It can’t be done cause Steam hasn’t released it yet unfortunately

My main concern with companies like Lenovo or Asus building such devices on Windows is support. I have more trust in Valve to do this right.

Every single one of the so called "Steam Deck Killers" drops the ball on the controls, it's impressive.

The controls are just so good. I don't think I could do without the inputs especially the touchpads

For me, it's being able to sleep and wake the device with games still running without worrying about a crash or running out of battery because Microsoft broke sleep on W11

Yeah that's my thing, too. Touchpads are important in this regard I would say.

@null @echoplex21 for me personally I got the ROG Ally because of GamePass which I already had with my Xbox. Being able to play a bunch of PC games native has been great especially if they sync saves. Also the sheer amount of free games I got with Epic Game Store was also nice. Sure the UI isn’t the best (we really need a big picture mode for the Xbox app) but being able to play all these games without additional purchases was a no brainer.

#xbox #windows #gaming

The Steam experience is actually pretty great on the Ally. They have the big picture mode which works really great.

Nah, it's greatly improving game compatibility on Linux.

I love my steam deck. I'm okay with not being able to play some games on it yet if it means my gaming experience on pc keeps improving too because of it.

Game companies will also be incentivised to add native Linux support if the handheld pc market gets big enough and it's clear the experience is better on a custom Linux distro than something from ms

I actually hope that Microsoft doesn't do that. Because I like that stuff like the SteamDeck improves the Linux-based Ecosystem.

If everyone now builds and buys Windows Handheld devices, it probably goes the same route as mobile phones, where a standard Linux or custom ROMs are second class citizen (if you are even allowed and able to use those) and you have to disable or downgrade security mechanisms if you want to install your own operating system.

I would really like if those hardware vendors would come together and improve the Linux gaming experience for their devices.

You can configure Windows not to run the Explorer.exe shell and instead boot directly to Steam in Big Picture mode.

Theoretically anyone could make and distribute an alternative shell designed for this use case, it doesn't need to come from Microsoft.

Agreed, but I imagine there's hesitancy at MS to try again.

MS tried their hand at purpose built mobile OS during the Palm Pilot era, then again during the Blackberry era.

Windows hasn't historically ported to small devices with great success.

Edit: I think there's also likely some awareness (and fear) that the unified mobile PC gaming platform race is nearing it's end, and already has two strong contenders in Linux and Android.

I love seeing more competition in the PC handheld market.

Yes! It's so great to see this one play out in the exact opposite way from Steam Machines and VR. In all these cases, Valve made noise about how they wanted to kickstart a category with their own thing and then sorta leave it in third-party OEMs' hands (less so with Machines, I suppose, since that one they just went straight to the OEMs). Fun watching the Deck take off like it did and sorta launch the entire form factor into the mainsteam.

I love seeing more competition in the PC handheld market

Yeah it's pretty great to see, especially since in the beginning there were a lot of people saying handheld gaming PCs are very niche and the development won't last long

I use it on my hour long train commute every morning and evening as well as in bed when I don’t want to sit at my desk.

The size is actually a huge plus for me. It fits my enormous hands so much better than the Switch which has been really uncomfortable since I started playing ToTK last week.

I work from home and after the shift to remote work it didn't take long for me to pretty much stop using my gaming pc because at the end of a work day I kinda want to be out of my computer room.

Most of the time I'm using it on the couch or lounging around the house. I have brought it on planes (flown like 14 times so far this year) and it's not that bad but I guess that may vary from person to person.

It's not for everyone but it fits my needs pretty perfectly.

https://www.lenovo.com/de/de/legion/ - sorry for german link, but I am lazy. Their gaming-laptops are known as legion.