Steam Deck, one month later

theverge.com:

Love it or hate it, fail or succeed, the Steam Deck will go down in gadget history. It’s a bold attempt to make PC gaming more portable and affordable than ever before, an ultimate gadget with exotic features and infinitely customizable controls, and perhaps the most powerful gaming PC ever sold for a mere $400.

But it also shipped incomplete. We titled our February 28th review “Steam Deck: it’s not ready” — even though I also called it the most fun I’ve had in years.

One month and many updates later, has anything changed? Yes and no!

Here’s what I learned spending another month with the Steam Deck, as well as the answers to many burning questions I wasn’t able to address in our original review.

Consider this our Steam Deck FAQ.

It’s a Linux gaming PC that runs many but not all Windows games, on the go like a Nintendo Switch, only with way more horsepower, shorter battery life, and a seriously noisy fan.

Or, optionally, it’s a Windows gaming PC that runs more games — but often poorly — without as much portability, without speakers, and a whole bunch of other weirdness because Valve isn’t officially supporting Windows on Deck.

I’ll talk about Windows more later, but TL;DR: I don’t recommend Windows on Deck at all.

How noisy is that fan?

Here, take a listen!

It doesn’t exactly overpower the Deck’s excellent speakers, and I don’t think it’d be audible over the noise of an airplane, and my wife hasn’t kicked me out of bed for repeatedly playing Elden Ring past midnight — yet.

Isn’t it… heavy to hold above your head in bed?

It’s no Nintendo Switch, that’s for sure, and at 1.47 pounds, I tend to lie on my stomach and play it prone instead. The USB-C port’s on the top, so you can still charge it that way.

I have held