It advertises being the easiest way to get into PC gaming and I really hope that’s true and that’s been my biggest selling point along with it’s price tag. I’ve never rly been a pc gamer and find it’s a bit complicated. I barely got the tech skills to install some emulators on my laptop. Comparing the Steam Deck to competitors like the Legion Go and Rouge Alley which have better specs at only a little larger price tag but how user friendly are they? Is the Steam Deck really any easier to use then these competitors?
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Extremely user-friendly! 2 buttons contain all the menus and functions that you will need for everything. Steam button accesses the steam features, your games the store and regular system stuff for you to see. The options button has all your functions like an android system tray, brightness, fps, power, and alot to tinker with if you wish.
If all the games you’re gonna play are in Steam and that’s it, it’s very user-friendly. If you want to get into more nitty-gritty things, I’d wager it still is fairly user-friendly, just user-friendly for the more technically-familiar (not even adept) person. Stuff like Emudeck, Decky Loader, and CSS Loader make things unbelievably simple. The community support is easily one of the biggest selling points of the deck over legion go or ally.
I own a steam deck, rog ally and the legion go. The steam deck is the easiest one to use. You don’t have to worry about installing any windows updates. The legion go is the most frustrating one to use and it is because of the software. I prefer the armory crate from the Ally.
As long as you use it like a console, it will behave just like a regular console. However, if you wish to tinker on it to express its full potential, you definitely can. You Can even start using it as it is out of the box and slowly explore the possibilities later on, taking your time to get familiar with it first
It’s about as user friendly as a iPhone
Steam OS: 9/10
Desktop mode (Arch Linux): 6/10
10 being iOS and 1 being a 2000 year old Antikythera computer
Love the Steam Deck. If you just want to play games via Steam, it’s very user friendly. You don’t have to deal with desktop mode; it’s just like using any other console.
just turn on big picture on PC, that’s basically how the Steam Deck works.
It’s extremely user friendly. Modders have helped a lot with making it easy to install things like emulators. You can install practically every emulator in one go with emudeck.
Well, while it competitors might have some better specs, the Steam Deck has some of the biggest and ACTIVE communities out there. So for example, if you want to change something or are having a problem, you can almost be sure that the answer you’re neeing is just a google search away.
Adding to this (which is totally correct!), Valve themselves have improved the user experience of the Deck immeasurably since launch. It is such a more polished and refined device now than it was at launch, the difference is really staggering. Combined with the community support, the Deck is a joy to use.
The steam deck offers a console like experience because of Steam OS. Basically you can buy things from steam and load them just like on a console, no PC knowledge required. The Legion Go and Rouge Alley are basically just handheld windows PCs, so are the same to operate as a computer.
It seems to me we can stop saying “Console like” and start saying “Console+” if you stay in gaming mode it’s just as user friendly as a console.
In addition you get plugins, and an entire desktop mode with a bit of exploration.
Very user friendly, in fact, its the best gateway into linux. Ive ways said, the real game with steam deck is getting things to run. If you have problems, most likely youll find a youtube video to help solve it.
I’m mostly a console gamer, but I have a pc that is almost entirely for vr. I don’t want something that I have to tinker with endlessly to get it to work. So on my steam deck I only use it in steam os mode and only play games from the steam store. I don’t do anything with mods. The only layer of complexity is the performance settings, but nothing I’ve played so far has required me to do anything weird, including Starfield.
I feel like steam OS is the perfect balance. You can go from minimal tinkering to getting down and dirty with the settings. I wouldn’t be scared off by it being your first gaming pc. I’m primarily a windows user … and even going into the desktop mode (which you don’t need to) the steam deck is such a device with tons of community support you will always find answers to a problem. Either via Reddit or YouTube.
I would go for it . I’ve been loving mine as a first time steam deck user (although slightly more technically experienced with computers altogether)
Exactly this! Its hard to overstate how much Steam OS lowers the barrier to just getting into your games. It truly is a fully consolized experience for PC Games.
Simple and versatile.
Add on to that, the touchpads (often disregarded) you have access to the most PC of PC games that require a mouse (Civ, Pillars of Eternity, obviously much much more).
As a handheld focused on playing traditional PC games, nothing rivals it.
you never even have to leave gaming mode if you don’t want to, in which case it’s as user friendly as the steam itself, which has had decades of work put into it