https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2024/04/steamos-3518-preview-released-for-steam-deck/
A fresh SteamOS Preview release is now available for testing on Steam Deck, and although small it's probably an important one.
How’s the steam deck hold up today? Would it still be worth picking up one hardware age wise?
Depends on what you expect. As a mobile gaming device with probably the best input options, it's still a very good choice. It might not reach the graphical fidelity of other devices, but the others won't sustain very long without charging either. Plus the deck probably has the best system from what I've heard, I do own a Deck but never tried a similar device but there's nothing really to complain about with the Deck.
For what I pay, it's perfectly fine. Your choice of games might play a role as well.
Depends on the games you play! Emulators, retro titles, indie games, even older AAA titles are awesome on the Deck.
Newer heavy graphics games tend to need some compromises to really work reasonably, or basically a really rough experience. If you have a decent PC, I find this doesn't matter too much due to in home streaming actually working pretty great nowadays.
I take my Steam Deck to work and play Rocket League, Helldivers 2, even Baldurs Gate 3 on my breaks and it's really a great experience. Occasional bugs with the OS doibg some whacky stuff but I could probably blame all the cool things like Decky Loader and CryoUtilities that give some performance gains and cool customization options.
Docking to a TV is great for LAN parties and being able to pair any Bluetooth controller is a godsend for games like PlateUp, Screencheat, Dreamcast games, Jackbox games and the like. Even have a WiiMote paired and play Wii Sports, and Clone Hero to get my Rock band/Guitar Hero fix.
Overall a very impressive device and still the only real non-Windows device on the market. I have the OG LCD 256 GB steam deck, upgraded with a 2TB SSD along with a 1TB microSD card so I may be a little biased in my review. Lol
As someone who got one for indie games it’s amazing. I love my oled steam deck and my wife keeps stealing it as well.
As long as you aren’t expecting it to run games like it has a RTX4090 in it, and are fine with the limitations of both the battery life away from a charger and the fact that some games might have issues related to the fact that the SteamDeck runs Linux, you will probably not regret your purchase.
The new OLED version is slightly updated for better thermals, and from what I’ve read is slightly more capable than the OG Deck.
I have had an OG deck since I got the chance to purchase after putting $5 down to pre order (I want to say a little over 2 years?) and the most demanding game I’ve played on it was Baulders Gate 3, and I had no issues with performance, and the small screen at 1280x800 resolution looks good on the OG but I’ve heard the OLED is even better.
I just bought my sister in law a Refurbished 512 OG Deck for $379 after tax/shipping, which about half what I paid for mine as an early adopter. You might see if you can pick up a refurbished one or get the OLED with a smaller SSD and upgrade it yourself.