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The original was posted on /r/handhelds by /u/jaappleton on 2023-08-25 14:03:08.

Here’s the situation: Bought my 13 year old son a Steam Deck last Christmas. And he just isn’t a massive fan. He loves gaming, has Switch and PS5. I’ve told him all the Deck is capable of, hoping it would jumpstart an interest in PC gaming. And he has an interest…. But not for the Deck. Unsure if it’s the UI or what but it just never clicked with him. Offered to sit down with him together and really dive into it and talk about its capabilities, get everything going on it, installing Windows, etc and just…. Nah.

For the last few months he’s saved up a lot of money with the intent of purchasing a gaming desktop that’ll last him through high school. Proud of him for working hard to earn that money and having a goal, setting out and trying to get it done.

He’s told me he has really no interest in the Deck, and it’s been legitimately just collecting dust.

I may have some interest in it myself. He asked if he could sell it to me. I’m intrigued, but I don’t know if the Deck or one of its competitors is right for me.

His Steam Deck is the base model, and he is willing to sell it to me for $300.

Heard the battery isn’t amazing. Not looking to run stuff on it at the absolute god tier levels of graphics, just run games pretty well and not have to charge it after an hour.

I saw some of its competitors. Logitech G Cloud being a lot less heavy and more comfortable, but it’s Cloud only… which I don’t actually mind. That would be the same price at what I would pay for his base model Deck.

I’ve recently replayed FFVIIR on my phone via PS Remote Play and it worked great, I do GamePass on my phone, etc. I’m intrigued about having another device so it frees up my phone. Internet at my house and work are great for streaming cloud gaming…. Then a friend pointed out that I’m silly and the Deck could ALSO get things like PS Remote Play, GamePass, GeForce NOW, etc.

Really love how the ROG Ally is Windows oriented, but it’s price point and poor battery life keep me away for sure.

How much of a pain, scale of 1-10 is it to get Windows on the Deck? Is it even necessary for what I want to do?

How’s the battery life when you’re streaming titles as opposed to running them directly through the Deck? Closer to 5 or 6 hours or we still talking 3.5-4 hours?

The ergonomics; this thing is pretty heavy. Does it prevent you from having a solid two hour handheld gaming session? My arms gonna be tired after?

(Side note: How’s GeForce NOW on it? My friend with a Deck says that Baldurs Gate 3 runs pretty poorly on his Deck and I heard another friend running it via GeForce NOW and it was very smooth, so is it worth the price?)