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this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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Technology
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It looks sick. I actually have no problem that it's thicker if that means that the battery life is longer (although weight is a concern over thickness, of course). Lenovo hardware is hit and miss though (and I say this having used a Legion laptop for the past few years).
Also, Steam Deck will still remain king until the other companies can make a good track record of consistent software improvements which are needed on a device like this. I see all of these other clones - the Ally, the 50000 Aya devices - and I still am not tempted until I know that they will be supported long term. I really think that this support sets the tone for these devices - is this market going to be a 'it's a year old and already outdated so I'll just buy a new one' kind of thing? Or will it be 'this is good for a quite a few years and I'm happy with my purchase and not immediately getting fomo'? I really hope it's the latter.
Another thing is that, and maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't Nintendo patent some part of the detachable controller design that scared companies from doing anything similar for a long time? I could have sworn that was happening for quite a while...
Support, community and quick resume will keep me from straying from my Steam deck for a while. I don't see any competitors beating Steam deck in anything but hardware for a while.
I sure want them to try though, fight for my money!
I think the even bigger advantage Valve has is the business model.
I don't know how much the Deck costs Valve to manufacture. And yes, it's pretty easy to run non-Steam games. But the bottom line is that the Deck does not have to be a profit center for Valve, it just has to drive more sales on Steam without losing too much money. Logitech, Lenovo, Asus, etc have to make money off of the hardware.
Support is important, but being a PC, you can get that from 3rd party solutions like ChimeraOS
I am someone who mods every console that I have. I even mod https://lemmy.world/c/linuxcracksupport here. But fiddling with the Deck can be very tedious and tiring. It's like modding a game - you'll spend hours getting it right, only for your will to play the game be gone.
I've even taken to not doing beta updates anymore on the Deck because the uncertainy that they cause just gets into my playtime. It somewhat ruins the concept of the Deck, which is 'pick up for a few minutes and play' in my mind.
Could some sort of dual boot be an option? Have a clean version of the OS that boots by default for the quick gaming sessions, then a modded version for when you feel like playing with the console itself. When your tweaks are solid, copy them to the gaming version.
I don't know enough about the Steam Deck or modding to know if it's plausible though.