Steam Deck

ironictoaster

Considering the OLED and shifting my ROG Ally, the battery life is starting to do my head in. Drains so quickly even before you start a game.

anyone have experience using both?

McFly85

After a couple of days with it, it really feels like a significant upgrade. Better battery, so much quieter and that screen makes everything look fantastic! Currently playing MGR Revengeance, 10 years old but you wouldn’t know while playing it.

Delighted with the upgrade.

ady368

Just received mine this morning. I only ordered it on Saturday, surprised at the quick turnaround time.

Only issue I've had so far was the right trackpad being completely unresponsive but fixed it with a restart.

super_furry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121465145#Comment_121465145

No but if battery life is a consideration, the OLED is a game changer. The difference in going from the launch Steam Deck to the OLED in terms of battery life is like the launch Switch to the OLED model. I get nearly three hours in Cyberpunk now, more than three hours in Diablo IV. It's become that worrying about the battery is a thing of the past.

McDermotX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121465145#Comment_121465145

Well, there's no question if battery life is the major concern, then there's no comparison. That applied to the LCD Deck and even more so with the OLED.

But it's very much economy of scale. 18W is about the sweet spot for the Ally for performance v battery life, and in general, it'll perform same or better than the Deck at that in most things as well as looking better. At the battery guzzling 25W, or plugged in 30W, it's a different level than the Deck but it's at the cost of that battery life. It's a smaller device, so there's no room for a bigger battery to offset the power draw. It charges much faster than the Deck though, so it does at least have that going for it.

The Deck does offer a more consistent experience, but it has to be tempered by a lower expectation in graphical performance. There's obviously more freedom with the Ally re: gaming platforms, but that flexibility can also be it's undoing, but I found once you've got Windows the way you want it, not to mention ASUS have done some major quality of life improvements over the last 6 months, it's a fine device. The Deck isn't all peaches and cream though, and does sometimes need some tinkering to get unsupported titles running - plus launcher workarounds can be a pain with updates, but there's a vibrant community that keeps it well supported.

Screen on the OLED Deck is lovely, but still lacks the resolution of the Ally. But the more complex games would need to be tempered in any case on that 1080p 120Hz screen so it's not the be all and end all. The lack of VRR on the OLED Deck is an issue though and takes it down a notch and its a pity Valve didnt go the whole hog. Yes, there are FPS limits and such, but the VRR really helps the Ally with demanding games. But then, you don't have the HDR with the Ally which takes that down a notch, though that admittedly looks like it needs some work on the new Deck with some games.

FWIW, as much as the Ally has turned into a good device, I still wouldn't recommend this revision. That SD card reader design flaw is a bitter pill to swallow and I'd still be wary of which board revisions are in circulation. Now, the next Ally could be very interesting with a lot of the first run issues remedied, but I don't think it'd be game changer in performance levels given the silicon available for the foreseeable. Depends when ASUS go for a refresh. The OLED Deck has great battery life, has a lovely screen that near completely fixes the major issue with the LCD release and offers a generally cohesive experience. So it's an easy recommendation for me.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121466444#Comment_121466444

That is an insane turnaround time

ironictoaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121466931#Comment_121466931

You have sold me. Ordered this morning!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121470438#Comment_121470438

I cap all my games at 40 fps and play it at 10w and I’ve had no issues at all with the battery. With the OLED I feel I’m getting longer but I’m not tracking it either.

ive said it in above comments but I’ve played pretty much any and all games on this and not had 1 single issue with it being plug and play except for blizzard games which need a bit of setup but there’s multiple video tutorials that do the step by step on it so was very easy to follow.

eggy81

Well lad. Would I be better off playing baldurs gate natively on deck or buying it on Xbox and using greenlight for the times I can’t get on the tv. Have good internet.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121471860#Comment_121471860

I dont think act3 has been confirmed working but could be wrong

romperstomper

I'm looking for some game recommendations of the pick up and enjoy for 15m variety

Andrew76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121479160#Comment_121479160

This is brilliant and under a fiver too.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1944570/Boneraiser_Minions/

Grumpypants

https://steamdeckhq.com/news/chiaki4deck-1-5-0-adds-hdr-support-for-ps5/

Chiaki4deck, a spin off from chiaki now supports HDR. big boost for the OLED.

If you already have chiaki installed then set up is simple.

Mr.Fantastic

The Oled worth the upgrade?

I am back in Ireland next summer as its still not shipping to oz love the current SD. Debating on whether to upgrade or not.

DaveyDave

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121489341#Comment_121489341

There's a lot of changes beyond the screen that make it worth an upgrade, it just depends on if you use it enough to justify the cost?

If you appreciate the tech I'd say go for it. I actually don't mind the LCD panel but in this day and age it probably should have had OLED from the beginning.

The screen being 50% brighter is also a nice improvement and it's quieter when running modern games due to a bigger fan.

Mr.Fantastic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121489462#Comment_121489462

Yeah might see if I can budget for it, Use the Steam deck a good bit but I also got a switch OLED and for the likes of say sea of stars it wins out for the colour.

May see love the SD anyway its so versatile. Still can't believe its not available in Australia yet.

CheemsDoritos

Ordered on the 27th, picked up on the 29th, it is the 13th now and the package still hasn't arrived in Ireland, two whole weeks, called GLS yesterday and the lady said "it looks like it might be on the ferry". Absolutely not good enough.

ironictoaster

This does not bode well for my order. Hoping to play over Christmas.

Received on the 11th!

CheemsDoritos

I wonder will they arrive possibly around the same time, others seem to get it faster, I wonder do the ferrys travel to the UK, then truck to the next port and ferry to ireland or do they go south around the UK directly to ireland, theres a boat heading towards dublin now, theres a possibility it could be them but I'm not sure as it left from the UK

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121491460#Comment_121491460

It took 12 working days for mine to arrive, when I checked last week it says 3-5 business days, it’s nowhere near that. Very poor from GLS as the tracker is not right mine said it was to arrive the following day and the chap arrived to the house at 6pm that day.

ironictoaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121493913#Comment_121493913

Light a candle that it doesn't take 12 working days! I imagine there will a lot of unhappy people Christmas morning! Steam could do with a better shipping partner for these!

ironictoaster

Scheduled for delivery tomorrow, fingers crossed!

Darwin

I've had my deck about 2 weeks now and initially the x button was rattling when I shook the unit. Now that I have used it for about 10 hours game time or so, the loose button seems to have bedded in and no more rattling. If your unit has this problem, give it time might sort itself out! Really pleased with the device, the screen is such as a great upgrade on the LCD version along with the other quality of life improvements.

Grumpypants

Looking to install Windows on the actual hard drive rather than having it on the SD. The SD drive is a bad bottleneck. Seems to be going okay now. Made a 60gb partition and installing now. Plus a nice boot screen to select rather than using the clunky boot via the volume - flow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubWPIf2DbvE

Grumpypants

All done. Ended up being relatively painless. This is now my new boot screen. Easy to swap between both steam OS and windows.

Edit: got a prompt to upgrade to windows 11 so did that too.

phily2002

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121510636#Comment_121510636

That's class, think I'll invest in a bigger drive and follow suit

cnocbui

My son managed to get the Ubisoft connect app, which is exclusive to Windows, running on my new linux based PC that is set up with Steam and acts like a giant Steamdeck for the most part via na xbox controller. He also managed to add a game to my Steam library that is exclusive to the Ubisoft app so I just click on it like a native Steam game and it then launches via the Ubisoft app. All without having windows.

Grumpypants

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121511200#Comment_121511200

Makes it easy to make use of playstation cloud streaming and Xbox console streaming. I know there are work arounds for them & all the other launchers too but to be honest this was such a simple set up it makes all the messing I did with all those seem a bit silly, and non of them stayed working for long.

Wossack

going to see about RMA'g my OG 512GB.. stuck in yet another black screen boot loop

spent a good few hours at it at the weekend and got it running again following a reimage from a recovery image, but its gone again and I cant be arsed. Im a bit let down by the stability of it, truth be told. eg I turn it off after an evening of no issues, only for it not to start up again the next morning

Andrew76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121510636#Comment_121510636

Looks very nice! But is 60gb not too small? The OS itself must take up at least 10gb and pc games are usually fairly chunky. Can you increase the size of that partition without reinstalling from scratch?