Valve Steam Deck LCD (512GB) reviews

No regrets in this purchase. Once logged in I find I have 70 games with the green steam deck tick, and many more with the yellow. Even then I am still playing games like Jedi Fallen Order that is technically not rated for it, and it is buttery smooth.

It is lighter than you would think, and the sound is very impressive to go along with those graphics. The days of handheld gaming consoles always being a generation (or two, looking at you nintendo) behind their full size counterparts are well and truly over.

Being able to play a game on my normal gaming PC and then go sit outside on the deck and carry on playing, without having to worry about the wifi signal is an absolute dream

Very good purchase, however a little pricey, definitely worth it. I can play all my steam games on the couch, bed, outside on the DECK. Graphic is amazing, and game runs at least 60fps, speakers are good, there's also a microSD slot. Overall I would recommend this, and glad that we can finally get it in NZ.

I Received it a week earlier than suggested. Very easy to set up. More comfortable than my switch. Battery life is short on very high graphic games (90 mins to 2 hours) but power banks help with that. I love that I can Stream to a tv and use it as a controller. If I could use 2 at the same time I would have 2!!

I was very excited to see these being sold in NZ and jumped at the chance to grab one without doing my research in full.

I ended up disappointed overall so I would note the following before jumping in:

• You're paying a premium; this model runs for $630 USD which is approx. $1,000 NZD
• Steam deck runs on a Linux hybrid OS that doesn't run all games. COD, Destiny 2, Apex etc all don't run on it.
• Even when games are compatible, they often don't run well due to the hardware limitations. The deck is really focused on smaller titles or AAA games that came out <2022. Research your favourite games to see how they run before buying (as I should have done for Destiny 2......)

There are some great things about the deck however:

• The steam deck shines as an emulation station, there are native apps (EmuDeck) which make it easy to setup and run games from basically all the older consoles.
• If you're into tweaking around Linux again this is probably going to be heaven for you, there is a rabbit hole of tweaks you can get into.

In the end I returned my Steam Deck as it arrived with a dead pixel on the screen (Mighty Ape were easy on the return process so this doesn't affect my review) and whilst I enjoyed my time it ultimately made me just want to purchase a gaming laptop running windows for less hassle. Keep in mind you can get laptops online for around the same price running an RTX 3050

I love this device. Everything about it is excellent. The amount of things I can do on the Steam deck is fantastic, all in a convenient form factor. If you are familiar with gaming on Linux, you should not have trouble getting this machine to do magic. I liked it so much, I bought two more for my kids. Now they can play Pixelmon, something you can't do on gaming consoles 😋. Out of my 450 games on Steam, I only found 2 games that could not run. Games installed from Gog plays great as well.

It's awesome once windows installed good on playing games awesome handheld pc

As you cannot currently purchase a Steam Deck from Valve directly, this is the best place to get a Steam Deck without paying some scalper. Yes, this does mean you're paying more as MightyApe have to cover the import fees – but it's worth it. I've had nothing but great experiences in every game I've run so far. Decent enough battery life for a high-powered device. Highly recommend it over a laptop or other portable device of the same price point. Also, perfect if you're like me and own 1700+ games on Steam.

Very fast service must recommend

The amount of things you can do on this is insane! Mighty Ape making these avaliable for Kiwi's is great! Super fast shipping as well. Highly recommend

Had the unit about a week now and its a great little device. The good stuff – Lighter than it looks, has an option for external memory, seems to run most big games fine. The bad stuff – after installation of a game it freezes and lags ,once you restart the device it works perfectly, and the battery life is pretty limited may 2 hours if you are playing Hitman or Assasins creed those type games.

Over all a worth while purchase.

Truly an amazing piece of hardware that allows you to play almost any game anywhere

Had my Deck for about a month now, and it's absolutely fantastic. If I didn't play several games that aren't supported on it, I'd likely get rid of my PC, it's that good.

Plays most new games really well, but I've mostly been playing emulated PS2 games, and it's absolutely fantastic for emulation.

If you want to be able to take most of your Steam library, as well as whatever childhood games you loved, wherever you go, there's nothing that'll do the job better.

It exceded my expectations

Been waiting for a while for this to be available in New Zealand, and I'm glad it finally is. It's comfortable to use, the screen looks great, all the games I care about run well and when at home, it's great to plug into the TV and stream games to it from my main PC. 100% recommended for anyone who's been wanting to play their PC games on a hand held.

First of all: yes, this is quite a bit more expensive than if you'd just buy the SD if it had just released officially by Valve. Buuut who knows when they're going to release it over here? I know I didn't wait. If I (and you) can get one now even if it's got a bit of a markup it's all good as long as it was worth it.

For people that aren't quite experienced with computers in general like all the ones that use Windows, this may not be the best thing for you. Linux is quite a bit different to Windows and can be quite a bit confusing if you don't know what you're doing. HOWEVER, at the same time, SteamOS is actually fairly similar to Windows in some aspects so if you're good with Windows, you'll fit right in with SteamOS. In the end, even if you don't have a lot of experience with this stuff, there are plenty of tutorials you can search up that'll help you out a lot in the end so make what you will of it. Besides, most of the time it's fun to learn something new.

I reckon the 512GB model is perfect for us that want the most storage. Means you don't have to uninstall games to fit more in like you would with the 256GB and especially 64GB models as often, let alone upgrading the storage. Which if you're not exactly comfortable with opening up devices to upgrade them like myself, makes the 512GB model pretty nice.

Other than that this model of SD is no different from the other models in terms of performance. Despite it's size, it's quite light. It's easy to use, navigate and do whatever you'd like. Lots of things to tinker with (provided you know what to do and look for) if you're into that stuff. The matte screen is a nice thing to have too. The control layout was somewhat awkward for me at first but I grew into it really fast. Lastly, that Samsung charger that MA bundles together with the SD? Works perfectly. If you don't have an adapter for the original SD charger the other one MA gives in for free should do just as well.

Got it just in time for Christmas, Battery life depends on the game your playing, But sitting on a plane from Brisbane to Wellington I managed to get 4–5 hours from it playing the Tell Tale Batman game. I've now loaded it full of games and have not had any issues trying to run anything on it yet.

Love it! Just beautiful, so many games to play on the Steam Deck I bought the 512g for more storage and bought a 512g SD card, worth buying a Steam Deck 😊