Already 2 years since the release of the very first Steam Deck! Valve hit hard in a market that depended almost entirely on Nintendo: the portable console. In the meantime, other brands have entered the race, but does the Steam Deck remain a better choice for 2024?
Steam Deck drops in price to make way for OLED model
And yes, already two years since the initial release of the Steam Deck. Valve rarely takes its hands out of its pockets since the brand takes ample advantage of the strength of its online store: Steam.
But for once, the Steam Deck has been a huge success with PC gamers. Once confined to a desktop machine or a gaming laptop, gamers now have access to a lightweight portable console that is powerful enough to run recent games in good conditions.
See the full Steam Deck review
With its resolution of 1280x800p, Valve relies on an AMD Zen 2 APU for computing power, which is already starting to date, but which is perfect for running games on such a low resolution. Valve’s goal is also to ensure that players can afford this famous console. Sold from €419 (price varies depending on storage), Valve was sure to fill a very specific market.
Now the model with OLED screen is available on the Steam store, allowing the old models (LCD screen) to lower their prices. (Starting at €313 for 64 GB of storage and €398 for 512 GB).
A very unique strategy, at a time when – now – many manufacturers have entered the market.
Lenovo Legion GO, ASUS ROG Ally, MSI Claw… Major tech brands are now established on the market with varying degrees of success… But these consoles are taking a completely different gamble: that of power.
ASUS ROG Ally, Legion GO, MSI Claw… Is the Steam Deck still on top of the top?
We’ve had the opportunity to test several of them since their releases. 2023 saw the birth of the ROG Ally, the Legion GO, but also the MSI Claw.
See the full ROG Ally review
See the full Lenovo Legion GO review
I highlight these brands because they are primarily the best known on the market. But we can definitely talk about the very good Ayaneo and the ODIN machines from AYN.
While the Steam Deck runs on Steam OS, a Linux operating system customized for the occasion, most other manufacturers opt for good old Windows or Android.
This changes a lot in terms of game compatibility, since the Steam Deck is basically only designed to play games via Steam. The ROG Ally or the Legion GO, both under Windows, benefit from an AMD Z1 Extreme APU, a chip specially designed for the occasion which offers great advantages.
Indeed, the ROG Ally and Legion GO screens have higher revolutions. But the processor makes up for this with the performance provided by the latter. On the other hand, currently, AMD’s APU struggles to last 1 to 2 hours on big games while the Steam Deck can easily reach 5 hours without flinching on the same experiences.
Technically, consoles other than Steam Deck are more powerful, but offer a fairly big drawback: autonomy.
So we’ll have to see how the next generations of portable consoles of this type fare. ASUS has already announced the release of the ROG Ally X on July 22, with a very advantageous promise: double the battery life compared to the classic ROG Ally.
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