Steam Deck review: it’s not ready

theverge.com:

Both of these things are true:

First, I’m having more fun with the Steam Deck than any gadget I’ve tested in years.

Second, the Steam Deck is a mess. It’s rushed, unfinished, buggy, and unstable. If Valve sold the console I’ve been playing at Best Buy or GameStop, people would return it in droves.

Of course, Valve isn’t stocking this $400 handheld gaming PC at Best Buy. The maker of Half-Life and Portal is trickling it out directly to devout fans of Steam, the platform that pioneered the idea of selling “early access” games before they’re actually complete. Remember when Valve let an unknown developer sell a broken, buggy game called PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds in early access? It changed the world. The bugs didn’t outweigh the fact that its unproven formula was uniquely fun — to the point that PUBG, its clones, and the games it inspired (including Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Apex Legends) rank among the most popular titles around the globe.

The Steam Deck has a unique formula, too. It’s a Linux computer that plays Windows games like a Nintendo Switch with unheard-of bang for the buck. And just like PUBG, a game I played for 452 hours despite glitches, I can’t get enough.

Welcome to the early access game console. There will be bugs.

Let’s get one thing out of the way: it’s easy to look at pictures of the Steam Deck, see a Nintendo Switch, and imagine yourself magically playing a gigantic library of PC games that “just work” without messing with graphics settings or controls.

That’s not the Steam Deck that exists today — and not just because the Steam Deck is an absolute chonk that can practically fit a Switch between its grips. (It reminded me a little of Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer swallowing Princess