Oh shit, I'm glad I saw this and checked my tracking since it was delivered yesterday and sat on my porch overnight 😬
this post was submitted on 09 May 2026
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Steam Hardware
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Mine arrived too, and I’m puzzled by the triggers: they’re smooth! No texture at all. Other than that no hardware issues but the puck… my system doesn’t like it, at least after the latest update. With “doesn’t like it” I mean that I tried American Truck Simulator and I couldn’t get it to run well enough to use any menu and killing it was more about doing so via Steam… that would need to be force closed too. And at reboot? It wouldn’t mount my internal drives! I think it’s the latest firmware, because I could play PowerWash Simulator without any trouble. On the bright side, if it’s firmware, it can be fixed.
And at reboot? It wouldn’t mount my internal drives!
This seems unrelated to your controller?
Mine showed up as well. I wasn't expecting it so soon since the count had already gone past the first delivery dates when I got my order in (about an hour after opening). Enjoying it so far, spent some time setting up the trackpad and gyro and experimenting in Marvel Rivals. I've actually been enjoying the trackpads a lot more on this controller than I did on the Steam Deck. They're a bit more comfortably positioned and touchpad input works better on a 240Hz display than on a 60Hz one. I got a profile set up that has been working pretty well for me now and played a bunch of games today to experiment with controls and see if I could do anywhere as well as keyboard and mouse. I'm quite happy with the touchpads, though I don't think it's quite as accurate as KB+M but it's way closer than a normal gamepad.
Other notes:
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I played some Elden Ring. I love that I can map the "target" function to one of the grip buttons instead of pressing in on the joystick (same as I do on deck). I map crouch, jump, and roll to the others so I don't have to take my thumb off the right stick most of the time.
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I was worried about the seams on the edges but they're plenty smooth for me. The screw holes are a little rough but not a problem so far. However I don't love the overall texture (gets a little slick with sweat) and will likely add a rubberized grip/case just like I did on the Deck.
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It smells like a new Deck lol
Why do Valve products have that smell?
Even more notes:
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I often hate wireless gaming devices (e.g. mice) but this feels flawless. Inputs are very responsive, I'm not noticing any latency with the puck like I always seem to on bluetooth controllers. Yes I use my other controllers wired even if they have wireless.
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I fired up Forza Horizon 4. Driving feels quite good overall. However I don't enjoy the rumble. ~~Tried it on default (7 db), max (12 db), and low (4 db) so far.~~ [CORRECTION: That's haptics intensity. I don't see an adjustment for rumble anywhere]. It feels very pulsey, like the little motors fire in 0.5 second butsts as I drift and powerslide, rather than rumbling continuously. It feels very similar when driving off-road, when those feel distinct on other controllers. It's honestly kinda distracting. I strongly prefer the Elite 2 rumble (or hell regular Xbox 360) and never once thought those needed any adjustment.
I came from an elite 2 too. I think I feel the same about the vibration motors. I think the OG 360s are worse than the steams, but the Elites honestly seem about perfect to me.
Also I haven’t measured it, but do the elites triggers feel much longer than the steam? I primarily use a controller to play FH5/motorsport and they feel shallower.
Just checked and no, they feel about the same. The Steam triggers are just wider, similar to the Deck.
congrats, mine arrives the 12th
Same here, finally got picked up by the carrier end of day Friday, and then got an estimated delivery date today.
Mine is sitting in a nearby delivery depot since Saturday 1am. And GLS doesn't deliver on Saturdays. :(
GLS is the worst!!
I was supposed to get mine on Friday afternoon. Was following the tracking down to 1 stop away, and then I got a “sorry, we tried to deliver it but couldn’t find you” message. They certainly didn’t try, not even drove by (I live in a very quiet street and would have heard it).
And it’s not the first time they did the same.
I reserved 7 minutes after the option for 2nd wave went live, no follow-up email yet but glad I've not seen too many faulty hardware reports so far. Some people had a creaky left joystick afaik but not a widespread complaint.
I got mine yesterday and have yet to play a game with it (not just trying out) to judge it. I'm glad the d-pad feels good, better than on original Steam Deck. And the back buttons are better too. However, I already have 2 issues with it (I knew about the first point before purchase): Gamepad does not work without Steam. The puck does not wake up the controller when picking up, nor does it turn it off when I put the controller back to the puck. I like the dock of my 8bitdo more.
There's an app called SISR I think that will let you use the controller without Steam (converts to X-input commands I think).
It got recommended to me multiple times now. :D I wonder if there are quirks using SISR, that makes it behave differently in Steam when it is active. One of my reasons to purchase the Steam Controller was, to not rely on third party drivers, as I had some issues with drivers for other controllers. I might end up using my previous gamepad for non Steam games, so both are connected now.
I wonder if there are quirks using SISR, that makes it behave differently in Steam when it is active.
I'm curious too.
Yeah if you wanted to avoid 3rd party software then valve ain’t the company for you. Both the OG and the new controller need either steam input or 3rd party software.
SISR is kinda buggy for me. Until today any time I opened the program it would break my alt tab menu. Like it just never went away on its own, and explorer kept crashing. They also suggest having the controller connected before starting the program. Didn’t matter if the program was quit, once opened it bugged out windows. But randomly today I rebooted to fix the issue and it hasn’t happened since. Yay?
If you launch the game through steam you can use steam input to customize the controller. Otherwise it acts like an Xbox 360 controller that also happens to have a trackpad (or however you have it configured for desktop mode)
Hi, when people say it feels similar to the Deck, they also mean the shape? One thing I don't like at all of the deck is how square the shape of it's controllers are, as if they should be more angled outward in order to be comfortable to me. Are the Steam controller sides as stratas the Deck then?
No, the controller is angled a bit so it's not as square feeling as the Deck. It's fairly similar to e.g. an Xbox controller in terms of overall shape in the hand.
Oh, i see, thanks!