I'd love for valve to do to other markets, what they've done for the handhelds in terms of Linux. I could see the improvements they've made easily translate to something like a laptop or a set-top box.

[–] cron@feddit.de 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm not sure if a steam laptop would be successful. You can install steam on most laptops on the market (with some exceptions like ARM-based laptops or chomebooks). Same applies to a "steam console", just pick any small PC and put steam in autostart.

However, the deck features innovative controls and a rare form factor. There is just no device that has the same feature set as the steam deck.

[–] Zangoose@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

any small PC

This is a pretty small niche though. I feel like (except for dev boxes and single-board computers) there aren't too many small PCs that would fit well near a TV. Even something like a steam deck SOC in a case around the size of a Mac mini would be great. Bonus points if they gave it a more powerful GPU

[–] Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago

There's Frameworks AMD laptop mainboard which should perform even better than the Deck (better cooling, newer chip).

[–] mesamunefire@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

Yep you can put Manjaro onto a laptop and get just about the same experience.

[–] usrtrv@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I see a set-top box that uses the same SoC as a deck as a possibility if they can get it cheap enough. Maybe paired with a new Steam Controller.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

I would love a new Steam Controller. Basically, just give me the Steam Deck controller separate from the rest of the device.

I didn't love the big track pads of the OG Steam Controller, but I really like having track pads for certain games, so I hope they can find a design that feels and works well. Gyro aiming on the Deck is also really nice, and I love having four back buttons.

The issues with a set-top box is that the Deck SOC doesn't work well at higher resolutions, and you kind of need that for a non-handheld, console-like experience. So they'd need beefier specs to support 1080p on the same titles that the Deck supports at 720p, and many people will want a 4k option as well. So they'd need a new SOC or a dGPU, which would bump the price of the device significantly. They tried that already with Steam Machines, but it just didn't catch on (to be fair, they didn't commit to it very hard).