Early Steam Deck previews praise performance, but question comfort
The first round of previews of Valve‘s Steam Deck have dropped, and with them comes praise for the handheld’s performance, but some questions over the comfort over long term use.
LinusTechTips, a YouTube channel boasting almost 15 million subscribers, began this preview by highlighting the Steam Deck’s various control options, which include two thumbstick, a D-pad and 2 touch pads.
“While I can reach every button comfortably from a neutral, relaxed position, I do find a number of them a little awkward to use.”
He continued “it’s a small price to pay for the unprecedented input flexibility afforded by Valve’s design” and would later praise the joysticks as “miles ahead of every other handheld I have touched, with the exception of the Aya Neo Next”.
According to the Valve’s embargo, those with preview units are allowed to talk about 7 games – Forza Horizon 5, Control, Dead Cells, Ghostrunner, Devil May Cry 5, Portal 2 and Street Fighter V: CE.
They were not allowed to mention anything about the system’s OS.
The included charging cable also appears to be an issue. It doesn’t appear to be very long, and as Linus points out in his separate unboxing video, as the charging port on the machine is at the top, users might want to order a replacement, longer USB type-C cable if they’re interested in playing with the machine in an area that isn’t close to an outlet.
Performance appears to be the Steam Deck’s strong point. Control, when running on low (which is the Steam Deck preset) runs consistently at near 60 fps. Devil May Cry 5 manages even more impressive performance, with a frame rate of over 80fps consistently achievable on the machine.
Forza Horizon 5, however, doesn’t seem to perform quite as strongly. “The animation stays true to
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