> I am blown away to play OW2, Apex, Cities Skylines and even BOTW on a hand held device

All four of those games are available on Switch, which runs even more quietly and requires a lot less fiddling and maintenance.

I have both an ROG Ally and a Switch, I just find that selection of example games particularly amusing. Starfield works well enough on my Ally, and doesn’t exist for Switch.

They all also run horribly on the Switch like most ports.

I was blown away just how much better experience those games on Steam Deck are in comparison to the Switch.

Either that or they have severely downgraded graphics, like the Witcher for Switch, also known as the Switcher.

I have to buy all my games again to play them at lower quality and frame rate? Seems like a bad deal, I also dock my ROG Ally, and use it on my TV running 1080p60, something the Switch seldomly does.

As for fiddling, I really don't understand this commentary, the only 'fiddling' is toggling the controller mode and power target? I don't understand how basic settings that are built in to a easily accessible menu is 'fiddling'.

OW2, Apex, and all emulators I've tried have Just Worked (TM).

City skylines is on Switch? And it doesn’t melt?

It seems good: https://youtu.be/drGHqZnVHnA

But it’s not a game type that interests me, so I haven’t tried it on Switch.

I stopped playing on my old laptop when the fan got louder than the ambient sounds. I hope that’s been fixed. Must have been if it’s on Switch.

The steam deck could do that a year before the Ally and with much longer battery life

And with a lot worse screen. The screen is the main thing keeping me away.

Really? Have you used it?

I've used steam deck for a year. Literally never have I wished for more resolution, which would eat up power and battery for no discernable benefit at that size and distance. I read the specs for new lenovo hand held and it boggles my mind that people would want that kind of compromise. Every review acknowledges that you'll have to play games at lowered actual resolution anyway.

It's not about resolution for me. It's about brightness and refresh rate.

And yes I have used the Steam Dec, in fact I have used both. Maybe you shouldn't be so dismissive about what other people feel is important. It's not a good look.

Thx; for what it's worth, my reaction is one of astonishment not dismissiveness - that's why I enjoy HN to see different perspectives :). E.g. Even beyond resolution, I've actually capped the refresh rate on my steam deck to 40, so have zero interest, personally, in screen refresh above 60, or even brightness - all massive battery and power and heat menaces. It's largely because for me, It occupies a completely different use case than my desktop gaming machine. I can't imagine playing overwatch or something where I'd care about really high refresh rate, in a portable gaming device with game pad controls, so I'm always genuinely curious to hear different experiences :)

(as another example - for me, the number one actual killing feature of steam deck is the seamless sleep mode. It's so good! It makes significantly more difference to my portable usage than any numbered spec :)

Their comment didn't come across as dismissive to me. Questioning, yes, but they also explained why your perspective was confusing to them (it conflicted with their own experiences).

Cross comparing the Ally and Deck its a marked difference in BG3.

> And with a lot worse screen.

Funny, millions of Steam Deck users have no problem with it. I tried the ROG Ally and was not wowed by the screen at all. It's better, but that's it.