Steam Deck - An Unboxing & First Impressions

So in my last update, I had a great time at EGX. One of the most exciting moments was when I played a game where you quality control toilets (Aperture Desk Job). Doesn’t sound like much until you notice the ammunition pipe above the toilets with bullets shifting through it. Then a smoking toilet comes out and things just escalate from there. This demo serves as Valve’s introduction to their marvel they released little over a year ago, a wonderful device called the Steam Deck. 

This is made with the express purpose of being able to play all of those juicy Steam PC games you’ve amassed over the years, as well as being a device that was yours and yours only. Something you can hack as both software and hardware. I mean Valve even released a teardown video that you definitely shouldn’t do (any Portal fans hear Glados yet?). For those that don’t know, to get a Steam Deck you have to first reserve it. You then get an email back that gives you a window of 72 hours to purchase the device. Once I received this, every night was like the night before Christmas as a kid; I couldn’t sleep because I was so excited. In what must have been a joke, I received an update from the courier that said they would deliver the device on the day - just when I was waiting in the queue to play it at EGX. You can’t write this stuff! Needless to say I was a little distracted from that point onwards, knowing that this was waiting for me at home:

There are moments in your life when something comes along and forces out that inner child. This is certainly one of them, in fact I haven’t put this thing down for just over a week and put this blog to one side to really get into how this device performs. My thoughts and dreams have been consumed by this so let’s get into it!

Unboxing & First Impressions

I wanted to do something special as soon as this arrived: my very first YouTube unboxing! Check out the video below:

Apologies for the quality of the video, should have been more ready for when the Deck dropped in! As you’ve seen this is a truly beautiful device. Picking this up for the first time, despite it’s size, when you had it in your hands it felt just right. The controls all felt perfect to press with full unencumbered analog triggers for once (I really missed this with the Nintendo Switch, as they are digital and just didn’t have that feel). The grip of the controls just fit perfectly and the large size of the device just seemed to vanish as you prepared to enter the game world. It was also very light, yet very sturdy. On a more personal note, something about that acidic plastic smell of the device just eased me in to the divce and accentuated the experience for me. Maybe it felt nostalgic in a way.

Switching the device on, I was greeted with the smooth animation of the valve logo and the nice sound jingle of the Deck. The screen looks nicely detailed, slightly less colour than the vibrant display of the Nintendo Switch OLED, but then again cuts had to be made somewhere with the incredible price tag to quality ratio. Navigating around the menu you really got a feel for the solid presses of the D-pad and the front-facing buttons. The bumpers and rear-grip controls will take a little getting used to as they were a little harder to press, but this will help greatly with some PC games where more controls are required. The dual trackpads have a pleasant haptic feel and for the instantly switchable desktop mode (yes this is a full-blown Linux PC underneath), they also reminded me of a trackball mouse. The touch-screen was nice and responsive.

The first game I played on this was Dying Light. It was going to be Doom but the download size was a whopping 60GB, and I’ll be honest I was getting impatient. First impressions on this were evident: my jaw was dropped the entire time! After playing ports of PC games on Switch, which now has less specifications than some smartphones, the clarity was incredible. There wasn’t any cloudiness or resolution switching optimisations which were required by the Switch due to hardware limitations. The environment outside was breathtaking. I also noticed with the game being Steam Deck Verified (a special tag Valve gives to games when they have been given the once over to check they work perfectly with the Deck), that the graphics settings were limited. To be honest though, you don’t need ultra-high resolution on a 1280x800 display and it felt just like how I remembered. The controls were an absolute dream and I once more felt very immersed in the beautiful, fictitious city of Harran. Long story short, it worked beyond my wildest dreams!

This post came out a little late, so very soon I’ll be posting my experience of the first week with this awesome little device. Stay tuned!