Steam Deck review: A strong start to an exciting new hardware category for game devs

gamedeveloper.com:

Valve's ambitious Steam Deck is now officially on the market and it's one of the most interesting, borderline magical, pieces of game hardware available today, laying the groundwork for a new hardware category for game developers to reach players.

When Valve originally announced the Steam Deck last summer, the exciting concept was tempered by Valve's spotty history with game hardware. Skeptical game developers compared the Deck to the Valve's "Steam Machines" effort, in which the company partnered with third-party hardware makers to facilitate a line of out-of-the-box Steam-friendly PCs that were meant to act more like consumer-friendly plug-and-play game consoles. That program fizzled out, but Valve was still committed to making open source hardware using an open-source OS, and now we have the Deck.

But even compared to Valve's collaboration on the HTC Vive—especially the first version of Vive—the Steam Deck is easily the most polished hardware Valve has released to date. With Steam Deck, the company seems to have found a balance between its desire to continuously improve a product or service in front of an audience while still providing a level of finish that won't make customers feel like they're part of an expensive beta test.

It's not difficult to imagine that Valve really has met its stated goal of creating a new category of hardware here: the handheld gaming PC.

There are handheld gaming PCs out there, but where Steam Deck pricing opens at $399, the existing handheld PC options are 2x-3x more expensive, often with poorer performance. Steam Deck's aggressive pricing combined with its ease of use for game developers and players are just a couple factors that point to Steam Deck being a legitimate long-term business.

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