Review is quite long (45 min). A highlight:

• Games tested with frame timing: Steam Deck has very consistent frame timing, ROG Ally is only competitive plugged in, otherwise on battery (and the same 1280×720) the low 1% and low 0.1% are far worse than Steam Deck in several tested games, and more akin to AYANEO.

Other things:

• Crazy $2000 for ASUS RTX “4090” eGPU with proprietary connector vs. GPD’s standardized OCuLink
• ASUS with pushy BIOS updates and questionable benefits, sometimes even performance regressions
• Windows 11 touch keyboard appears automatically in text fields, and more comfortable than the Steam desktop mode on-screen keyboard
• Steam Deck with 60 fps V-Sync cap sounds more closely like ROG Ally on “Silent”, without annoying high frequency noise. But once uncapped, sounds like ROG Ally on “Turbo” and with high frequency noise.
• The reviewed ROG Ally also developed a malfunctioning SD card reader, like many reports.

Hopefully this is the right place to post this, if not let me know

I played about 4 hours and 15 minutes tonight while plugged in the whole time and it ran pretty great. I had FSR 2.1 on and ran most settings at Medium with a couple low like the Vehicle and People on the Street Density on Low. I switched the Textures from Medium to High for the last 20 minutes or so and I saw a minimal change in framerate. Mostly it stayed in the mid 40s while swinging around and stayed in mid 50s to 60 (I have Vsync on) while on missions inside buildings.

I'm really impressed with this thing. Next time I play I'm going to try Steam Remote Play and/or Moonlight to see if upping the graphics is worth the potential latency issues from streaming. I'm guessing I'll just play it fully on the Deck the whole time. Hopefully Miles Morales is just as optimized.

Summary for Steam Deck:

• Starfield is playable on Steam Deck

• Bethesda recommended not to review Starfield on Steam Deck, as it is below spec

• Starfield struggles in the bigger cities. Expect drops to 20 fps, when playing at low and FSR2

• Reviewer likes Steam Deck and gyro aiming, and misses it on Xbox Series X

Summary of the main points:

• Requires a custom BIOS, and it is not known (except for DeckHD) how to patch the BIOS. Future Valve BIOS will break the screen support and one is at the whim of DeckHD making patched BIOS in the future.
• It is still possible to switch the resolution to 800p.
• Can lock at 40 fps, but…
• Spider-Man Remastered and Elden Ring will only reach 30 fps at 1200p, Final Fantasy XV 25–30 fps, so 40 fps lock is pointless.
• 87.8% sRGB, 6258 K CCT (noticeably warmer) and γ = 2.12, vs. 71.9% sRGB, 7900 K CCT and γ = 2.11 of the stock LCD measured with Calman.
• 439.5 cd/m² (noticeably darker) white luminance to 0.514 cd/m² black luminance, hence 854:1 contrast ratio (less contrast), and vs. 536.6 cd/m² to 0.507 cd/m², 1058:1 stock, and a darker game like Resident Evil 3 seems to suffer.

Hey SteamDeck’ers, As we're all aware that Valve broke Remote Play on SteamDeck and hasn't fixed it yet. I'm seeing lots of people having their sound cut off few minutes into streaming, or having lots of ghost input with bluetooth controllers.

However, there are two other options that work well, and sometimes even better than Remote Play.

First, if you're using SteamDeck with a TV and have an Android or Apple TV, consider using the Steam Link app instead. It's still great!

Second, you can use Moonlight to stream directly to SteamDeck. Find Moonlight in Discover (SteamOS desktop appstore) in Desktop mode. Installing it is just that easy.

You will also need to install Sunshine, the Server counterpart as well on your PC.

Moonlight is a great replacement to NVIDIA's now retired GameStream and works with any GPU with the help of Sunshine. In fact, it offers smoother visuals compared to Steam Remote Play, also offers HDR support on supported TVs.

Happy streaming!