Valve made tech and gaming headlines yesterday when it announced the Steam Deck. The device is a handheld PC akin to gadgets like the GPD Win 3, stuffing what are essentially ultrabook internals into a portable form factor.
News of the Steam Deck comes after Nintendo recently revealed the Nintendo Switch OLED model. Valve’s handheld retails for $400 for a 64GB model (with 256GB and 512GB options available too) while the new Switch model will set you back $350. So would you buy the Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch OLED? Let us know via the poll below.
The two devices are very different propositions but they’re both gaming handhelds retailing at a somewhat similar price-point.
The Valve device packs a quad-core AMD Zen 2 CPU, RDNA2 graphics with eight compute units, a 7-inch LCD panel, 16GB of RAM, and 64GB to 512GB of expandable storage. Meanwhile, the OLED Nintendo Switch still has the Nvidia Tegra X1 processor, a 7-inch OLED screen, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of expandable storage, and those familiar Joycon controls.
Valve’s machine is the more flexible device on paper, running the Linux-based SteamOS platform and offering actual PC functionality (e.g. web browsing, streaming, apps). The Steam Deck also supports plenty of games designed for Linux or Windows titles via the Proton compatibility layer. It’s also worth noting that you can actually install Windows on it.
The Switch OLED has a locked-down ecosystem, being more of a dedicated gaming handheld. In fact, you only have the likes of Hulu and YouTube and there’s no official web browser support. But what you lose in features you gain in the gaming library, as the Switch has a ton of exclusive titles you can’t play anywhere else.
So which one would you buy? Let us know via the poll above and leave a comment below if you have more on your mind.
