I’m just thinking out loud here.

Steam Deck 2 is a long way away, and I think that’s great. Giving developers a specific hardware target is crucial, and having consumers feel like they need to immediately upgrade is bad.

However, I think there is room for an advanced SD that’s not necessarily “new” but just an external improvement over the existing model at a higher price tier for those looking for a premium experience.

Also I’m going to be nitpicking here, don’t take that the wrong way, I love the SD but it does have some weak points.

So then Steam Deck LE would be identical to the current one with the exception of:

  • The screen. Wow this is probably the greatest weakness of the SD. A larger display with smaller bezels and better color accuracy would go a long way to improving the experience.

  • Hall Effect joysticks. Again, nitpicking here but it’d be nice to see a premium version with these included.

  • 1TB SSD. I originally bought the 64GB version thinking I would just use an SD card no problem. But the ridiculous amount of shader cache, the various Proton versions (~1GB each) and some other software like EmuDeck and Heroic, as well as the annoyance of moving things back and forth had me upgrading quickly to a 1TB, which immediately ended all of those concerns.

  • Different color ways. I’m partial to white but a transparent purple version would be nice to see also.

  • At least 1 more USB-C port… so we can do things like video out while charging.

What else would you like to see added?

  • hedgehog
    1·
    9 months ago

    Out of curiosity, did a symlink actually work or did you need a bind mount?

    I ask because I had issues with cloud saves not working for BG3 (which I got through GOG, not Steam) and as a workaround I put my save folder in Dropbox and sym linked to it from every system I play on. But on the Steam Deck specifically the sym link didn’t work and I had to create a bind mount instead. I wouldn’t be surprised if Steam and Proton used the same file management libraries.

    • Gaffe@pawb.social
      2·
      9 months ago

      I didn’t do any fancy mounting, as far as I can remember. I think it really was just a matter of copying the directories to my SD card and replacing the directories on the deck with links to the ones I copied to the card.

      I’ll take a look at what I did the next time I get the deck out and let you know

      • hedgehog
        2·
        9 months ago

        From your follow-up message where you confirmed - thank you for checking and confirming! I don’t have a 64 GB Steam Deck but some of my friends might (they have Steam Decks, I just don’t know what sizes) and that confirmation will make it way easier for me to help them make the same change if they ever complain about running out of main drive storage.