Steam Deck review: a little big deal

Praise and curse the Steam Deck, for it has stolen 20 years of my life. A few minutes into playing on this – the first serious attempt at a handheld PC from a major gaming entity - and I am once more a child, alternating between sinking into the sofa to redirect energy into my thumbs and wanting desperately to rush round my friends’ houses to show them the cool new thing. Not that the Steam Deck is a nostalgia exercise, given it’s built to run the very latest AAA games as much as it is indies and retros. And it certainly isn’t twee: from its no-nonsense, all-black design to the performance-tweaking options in its OS, the Deck is a serious device, even and especially when it’s serious about giving you a good time. That’s in spite of some imperfections, to be sure – the software, screen and battery life may disappoint anyone expecting another top-end Valve hardware masterclass to follow their Index virtual reality headset. But the Steam Deck is more accessible, more affordable, and far more useful to have on a train. Read more