What's great about the steam deck is that it's the culmination of everything valve has done the past few years, the steam controller , the steam big picture ui and proton/Linux support. Even if this doesn't take off it'll accelerate Linux gaming and steam as a whole

Putting that robot to work by the looks of that intro

Being able to play any of these massive games off of a micro SD card is probably the most mind blowing thing to me

Valve have actually made great hardware, the steam machines being the exception (which weren't actually made by valve). The steam link was sold off because it became obsolete with the steam link apps, and the steam controller was sold off due to a lawsuit. You left out the vive and the index, both of which were among the best VR headsets for their time.

When talking Valve hardware literally EVERYONE leaves out the Index VR which is amazing.

I love how Marques still does his 2-person skits by himself even though he now has multiple people working with him 😂

One year later and this thing still explodes in popularity. One, if not the best console I've ever bought. I got a ps5, series x, switch and a high end gaming pc and they're pretty much collecting dust since I got the deck. It works so good. With the community and a bit of tweaking you will get almost any game to work. There are things like Lutris, Bottles, Herotic Launcher that get things working with almost no affort at all. So much good features like bluetooth headphones (looking at you switch) right out of the box. Valve is constantly updating this thing and it still gets better. Being able to play a lot of my favorite games everywhere I want is so valueable. Not even mention that this thing is an emulation powerhouse. With emudeck you can play almost ever console (even switch) with most of the time better performance than on the original console. So a big win for the deck. Cheers!

Valve has been big in the hardware scene… they’re leading the pack in the high end VR market…

If you're seeing 'latency' issues i can only assume its a game specific issue with the proton. It certainly wouldn't be a storage speed issue

Wish you also talked about its repair-ability which sets is apart from most of tech-hardware companies. This is also one of the reasons why a lot of people are supporting / rooting for the steam deck.

What i like about the deck is how everyone in the community can contribute with fixes and community layouts. I even found some for non steam games, like the controller layout for Pokemon uranium.

You very quickly glossed over the fact that it is the cheapest gaming PC you can buy today, as a small form factor computer it is incredible value for money

You kind of did valve a disservice for not mentioning the valve index. That one's arguably the best VR headset.

It isn't exactly fair to say valve hasn't been successful in hardware, they've done a very good job in VR. The index is the best selling headset out there other then the quest

The sticks also recognize you touching them, which is a technology from the Valve Index Controllers. This is used so you can touch them and then use the gyroscope of the Deck to slightly adjust aim for example.

Would have been nice to touch on the tuning options for improved battery life. You can greatly improve battery life simply by locking FPS to 30 and reducing power.

Hey Marques, just wanted to let you know that the delay you’re experiencing has to do with locking your frame rate to 30 fps with the overall settings menu rather than the game menu. Something I’ve notice when I has testing out my deck.

Here's the best part: It's repairable and you OWN the device. It does not belong to Valve unlike most other devices you showcase. It's repairable. It has swappable thumbsticks.

I started recently learning english. You have the very good pronunciation. I can catch every word that you say without subs. Its very nice to find a youtuber like you)

The steam controller may not have had the best interface, but for what it did, it was amazing. The steam link is purely amazing though. It’s like a super chromecast. It’s really amazing what you can do with it, and it’s dead simple to set up.

Steam Deck is definitely worth it from a tinkering perspective as well, I give much respect to valve for not locking down the software/hardware but also encouraging the community to use it as a blank slate if you wish. Hope it sticks around :)

1:36 While true for the Steam Controller and Link, you're leaving out the Valve Index, which is truly a stellar piece of hardware. It's the Index in particular that got me interested in the Deck.

I think it's slightly unfair to question valve hardware's ability to "last" at least with the steam link. I still regularly see it getting updates from Valve. I suspect they would mostly be security related (keeping certs up to date and updating kernal etc) but they put in the effort to keep it running, and let you build your own with explicit Raspberry Pi support. It has seen UI and usability improvements too though not as recently, but still well after it went out of production. Out of production now and commercially non viable to produce at the time of it's creation? Yeah. But also, probably ahead of it's time. Look how prevalent things like Amazon Fire sticks and similar are now.

The title should have said: "This SteamDeck review is Incomplete"

Just for the record, the steam link still gets updates today and the steam controller is absolutely still supported by Valve including a semi-recent update for the firmware enabling using it with just bluetooth.

valve has been supporting, manufacturing, and selling the Valve Index for 3 or so years now, I think the Steam Deck is going to be the same

Incomplete ?! It's as complete as you are willing to put work into it

Yo, that intro was next level. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard it was to make those robot moves match perfectly with a cut to for the two marques’

The delay could be related to vsync being enabled. Try disabling it in each game or if the steam deck has it enabled in the performance menus.

It blows my mind that we went from storing hundreds of games on external hard drives to being able to store them onto tiny Micro SD Cards. Technology is goddamn beautiful.

When he talks about the battery life lasting around 2 hours, that's because he's playing very intense/complex games. The battery does last 4-6 hours if you play older/smaller/simpler games that don't max out the CPU/GPU.

Love too see the twins make the intro now and then, those robot shots are soo nice and precise.

Valve isn't known for making a ton of great hardware? They make the Index VR headset which is still one of the best HMDs on the market, and they were mostly responsible for the success of the first Vive HMD... not to mention Valve (Chief Architect Alan Yates) designed the entire lighthouse based tracking system hardware which essentially got VR going, and the first OEM finger tracking controllers... I'd say they are very well known for making great hardware.

THAT ZOLLY INTRO SHOT THO

No mention of the Desktop mode? No mention of the Valve Index? This review is incomplete but "fun"!

As a kid my first computer was a ZX Spectrum and now we have arrived at the Steam Deck. It's amazing how far we've come! I love my Steam Deck. I understand when you say it's not for everyone, but the tinkering in Linux and the way you can go in and adjust things at a much better level than you'll be able to do with other consoles, gives it an extra dimension. My Steam Deck is attached to me at the hip since it arrived and for the price it's an amazingly fun device!

If valve is able to pack this much stuff in that form factor, imagine how powerful a portable VR made by them would be

Glad Valve is so open to users truly making their Steam Deck their own, going so far as to have disassembly guides and making Windows Drivers in case you want to install that.

Even though the steamdeck has been out for a while now, I appreciate how Marques is still able to produce a refreshing take on the product!

I love how cinematic the intro is

Everytime people talk about Valves hardware, they seem to forget about the Index, which is still one of the best PCVR headsets out there, nearly 3 years after it's release. Also, the Steam controller was actually pretty great, but it sadly did not sell well enough.

7:36 no shoes on the couch!!

I think the best thing about the steam deck especially if you’re a PC player is that your progress on most games will be transferred over to the steam deck via cloud saving

It's like the Elden Ring of Tech. A culmination of past experiences then wrapping them all up in one package. Not perfect but also way waaaay better than the majority of what we've seen so far.

I'm excited that you are enjoying the Steam Deck! It's definitely changed the way I approach handheld gaming.

While Steam Machines were a huge fail, Steam Controllers and Link were absolutely amazing, and pretty cheap too.

Been waiting for your Deck review to drop. Well done and Thx!

... How the F does this Channel have more complex camera work and cinematography than most commercials/ Music videos/ TV?!? Wild. Keep up the great work!

Big thing for me with steam deck is that I have two kids and a wife. I’m a huge gamer and I do get a decent amount of time gaming at my desk, but with the deck my kids could be playing at the park or back yard or even in the living room watching movies and playing games of their own. We can all do that together as a family with the bonus of me having my steam library. I almost always prefer to buy games on steam because of my gaming pc for one. Mods for two. While I think getting mods to work on deck will likely be annoying. It does mean that I will buy a lot more games on steam to play them unmodded whenever and then at night when it’s time to play at my desk. I pick up where I left off.

I'd take this with "half the games don't work" over a $1000+ ones. This is an absolute steal.

Oh my god that intro sequence was so well done

I'm glad he said there's not a lot of people that he would actually recommend this to. Maybe then I can get my hands on one, like the rest of the world wants too. I'm curious though, who are these "people, that he wouldn't recommend this too?"

Video used to be titled "I Love the Terrible SteamDeck!"

I got mine yesterday, absolutely loving it so far. Most of the games I played get an estimated 3 hours but 2 of them get 6 hours so I’m happy about that

7:35 😂 Bro don't gaf about that sofa!

congrats marques! and thanks. For the MKBHD merch store. Its growing into a brand 😂 like the new stuff seems BETTER than anything else on the market as if its trying to catch something new

the steam controller was AMAZING though! and their vr department is doing good work still

It’s low key frustrating when a detractor from the deck is that “some PC games don’t play as nice on a handheld”. Like no shit? The devs didn’t originally intended it to be a handheld game to begin with. Not to mention how rapidly steam is incorporating new titles to be compatible (and devs giving their games controller support). IMO people who think the deck will act as a comparable replacement for a 2k setup either don’t know enough about either and need to do more research.

Recently purchased one of these and I'm really happy with it! The caveat is that I'm a huge linux fan and I already have a steam library of 500ish games and about 100 of them are steam deck verified. It also has some issues that are far from game breaking but it does reflect that this is a gen 1 device with a TON of features still being polished.

Mine finally arrived last month, absolutely loving this thing!!

That intro is why they bought that camera robot. Flawless, crisp, and MKBHD Studio-unique

Its easy to laugh off valves previous hardware attempts but when you look back at it they genuinely have a good track record. Index - Goes without saying, one of if not the best consumer vr headset kit out there. Controller- Much loved by a niche community for the accesbility and customization it brought to the table, was actually on sale for quite a number of years, good build quality, likely getting a succesor at some point. Link- bit under the radar but one of the best ways of game streaming, seems to work better than any other local in house game streaming app ive used whether thats xbox's or playstations and the dedicated hardware unit like this seems to run flawlessly even compared to the steam link appletv app and android tv apps. steam machines were more of a software thing iirc as they were basically licensing out steamos to alienware and so on to make them, not that that excuses them, they definitely were a failure, but i think when you look at it valves track record with hardware isnt bad at all.

that intro.... wow. just wow. you guys amaze me every time!!!!!!!!

That intro scene was amazing.

Appreciate the review! Will add for hardware: The Valve Index was the sold completely out of inventory after Half Life: Alyx released in 2019 and was critically acclaimed as a premium product. Also the steam machines weren't technically Valve hardware - Valve handled the software for the operating system but let different PC manufacturing partners (such as Alienware) create their own hardware configurations using standard PC components, which is arguably part of the reason why it failed (no set hardware targets to make any games for, just rebranding of more limited machines paired with a new linux-based OS). Between the Steam Controller, Steam Link, and Valve Index, they've had what I would call a mixed record. The Steam Controller is disliked by the majority but well liked by a niche audience of those that play RTS or other titles not condusive to analogue sticks and wanted a controller option. Those who play FPS/Racing/Platformer/Fighting games or anything else with strafe-style movement tended to dislike the experience or noted a very long learning curve in adjusting to a trackpad, which while more precise in fine movements than analgue sticks needed to reset positions like a mouse. The Steam Link was great for those that wanted an out-of-the-box solution for PC streaming but cheaper and better options were available at the time and built-in functionality for Windows 10 and 11 have made it possible to stream to many devices without the need for dedicated hardware. The Index was quite well received overall and arguably one of the best performing tethered-headsets you can buy today, but extremely expensive compared to similar products in a market where the average gamer would prefer a cheaper and untethered option at the cost of performance. Aspects of all four of these initiatives are present in the Steam Deck - the option for trackpad controls, the excellent stick design from the Index, the software needed for built in PC streaming from a gaming PC to the deck and the OS from the largely failed steam machines that can push players to their storefront and keep costs for the initial purchace down despite the hardware it is packing. That said, it is a niche product (like all of their hardware so far) from a company that has (to my knowledge) never released a second model of their hardware that improves on their designs.

The cool thing is that Valve has been transparent about the whole process. They seem committed to Linux gamming.

It's the INTRO for me!!! Just AWESOME!

Dude that intro was on another level!

The PSP needs to do a serious comeback. Hand-held consoles aren't what it uses to be.

The biggest part of the Steam Deck for me is definitely what the community can do with it

Love the valve vr controller in the back. Great detail!

>complains about battery life >Hud is reading unlocked 900fps

I've had my deck for a couple of weeks now, and it's definitely not perfect. It has some major software issues, there are issues even with games marked as compatible and such - but holy cow is it a cool piece of tech. It has also vastly improved since I got it, with fairly significant software updates. I'm a tinkerer, and am comfortable messing around with settings to get things to work - but Valve absolutely has some ground to cover to make this suitable for the larger masses. They absolutely can though, because this thing is sublime. This is true portable gaming, in a way that a laptop never could be.

The battery life definitely depends on the game and settings. My half life 2 and CIV games lasts about 4-5 hours. GTA V about 3 hours. Yes if you play a triple AAA, 60 fps, high setting, max wattage use, then the battery would drain to 2 hours. I can imagine playing stardew valley, card game, etc, lasting 6-8 hours.

Thanks again for such a great review, this would be great for busy people who can take it out and relax for a while with gaming when they have time. Lets hope more games work on this! I also love the customer service from steam, it is great they actually provide many updates and are working on getting more games for us to play.

just because it's discontinued doesn't mean their hardware wasn't successful; the valve index is still one of the most popular VR headsets outside of the FB ecosystem; I sure hope someone else wrote this script because this was a weird video.

I hope this takes off, imagine a second generation of this, i’d buy it for sure. Maybe only because i’ll have enough money by then lol

Interesting to watch an MKBHD review in 2022 on a 'first-gen' piece of tech. Going back to those issues around battery life, compatibility issues, hot & loud fans and so on that we take for granted as solved in most of the tech we use today. Steam Deck v2 (or v3, or mini) seem like the ones that will break into the mainstream.

I've found that for FPS games (and other aiming-heavy titles), using gyro is a dream. Taking some time to get it perfect for you is totally worth it for games like Wolfenstein or Max Payne

I really liked the tone of this video. Reminded me of older videos where marques seemed slightly more enthusiastic/excited about the new tech.

I disagree with him saying "there's not a lot of people in that group" when talking about wanting to play your steam library anywhere. The appeal to a PC gamer is the same appeal the switch has, being able to play on the go. I would say the Steam Deck is appealing to most PC gamers

The Video Cinematography and editing is getter better every time Marques' posts and i am all here for it. Much love.

Wow that scene in the beginning was just awesome!

Top notch effects as usual. Gonna have to send some coins your way man..love the work

My primary gaming genre on PC is visual novels, which I know are also on the switch, but the selection is greater on PC. I’m excited to be able to play some of my favorite VNs portably (a Windows tablet could run them, but ergonomics and lack of mouse controls make it less than ideal), plus I love tinkering on Linux, so this’ll be fun when mine arrives this fall. :)

I think this is appealing to those who only use Mac, always want to play PC games but don't bother to buy a separate PC or installing parallel windows on their Mac ... pretty niche group, but that's exactly the group I'm in

If you put the Deck in desktop mode u can play any game on steam. It's literally a portable laptop running steam os that can be used handheld, with Bluetooth/ wired controller or mouse and board. It's awesome and I love it

I swear I live for those intros. I missed them so much.

Marques: "Valve isn't exactly known for making a ton of great hardware...." Valve Index Devs: "Are we a joke to you!?" The Index is arguably the best VR headset on the market (performance wise).

I just realized the title changed

That intro was amazing!

That camera angle zoom in thing @ 0:12 was clean

The production values of this video really show you how far content on this site has come since the early days.

I kinda reject the notion that valve hasnt made good hardware. They fail at adoption but usually the hardware itself is pretty good.

this title changes show a character growth, first was "terrible but loveble" and now it is no longer terrible

your videos are so quality, like even the intro.

Personally, I'd love a piece of tech that's rarer than a gpu as well

Marquese Is the type of person that would fart and then say bless you.

I know I’m late on this but I’m kind of excited because I don’t have a gaming PC anymore and only have a switch. We all know how limited the game library is for Nintendo eShop. I think this will be nice to have because that would mean I could play games both in the PC library but also PlayStation and Xbox that got ported to PC

Helpful info. I'd been looking at the SteamDeck but didn't know enough to take the chance on spending the money.