![Full Steam Ahead](https://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/5219/748566/61446c173fa8e/Full-Steam-Ahead.jpg)
Pictures of the Steam Deck couldn’t prepare me for seeing it in person. After working on the Steam Deck in secret for years, Valve invited us to its offices to be among the first to test out the handheld gaming PC, before game developers have even gotten their hands on it. And wow, is it big. This is the full tower PC case of videogame handhelds.
Once I actually picked up the Steam Deck, though, the size didn’t seem to matter much. At 1.47 pounds it isn’t too heavy to hold comfortably. It’s wide, but the inputs are close enough to reach naturally. The button arrangement may look a little odd, but it fits how you grip the device. The Stream Deck is as big as it needed to be to pack in all the features Valve thought it should contain (which is basically everything, minus the CD drive).
Somehow it all fits in an 11.7-inch wide tablet. Spending a couple of hours with the Stream Deck was convincing: it’s not the first Frankensteined mash-up of PC and Game Boy, but it’s easily the most polished and premium I’ve seen.
With Steam Machines, Valve tried and failed to sell PC gaming in the living room. But PC gaming anywhere? That’s a harder pitch to ignore. And once I started using it, I could almost forget that the games I was playing were never designed for a portable machine.
BUTTONED UP
Denne historien er fra November 2021-utgaven av PC Gamer.
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Denne historien er fra November 2021-utgaven av PC Gamer.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Whale of a tale – Harold Halibut's big undersea adventure – Special Report
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DOUBLE TROUBLE
Whatever happened to MULTI-GPU setups?
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MICROPHONES
A good microphone can be the difference between a professional sounding triumph, or a crackly, tinny disaster
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MILLENNIA attempts a spirited but messy coup to Civ's throne
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