I had an old MSI gaming laptop from 2016 which was amazing for me (I always had slow, 2nd hand laptops before) and now I’ve sold it and my PS Vita in order to buy a Steam Deck. I want to play Elden Ring, the Souls series, Sekiro and some indie games like Vampire Survivor. I also want to emulate games (Gameboy gen up to PS2 gen). Would that be a good investment or should I just go for a PC? I travel frequently because of my job.
Sounds like a Steam Deck would be perfect for you tbh. Unless you are planning to play some rather intensive games, you probably don’t need a PC.
You won’t be getting 60fps in Elden Ring most of the time and as time moves on, there will be more and more games that won’t hit 60fps on the steam deck but can still be played. Starfield is a notable example.
If you aren’t bothered by that, go for it.
The deck is an absolute beast for indie games and the controls are incredibly good, so you can play stuff like factorio almost as well as with a mouse. If you fly often, factorio alone could make the deck worth it. They call it cracktorio for a reason, it just makes time fly.
I haven’t emulated much, but emudeck made it super easy (I’d almost say foolproof) for SNES and C64. Wii games are a bit of a pain because of the controls, but older stuff is generally fine.
I don’t have to play games on ultra 8k 4trillion fps. I could barely run Dark Souls 3 on lowest settings on my old laptop. So I’m happy if it runs well and looks okay
IMO 40 with some drops is your best bet. My experience is that the drops are mostly during exploration and not in combat. I don’t think I’ve been killed because of drops.
Forcing 30 adds noticeable input lag.
Visually, it’s technically not impressive once you get the performance where it should be, but I think the design looks really good. There are spots, especially in some of the castle/dungeon like areas, where you can look over a ledge and recognize all the stuff you just climbed and battled through that really give the whole thing a beautiful sense of scale.
I would also argue the new portable from said company emulates incredibly well on most titles.
What you have listed is perfectly fine for the steamdeck, you can load in plex and spotify as flatpaks and then add them as a non-steam program to broaden it’s useful ness when away.
Neat! (As a non-Steam Deck owner but eyeing with desire) I hadn’t thought about putting Plex on it.
As a fellow traveler, a Steam Deck is an absolute game changer
Oh yeah I bring my steam deck with me on all my work trips (and fun ones too ofc). It’s makes work trips much more bearable.
It’s much easier to carry around compared to a laptop, less heat, you can use it on a plane all the time without being cramped, you can play it a few minutes, switch it to standby and then resume later whenever you have a few minutes more…
Steam Deck is excellent for work travel. Easy to set up and play in bed at a hotel.
I’m in a long distance relationship and regularly go 4h by train
The Steamdeck is so worth it if you travel regularly
Steamdeck will be a good replacement for a gaming laptop and less expensive. Mine is 1 year old. Almost every games work well on Linux thank to Valve and Wine, i don’t see any problems with your games. And you can emulate old game on Linux but i never tried it.
There is some issue :
- you can’t play Kenshi, City Skyline. You will need a dock, keyboard and maybe a bigger screen.
- Some game use a launcher that will block ya from playing it. Hence why some player decide to install Windows. (Blame the editor, not Valve)
- The Steamdeck handle well AAA title but it will drain its battery quickly. Elden ring can last 2h i think.
And imho, you should never install Windows. Why ? To increase Linux market share. So game editor will work on their launcher and make them compatible with Linux. And there is plenty gaming console on Windows, lot PC on windows. Windows’s gamers have plenty options (ROG). So just for this one, we should accept the Steamdeck as a Linux gaming machine, for once.
Well worth it given your use cases.
I’d definitely utilize Proton DB to figure out what games work well on the Steam Deck. The verified badge on steam doesn’t usually give an accurate assessment of what will play well on it.
I have had great times with my Deck, I picked up the 256 GB and upgraded with a 1TB MicroSD. I have to say, as hardware goes, it’s quite solid. It’s also very easy to get into the Linux backend and set it up for emulation and other side loading, and it does 6th Gen and back reasonably well, with a couple forward for the Nintendo line. I haven’t tried it myself but as I understand it, it’s a reasonably good build even for the switch. I’m not usually a device fanboy but I’m actually looking forward to the next iteration.
As for high performance, I can verify for Elden Ring, as with pretty much all of the modern titles, it runs at a steady 30 FPS 720p, with the occasional dip. If you fly long flights a lot, it’s great - just be cognizant of the low battery life and run on AC where you can.
I got one for my wife last Christmas, but our 19-year-old daughter countermanded it, and has something like 15000 hours logged, while maintaining a near-perfect GPA.
So apparently it works.
I bought an external travel monitor just recently. 15-16", 10800 mah battery, 1080p. Very thin. Plug it into the usb c and the screen even have touch. I can now play on a bigger screen without the need of a tv or even a power socket. Pair this with a dock, a small keyboard and wireless mouse and you basically have that laptop for when you need it. Brings cost up somewhat for sure. But now you can use it as handheld, on a screen, or on the tv.
If your computing needs are light, you can definitely use a steam deck as a laptop, but while traveling it won’t be a great experience for general computing. As a game system, it’s amazing. I absolutely love my deck.
I completed Elden Ring on the Steam Deck without problems and I assume the other Souls games would run even better. Vampire Survivor also runs fine, no surprise really.
It is awkward as a laptop, but for gaming it is really nice. It’s the closest you can get to a gaming console for PC games.
From what I’ve seen it looks and runs decently smooth even on a bigger screen
Yes, I played most of it docked to my TV using a PS5 controller and only some undocked. There is no difference between docked and handheld mode like for the Switch though so it is fine either way.
Just don’t expect the highest quality settings for any recent AAA game. Due to hardware specific optimizations it is seriously impressive what the machine can actually run.
Sorry, I cannot really answer this. I am using the docked USB ports for mouse and keyboard receivers and have never tried any external storage.
Hahahahahaha
I was in pretty much the same position. 2017 gaming laptop but it was having hinge issues so I finally upgraded to the Steam Deck. I have dual boot into Windows, a dock and USB hub, a keyboard, mouse, external hard drive, and monitor and even a tiny desk fan for good measure on cooling and I just primarily use Windows and then will go to SteamOS for portable gaming time to time. It has replaced the laptop well and fits a (larger sized) purse, and I have nothing else to say besides that it works pretty well for me.
Of course, it looks weird using it, but I can still be productive on the tiny screen outside using a giant monitor. It is very doable, it’s just going to take accessories and be kind of weird in general. But I’ve been at it for a year, so… it’s possible if you’re willing to set it up and find a way you want to do this!
I’ll use it for gaming primarily.