If you dont play AAA games the steamdeck will be fine for most things. The touchpads are so useful.
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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Steam Deck
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A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
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Steam Deck. I have the OLED, and also an older LCD one. They're both great. OLED definitely a small improvement to an already great device.
Asus sucks. Good luck if you ever need warranty service. Even more so if you need out of warranty service..
IMO it feels like the Steam Deck was built with 3 goals in mind:
- Longevity
- Playability
- UX
And the competition feels more like
- Specs
- Gimmicks
Like, sure, better gpu and cpu and ram is great, but it's kind of shit if the battery barely lasts or tge performance is worse because of lack of compatibility with Windows or the repairability is shit you need to buy a new device if it falls.
Ironicly it reminds me a bit of early android vs iphone. Where Iphone was built with real ingenuity and leading the market, while android was this mess of companies trying everything to "out compete" Apple. The irony being that tge steam deck is the open and inclusive one unlike the iphone.
Yeah, I guess so. I'm leaning towards the steam deck simply because of longevity, accessories, community and touchpads but the performance kind of worries me but perhaps unreasonably so.
My take: Steam Deck is much better, just taking a terrible experience I've been having with ASUS laptop build, and how actually well-built the Steam Deck is.
My story is: I bought an LCD with 64 GB storage and upgraded it to 1TB, and made a few fixes already to the buttons (too hard of a player xD). And during disassembly, I was extremely happy with how it was built, because it is really simple to maintain, disassemble/assemble. Like it was actually built to last ;)
ASUS is a shit company with a long track record of shitfuckery. Valve is pretty much the opposite from what I can tell. For that reason alone I would avoid the Ally like the plague.
If that's not enough, there's also trackpads and gyro, lighter weight, overall thinner, and cheaper.
I think I saw that they deny warranties because they (asus) will scratch your device and use that as an excuse to deny.
It's so much worse than that. They ignore what you sent it in for entirely, flag a bunch of unnecessary repairs, then hold the device for ransom until you pay.
Steer well clear of anything made by ASUS.
If you're not wanting to play real demanding games I would suggest the deck. It's cheaper, has much better warranty, better input options, etc.
I'd really only consider the Ally if you actually need the extra performance and aren't worried at all about the cost. if you do decide you want the Ally, I would recommend reading up on their recent warranty scandal stuff first.
Conversely, I have sent a steam deck in for repairs twice. The first time the shoulder button broke. They didn’t ask questions and fixed it for free. The second time I broke it, and paid for the repairs. Both times steam support was helpful and easy to deal with. I can’t recommend the steam deck enough, it’s worth every penny.
Thanks, I'm leaning towards the steam deck anyways.
If you play latest AAA games and latest AAA games only, ally. Youre gonna love the rgb when you play the latest fifa and ubisoft copy paste on minimum.
If you play whatever great stuff that's been released these past 3 decades, whichever is cheaper and has the features you want. Personally I find the touchpads just insanely useful.
I only have a Deck but the touchpads are invaluable. Not only for mouse inputs but also to map multiple functions via Steam Input.
But also the gyro aiming is great for shooters. No idea if the Ally has a gyro but that has also been invaluable. Not for broad gestures but for small aiming adjustments. I forgot I used it until I turned it off.
Dual track pads are a game changer. I'm not sure why mainstream manufactures refuse to put more buttons on the their controllers.
Back buttons are getting more common, thankfully - but I’d personally still love to see a transition (back?) to six face buttons.
I love backside buttons for you all who use them, but I don’t ever want them to be anything more than non-essential programmable buttons. I personally can’t stand them, but as long as they are optional for gaming, I don’t mind that they are there.
Gyro is the only way I can pay fps games with a controller
I have the ROG Ally with Bazzite. Now, keep in mind that I don’t run performance tests on hardware or anything like that. I’m just a gamer that works in IT.
Bazzite works just about flawlessly on the Ally. Every game I’ve tried has functioned very well and I have had exactly zero crashes. The only complaint I have is that I have to manually set the audio to route to my soundbar every time I reboot, which isn’t a huge deal to me.
With that said, if I had room on a regular credit card instead of just my BBuy one, I would have gotten the steam deck just because I don’t like white compute gear and the deck is the standard at this point.
Thanks for your answer and insights into Bazzite on the Asus.
Anytime!
My fellow human you are asking this question in a Steam Deck community, of course the people are saying that you should get the Deck. I'm going to be a little against the grain here and recommend you to get the Ally X.
Let me explain, most of the issue that people have with the OG Ally has been solved with the Ally X. It basically has a much better build quality than the OG Ally. With it's 24 GB RAM it's going to be much more future proof and the battery now is basically on par with Deck.
With Bazzite you can get better watt-to-watt performance with the Deck and the VRR works wonder when you're streaming with Moonlight and Apollo because the stream will be much smoother.
However, if you have the money to spare, try buying both and see which one you like better and return the one you didn't use.
Another option would be wait a little bit longer because the Z2 Extreme handhelds are coming in the next couple of months.
Yeah, it seems a lot of people are really happy with the Ally X, my main gripe with it is longevity and lack of touchpads. Playing RTS games like Banished (which I love) seems like it would be really miserable on a touchscreen instead of a touchpad.
The only reason I would ever get an Ally would be if I was dead-set on running Windows. I'd recommend the Steam Deck in this case.
You answered your own question 5 times over go with the deck
Didn't the ROG Ally have a lot of problems? Have those problems been fixed?
Talking about melting SD card slots, needing to play plugged in to make any use of its power, and unstable frame times.
As far as I've seen the Ally did indeed have those problems but they have been fixed with the Ally X, it seems many people are very happy with them but it also seems that Asus RMA process is a bit hit or miss.
Yeah, I've been hearing some very shitty things about there RMA process since before they released their first model Ally. Wasn't it their motherboard that fucked CPUs? And then they released a "fix" update to the BIOS that was still an alpha, didn't actually fix anything, and voided the warranty if you installed it?
Yup, rings a bell.
People overlook how important software support is and with the deck you're getting that. Plus the much larger user base for guides, parts, and community support.
Deck. Competitors try to cram more power, but miss out on ergonomics.
The trackpads are essential imo
Steam deck showcases perfectly how all usual consumer electronics are not made for you but for company to make bucks by delivering the bare minimum feature set for highest price.
I don’t think I can name any other device, appliance, car or anything that actually is made purely to deliver the most to the user. It’s a single anomaly and I don’t think this will last long or at all, let alone is some trend that will continue.
From all my purchases over the years it was a single device that not only matched expectations but exceeded them x 2 or more. I bought iPad Pro m4 oled around that time too and ipad in comparison is just a little bit more than what it is supposed to be, severely limited, for a hefty sum even though they say apple is a king of hardware.
Apple is not a king of hardware but a master of making money. Valve makes things that are actually awesome (but probably not profitable)
It’s probably temporary and brief moment but I am sure going to make the most out of it before it falls under the waves of enshittification again.
To be honest I don’t know how all these big companies still make money and are popular with how rudimentary, limited and OK their products are. I am like "what kind of fucking loser is slurping up all their stuff" oh… it’s me
I wasn’t going to respond until I saw you mention car. I do think the Miata and the GR86 are solid built for drivers cars. They’re relatively inexpensive for a sports car too. That said, in regards to electronics I would say the deck is by far best. Trying to compare across categories is really tough though
I got the LED 64GB model last year for like $280 and added a $80 1TB SSD myself, which is an easy 20 minute job. For such a low powered machine, mid 300s is about what it’s worth to me, or otherwise might as well get a gaming laptop. I have a MSI laptop with a RTX 4060, 32GB of RAM that was around $800 on sale, which I mainly use for Blender, so I can’t see paying anything close to that for a handheld.
I have LED and OLED decks and honestly OLED is very very minor improvements that do not matter.
I’m also quite happy with the LCD model myself. Most games are running on medium settings on a low-res screen without RTX, so the eye candy is at a minimum anyway and I never imagined a better screen would make much difference.
The beauty of the Deck is how easy it is to pick it up and play an hour here and there wherever you are, so I’ve played a lot of games I’ve been meaning to play for years that I frankly would’ve not have gotten to play otherwise. Better with less eye candy than not at all.
I haven't used an Ally and I love Steam but objectively, I'd recommend the Deck. Phenomenal ergonomics, amazing software (Bazzite is good but doesn't compare), good build quality, right-to-repair friendly, Valve is an American business (not important to everyone but it is to me) and you'd be supporting a company that has done nothing but make PC gaming amazing.
It seems like you answered your own question: go with the steam deck.
The deck