Ally was a new very powerful device at that time. I was also pondering if i should get that instead of the deck
All the posts just stopped, people realised the trade off’s of each device, poor support for the ally, worse general performance for deck. I chose the deck.
In the end i myself settled into my decision. How i’d define it? Comfort
The deck is my only pc that i have an external monitor and kb+m for some games where i want the pc experience, controllers when i play local multiplayer and some other stuff. Being my main pc the performance boost of the ally was huge for me. Honestly if it would’ve had trackpads i might’ve gone there
Now, i’m cool. The deck can play any game atm* and i’m not that into graphics though i crank them up as much as i can while still getting some 40-45 fps min where possible(because why not), if 30fps min graphics is the deal then that’s just fine as well. Everything works and the device is solid
I’ll just pull this number out of nowhere, some 3 years+ in the future, valve will release the deck 2. By then there might be some new game that deck1 won’t be able to run but i’ll still have thousands upon thousands of games i can play until the deck2 releases. Not even some rdr2 quality type new release wouldn’t have me unsatisfied with deck1 that supposedly couldn’t run as there’s just so many other games it can run
I think i quite like this type of 4+ year successor thing(based that the current device runs, albeit on lower graphics, 99.?% of games). This builds the structure of carefully chosen components and that new generation that, for the price it’s at, can’t be a better deal at that specific moment in time where hardware advanced enough(opposed to the idea of phones where they release one each year, main differences being some better camera, some better cpu bla bla)
This is a personal situational thing as i never had top graphics card and didn’t get hung up on great graphics in games but on gameplay but yeah, i guess in my mind i have taken a team that takes things more slowly while improving the structural base of their operating system for the devices it has… for me that’s comfortable and reliable
The lack of ally vs deck content is quite great, the waters that were once very calm and stable and then got shaken a bit with unsureness with new competitors now got back to that initial wavelenght. Valve survived great through this and other minds that think alike might also had come out of that wave with renewed trust into the deck and the future of the product