I am downsizing my gaming setup as I don’t game too much anymore, just casually. I want to use a gaming handheld to play games in bed, dock to my two monitors for casual use like Microsoft office etc too. Most of the time I will be next to a wall outlet so can charge it easily.

There is so much hype around the Steam Deck OLED but it seems amazing more for portable usage.

Would it be worth me looking at the Lenovo Legion Go potentially? The larger 1600p screen with 144hz seems just as great and I can play games plugged in most of the time. The only thing that scares me is the software still basically being in beta and the difficulty of getting gyro to work, oh and of course the steam deck trackpads are better.

Any thoughts/advice is appreciated!

  • doc_willisBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I prefer the deck, because its NOT running windows. Be aware the Deck runs Linux steamOS so while it can do a lot of Desktop stuff and make use of monitors, you may have to learn some extra skills. Or setup a dual boot with windows.

    :)

    But if Docking to a monitor/tv - remember the Deck is not a powerhouse of a Gaming PC. So 4K gaming, is really not going to be a thing.

    And Yes the trackpads give extra flexibility.

    No idea on the Legion Go, or other alternatives, if they use windows, I am basically not interested.

  • MofoProBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Seems like the Legion or even ROG ALLY would be a better fit for your particular use case , I have a GO and while the screen isn’t OLED Its still pretty amazing, software does suck but I don’t even use Legion Space as you don’t really need it the majority of the time.

    Saying that still ordered a OLED SD and love SteamOS too they both have Pros and Cons

  • invid_primeBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    The Steam Deck shines as a handheld. It’s got the best battery life of all the current handhelds out there right now. However, if you plan to play plugged in or docked the majority of the time I think you might be better served by a Lenovo Legion Go. The software apparently sucks but you can largely sidestep that with a combination of third party utilities.

    The reason why I would recommend the Legion is because when plugged in it has a higher performance ceiling. The minute you’re portable though, my recommendation goes to the Steam Deck. Same thing goes if you have a limited tolerance for jank…then the Steam Deck wins. Windows isn’t great on small touchscreens.

    If you’re intent on using either as a desktop I can’t really say one is better than the other. I just got my GPU back from RMA on my gaming rig and I used my Steam Deck docked as my PC for the entire time and it was fine. I’m comfortable with Linux but even so, you’re not really messing with the guts of Linux on a Steam Deck…almost everything is flatpaks so getting into the nitty gritty isn’t needed. There’s no printer support in the default SteamOS image though…if that matters.