Valve's first handheld is probably the best thing I have bought in 10 years.

If you want to learn linux, and you are new: Buy it.

Start of the journey:

1. It was my first PC that was Linux without dual boot.

2. The OS is hard to break.

3. It has a smell so good it has memes.

4. Felt like a real quality product, but very heavy for my small hands.

5. Better than any laptop by far.

My Amazon Prime then gave me a bunch of games to try after paying the monthly extortion fee.

Playing games:

1. All my old games worked. I already had Skyrim. The emulators also allowed me to play games I legally dumped and did not pirate.

2. I had no problems with any of my games that were not present in windows too.

3. I have a life. 2 hours is great for me, but not for hardcore gaming.

Side Hobbies:

1. I was able to make my own personnel OS using fedora silverblue.

2. This caused me to stop using windows "at all" and only use linux because you can just build your own read only OS.

3. Drones and robots are meant for this thing.

Durability:

1. Haven't broken it yet. I have an LCD Deck from around launch.

2. The only damage after this long is where my cat chewed on the joystick.

User experience:

1. It was super buggy when it came out to the point of being meme worthy.

2. I have the official dock. It is still buggy and fully updated.

3. Been on dual boot Fedora and Steam OS for quite a while. I was "steamOS only" for only the first 2 days. In the beginning, Nobara was best, Bazzite was 2nd best, with SteamOS 3rd best. Now SteamOS and Bazzite are equal.

4.It runs Kali linux off of a live boot stick in handheld mode with 6 hours battery on an LCD deck no problem. You can Penetration test with your big heavy black Steam Deck. Try and say that out loud without laughing. I can't.

5. Standby mode, always has been buggy. It likely always will. Everything else has been great.

6. I can play for 2 hours, but it's heavy. I do not recommend buying for someone weak nor young.

7. Lossless scaling framegen and FSR3 to me is awesome if you cap your game to 30fps to get 60fps. It makes the battery life a lot longer too. I charge less.

I give Steam Deck 10/10. My only complaint is the weight. If you are a newbie to linux it's a fast gateway.

Tired of AI generated reviews? Me too. None of my stuff is or will be AI Generated. :D