After making waves internationally and carving out a new market in the gaming space, Valve’s Steam Deck is finally landing in Australia. This handheld PC lets you take your Steam games on the go, and whilst we’ve been patiently awaiting its arrival to Australian shores, it has built up a massive library of Steam Deck-verified titles and made a name for itself as a solid piece of tech. Thanks to Valve, we had a great opportunity to go hands-on with the device ahead of its Australian launch, and after putting it through its paces, I can safely say it’s one hell of a unit.
It can’t be glossed over that the Steam Deck essentially created a new category of gaming hardware. The handheld PC market is now very strong with competitors entering into the hardware arms race, all trying to slice off their own segment of this booming market. The Steam Deck, whilst maybe not technically the first, was a big enough hit to elevate this category and create competitors in its own right. It is a powerful yet portable device with an almost endless library of games that can be accessed and played. For a PC gamer who already has a huge library of Steam games available, it’s a bit of a dream unit.
The unit’s tagline is “Your Games Everywhere” and it’s a convincing prospect. The PC gaming audience has already proven to be a loyal bunch, with new gaming storefronts often failing to capture a market or shutting down entirely. So when the biggest PC gaming name with the most faithful of users strolls into the market and offers a new way to play, you can’t help but listen. My Steam library is my games. It’s what I boot up daily. It’s my most extensive catalogue of play and where so many thousands of hours of good memories are stored. That’s why a Steam handheld doesn’t feel like the launch of a new console. It feels like a complimentary piece of hardware that enhances what I already have and blends seamlessly into my long-established gaming habits. It’s PC gaming in a new way and that’s endlessly exciting.
Portable gaming is not a trend that will disappear, so devices like the Steam Deck make more sense today than ever before. Take the Nintendo Switch for example, or perhaps even better, mobile gaming. The rise of portable gaming is important because our lives are constantly in motion and so our hobbies have to keep pace. Don’t get me wrong, I still love to sit down at my desktop or in front of my TV for a hardy gaming session. But more and more, those moments are traded in favour of portable gaming as a way to maintain a hobby I love in a world that won’t sit still. The Steam Deck has well and truly evolved the way I game and that’s not something I anticipate will change.
“The Steam Deck has well and truly evolved the way I game…”
Ease of access and flexibility of choice are the real winners here. Putting a gorgeous game into the palm of your hands and taking that into bed with you is a next-level experience. The vibrant and picturesque recent release of Neva proved to be one such example. A world worth experiencing and a story full of heart, there are games like this that feel engrossing and prove hard to put down. It also didn’t need to be a full-screen, cinematic experience. Playing on the Steam Deck, every necessary detail was there. And it meant Neva could join me as I transitioned from my late evening desktop gaming sessions to my pre-sleep ritual of laying in bed with a device in my hands.
That adaptability means gaming can now fit more comfortably into my lifestyle. A particularly engaging narrative beat or section of game doesn’t need to stop just because I have to head into the office. Taking my Steam Deck with me and jumping on public transport gives me that extra bit of time to find a natural stopping point or simply squeeze in every last minute of gaming I can.
Take a game like Balatro on the other hand, and suddenly it’s easy to exacerbate a pre-existing fixation. There are some games that just work amazingly on the go and this is one such example. Since its release, Balatro has become a recurring pleasure of mine. It’s such a convenient game to be played in bite-sized chunks. There’s also no time pressure, which means it doesn’t require your full and undivided attention. Previously I would play on my desktop, but now that I have it on my Steam Deck, the obsession has grown in new ways. Suddenly Balatro has become a game I can share with friends more easily and something I can take with me around the house or on the go.
Certain games are a natural fit for the device. Kill Knight is another such example. Basically, any game you’d want to plug in a controller to play will feel naturally good in the palms of your hands. This twin-stick-shooter handles and presents beautifully on the Steam Deck. It’s another game playable in short bursts and an absolute visual and auditory feast for the senses. This is all captured immaculately on a portable device. Other titles, like ones you’d typically want to play with a mouse and keyboard such as Satisfactory, take a bit more to get used to. But with trackpads emulating the movement of a mouse on either side of the unit, even these titles become manageable—though not flawless.
“…an unmatched verification system giving you all the information you need to make informed playing or purchasing decisions.”
The unit’s trackpads give great feedback with inbuilt haptics to simulate friction. The OLED unit that I was able to review had an incredible touchscreen display that captured the colours, detail, and beauty of the worlds within. A set of 8 triggers on the top and back of the unit provides options for button mapping to give more versatility to the way you play. The software also works seamlessly, with an unmatched verification system for games giving you all the information you need to make informed playing or purchasing decisions. This system essentially lists out in which ways the Steam Deck functions with any certain game and in which ways it may be lacking. So if a game’s text is too small when adjusted for the Steam Deck’s resolution, a hard-of-hearing player who may rely on text can see that issue flagged and decide the game is not ready for them.
It’s fantastic to see how widely adopted Steam Deck verification has become. Developers are proud of their stamp of approval and are actively putting work into ensuring the best possible Steam Deck experience. This is something that other handheld PCs haven’t been able to do and it’s a big win for this specific unit. However, it is worth noting that this is likely only made possible because the device is built to play your Steam library only. Other handheld PCs can be more broad in their approach, connecting with platforms like Xbox Game Pass for PC and the Epic Game Store natively. The Steam Deck on the other hand automatically boots up a Steam operating system and would require some fiddling that isn’t consumer-friendly in order to play games from other libraries.
The Steam Deck has the power to run your games well. At a 1200 x 800 resolution, the unit clearly doesn’t need to be as powerful as a device that powers a 4k TV, for example. However, we’ve also seen other portable devices struggle in the current gaming landscape to run with consistent framerates and to capture the gorgeous details of the worlds that have been created. This doesn’t appear to be an issue for the Steam Deck. In fact, in my experience, I’ve found the device to be even more consistent than my desktop, largely thanks to the verification system. You’ll never need to compare your device’s specs against a game’s minimum requirements. Just look for the green tick and you’re all good. It’s so easy and user-friendly.
“…feels like some kind of magic…”
There are even some beastly video games that somehow run well on the Steam Deck, and are verified for the platform just the same. The incredible world of The Lands Between in Elden Ring, the stunning action of God of War: Ragnarok and the visually impressive (and now much better) Cyberpunk 2077 work on the device, as do recent epic RPGs like Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Baldur’s Gate 3. There are some caveats, of course; some of these games have a lot of wonderful depth in detail that will simply always look better on a beefier PC and a larger screen, but the fact that they run on a handheld at all feels like some kind of magic, and I’m grateful for the option.
What’s more is that the device is capable of both streaming from your PC or playing a game locally. This once again allows for more adaptability to how you play. If a game were to release that was too beefy for the unit, you could always stream that sucker from your desktop instead. Of course, we run into internet speed/stability issues here in Australia, plus the requirement to stay close to your PC to play in this particular way, but it’s nice to have the option nonetheless.
In the two years between its international debut and eventual Australian release, other competitors have since released more powerful units into the market. This certainly doesn’t invalidate the Steam Deck as a formidable machine, but if raw power is what you crave, there are likely better options out there. There’s always a trade-off though, and in this case, it’s price and battery life. The Steam Deck feels appropriately priced without the ‘Australia Tax’ often associated with hardware releases here in Aus. The battery will run for 2-8 hours depending on the kind of software you’re running, which feels adequate and fits its function. More powerful units are more expensive (obviously) and many reportedly run through your battery much faster. In this regard, The Steam Deck hits a bit of a sweet spot, balancing power, demand, and price elegantly.
The Steam Deck is available for pre-order in Australia from November 19, including the newly announced OLED: Limited Edition White (pictured above). I feel incredibly lucky to have been given the opportunity to test out a unit ahead of this release and can say wholeheartedly that it’s an amazing piece of tech. Changing the way I play games, this unit adapts to modern lifestyle trends whilst bringing your pre-existing gaming library with you. It’s not hard to see why the Steam Deck has managed to capture an audience globally and define a new way of play.
To find out more details about the Steam Deck, you can head to its official store page.
A Steam Deck OLED was provided to Checkpoint Gaming for review by Valve.
About the Author
Elliot Attard
He/Him
Beer aficionado, PC gamer, TV show binge-watcher, music lover, and elite member of high society - Elliot possesses all of the qualities needed to project his word thoughts straight into your eye holes.
