deck myself hoping it to be a decent introduction to linux.

My first gaming laptop at college was the Gateway FX-6860 which I upgraded its CPU to an Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme SLAQJ 3.0Ghz.

The biggest hesitation with Steamdeck is from my experience with Nintendo Switch the screen is too small. If a game has text or is something with tiny units or objects that would be small even on a laptop, then it is not ideal. I've played some adventure games and such on Switch but a laptop would be better. Also some games work better with a mouse or trackpad and really need a keyboard, You can plug all this stuff and even a bigger monitor into a Steamdeck, but it would be awkward if you were using all that in bed or on a couch.

and you compare the perfomance with a nvidia 3050 with steam and the amd graphic (equivalent nvidia 1050) its obvius has more fps... its no just comparation , in terms on perfomance win the deck because with a low graphic card its capable to make games playabel near to 3050 grafic card with some time the same fps etc etc

Steam deck is way to go specifically if you have power bank and play all the day any coffeshop with no ac outlet. Most starbucks doesn’t offer ac outlet.

Do you have kids or a partner? Do you want to play your videogames while being in their company, for example, while they watch TV, you sit next to them and play your games on the sofa and have some family time together, instead of you isolating yourself to a desk in another room? It so, get a Steam Deck. Does the idea of playing games from the comfort of your sofa while lounging, or any room of the house or while out and about, sound good to you? If so, get a Steam Deck. What's more comfortable, and where would you rather (casually) play your games for hours at a time: your bed or a desk chair? If bed: get a Steam Deck. Steam Deck is not a pocketable device, but there are plenty of fashionable and unobtrusive sling bags, like the TomToc bag, which let you easily travel with your Deck, and quickly pull it out and play while standing, and then quickly holster it back, you can't really do something like that, while standing, with a laptop. So again, another use case in favour of the Steam Deck. All of these points matter. Because once you get older, you're going to realise you don't have the time to play games like you used to - unlike back when you were a kid, with a gaming laptop. And when you do have the time, you may feel like you don't want to be seated at a desk, like you already do at your day job, when it comes to game time.

The steam deck isnt bad but the issue with it is the os a lot of games wont be playable,you can use some steam plugs to make some of them playable but is very random which one works

the compativily test its not just...because you can install windows on 1 tera microcard and use windows with all kind pc sofware on steam deck...

you can game on anything with caveat that you averagely need between 4-8 TB main OS ssd and and same for storage in length of time you are operational depends if you are consuming power using wifi then battery be dead within the hour or 2 average 15.6" laptop for the last 10-15 years and slightly less factoring in wifi

People pay up to $650 for a Steam Deck so you should compare it at that price point as well. A $650 laptop can be your main PC as well and it plays games better than the SD

As someone who has always been a big buyer of both ROG/XPS laptops, I've always also searched for the perfect balance of portability and power. This went in for decades. The SteamDeck changed my gaming entirely. I did not expect it. I so often just pick it up instead of bothering with a laptop or desktop now... Unless it's an FPS where I really want kb/m, the deck just does it better. More conveniently. Definitely a different machine though, and better at some games, worse at others vs an equally priced or powered laptop, just based on the game type.

I had a really old windows xp laptop from gateway. Big cow cube on the back of the screen

I could be wrong and this could also be a pedantic correction but I don't think valves compatibility layer proton is considered propriatary since it is open source.

In your compatibility section when you say everything just works because it's windows 11 that is sadly wildly misleading. There are a lot of not even that old games that windows just doesn't like anymore. Stubbs the zombie, Sonic Heroes, the original versions Alice madness returns, Ghostbusters the video game, and Bulletstorm are all games that are at most 10 years old and windows just doesn't want to work with anymore and require fixes to get work. Stubbs and Ghostbusters have problems with newer graphics drivers and need fixes to get working. Alice , Bulletstorm, and Sonic on the other hand needs anti piracy fixes or cracks to get working with original legit copies and I still couldn't get Alice to boot. Windows 10 actually broke a lot of older games even when you try to use compatibility mode. Oddly enough I tried playing these games on my Steam deck and besides still needing a couple anti piracy fixes these older games actually just worked. Even Alice Madness Returns which I couldn't get working on windows with anti piracy cracks. Proton actually does more than windows when it comes to being compatible with older games with weird graphics quirks.

Not gonna lie the laptop actually sounds pretty good (unfortunately can't find any like that in Indonesia), if I can buy it I might choose that over steamdeck, but since I already have pretty decent laptop (i3 7th gen with MX130) so I choose steamdeck instead. So far I don't really feel any regret buying steamdeck over gaming laptop or PC, so far game that I play run pretty well on steamOS even game like genshin. For valorant I just use dual boot and yes I upgrade the SSD to 1tb. I even use steamdeck for my school stuff sometimes since I already have type C hub and a monitor, the desktop mode from steam deck is pretty good for me, it took me a while to get used to Linux enviorment, like using Libreoffice or Googledoc as alternative. It run software like android studio pretty good and I can do some of my assigment with it pretty well which actually still doable in my laptop but insteamdeck it run a little bit better and emulator run more smoothly.

I didnt even know gateway was still a thing, I havent seen one of their PCs since i was in elementary school.

Labtops dope for the price and the upgrade options I already got a steam and a pc so I’m good but cool gateway how nostalgic

Frankly i built a Gaming PC. For Me, Getting a Steam Deck seem redundant when i could get Android Handheld and just Stream the games from said Gaming PC using Moonlight or Parsec. I don't have to worry about Compatibility Issues or having figure out how install 3rd Party Store. Like Gog, Epic, Ubisoft Connect or EA App.

12:10 As long as it's a fairly recent game anything from last decade, I had much better luck running old games from W98 and XP era on the Deck thanks to Proton never dropping support for older games unlike Windows.

eu would be like - 600 euros for similar laptop... anything to compete with deck has to be from used market to even have a slight chance, evne then getting something with 1060 would be a challenge for that 350~

Valves proprietary compatibility layer? Proprietary?

Steamdeck to a full blown laptop is apples to oranges

Proton isn't proprietary, it's licensed under the 3-clause BSD license. The Steam library APIs are proprietary but Epic could use Proton to port their games to Linux.

I use a Steam Deck with a mouse and keyboard in my monitor and just works perfect. You do have to do a little tinkering, specially for those free Epic games. But I wouldn’t buy a gaming laptop because those tend to be battery whores and will just kill portability.

The Steam Deck, while never has it been necessarily the ultimate gaming value, offers a unique proposition. Even before its release, one could frequently stumble upon deals under $500 featuring the equivalent of the current Nvidia 4050 and that year's I5, providing a better value in terms of performance. However, the true allure of the Steam Deck lies in its portability and the cool factor associated with handheld gaming. 🌻

There was one thing I want to understand and would love to see a video on it...., how does the upscaling (docking on TV) work for either steam deck or laptop ? Why does the game look sharp on SD but not TV?? Is the PS4 really as strong as the steam deck on big screen?

my rog strix g17 with the 3050ti and ryzon 7 5800h plays every game i want to play on medium high graphics. the only thing that hold me back are thermals. i would not call it portable but ive taken it to many places its fallen of a table waist height a few times. honestly its been through hell and it still works! its a beast. but for 2000 bucks i would buy something else imo on owning this for a year and a half

As somebody from the UK, I'd feel like a thief picking up a laptop with those specs at that price. That's a crazy bargain.

A good steam deck and tablet combo is cool i just wish i can connect for extra coding power

Deck would be perfect if vr worked on it you think vr works on this laptop? If so pls send me one

As long as it can play paradox titles and maybe the total war series then im good.

What sort of high end graphic games can you play on this laptop?

Believe it or not, anti-cheat IS compatible with Linux but, developers have to enable it for their games. Epic claims that they will never enable this feature some of their games. Such as Fortnite and others.

New sub 🙌👏

Yeah my only Use Case for a Laptop is to use it for Remote Desktopping into my Main Rig and with the Client side Parsec on the KDE Discovery App Store the SteamDeck fits that Niche Perfectly. Still need to Find a Program for Remoting into my PC's Linux side though since Parsec Host is only on Windows. Also no... windiws does notbjust work for all games. 14 year old Games like New Vegas, Skyrim and Fallout 3 and 4, Windows 10 and 11 have a Tendancy Confuse for Viruses and you have to Mod New Vegas to make it run right on 10. Meanwhile on Windows 7 New Vegas and Skyrim run mostly Fine and on the Steam Deck somewhat Better. On top of this as a Retro Gamer I know there are Games on Steam even that Require a Heavy amount of Modification to work on Windows 10 that run better on the Steam Deck. Like New Vegas. My Reccomendedation is this if you're looking for something versatile that you can work on a do some gaming on the Side. The Laptop is the Obvious Choice, you're probably playing Multiplayer Games with you're Friends because you know how Addictive Single Player Games cam be. If you're a Console Gamer looking to See what PC Gaming can Offer and you know you're Friends are not going to Leave Console and you mostly Play Single Player Games. You are the Steam Deck's Target Audience you're probably the Type still Playing Skyrim. Fallout 4 and New Vegas and are Courious about Modding. The Steam Deck is Designed to Introduce you to the Massive Steam Library while giving you a Console like Experience. Moding By the way Despite what has been Said its actually just as Easy on Linux to Mod Bethesda Games as it is on Windows, though you do have to Exclusively use Mod Organizer 2 Specifically the Linux version of Mod Organizer 2 on Github, getting Started is the Hard Part, but thats the Same on Windows, once you know what you're doing, you know what you're Doing and it becomes Easy. Though MO2 is the Optimal Modding Tool because it does not Directly Mod you're Games it Creates Virtual Instances so you don't have to Worry about Breaking the Base game and doing a full Install just Delete the Instance and Start over. Which BTW the Steam can run Fallout 4 on Ultra Settings... 4gb GPU equivalent APU... I just would not install Graphically Intensive mods like 4k Texture Packs or Extreme ENBs because of the Power Draw, though what you can get Skyrim and New Vegas Looking like with 4GB GPU. Though you do need to Know what Graphical Settings to Turn Off before using ENBs with New Vegas and Skyrim. With Fallout 4 you just need to Turn off Wetness and Water Occlusion.

Wouldnt be shocked if this is just a rebadged nitro 5. Also i own the Nitro 5 which is basicly this and its biggest weakness is its 4gb vram. That vram is most likely whats dropping it in price. Games are asking for 8 to 12 gb of Vram now, and though the 3050 can run most games now, its only if it has 8gb of vram.

I Gota acer nitro 5 laptop with GTX 1650 8gb ram that I've been using 3 years now daily. Jus picked up a 512gb steam deck during the anniversary sale. And a dbrand travel kit with digital camo skin. The steam deck is great and all but can't play ALL games you could ona PC. But all in all I love both my devices regardless

I prefer the mobility that a Steam Deck has, but it doesn’t up measure up well against even a laptop in terms of performance. Both can function as an Xbox, which is another plus.

After playing a few games on both steam deck and laptop , I have to say I prefer playing games on laptop even with less performance. The reason steam deck screen small and bad compared to my laptop .

I definitely feel you on the anecdote about writing the scripts in public. I too would have felt self conscience - I reckon myself a more anxious person tho

Can you use it for video editing and streaming vitubin D2 or D3

For people with stable jobs or doing well who can afford BOTH then there's no problem, but for someone like who barely afford one, which one is better for multitasking? Can I use steamdeck as a working station?for photoshop and making drawing with my tablet? Can it last longer for many years of overtime usage?

As someone who is all hands on deck. I can still see the usefulness of a gaming laptop if you still have one. but now I wouldn't buy a gaming laptop with having my steam deck sure not all games run on it but there sure a alot that do. Even unverified games do work you just gotta play with it. Yes at first the deck wasn't perfect but now it's nuts you don't even need a 3rd party app like EA desktop to run EA steam games straight on the deck been playing titanfall 2 for months and just got star wars battlefield 2 working. The steam deck is more about testing things out and constantly making adjustments to perfect your gaming experience. While I love my alienware laptop I only have it for games that just won't run on the deck but hey the deck does have a desktop mode and can be docked which opens up the true PC side of the deck. Deck for life 🤘🤘

I’m able to get a consistent 45 fps in RDR2 on medium with a few changes.

The Steam Deck can run CyberPunk at 60FPS with the VSync bug in Medium to high settings 720p

Funny, I’m about to buy my first SD oled 1tb using my skins to dual boot it and use as a laptop cause my lenovo legion 5 keyboard just died, and as a computer science student i would like to have a full keyboard but i can always pick a bt one, much better for portability, a 7 inch display is also too tiny, but as always i can pick a portable display, i like the fact that overall i can choose the configuration i want, yes it takes more time to setup, but u can always use it as is if u need w/o using much space, sending a mail, watching sone video, reading books, and all the additional gadgets u will buy as a keyboard a docking station or a screen are usable with every other laptop/pc also, so for me its a win win situation. Obviously i would never buy it as main pc but its still ok if u don’t need high end performances, also once u picked a good configuration of your laptop it’s very unlikely that u will ever upgrade, normally once u need to upgrade its time for a new device

Ryan Reynolds isn’t a Mint owner anymore. Sold it to T mobile back in March 😢

I have both a gaming laptop and a Steam Deck atm, and I'm not even gonna lie, I've completely stopped taking my laptop out of the house other than for class, and I primarily play games on PS5 (for AAA RPGs) and Steam Deck (for everything else) nowadays apart from a few things such as MMOs and stuff that's just better with a mouse. One of my fav things to do with the Steam Deck is take it to friends' places and dock it to the TV to play games together, which I used to do on my laptop too, but the Steam Deck just makes it so much easier. Something that really needs to be mentioned is that Windows laptops cannot really run games well in battery mode at all. Trying will lead to very low FPS, stuttering, and lots of glitching in my experience. You can't really use gaming laptops in your lap because they get so hot you can burn your skin, and you can't put them on top of fabrics because it's bad for the fans & temps. So you really need to be playing on a laptop table in your lap or at a desk. And yes, you need to have room for a mouse as well or bring along a controller. Gaming laptops also won't last as long as a Steam Deck will, that's just a simple fact of laptops in general, but the power of a gaming laptop tends to exacerbate it in my experience. 3 years in and my laptop's battery is so trash that I can't use it without a charger for more than maybe 40 minutes with light usage (and that's despite keeping battery preservation settings on to not let it go above 80% since I got it). If you're playing lighter games on a Steam Deck, you can expect up to 5 hours of battery life, and even more with the Steam Deck OLED. AAA games less so, but the fact you can easily use a portable charger or a lightweight wall charger (there are some way smaller than the default one that can even charge multiple devices) is such a big plus that it doesn't matter much to me. You'll be hard-pressed to find a normal laptop that supports USB-C charging in this price range, let alone a gaming one. Play any game on a gaming laptop, and you'll be lucky to make it through the hour while the performance is universally shit. Steam Deck on the other hand is consistent both plugged in and on battery. To be completely honest, I think the best option is to go for a desktop because they last practically forever and are far more upgradable. Unless you are a student or need a laptop for work, in which case I'd probably go with a lower end laptop paired with a Steam Deck. Gaming laptops only really last 4 hours max on lightweight usage (when they're new and the battery hasn't worn), and it's never long enough for those types of tasks really. Windows also likes to forget to switch to low-powered battery modes on gaming laptops, and you don't realise until your battery is dead after an hour. In terms of modding, I think this really depends on what games you play. Personally, I'm finding a lot of mods are starting to directly support Linux since the Steam Deck came out, which is amazing! In many cases, others can be modded by first installing the files on Windows and copying the install over to Linux. I've managed to mod Minecraft (with shaders. Runs natively on Linux), FFXIV (direct mod support for Linux), Sims 3 & 4 (Steam version of 4 + pirated DLC, which had native Linux files to do the installation), and FFVI (by copying over my modded version from Windows). Gonna attempt FFVII next 'cause I've heard wind of those modders improving Linux support. The main thing I've failed to get working is Reshade, tho there is a Linux port of it. Just haven't gotten it working personally.

Steam deck is literally a monster. I often have to pinch myself while playing it. Any handheld that plays PS5 caliber titles on low settings can't be touched. My entire lifes game library is playable on steam deck as well.

In this handheld vs laptop I'd rather go with the laptop just for the simple design overall since i don't like the design of the steam deck whatsoever. Wouod the laptop be able to run GTA v online smoothly enough?

I haven't heard gateway for like 20 years 😮

I play about an hour or two in bed so steam deck it is

I have both of them + high-end gaming PC, because i want to!

What pisses me off is laptops havent even budged over these new handhelds. I feel like at this point im just forced to go the handheld route. Its more competitive between the Steamdeck, Legion Go and Asus Rog Ally then it is across all 10+ laptop vendors.

so your telling my Jesus from microcenter gave you this laptop instead of the open box version ? damn

so if I have a notebook with a 3070 and another one with 3080, does that mean they are already quite faster than a Steam Deck OLED?

Got the Steamdeck OLED 1TB, but now that ive seen this video im more interested in that Wargreymon build :)

Nothing beats a bigger screen, keyboard and mouse for precision.

At the end of the day we would all be on a PC we can enjoy games together 😌

proton is not a proprietary compatibility layer. It is open source

I don’t even touch my desktop anymore. The Steam Deck gives me the feel of playing on my DS as a kid while playing all the games in my Steam library.

So the thing that I noticed is that you never went into the desktop mode that the steam deck has. I know people that use there steam deck at work as there main computer and they take it home to keep working. When they want to take 30 mins or so they can play games. I know for a fact that you can watch tv shows and videos on the steam deck on the desktop mode. I just think you are under mining the some of the other things that it can do.

I think the more appropriate question would be which is better option when you already have a main computer for non gaming activities.

Props for using the steam deck as a computer in public.

Damn those specs on thwt laptop are a steal for under 400

honestly, even tho im not gonna buy it anytome soon, i went for Deck because i already had pc.

Does anyone knows where to get this cow wallpaper in the laptop?

if you cant get those games to work on the steam deck then you dont need to own a steam deck, several work arounds including dual booting the device, windows works flawlessly on the deck now just an FYI

6:02 if you get a Lenovo Legion go you can remove the controllers and look a bit more professional

only problem with the gaming laptop, is that god dam weight

both when i want to game on the go steam deck when i want more performance razer blade 14 laptop

Background music name please?

Ill choose laptop and gaming phone. Im not that glued to games whenever I'm outside the house.

paused it at start of video to see if i can guess what gpu is in a 400 laptop and my guess is rtx3050 ima press play and see!

I dont see the appeal of gaming laptops personally, they are too heavy and require too much when im on the go. You can grab both the cheapest Steam Deck for 399 and a cheap Gateway 14.1 Ultra Slim(i5-1135G7 16gb with Intel Iris iGPU) from walmart compared to a good gaming laptop. Laptops are laptops, they are best when they are the lightest and last the longest in terms of battery, anything that compromises a lot on those 2 are a big no for me. Gaming laptops require you to bring a mouse and then have to set it on top of something like a desk to even function, that will drain your battery in under 2 hours when gaming. That just doesnt sound like a good experience or fun to me. That Gateway 14.1 I mentioned also punches above it weight class too, you can even do light gaming on the side which makes it even more valuable while not compromising what a laptop is suppose to be for. Like if I want a great pc gaming experience, im going to be doing it at home with a powerful pc and a good monitor or tv. More power to those who crane their necks playing over their gaming laptops though i guess lol, because if your going to spend that money on a gaming laptop to play at a desk, especially if you plug in a monitor and mouse... why dont you just spend that on an actual pc at that point.

What happens when a joystick breaks or drifts. Does it just become a brick?

You gotta redo it again now that we have afmf

well it also depends on the games you gonna play