Questions about the Steam Deck

https://gamerant.com/steam-deck-how-to-play-games-on-a-tvmonitor/

Personally i wanted to use mine for in bed/outside but it just never came to it, and why use such a small device when i got a big monitor, mouse and keyboard? I just never managed to use it except trying it out twice. For people that do use it on the road or whatever i think it's a fine thing.

i got it cause i sold my inventory and i had nothing better to buy, it's great when traveling

list people trust for games that work and what doesn't

no, most of the lists are wrong in some cases, Epic Battle Fantasy 5 is playable despite saying is unsupported, some supported games should be in playable category due to small text or bad input scheme, trial and error

I would also like to know if it is possible to connect it to the TV for multiplayer games

you can connect it to a screen via hdmi or steam stream (moonlight)

Finally (for now) I need to ask about storage as I have heard loading games from a SD is a good option for extra space is it simply load the game on to one and run it or is it harder and more complicated?

i got an SD card in it for extra space, plug it in, format it and download some games

A game being "verified" doesn't mean much. It's best to use protondb for actual user comments on if a game runs ok and what issues it has. I've played verified games that were very buggy or poorly optimized, so it's not good to base anything on.

If you buy the official steam deck dock (or third party alternative docks), you can easily connect it to a TV and play multiplayer games or whatever you want.

As far as storage goes.. personally I only run emulated games or smaller indie games on my SD card. Some people run AAA games off of it but I would just get the highest SSD storage that you need rather than go through the hassle of eventually opening it up and replacing it yourself. I don't recommend relying on an SD card for extra space, it's more of a bonus than anything.

The best place to learn which games run on a Steam Deck and how well they do is https://www.protondb.com/. People often share settings and resulting fps performance or any issues they experience.

You can play multiplayer games on TV, using multiple gamepads. But I rarely ever use my SteamDeck docked. That's not what this machine is made for.

Storing games on the microSD card really isn't a biggie. I store pretty much all indie games there. And I also couldn't tell a difference for games such as Yakuza.

One more option:
No, would do if they shipped here.

Also, potato.

Anyway, if a game has a platinum or gold rating on ProtonDB, it will run on Steam Deck as well (as long as system requirements are met). Note that gold rating usually means you'll need to add some tweaks but the games work just fine after doing that.

For SD cards, as long as your card has at least Class 10 (C10) rating, it should be fine for most of the games.

I know it's not an answer to the specific question you asked about SteamDeck but have you looked into the alternatives? I have read good things on reddit about Legion Go
(disclaimer: I do not own either and would not even if I did have money to throw out the window simply because I play on my PC and have no need for portability when it comes to gaming)

I recently got an Asus Rog Ally. It is an absolutely superb lovely gadget, and at the same time I have mixed feelings about it.

I thought I would use it a lot, because I do play a LOT of Hearthstone on bed on my tablet, and at my mother-in-law's home when I go visit ( :D ), so I figure I could instead attack my huge Steam backlog instead. I never thought I would use the Ally for the BIG games (which deserve BIG screens), but I really thought I would enjoy it with the indie games, the 2D platformers, turn based games, etc.

Anyway, the system is AWESOME indeed. It is a lot lighter than I expected, and it runs games really really well (as well as my 2016 Desktop anyway). Since it runs Windows 11, it can do Steam, Gog, XBox Game Pass, etc.

The battery life is SUPER short (2 hours usually), but since I thought of it as a bed system (not a travel one), that is ok, I can keep it plugged almost all the time. I don't travel much anymore anyway.

But, somehow... it did not click (yet) for me. The thing is, my tablet is super comfortable to use, and its screen is bigger then the Ally's screen, so it still feels like it is a lot more fun to play old Hearthstone then start up a new Steam game... I recognize it is a lot about the games themselves -- Hearthstone feels good on the small screen, the interface is super smooth -- but, still...

Anyway, I am still trying to find games that feel right on that small screen -- I think Disgaea PC might be a good fit, for example, since it was a Vita game originally. Or maybe I should go visit my mother-in-law more often. :D :D

Cheers!

TV is possible with dock.

would rank the steam deck as just under the quality of my wii u

I bought a steam deck so I could play games without exposing my <1 year old son to my bright computer monitor. Screen time is ridiculously detrimental to child development.

Anti-glare screen is nice but not necessary. If you don't play with a bright light right above your head, you won't need the anti-glare screen. If you do need the anti-glare screen, you can buy and install a screen protector with the anti-glare coating for under $15 USD.

For storage, look at your library, figure out which games you want installed all the time, and buy an appropriate size. I have under 20 GB of games installed on my Deck. I uninstall games when I finish them.

TV: If you think you'll buy a Deck to play on TV, I have to tell you something: you won't. You can, but you won't because there is way better devices to do this than Deck that you'll give up on the first or maybe second time.
Compatibility: I can't complain at all about the compatibiliy. There's tons of games that aren't verified that they work just fine (if you install a plugin protondb from the decky addon, you'll shortcut any info about the game compatibility without even have to verify the verified status). Lots of AAA runs perfectly well, some AAA need tweaks and most indies run without even need to go to settings.
Storage: The SD can be used as main storage. The 512 Gb native version will do just fine for most people. If you have the 1 Tb native, I recommend to use SD just to extend the lifetime of the SSD, but it isn't really necessary. There's no difference at all if the game is installed on SSD or SD. They all look/works the same in the system.
Best feature IMO: I can prone and play in my bed/floor/outdoor, which is something I thought I would never do this easy playing a PC game.
Worst problem IMO: If you have a small library, I don't recommend you the Deck, because you'll have two conditions to play, one is availability (have the game) and the other is compatibility (run the game). If you don't have both, you won't play game. Most people in my country that complains about compatibility have a small library, which is the perfect failure formula.
Middle feature/problem IMO: Just like any gaming notebook (which is kinda what Deck is), I don't recommend you to rely exclusively on the battery. One because it don't lasts/works like a phone battery and second because some people reported bugs like Deck gets permanently dead after runs out the whole battery. If you don't wanna trouble, just think this isn't a fully portable device like your phone. It is something like the middle term between phone and gaming notebook. Another thing you should be aware is that touchscreen isn't very precise as it should be. The touch games aren't that fun on Deck. Even if you use pads (which the majority don't), touch games aren't fun as it should be. If you really want something that demands touch, you can use a bluetooth mouse though.
Something you have to think about: This is a limited device. Don't think you bought a 4080 PC gaming because Deck is way too far from this. Don't also think you bought a portable console, because Deck is a portable PC gaming. This advice is kinda take sand to the beach when telling to PC gamers. However, some PC gamers act like console gamers: they aren't used with tweaks and stuff and get lost really fast.
Another thing to consider: Don't buy to play one title exclusively like many in my country did. I can go even further on this one: If you plan do to this, which is perfectly fine if you love just one game, verify first the compatibility of the game with linux and how well it will run on Deck.
This is it. Hope you didn't had much trouble to read my clunky english.

I bought steamdeck probably for sake of having it. Most of games are still better on pc anyway

I love my steamdeck. But IMO it is best especially at its cheapest point. When you are getting more expensive OLED version with highest memory, perhaps checking alternatives would be better. I haven't done comparisons myself, so cant suggest anything specific. But I got my deck for the sole reason of being able to play when traveling and when sitting on couch with my GF. Or if I have 20 min before bed. And for that it works perfect at the price point of 400 EUR (when I bought it). Haven't used the desktop mode (just trying it out when bought it) or docked it to TV or monitor.

SD card is perfectly fine on the deck. Works perfectly fine.

As others said - for compability you can check protondb. SteamOS is based on Linux. It is possible to run Epic for example through it will be tedious and I haven't tried it. Maybe some other handheld can be a bit better.. depending on how you want to use it. Honestly I wouldn't get it for playing multiplayer games on TV.

For the majority of games, the Steam Deck gives you a console-like experience. If the game is confirmed to work on protondb.com , then I typically can just boot it up and it plays great. I've spent hardly any time ever messing with settings in games. It mostly just works.

Your saved data from the cloud allows you to easily pick up and play games where you left off on your PC, and Steam remembers your games settings on your PC and Steam Deck while keeping them separate.

The only downside I see to the Deck is the battery life (although this was slightly improved with the OLED models). Not that the battery life is terrible or anything. But if you are accustomed to playing on a device plugged in to a wall (as I was), having a low battery notification pop up while in the middle of playing a game wasn't something I was used to.

The deck can certainly handle outputting to your TV while allowing local multiplayer if you have the controllers. I'd recommend getting a stand for that which will provide the HDMI output and additional USB slots.

I have a 1gb SD card in my deck and games play off it just like internal storage. You just put it in, go to settings to format the SD card, and start installing games to it (or transfer them from internal storage). It's also pretty neat that when connected to my home network and logged in to Steam on my PC, the deck will automatically copy games from my PC instead of downloading them from the internet, which saves data and is usually faster (you can toggle this on or off of course).

Personally, I would recommend the Steam Deck to anyone considering getting a handheld gaming device. When comparing to other devices, I would pretty much look at it like choosing your game launcher on PC... Are you going to make the Epic launcher your main library? Going with the Steam Deck is like choosing Steam instead of Epic (I mean no offense to those with ROG Ally's or other devices... the analogy might be a little harsh, but I stand by the fact that currently SteamOS provides the best handheld experience).

I have a ROG Ally currently dualbooting with Windows and Bazzite OS (which is basically Steam Deck OS). Best of both worlds IMO in that I can have the ease-of-use of Steam Deck in the latter, and non-compatible games, other launchers and some emulation with the former, in a slightly more capable box with a nice VRR screen. That said, if the Steam Deck OLED had been out/announced when I was making my purchase I probably would have just gone for that!

As others have said, these handhelds are great in lots of ways but tend to only have 1-3hrs battery depending on what you are playing (again, SD OLED has slightly better battery).

The best gaming device i ever owned.

I think everything that could have been said has already been said. I'll just add that with a dock, you can plug the Deck to the dock, which acts as a stand, a little vertical but with a small angle to see it well if you have no monitor, and then two gamepads, a keyboard, whatever you want usb, including a hub for more pheripherals, while having hdmi or display output. It is not like other multi-connection hubs with usb-c. Not many have displayport output, which I consider a big plus, and also has a gigabit ethernet input.

Basically, with the dock you can play anywhere, be it on a monitor, on a TV, or without any of them, with two gamepads on shared/splitscreen games. I think it's a good investiment to go along with the Deck. If unsure, get the Deck and see if you miss the dock features. I think S&H is free for the dock too.

Specifications of Deck and Dock at https://www.steamdeck.com/ (better than the pages at steampowered.com) and with nice pics showing several setups for examples.

Also about size, I think it's not that important when you can plug a big SD and it'll work nice. Use the internal storage for big demanding games, the SD for whatever, it's still fast.

Take a look at Lenovo Go.
It is 100% windows 11 (and can play all games) with bigger screen/cpu/ssd. Can detatch controllers and had bleutooth to use your own controllers. It is like a laptop+tablet in a SteamDeck format.

Even though I have a decent gaming PC, Switch, Xbox Series S and PS4, the Steam Deck instantly became my main gaming device and I´d say ~70% of my game time is spend on the Deck. I got mine right at the beginning when it launched and upgraded to OLED right away when that came out so yeah, happy costumer here ^^ I would certainly recommend the OLED, its a huge improvement in every way.

Most things have been answered very well already, just some info/perspective I like to add:

Game compatibility on Steam OS:
Many have stated that this is a mixed bag and protondb has already been mentioned a few times as the best source of info. Some "verfied" games still have issues, while some "unsuported" games run perfectly well. Personal experiences on this vary heavily depending on what games you´re into. I encountered VERY few issues and most of them where easy to fix. I would summarise it like this:
Singeplayer / Local Multiplayer = Most games just work and feel like a console experience.
MMOs and other less-competitive online games = With some tinkering, most will work perfectly fine.
Highy competitive online games: Some will work, but for most of them you´d need to install windows.

Its also not too hard to use other launchers. I´ve been using Heroic Launcher, wich covers Epic, GOG and Amazon and is quite easy to setup. Sadly for Xbox Gamepass you´d have to either rely on streaming or install Windows. Both arent great options IMHO.

Using it on TV for Multiplayer games:
Works perfectly fine (you could do it with just the right cable, but a hub or the dock works best). Just be aware that the System is built for an 800p resolution and plays more modern games at low-to-medium settings. Games look very beautiful on the small screen, but on TV it can cost a lot of enjoyment. If the games you´re planning to play are less demending on the hardware, you can of course use FullHD or even 4K and high details with a docked Deck. Just be aware that the limits of the hardware will quickly become noticable, once hooked up to a big screen. I mostly use it as a multimedia PC with some 2D-Gaming when docked.

Playing from SD card
Also works perfectly fine. Process is pretty much the same as if you put an SD in your Smartphone and then its ready to use. Most games have slightly higher loading times and a few can actually double the loading time, but once you´re ingame there is pretty much no difference. You can also easily push games from SD to internal storage and back whenever you want. SDs are also hot-swapable so you can use multiple SDs if you like. When the system is running and you take out the SD, the games instantly disappear from the menu and when you put in another one, those games will appear in a second. Just make sure none of the games are running right that moment ;)

Beeing a noob with handheld gaming
There might be a life changing surprise waiting for you here. Modern handheld gaming devices have a standby-mode like smartphones, meaning you can switch it off any time you want, leave it lying around for minutes, hours or days and be right back in the game within seconds. The Nintendo DS also had standby already, but the battery-drain was still so awefull... it was a convenient feature, but not good enough to change my gaming habits. For me that came with the PS Vita, later Switch and now the Steam Deck. Beeing able to just pick up the device and play for 5 minutes anytime I want is liberating beyond words. Its hard to explain until you experience it yourself. For some its not that important, but most people I´ve heard from feel the same.
I´ve used Windows 10 based handheld PCs years before the Steam Deck, but Windows always had huge problems with Standby and I couldn´t trust any unsaved game to it. Not sure how the newer Windows 11 handhelds hold up in this regard but SteamOS does it really well.

I have both the lcd and oled steam deck and I love them.

I personally have the LCD Steam Deck - bought a 64 GB refurbed one from Valve paid for by stuff from my inventory and games sold for TF2 keys (so it was almost free for me). Even though it is refurbished, it looks just like a new one, so I was really happy with my purchase.

PROs
Good performance - (Most of) the verified games run on 60 FPS with no issues straight out of the box, with more demanding titles (the ones I encountered being Open-world games) you will have to stay at around 40 FPS (but it actually isn't that big of a problem on the small screen)

Reparability - I don't know how it is with others but Steam Deck is really good at this. As I mentioned, I bought the 64 GB model, so I bought and swapped the 64 GB for a 1 TB SSD. Yes, there were some issues (namely a ribbon supposed to be used to pull out a cable was tucked away so it took some time to get it out) but you can easily find so many tutorials and guides which will help you. For example iFixit has a whole section for Steam Deck with guides and even replacement parts.

Games just work - On other handhelds you have to tweak the settings for almost every game for them to run properly. On Steam Deck this is not an issue as all verified games are already set to the needed graphics settings.

Price - Not only you can use the money gained by selling items from your inventory but Steam Deck overall has a nice performance/price ratio. As I said, I got it for almost free which I couldn't do with any of the other consoles. Pro tip: you can save some money by buying TF2 keys from some marketplace for real money and then selling the keys on the Steam market.

Touchpads - If you plan on playing any kind of strategy game (e.g. Civilization VI) touchpads are a must. Most strategy games do not support gamepads as inputs, so a joystick instead acts as a mouse; it is horrible. The touchpads solve this and they are great! They feel great to use and have awesome haptic feedback.

Community - Steam Deck has a huge community of Steam which is active everywhere - steam forums, Reddit, even here (see how many people replied :D). If you encounter an issue, there are a lot of people willing to help you or someone has written a guide for it already. :D

CONs

Weight and size - I mostly play on my Steam Deck in bed and my hands become numb after some time due to the weight of it. This can be solved by creating some kind of support for SD (e.g. add a pillow to rest it on). This isn't really an issue when sitting but it is something to be aware of.
That's all. Can't really think of anything else right now.

As others mentioned, it is best to check ProtonDB for information about performance and compatibility for games.
Yes, it is possible to connect the console to the TV through a dock (or any good USB-C hub). I don't really use it myself though, as I can just use my computer for that (but I tried it and it works).
I wouldn't bother with any Steam Curators - as most well-known games run well on SD, you can just follow normal curators for tips for games.
SD card is completely fine, it can just make loading times slightly longer. But come on, you are going to buy the 1 TB version, do you really need more storage?

I have the original non-OLED version. I think it's a great device in general, though I personally do not use it very often. Maybe once a month.

Nearly all of the games I've cared to play have worked. Even GTA2 works. If you play big competitive online multiplayer games with anti-cheat, or third-party DRM/launchers, they will often not work. But if you're competitively playing those games you probably want to use a real computer with KB+Mouse anyway.

It is basically like a gaming laptop with a touchscreen and a built-in controller. If you plug it into a dock you can use it like a regular computer, it has a full linux desktop mode available.

I got a good Sandisk extreme pro SD card and I cannot tell any difference in performance compared to the built-in storage.

Battery lasts about 2 hours of actual gameplay, but it is dependent on the game you're playing how taxing it is on the CPU/GPU. Under casual usage with lightweight games it can get double the battery life. I never play it long enough to run out the battery in either case.

I personally find the size and weight a bit too large for a handheld device, it is uncomfortable to use for more than about a half hour at a time, but compared to a gaming laptop it is much smaller.

Heat is not an issue, it never gets warm to the touch where you hold it. The back of it gets warm but that's about it.

I do not care for the actual "controller" part of it, the layout, size, feel of the sticks/d-pad/buttons is all not great. The buttons are very tiny. The d-pad is horrible, it's placed on the very corner of the device and up+left don't work unless you really mash the hell out of it, which is extra difficult due to the extremely remote position of it and weight of the overall device. For that reason, I avoid any games on it that use d-pad, which unfortunately rules out a lot of retro games which would otherwise be a perfect fit for a device like this. Overall, the size + weight + unbalanced controller elements makes it uncomfortable to use as a portable device. In my opinion. Due to the weight I can't really hold it for any extended amount of time, I have to set it on my lap, which means I am looking downward and it makes my neck sore.

I do not play any keyboard+mouse games on Steam Deck, so I can't comment on how the touch pads/touch screen/paddles are for that kind of thing. I tried a few games but just find it too awkward, I would rather play those games at a computer and use a keyboard and mouse.

In the end, I do not often use my Steam Deck... I have a computer hooked to my TV and I can play sitting on the couch with an xbox controller, I find that to be much more comfortable for times when I am not sitting at my computer. But I do get out the Steam Deck once in a while if my wife is using the TV. And she uses it sometimes for the same reason, but also thinks it is too heavy.

It looks like the previous comments cover most everything. Couple notes though.

Multiplayer games do in fact work in many instances despite anti cheat. Valve has stepped in to make sure of this. For example, I play Helldivers 2 on the Deck exclusively. 60 hours, no Deck or anti cheat issues.

For me, at 6'4" with hands large enough to palm a basketball, the size of the Deck is also ideal.

The only well known game in recent memory that I've tried that just doesn't play properly on the Deck is Dragon's Dogma 2. And that is directly due to the CPU bottleneck and isn't a Deck exclusive issue. 15 FPS just isn't playable lol.

I bought the cheapest model on the LCD deck before they announced the oled versions. It was on sale and since i wanted to try out a handheld for pc gaming, i went with that purchase, also bought steam deck dock (although i do think this is fairly overpriced when compared to other brands).

I had a 256gb SD card, along with a 128gb one, and additonal external drives that are collecting dust from the xbox one/ps4 generation. So storage was plenty enough, sure SSDs are nice to have but i was not expecting to use steam deck for high end gaming because the hardware is lacking. It can run most games in a playable state, but i would prefer to play said games on my actual pc than on the deck.

So i use my deck mostly to run games on my backlog on steam when i'm away from my desk (like play 1-2 hours when in bed or sofa). I originally intended to use it as an emulation system, but then i thought... instead of adding even more games to my backlog via emulation, why not play through my 2k+ backlog of games on steam. So i did that exactly. I do plan on buying another handheld whenever the next lineup of AMD APUs is released, i expect a good jump in performance with ryzen 9000 processors, so handhelds are likely going to get a nice increase in performance too. Steam deck is a balanced system, you can play older games all maxed out just fine without breaking a sweat. But do not expect to play most recent games on that system without making it look like a playstation 3 in terms of visual quality.

As for the dock, i never used the dock, which is funny... I've always used the deck in handheld mode with steamOS. I've tried desktop mode but not docked to explore more about the operating system and do some changes. I have little knowledge with linux, this is my 2nd time interacting with a linux based OS, first time was in 2010 or so and it was for like a week.

As for game compatibility, i literally ignore the labels on steam and try games out. Unless the label says the anti cheat from that game does not work with steam deck, i know Destiny 2 is one such game as bungie blocked proton or something, so it automatically flags steam deck if it is running proton in the background. I've played unsupported games just fine and played games that lack confirmation just fine. At times the issue you might see with these labels is that cutscenes might play in a weird way. Like broken audio, messed up color palette during cutscenes or weird angles (like extra zoom in during cutscenes for no reason). There is only 1 game in my backlog that i attempted to play while having the unsupported label and that actually did not work, which is digimon story cyber sleuth complete. Deck loads game, but from what i remember, it only plays audio and has no image display.

As for the STEAMOS, while in gaming mode, it is fairly straight forward. But if you want to use steam deck for more than just gaming, learning linux can be an issue for some people. Linux is not as straight forward as windows IMO, took me a bit of time to get used to it and i'm somewhat of a techsavvy person.

My final advice for you is:
-Only buy a handheld if you really think that you can give it some use somehow (backlog, emulation, step away and chill for less serious stuff)
-Steamdeck OLED IMO is overpriced, the best value handheld is steam deck 64gb LCD, buy expansion storage separately (SSD upgrade, external drives, SD cards, whatever... SD cards should be used for steamOS, if you convert to windows you might want to change storage as SD cards might not be the safest way for windows OS). If you can find a regular rog ally z1 for less than 400 bucks, then that becomes the best buy handheld currently. If you really want to go the oled path, legion go might be the best purchase then and it should be found at a similar price tag as SD oled 1tb. Steam deck oled offers nice quality/balance overall, but it sucks when it comes to performance and is short lived. This is why i consider it overpriced, you are paying almost 2x value from cheapest deck vs most expensive deck, performance difference is minimal.
-You should wait on the ryzen 9000 lineup coming later this year, it is expected that a new generation of handhelds will come to the market by the end of 2024 or early 2025, and they will offer much better performance than what we have right now. Steam deck 2 is still years away, so do not wait for a SD2. However a rog ally 2 might be worth considering later this year, just need some patience and wait for the news to roll out.

Hello,

I am a happy Steam Deck owner. I honestly recommend the device if you have the money to buy it.

First off I would like to ask a few questions to people who own or use or used a Steam deck about what they think is the pros and cons of the device

Pro's

One of the best handheld devices on the market
Good battery life, unless this is your primary gaming console
Versatility, you can install a lot of programs, launchers, and such to play games
Perfect for emulation
Steam OS
Can connect to larger TV, and add other peripherals to turn it into a computer
Great button placement
Unverified games can still work, despite not being tested. I have had games that worked without a single issue.

Con's

Connecting to a TV can be a bit fiddley and not as poping in and out like the Nintendo Switch Dock is
Suffers from the same issue with Drift problems, at leat mine does
Heavier than the Switch
Doesn't have as many accessories for the deck as you'd think
Large

I would also like to know if there is a list people trust for games that work and what doesn't I was looking at some but they all look different - best I like so far is https://checkmydeck.ofdgn.com/ is this a good one to check with and also is their a way to remove the VR games from the numbers and list

My favorite website to check compatibility, fixes and other stuff to keep in mind is this website.

I would also like to know if it is possible to connect it to the TV for multiplayer games

Yes. Either you buy the official Steam Deck Dock or a 3rd party, it both works the same. It's not as responsive in terms of just poping in and playing, as it takes a few extra seconds for it to display, but it works perfectly. Can link via Bluetooth any type of controller and use it as a console. I do it all the time.

I would also like to know which Steam Curators to follow for Steam Deck lists (if any)

I don't follow curators, but you can definitely find some like Great on Deck is for example.

Finally (for now) I need to ask about storage as I have heard loading games from a SD is a good option for extra space is it simply load the game on to one and run it or is it harder and more complicated?

I have a 512 first gen Steam Deck, so not the OLED version. The LED version. I can tell you that you can pretty much have enough of 1TB space to play a game, beat it/compleate it and uninstall it afterwards. Using SD is sure a good option if you're the type that leaves too many games installed in the system. It's not a complicated system whatsoever, so you should be just fine.