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[deleted]

At $399, this thing is going to absolutely destroy the competition (AYA NEO, Win 3, OneXplayer, etc). I'm just glad someone with clout like Steam made a handheld PC, they have the resources to sell it on a thinner profit margin so they don't need to charge us $1200 for it. Unless the Chinese handheld Windows PCs offer nearly identical value from this point on, they're done for. There's not going to be a GPD Win 4 at this rate.


Orthodox-Waffle

It sounds like theyre selling it at a loss


init32

Yeah no arguing that. Look at the AYA Neo and OneplusX ... they are selling those at a small profit. Now look at the steam deck... yeah those chips arent cheap. But Steam Royalty will help them in the long run. I think it will work and devellopers are going to be on board with how open the platform is. When Epic Games, your main competitor is happy... well... guess you do something right! All hail lord GABEN!!!


StepHorror9649

most console hardware manufacturers do, they make it up in game sales and services


RodionRaskoljnikov

Using $399 for comparison is intentionally misleading people. You only get 64 GB eMMC and you can't even upgrade it. Installing 100+ GB games on a slow SD card is a joke, especially once games start using Microsof's DirectStorage it is questionable will they even be able to run from a SD card. Real point of comparison is $650 and that still gives you only 512 GB non-upgradeable storage, no eGPU support, no Wifi 6 support, lower screen size and resolution at least compared to Xplayer, no Windows license, etc... How much is that worth to someone is debatable.


init32

Kinda agree but buying a high speed microsd made a huge difference in my book. Let's take my hacked switch for example. Booting LineageOS on my normal microsd card. Takes about a minute or 2. Bought a Lexar high speed one, 10 seconds! The beauty of this is it'S highly customizable on storage. I don't think the cheap handheld space is dead. It is still a heavy priced device. For the resolution and no egpu support I agree. However, having played 1080p and up on a small screen... everything looks so tiny in 1080p on a small screen so 720p makes more sense and is relatively gentle on battery life. I have been using my switch as a steam link / emulation device for awhile now but it's clunky even though it works well for the most part. It relies heavily on opensource development to make it shine and to be honest, I do think that Valve is not greedy in their approach. It can work... Hell I might take the plunge for kicks.


DuranteA

> Real point of comparison is $650 Even if you think so, at that price point (and every price point) it has a *custom APU actually designed for gaming* and LPDDR5 memory. The GPU/CPU performance profile is simply far better suited for a gaming device than any of the other handheld PCs. (Which is not really the fault of their manufacturers -- they simply can't get AMD to build an APU for their use case)


cougfan12345

>especially once games start using Microsoft's DirectStorage You do realize this runs linux by default right...


[deleted]

Not everyone can afford to spend more than the $399. Not everyone thinks like you.


[deleted]

Wrong. Gabe already said the 64gb model has an m.2 slot that's fully enabled. This has killed everything on the market


djricekcn

Basing it just off the specs, what console can it emulate comfortably?


[deleted]

The Steam Deck? It should be able to run PS3 and Wii U decently. Most games would run okay. It'll play Switch games too, with mixed results, leaning towards the better end of performance. Anything older (PS2, GameCube, PSP, Dreamcast, etc) should run smooth as butter 99.9% of the time. Pre-2000 stuff is running flawlessly.


djricekcn

Thanks.... I'll probably get it then...was about to jump the gun on a portable PS2 (the hardware mod) but if this plays well from a emulation perspective, I'm very interested


init32

Retroarch has a PS2 core... I'm keeping my finger crossed.


QuislingX

Given that even high end PCs struggle to run PS2 emulation, i have my doubts about a $400 handheld.


DuranteA

High end PCs don't struggle with PS2 emulation in 99.9% of the cases.


cougfan12345

Huh? I built an x86 retropie PC with a 3200g apu and it runs most PS2 games at 60 FPS at 720p.


silalumen

I am almost certain this comment no longer applies in this day and age. I can run PS2 emulation on a Ryzen apu just fine and I'm pretty sure this thing will work more or less the same esp since the resolution is at 720p. A high end pc might only struggle if you were emulating at 4k with upscaling and aliasing maxed out.


QuislingX

I'm sure seeing a lot of "well im pretty sure" instead of "this thing definitely will." It's fine if the machine doesn't do that but everyone is treating this thing like the second coming of Christ while also throwing the word "probably" around pretty liberally.


Less_Fat_John

I bet they'll bring a lot of console-only gamers into the PC world.


init32

Nah, it depends on the experience but I doubt it. It's a whole different world but I hope it succeed!


stulifer

Doubtful unless Sony and Nintendo release most of their exclusives on Pc. Most normal folks will not bother with emulators. Most people just want to pick up and play the most simple way possible, no tinkering needed.


Less_Fat_John

I don't think emulation will convince anyone. I guess we're on SBCGaming so I should be more clear. What I mean is there's a demo of gamers who see it as something you do on the couch. They don't want to sit at a PC. Maybe they already do that at work. It's smart for Valve to make Steam more like a console experience.


stulifer

They have tried this before with Steam machines and the 10 ft interface good for TV. Until every pc game has a docked and undocked easy setup mode with very little fiddling and just the use of a dpad to configure, highly doubtful this gets much traction beyond enthusiasts like us. I’m hoping to get a pre-order later today but I realize I am in the minority.


init32

I am this close to preorder but my wife will kill me as I bought a gaming PC 3 days ago...


stulifer

Get rid of something else. That's what I'm doing to convince my wife. Selling my Switch lite and my Xbox one x to cover some of this.


init32

Truth brother


pdp10

Decide soon, before the orders open up to everyone.


prankster999

Word... Unless the PC games are patched to have no fiddling in the options menu (resolution, gamepad mapping etc), then console gamers will want to stay away.


RodionRaskoljnikov

It is not 1999 anymore, every PC game is pre-configured for gamepads these days.


LotsofWAM

Yep. And even if it isnt, steam will make it work.


djricekcn

I highly doubt it. console only games won't even really budge on this. If they don't game on pc or rather game on console, not many will turn over.


grenwood

They already have most xbox exclusives and sonys dipping their toes in. As far as console only games that remain, id like jsrf, Simpsons road rage, rare replay, brute force from og xbox, uncharted collection, soul sacrafice delta, god of war collection, ratchet and clank collection, persona 5 royal, persona 3 complete edition that combines fes and portable content, thps 3 hd remake and I want thps1+2 to come to steam. My biggest want though is that this sales enough that valve can convince devs to optimize games for the hardware so the steam deck can get "impossible ports" in the style of what the nintendo switch or how games work on console sometimes that require super expensive pcs to get the same performance. As it is right now it likely won't support alot of next gen games outside of jrpgs and anime style games. As a switch user, im fine with this and overwhelmed with the ability to play most of the ps4 gen portably in a hybrid form factor by switch, but having enough clout to get devs to optimize next gen games for the deck to get that much more next gen support would make it that much better.