Steam! Now on your Couch! The Steamdeck Coming this Winter!

[ASandoval]

After fighting with the store to get to the purchase button, I'm not locked not just from making a reservation, but any Steam purchases because I 'tried to making a lot of purchases in the last few hours'.

I would have preferred to have just been fighting to get the site to load and missed out. This is pretty infuriating! Not going to lie!

 

[JBear]

Same on all counts. Guess I get to sit here and guess how long it wants me to wait before it's done locking me out! And I assume that if I guess wrong the wait starts over from zero again.

 

[Kazin]

It's super dumb that they don't tell you when your lockout ends, because I'd just keep spamming refresh until it does. Seems counterintuitive! If they'd told me "you'll be unlocked at 2:15 PM" I'd stop refreshing until then.

 

[Becksworth]

Despite my concerns, I was still curious enough to try and reserve one and did manage get a reservation through. It was only $5 for now fortunately.

 

[Mightyblue]

Apparently the SD card slot is the older spec, which means that read/writes are going to be around platter HDD speeds by the by.

 

[Kazin]

Well that's dumb. Glad I grabbed the 256 gb one for newer games lol

 

[ASandoval]

Same on all counts. Guess I get to sit here and guess how long it wants me to wait before it's done locking me out! And I assume that if I guess wrong the wait starts over from zero again.

Looked it up, its one full hour and yes it does reset if you try again.

 

[Sarge]

For better or worse, I got a reservation in for the 512GB model. Will decide if I want to keep later, but I mean, on paper it's priced like an equivalent laptop in a handheld form factor, and I'd been looking for a cheap laptop anyway.

 

[Positronic Brain]

Do I want one? Yes. Bad enough to be an early adopter? Not really. So really looking forward to your impressions when it ships, and I hope there's no issue running Windows on these because I have an OEM license of Windows lying around and a lot of WIndows-based retro emulators I'd like to run in that machine.

 

[Torzelbaum]

I'm not sure if this info was in one of the other links or videos but here's a relevant tidbit:

"There's a dock, too.

The official dock props up your Steam Deck while connecting to external displays, wired networking, USB peripherals, and power. You can also use a powered USB-C hub, if you've got one lying around.

The official dock will be sold separately. More information coming soon."

For better or worse, I got a reservation in for the 512GB model. Will decide if I want to keep later, but I mean, on paper it's priced like an equivalent laptop in a handheld form factor, and I'd been looking for a cheap laptop anyway.

Were you looking for that laptop only for gaming?

 

[Becksworth]

Yeah, kind of sucks a dock isn’t included in the package, but at least I can probably get some use out of this usb-c hub my wife bought and barely used for her work laptop that’s now lying around somewhere in my office.

 

[YangusKhan]

Tried to buy one for about 30 minutes right when the orders were opened. Eventually got locked out for trying to make too many purchases. Opened a support ticket shortly after that. My last purchase attempt was about 20 minutes ago. Guess I should wait a whole hour.

 

[ASandoval]

Just got it to go through over here. If you needed to wait like I did, it's worth trying again!

 

[Becksworth]

Apparently if you dig around in the web inspector on the reservation page you can find where you are exactly in the reserve queue order, but I haven’t been able to find it yet. Probably isn’t helping that page is having trouble loading.

 

[Mogri]

I placed my reservation, and it only took two hours!

 

[YangusKhan]

I waited long enough so it finally went through. Really wish I had waited, like, 10 minutes after the reservations actually opened!

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Gabe wants other PC makers to create their own Steam Decks

"Establishing a product category... that's going to have long-term benefits for us."

www.pcgamer.com

I'm getting really really strong Steam Machine flashbacks...

 

[Troa11]

Being on my... 3rd or 4th iteration, all I will say is that a portable PC with gaming controls built in is a great device that will not be for everyone. I LOVE having one.

 

[Sprite]

There are also four completely programmable buttons on the back of the unit in the hand grip area. So, that might be a fix for the odd placement of the face buttons?

Can't know of course because I haven't actually held it but I could see them being useful in that sense.

I love flipper buttons but they are a poor substitute for face buttons.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

I love flipper buttons but they are a poor substitute for face buttons.

Never mind a d-pad

 

[Sarge]

Were you looking for that laptop only for gaming?

Mostly. I was hoping to pick up something super cheap for on the go, and missed out on a few great deals on some sporting 1050 Tis or 1060 Supers, which would have been plenty for my purposes. I have work laptops for when I travel, but I don't like to put gaming stuff on there (even if I have full admin on one of them).

I'll still be in the market for a full-sized PC at some point, but I'm waiting for the right deal and/or the market to cool down a bit. My brother was nice enough to lend me his unused rig, an older i5 chip with an RX 560, which will still be an upgrade over my old laptop.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Someone emailed gaben asking about ssd upgrades and gaben replied that there's an m.2 slot, seems like you can throw your own nvme in there, which is nice and makes the baseline model much much more attractive.

 

[Sarge]

Huh. That really does make the base model quite attractive.

 

[ThornGhost]

I over thought it at the last minute and ended up ordering the 256gb model. I'm thinking of this now as a replacement for my current older TV PC with additional portable features.

If there is an additional M.2 slot, that's pretty great too.

 

[Falselogic]

I preordered the 256gb one.

I don't know if I'll bite the bullet when it comes to purchase time but the price is right to reserve one.

 

[Positronic Brain]

I'm thinking of ordering one because the queue is in Q2, which means I get to pull the trigger after the early units have been out for while.

I'm between the 256GB or the 512GB, because of the screen and the possibility that the M2 replacement is not that easy or breaks the generous European warranty. But the 512GB is so pricey!

 

[karzac]

I'm on the fence around getting one of these or a Switch. I think Valve's track record of supporting their hardware, plus Zelda, Metroid and Mario, is leaning me towards Switch. But dang it's close.

 

[Positronic Brain]

I'm on the fence around getting one of these or a Switch. I think Valve's track record of supporting their hardware, plus Zelda, Metroid and Mario, is leaning me towards Switch. But dang it's close.

They're whole different ecosystems. But yeah, I'd go for a Switch too unless you're really into PC Gaming - it's a proven quantity (and most of the interesting indies from the PC scene hit the Switch anyway)

 

[karzac]

I am interested in a PC gaming, but already have a gaming PC. So yeah, I think you're right.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

If there is an additional M.2 slot, that's pretty great too.

It won't be additional, you'll have to yank out whatever onboard storage is already there. Also, the m.2 cards that are already in there, are the 2230 variety:

So that tiny one on the left versus the 2280 that people are probably more accustomed with. You can buy 2230s, but they're not as common. Most of the ones I've seen, are salvaged on the grey market from laptops. Valve's description of how to replace them is still a little vague but worded in a way that it sounds like it's more than simply popping it in and out. I assume it'll be a little more complicated, like replacing an iphone battery. So the extra price might be worth it for some people who are deathly afraid of tinkering with their gadgets, but I'm hoping the Valve wording of it is just to scare away people from thinking they could do an upgrade at home versus paying through the nose for their higher memory skus.