It depends on what games you like to play because if it’s anything like COD, Destiny 2 or something with native Game Pass, then either the Legion Go or ROG Ally would better suit you. However, if you’re willing to give Linux a try and aren’t playing the games I’ve mentioned, then Steam Deck is the way to go.

I prefer the Steam Deck because I’m not a fan of Windows and it’s worked great for the games I’m playing but it doesn’t mean it’s perfect by any means :)

I prefer the deck, because its NOT running windows. Be aware the Deck runs Linux steamOS so while it can do a lot of Desktop stuff and make use of monitors, you may have to learn some extra skills. Or setup a dual boot with windows.

:)

But if Docking to a monitor/tv - remember the Deck is not a powerhouse of a Gaming PC. So 4K gaming, is really not going to be a thing.

And Yes the trackpads give extra flexibility.

No idea on the Legion Go, or other alternatives, if they use windows, I am basically not interested.

I looked into the Legion and decided against it because there is so many postings out there (Reddit and other places) about how bad the software runs. I watched a few YouTube videos and the unit would freeze/lag while they were reviewing it. It just seemed to be not ready for release. The battery life is also pretty bad.

If you game with Steam, then the deck is the way to go (the OLED is nice, but the LCD isn’t horrible by any means). You can also load other launches (epic, gog, etc) on the deck and play your libraries. It will also emulate pretty much every vintage system out there—which opens up even more games.

As of the moment, Steam is still king of the handhelds.

Windows sucks and is not optimized or even good for handheld gaming… community is also the best with the deck as well as aftermarket mods, fixes etc… you will not be able to fix the Legion or Rog… oh and Asus is a POS company, I HATE their armory crate software and in no way would I buy anything from them again. Learned my lesson from my last laptop with them.

Seems like the Legion or even ROG ALLY would be a better fit for your particular use case , I have a GO and while the screen isn’t OLED Its still pretty amazing, software does suck but I don’t even use Legion Space as you don’t really need it the majority of the time.

Saying that still ordered a OLED SD and love SteamOS too they both have Pros and Cons

The Steam Deck shines as a handheld. It’s got the best battery life of all the current handhelds out there right now. However, if you plan to play plugged in or docked the majority of the time I think you might be better served by a Lenovo Legion Go. The software apparently sucks but you can largely sidestep that with a combination of third party utilities.

The reason why I would recommend the Legion is because when plugged in it has a higher performance ceiling. The minute you’re portable though, my recommendation goes to the Steam Deck. Same thing goes if you have a limited tolerance for jank…then the Steam Deck wins. Windows isn’t great on small touchscreens.

If you’re intent on using either as a desktop I can’t really say one is better than the other. I just got my GPU back from RMA on my gaming rig and I used my Steam Deck docked as my PC for the entire time and it was fine. I’m comfortable with Linux but even so, you’re not really messing with the guts of Linux on a Steam Deck…almost everything is flatpaks so getting into the nitty gritty isn’t needed. There’s no printer support in the default SteamOS image though…if that matters.