While I think the go will get better for sure it simply can’t keep up with valves software development on the deck…

It’s not just a pace issue, but the fact that Valve can change literally any part of SteamOS they need/want to, because it’s Linux. Anything from the kernel all the way up through the desktop environment and Steam client can be tweaked and improved on command.

Windows handheld manufacturers by contrast are entirely dependent on Microsoft for deeper modifications and are limited to what they can tack onto Windows superficially. Valve has far more potential for improving the user experience here, there’s no comparison.

Yeah with what I’ve seen of Samsung TVs, I’d never buy one for myself. Samsung makes great OLED panels, but you can get those in better TVs made by other manufacturers.

It’s been a common issue on laptops for a long time. As far as I’m aware it occurs because the manufacturer didn’t shield the audio circuitry I assume for cost reasons. Of the laptop brands I’ve used the only one I’ve known to shield audio circuitry are MacBooks (though I’m sure there’s others).

Got my order for an LE in about 10m after the site opened up and it still hasn’t come.

Good news though is that while it was originally scheduled to arrive Wednesday, it’s been rescheduled to show up on Monday instead so that’s cool.

It’s mainly a difference in philosophy. Apple has long seen translation/compatibility layers as exclusively transitional rather than something that can be leaned on indefinitely, because even the best of that kind of technology comes at a cost to performance and efficiency, not to mention if you let it hang around for too long you can end up with multiple compatibility modes in play which compounds those losses.

As such, they push devs to release updated binaries that run natively. This isn’t a difficult for the vast majority of Apple platform apps, usually involving little more than ticking a new arch checkbox in Xcode thanks to AppKit/UIKit long having been architecture-agnostic. The software that suffers tends to be cross platform, where major assumptions have been made (“I don’t need to think about anything but x86” and similar).

Haven’t received mine yet but I imagine I’ll do the same as I do with TVs, which is turning off any image “enhancements” to get the picture as close as possible to its unmodified state.

I expect this to be more necessary than is typical for a device with an OLED panel, since a lot of content is already oversaturated so it looks good on commodity LCDs with crappy color reproduction, which could result in blown-out colors when adding a saturation boost on top of the already strong color capabilities of OLED.

Glad to see this mentioned. I was debating swapping my SSD out and finding this info nicely lined out in a table was surprisingly difficult.

Ultimately decided to go with and SD card for now but will keep the knowledge that the sn770m is most efficient in my back pocket.

I got a similar deal from samsung.com, except on the 512GB Pro Plus. 10% cash back Rakuten + 20% cash back from Chase card brings it down to about the same price as this. Samsung gives a student discount that can stack with all that to bring it even lower for those who qualify.

This price on the Evo is probably the cheapest/best that can be found without chaining offers though and is still a great deal.

Don’t have my Deck yet but I anticipate using it bare, just like I’ve been doing with my smartphones for the past 5 or 6 years. Cases and whatnot add too much bulk.

Stickers aren’t totally out of the question, but they’d be particularly cool random stickers rather than anything tailor-made for it.

Also, it’s generally a good idea to *type out* terminal commands you find online rather than copying+pasting them, because unicode tomfoolery can hide commands that get copied and then ran when pasted in.

Some people are susceptible to certain frequencies of PWM dimming, even if there’s no perceptible flicker effect. For these individuals it can cause headaches and eye strain.

There are frequencies past which practically nobody experience adverse effects from usage, but it’s a pretty high number and a lot of PWM screens (not just OLED panels) fall well below it, especially at brightness levels below maximum.

My primary use case for a Deck is very similar!

I have a gaming PC, but because I spend a good chunk of my chill time with my cat curled up with me on my bed, I don’t get to use it as much as I’d like. A Deck seems like it’d fix that. I’ll be playing some games on the Deck natively too of course but there are several games I’ll be streaming from the PC.

Will have to see how well that works out in practice when it arrives next week.

Woo, got a shipping notification for my LE about 30m ago! Tracking number doesn’t work yet but that’s fine, just happy to get out of Packaged Purgatory™.

For reference, I’m in the US PNW and got my order in around 13m after opening up.

I would kill for a translucent dark blue, like the 500 Million Limited Edition PS4 Pro and the circa-2000 iMacs.

My LE ordered 13m after opening has been stuck in packaged purgatory for several days now. Once it actually ships it should come quickly since I’m in the US PNW but I guess my number just hasn’t come up yet.

There’s nothing special about a wee PC in a box, it’s literally just a more inconvenient gaming platform at that point for most.

For those of us who are technically inclined, sure. We can toss together a custom PC with great bang for buck in our sleep or if strapped for time, find a semi-competent prebuilt on sale and fix whatever inadequacies it has in short order.

For those outside that sphere however getting into PC gaming is more daunting than one might think. To them PCs are an unintelligible soup of acronyms, with the sheer number of price points, options, and manufacturer gimmicks/marketing being daunting and making it difficult to ascertain value. You see it all the time in peoples’ posts on Reddit and elsewhere asking about those things, and the ones who post are a small percentage of a much larger group.

This doesn’t even get into how lately MS has been turning everything it touches in Windows to shit, which leaves an increasing number looking for alternative or how some newcomers to PC gaming get bitten by overpriced low-spec gaming PCs that perform far worse than their price would suggest.

If Valve can manage to produce an SteamOS-based settop/desktop device that’s console-like but with the flexibility and freedom of a PC at a reasonable price point with a large library of games vetted to work, they’ll have a healthy market with this group.

Sounds like Microsoft needs to be watch out. They stand to lose a significant chunk of the gaming market to Valve if they’re not careful.

For now Deck and Deck-alikes are still somewhat niche nerd products, but the software side of things is rapidly getting polished and in another year or two will be close enough to a plug and play console experience that they’ll be attractive to the masses.

From there if Valve revived Steam Boxes with the new SteamOS, I think it’d be wildly successful — how many people are interested in PC gaming but don’t care to deal with the baggage that comes with that? For them, a box roughly equivalent to a PS5 or little better (running a similar APU), basically being a console that can double as a computer sold at office PC prices (~$500) would be huge.

Will any of this happen? Who knows, but the potential is there.