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Okay, I know the statement ‘I get it now that I’ve actually tried it’ sounds a bit silly in retrospect, but Windows is a fickle bit of software. One of the best arguments for a handheld gaming PC such as the Steam Deck is how easy it is to use. You turn it on, access Steam, find a whole host of games specifically designed to work for the handheld, and you boot those games up.
Despite being less powerful than the best handheld gaming PCs out there, I’ve always been happy with Steam’s offering because it’s mostly been a stress-free experience that lets me game in minutes.
As well as Windows devices adding another bit of software before getting into Steam itself, they require more tweaking than the Steam Deck, with different models using different specs. There’s a certain clunkiness I felt I’d get that I didn’t feel with the Steam Deck. And this is all for an experience I’ll mostly do from my sofa or while travelling for a handful of minutes at a time. I’ve always found the idea of waiting that long (and troubleshooting any weird problems Windows might run into) counterintuitive, given one of the selling points of a device like this is that you can just pick it up and play.
This is before mentioning that you don’t control Windows through buttons like you do Steam UI. I always felt like I would always be just a few moments away from needing to use the touchpad on a Windows handheld, which is often mediocre at best for controlling a UI designed for mouse and keyboard, or simply non-existent.
I try to minimise the time I spend using digital keyboards, and that’s only partly because I feel like it makes me look my gran, holding her phone with one hand and navigating it with the pointer finger of the other. I’m a little too young to feel that old.
I’ve been using a Steam Deck since its launch, and this is partially because of how handy everything is. However, it is starting to show its age, and though it can run the likes of God of War (2018) well, its ability to competently play modern big-budget games is diminishing by the second. I see myself in the market for something new in the future, especially as more devices are getting AMD Strix Point and Intel Lunar Lake chips, and the gulf in performance is becoming ever more evident.
We could see a Steam Deck 2 in the future, but I also don’t want to make my financial decisions based on what’s comfortable and familiar to me. Whatever the next generation of Steam Deck ends up being will have to win my heart over with its specs, price point, and ergonomics.
In an effort to second-guess my assumptions, I was lent a OneXPlayer 2 Pro. This (let’s face it pretty middling) handheld does a good job at showing that Windows can be a boon to the right kind of handheld player at best and can simply be bypassed at worst. The OneXPlayer 2 Pro definitely didn’t lend itself to the best first impression. Audio drivers were broken, the triggers feel a tad mushy, and it’s quite a heavy beast. However, surprisingly few of my problems stemmed from its OS, and those drivers just took a refresh to fix.
If you set Steam open up on bootup and have it automatically launch in Big Picture Mode, Windows gaming handhelds look and feel like a handheld with Steam’s own UI. It takes a bit longer to wake up, as Windows has to start before Steam does, but the feel of using the UI on it is almost identical. Though I miss the Steam Deck verified badge assuring me which games would work, I often skipped that on Steam Deck anyway, and I’ve never been against a bit of tinkering to get a game working.
I’ve always liked Steam OS, but you can get most of the Steam OS experience now from Windows with just a few setting changes.
Steam Deck does have its own desktop mode, which uses its own Linux-based OS, and Windows is a clear winner here, thanks to how easy it is to use and how compatible software is for it. As someone who makes videos, music, and likes to edit images, all of that is much easier on a Windows device. The Steam Deck, out of the box, is closer to the console experience—smooth and easy. Windows handhelds are closer to, well, Windows PCs. They require some messing around to get working sometimes, but they are well worth it when you do.
This is before mentioning that the Steam Deck is a bit of a finicky device from a software perspective, which is why these verification systems were needed in the first place. I’ve felt enabled to really mess around with the settings of games to get them working here, and it’s a tedious yet rather freeing process.
It’s the easy access to anti-cheats that really shines in my time with a Windows handheld. You can technically get anti-cheats on Steam Deck to run the likes of Fortnite or Call of Duty, but you need to go through the process of installing Windows on it, which means having to swap back and forth between operating systems. Despite it being an easy-to-use handheld, installing Windows on a Steam Deck makes it feel more cumbersome than a dedicated Windows handheld.
As well as this, operating Steam through Windows means it’s easy to access the Epic Game Store—something I should use far more, given the hundreds of games I have on it. With Windows devices, you get so much more freedom to use the device as an actual PC out of the box. With a keyboard and mouse, it can be a fairly competent laptop replacement, and I have even taken it to cafes to do some light writing (though a limited battery and funny looks from the table across from me mean this should only be done sparingly).
This is where my time with the OneXPlayer 2 Pro has led me. I constantly decry how little of my backlog I’ve made it through, and yet I feel like I’ve held myself back a little with the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck is still a really nice budget device, and a tank for getting through smaller indie titles with less demanding spec requirements. But it’s also a tech equivalent of a comfort food that makes me far more likely to just play one more round of Balatro than actually tackle the games I’ve been meaning to get through. In just a matter of weeks with a Windows device, I’ve felt more free to take on any kind of game and have felt more emboldened to tinker with them to get it all just right.
I can’t say I won’t go for a Steam Deck 2 when my time comes for an upgrade, but I can say it’s no longer the default.
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Kurt Indovina
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