You're absolutely right about the software experience. And the overall ecosystem. Steam deck wins hands down on those. There is ChimeraOS out there too but Aya's software doesn't look too bad, actually
Let me give you a tip - if you are planning to play games just like you do with Xbox controller - pick any device you want.
But if you want to have these:
Gyro aiming
Trackpads (aka "mouse touchpad")
Back buttons
Self-repair
Value (price/performance)
Customization freedom (macros, shortcuts layers, virtual menus of bindings in-game, idk many more choices...)
Then you have to pick Steam Deck.
Hell, it should be enough for you to check what are your choices if you break Aya vs Steam Deck display. Where would you get display? How easy it's to replace?
With Steam Deck it's iFixIt and they have parts, quality guides and tools for everything. What does Aya have?
Yeah, a hard sell in many areas. I live in Korea, so I actually stream to my Odin Lite from my home PC in most situations, and as a result, the lower performance of the Deck hasn't been appealing. Now that performance is changing with these alternatives, I'm suddenly much more interested.
Sounds like you are after performance and not portability. Don't you think a gaming laptop would be a better choice?
With performance comes the battery penalty - max 1.5-2 hours on battery. I usually find myself playing more indie games in Steam Deck rather than AAA games.
Hmmm....that's kind of a good insight. I've been eyeing the GPD Win Max 2 but maybe even a regular gaming focused notebook would be a nice new toy
You're absolutely right about the software experience. And the overall ecosystem. Steam deck wins hands down on those. There is ChimeraOS out there too but Aya's software doesn't look too bad, actually
Let me give you a tip - if you are planning to play games just like you do with Xbox controller - pick any device you want.
But if you want to have these:
Then you have to pick Steam Deck.
Hell, it should be enough for you to check what are your choices if you break Aya vs Steam Deck display. Where would you get display? How easy it's to replace?
With Steam Deck it's iFixIt and they have parts, quality guides and tools for everything. What does Aya have?
Yeah, a hard sell in many areas. I live in Korea, so I actually stream to my Odin Lite from my home PC in most situations, and as a result, the lower performance of the Deck hasn't been appealing. Now that performance is changing with these alternatives, I'm suddenly much more interested.
Sounds like you are after performance and not portability. Don't you think a gaming laptop would be a better choice?
With performance comes the battery penalty - max 1.5-2 hours on battery. I usually find myself playing more indie games in Steam Deck rather than AAA games.
Hmmm....that's kind of a good insight. I've been eyeing the GPD Win Max 2 but maybe even a regular gaming focused notebook would be a nice new toy