Steam Deck

Valve's Steam Deck is here, but how does it stack up?

- MATT HANSON

THE FIRST THING you should know about Valve's Steam Deck is that despite its looks, this isn't a Nintendo Switch alternative. It's so much more than that. Sure, it looks like a handheld console, but Valve has made an impressively open and powerful device that's actually more like a gaming laptop alternative. In that respect alone, it's a triumph.

For PC gamers with a Steam library. the Steam Deck gives you a ready-made collection of games-open up the Steam Deck, login, and all your games will be waiting. Not every game is compatible with the Steam Deck, mainly because it runs Steam OS 3.0, a Linux-based distro, and relies on Proton, a software compatibility layer that allows Windows games to play on Linux. When it works, it works incredibly well, and there's no noticeable performance impact. But, due to the sheer size of the Steam library, some games will either have compatibility issues or won't run at all.