Steam Deck

Valve's Steam Deck is a powerful portable gaming PC that can run high-end titles at console-like quality, though it has a few quirks that need working out.

They’re cheaper, have tons of great Nintendo exclusives and play many of the same indie and third-party games that you’ll find on Steam Deck. But if you’re looking to take your Steam library on the road or want access to just about the biggest game selection out there, the Steam Deck is a very good first attempt at portable PC gaming that could eventually become great. As someone who loves PC gaming but still prefers to play games on the couch (or on the go), the Steam Deck feels tailor-made for me. Fortunately, you can expand your Steam Deck’s storage with a microSD card, and they’re generally pretty cheap; this popular SanDisk option will get you 256GB of storage for about $38. The 64GB card I popped into my Steam Deck ran titles such as Metal Gear Solid V and Jet Set Radio just fine. The system’s virtual on-screen keyboard was mostly reliable for messaging my Steam buddies and browsing the store (and delivers some nice haptic feedback), though I had to apply a good amount of force for it to register my inputs. You can install Windows on it (though we’d recommend holding off until official drivers are released), which gives you the freedom to download non-Steam marketplaces, such as the Xbox app, Origin and Epic Games Store, the latter of which you’d need to play popular titles like Fortnite. While Steam Deck worked well with nearly all of the 20-plus games I tested, it isn’t guaranteed to run every title available on Steam properly. Valve’s portable PC handled the cinematic action game at 49 frames per second at low settings and 37 frames per second with the visuals maxed out — that’s a far cry from the 90 to 100 frames per second we got on most gaming laptops, but it’s still perfectly playable, especially for on-the-go gaming. It felt great to play largely uncompromised versions of these visually rich PC games on a handheld, especially when similar third-party blockbusters are seriously scaled back on the less powerful Switch. It’s worth noting that while the Steam Deck consistently stayed cool, its fans got pretty loud when playing more intensive titles. The Steam Deck delivers big where it matters most, offering strikingly good performance for a device that you can easily take on a train or plane. The Steam Deck is just about the biggest portable gaming machine I’ve ever gotten my hands on — and I’ve been around since the OG Game Boy. The nearly 12-inch-wide handheld makes even the standard Nintendo Switch feel tiny, and will demand a decent amount of space in your backpack. How it compares: Valve’s portable gaming rig is much larger and more powerful than the Nintendo Switch, packing a custom AMD processor that allows it to run graphically rich games at settings comparable to what you’d see on a PS4, Xbox One or cheap gaming rig. Valve’s new handheld successfully makes PC gaming portable, packing enough power to play the tens of thousands of games on Steam at console-like quality while also doubling as a full-on computer.