- [Linus] Wow!
The sound stage on this thing,
that is impressive.
The time is now six days ago,
and I am about to get my first hands-on
with a production unit of the Valve Steam Deck.
Now there's gonna be an LTT video
that we're gonna be working on over the next week or so
where we get into more details,
performance, thermals,
anything else that we're allowed to tell you at this point.
We can't get too deep into the software
'cause that's not final yet.
So this video is gonna be focused on
the unboxing experience, the specs,
and just first impressions
of this potentially revolutionary gaming handheld.
So we gotta bunch of different languages
telling you places that you can
play with it, I think.
Subway, Ferris wheel, toilet.
They know their audience, don't they
over there at Valve.
Okay, so packaging.
We've got a nice little like guide.
So you press this button to bring up this menu,
press this button to bring up this menu.
Really impressed with the packaging so far.
I was gonna talk about this
in a little bit more detail later,
but we actually considered
doing a carrying case for the Steam Deck
as like an LTT store item.
And then we found out that Valve was making their own
and I kind of went well, hey if,
if it's not any good
then maybe that's still something we can explore,
but unfortunately, it seems to be
kind of awesome.
So, I have a nice little
elastic strap there,
if you want to strap it onto something.
We've got this little pouch that you can
kind of stash in there.
If you're into that sort of thing,
carrying handle,
(banging)
man it seems,
ooh, it's in there, isn't it?
Well, it's probably fine.
It's pretty armored.
Hold on, we'll get to that in a second though.
First let's have a look at our power adapter,
might have preferred to see just a Type C female
jack on it so that this cable can be replaced
with a longer one if we really want.
But it's a reasonable length.
My one concern is that the Steam Decks'
only charging port is at the top.
So,
if you have this plugged in,
and the outlet's not right next to you,
it could actually be a bit of a reach issue
to get up and around the device.
I didn't mention this,
but the astute among you probably figured this out.
I'm planning to do size comparisons on short circuit here
with all the other gaming handhelds that we have on hand.
There it is, ladies and gentlemen.
I opened it upside down.
Trust me, I'm a professional.
Okay, so yeah,
so that's fine.
Um, yeah.
That's fine, but the outlet has to be pretty much
right next to you.
In fact, you often,
if you, can you see that thing?
So you can see there's actually not a lot of slack on this.
It would've gotten another six inches
if it had been down here
but I'm sure Valve knew what they were doing
when they put the power in on the top.
If I had to guess, based on that
I actually used the top charging port on the Aya Neo
more often than the bottom charging port.
I'd say that it's because of the weight of the device.
And what I find is that after even like 10, 15 minutes.
Really, I have to set it down on something.
So I suspect it's gonna be quite a similar story
for the Steam Deck.
And the last thing you wanna be doing
is setting it down on your cable.
You know, causing like a strain, or like a breakage.
So Steam Deck,
650 grams, actually, I think it's lighter
than the Aya Neo.
I thought it was just due to the better ergonomics.
Oh, nevermind.
Well, okay.
It feels
deceptively light
because of the really nice hand grips back here.
I'd say that they're designed for someone whose hands
are maybe a touch bigger than mine,
but that doesn't prevent me
from comfortably reaching everything.
A B X Y, D pad, joysticks.
Everything is easily within reach.
The only thing is that if I'm playing a driving game
and I want finer control over the joysticks up here,
I need to shift my palm up
just a little bit.
Yeah. Let's do some more size comparisons real quick here.
So we've got the OneXPlayer Mini, 566.
That's the lightest one of the,
this class of device.
And then if you're looking
at something like the GPD XD,
okay so that's around 350,
but that's Android base.
That's not a, a full fat computer.
And then for the big Kahuna,
the OneXPlayer, we're looking at around 782 grams.
So it's on the heavier side of what's out
there right now.
But, because of the ergonomics,
I'd say it punches down.
I don't know what the best way of wording that is.
This video is brought to you by Dbrand.
You know, those pranksters that are always putting phones
in cakes, or dumping buckets of chocolate loonies on me?
Well this time the prank is on Nintendo
because they're announcing Project Killswitch.
Ha ha.
Funny name, I, I get it.
Which is a case
for the Valve Steam Deck that aims to make it
a little a bit more you know, rugged and drop resistant.
Oh, I get that one too.
And also, presumably a little bit more ergonomic.
I haven't had a chance to actually get my hands on it yet.
'cause it looks like
it's still in very early stages right now.
But, I gotta say the design
looks freaking fantastic.
Goes to show you bad people can design good products.
(laughing)
What?
Hey, they started it.
(laughing)
So you guys can check it out.
We're gonna have it linked in the video description.
It's kind of like their grip phone cases,
so it looks like it has a really nice kind
of padded interior to protect your Steam Deck.
And then this outer layer that looks like particularly
if you have larger hands,
it's gonna be super comfortable.
So, we're gonna have that linked down below,
and it will actually be released someday.
Unlike Half-Life 3, ha ha Half-Life 3 joke.
Very, very current.
(object thumps)
Banana for scale,
yes thank you, thank you very much, Jono.
LTTstore.com, you can get your very own banana for scale.
Also this sweet indoor hoodie.
Now one of the things I'm realizing
with all these devices spread out in front of me
is there's a lot more to portability than just the weight.
And I've put a lot of hours on the original Aya Neo,
and now the 2021 Pro since I did my first hands-on.
And one of the things that is really great about it,
is how flat it is,
how easily packable.
But there are a couple of things that make the Steam Deck,
even though its main body segment here
is about the same thickness.
The actual overall profile of the device
is like double.
And that's because of the grips,
as well as the fact
that the joysticks are more of a
full-sized controller class of joystick with like
super long travel compared to
pretty much all of these other devices.
Like look at the profile of these joysticks
next to each other Hoffman, can you see that?
- [Hoffman] Mhm.
- [Linus] So you can see there's like,
like double the travel.
So if you want finer control,
this is gonna be it.
But,
you know, this, I could conceivably put in my pocket,
like when I'm walking around the mall
and I did that the other day, right?
My son and I were going for haircuts,
and I knew I was gonna have to wait for him for 20 minutes.
So I just grabbed the Neo,
Chuck it in my pocket,
we're walking around the mall, Steam Deck.
Hm, I mean,
yeah, maybe,
but I wouldn't really recommend it.
You're putting a lot of strain on that thumb stick.
Fortunately, Valve's approach to right to repair
so far has been exemplary.
So I am expecting it to be very easy
to get your hands on
and replace these thumbs sticks if you
(clearing throat)
do accidentally screw them up.
One of the other things that's really standing
out to me before even turning it on,
is the anti-glare coating.
For the preview, Valve set out the 512 gig version
which has, okay, well it has some other extras.
It has like a special keyboard theme
or something like that.
But the big one, is this kind of etched glass,
anti-glare coating.
You guys can kind of see how the reflection
is compared to these other devices
which are mirror-like, see that?
It's kind of hazy.
So it's got a quad core Zen 2 CPU, eight threads total,
16 gigs of LPDDR 5 memory.
So that's running at 5,500 mega transfers per second.
That's gonna help both with CPU performance
and more importantly, the onboard GPU.
It's running RDNA 2 graphics instead of Vega based graphics,
which means that theoretically, we are looking at
significantly better GPU performance
on this compared to everything else on this table.
So on the top, you got pretty much
an Xbox controller-like layout.
So you got your DPAD, left thumb stick.
You've got your start and select, whatever the modern names
for that are on the Xbox controller.
Two microphones, I have very high expectations
for both the microphone and speaker on this thing
based on my experience with the Valve Index.
For a company that doesn't make dedicated audio products,
Valve seems to know a fricking lot about audio.
You got your A B X Y, second thumb stick.
We already saw what these buttons are supposed to do.
So this one is your Steam button,
which brings up your Steam library, Steam store,
anything Steam settings.
And then this one right here is gonna bring up your
like your system overlay.
I mean, I guess I don't need to get into too much detail
about that right now cause that's sort of software.
Volume buttons, headphone jack, USB-C,
so that's for charging or connecting to the dock,
which we don't have unfortunately.
Power button, and then we've got
shoulder buttons.
Ooh, those feel pretty good actually.
I'd say that's a nice respectable travel distance
on those triggers.
Then you've got L3 and R3 when you press
in the analog sticks, by the way these are capacitive,
so they're touch sensitive on the top, which is pretty cool.
- [Jono] What! Really?
- Yeah, I know right?
Then you've got L4, R4, L5, R5
on the back now personally, I've never really
daily driven a Scuf-type controller with the back paddle.
Actually I do have an Elite controller.
I've never really used them,
but what I will say is they are super easy to access.
You gotta kind of shift your grip on the device
a little bit.
So it's kind, you kind of claw a little bit more,
but I'd say they're a really good balance
of pressing force and tactile response.
Actually all the buttons feel pretty darn good.
I wouldn't mind if the A, B, X, Y
were a little bit shorter travel.
I do have a preference for that but,
it's definitely better feeling than the Neo.
With the Neo, I think the problem is just that
they have the long travel and the small buttons.
I feel like you gotta pick one.
Oh, I guess I never really talked size comparison
with the OneXPlayer.
So you can see the profile is actually quite similar
'cause the OneXPlayer also has a sculpted grip
like the Steam Deck.
Everyone's taken a very similar approach to cooling,
it's almost like there's just a best way to do this.
You got your intake at the back,
exhaust out the top.
It's the only way to get the heat
into the unit without getting suffocated, for sure.
And away from the user.
Here's the size comparison with the full size OneXPlayer,
that thing is such a, such a Chungus.
Surprisingly though,
it's a touch narrower,
full-sized OneXPlayer with the like
almost nine inch display.
Oh now it's probably a good time to talk display specs.
It's 1280 by 800.
So that's 16 by 10 aspect ratio, seven inches.
It's very similar in terms of specs to the Aya Neo.
It's rated for a typical brightness
of only 400 compared to 500 nits.
But,
if the black levels are anything to go by,
I think once we actually get the game loaded up,
here we go.
It's gonna look significantly
(clearing throat)
better.
Compared to the OneXPlayer, it's not gonna be as sharp.
So, OneX
has decided to go for a 1440p class display.
I believe it's 2560 by 1600s on the full-sized OneXPlayer.
And then, this one I believe is a 1920 by 1200.
But the reality of it is
that the processors in these things,
they're not gonna be able
to drive that kind of resolution anyway.
So, personally I agree with Aya and Valve's decisions here.
This feels like, probably about 20 FPS right now.
So let's see if there's anything we can do
to fine tune that a little bit.
Oh wait, what the heck?
Why is it running at non-native resolution?
There we go.
Wow! That's gotta be a solid 30 FPS now.
You know, it is amazing how good a modern game looks,
even at lower medium details on a display this size.
Like it makes a huge difference to be running this class
of hardware compared to, you know
what Nintendo's put in the Switch which is basically like
a six year old phone processor.
Let's fire up a game that I can
run side-by-side and compare.
Now to go much deeper,
I wanna spend more time with it
and you're gonna have to tune into the full LTT video.
But there are a couple
of little things I wanna try real quick here.
First, is the mouse.
This pad is set up to control the mouse cursor,
and it kind of vibrates actually here.
Can you hear this?
- [Hoffman] Oh yeah.
- Crazy, right?
Ooh. It's momentum based.
So you kinda be like, woo, woo, woo!
And kind of flick it over, and it'll kind of rumble.
So kind of almost like it feels
like a friction ball
or something that you're rolling your finger over
so you can move it, or you can throw it.
And then this one you can use as a touch pad to,
oh I guess you could just use it as a D pad if you want to.
That seems to be how it's configured right now.
One of the great things about the Steam controller
was how highly configurable it was.
You could use it to play just about anything
from FPS to third person to racing,
to even like RTS games.
And I believe Valve intends to continue that legacy here,
'cause they certainly aren't continuing that legacy
in the form of
(clearing throat)
Steam controllers.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate that
Forza Horizon 5, a Microsoft game, is launching on Linux?
Like we're not talking software much today
like I said, but ah? Ah?
Valve rates the 50 Watt hour battery
for anywhere from two to eight hours,
depending on what you're doing.
So it sounds like that's gonna end up quite similar
to the 47 Watt hour battery in the Aya Neo,
which gets just under two hours
under the heaviest loads,
and much more than that
if you turn down the performance profile
of the SOC or whatever else.
What else is there to really say?
It's got WiFi, Bluetooth,
all the connectivity that you'd expect.
And, we are now loaded into Forza Horizon 5
on a Linux-based machine.
If I had to guess,
I'd say this is somewhere
in the neighborhood of,
it's actually really hard to tell.
That's interesting.
See, my car looks great.
That looks like 60 FPS locked,
but then there's kind of this judder
or stutter or something
when I look at objects in the distance,
can you see that?
It's like te-te-te-te-te-te,
- [Hoffman] It's very subtle.
- Here, let me show you this one for comparison.
Man, it's hard to even show this one to you guys
because the screen's so shiny by comparison.
See how the towers and stuff are smoother?
- [Hoffman] There's more motion.
- More motion you say?
- [Hoffman] Like blur.
Nope, they are both set to exactly the same settings.
You're looking for distant objects,
Whether they look smooth, or whether they look juddery.
- [Hoffman] Oh, yeah.
- Okay .
- [Hoffman] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- So you, you can see what I'm talking about on camera?
- [Hoffman] Yeah.
- It's not final.
And we have a lot more investigation to do
over the next six days.
Actually, let's talk acoustics.
To my ear, which obviously is not very scientific.
It sounds very similar to the
Aya Neo in its 15 Watt profile.
And that would be at EXC fan mode,
whatever that means.
So that's kind of what I try to aim for
for an enjoyable gaming experience. Otherwise it gets
this thing gets loud and wild fan mode,
and that's really impressive considering
that that's at 15 Watts
and this is a 25 Watt chip running in auto mode right now.
(car engine roars)
Wow!
(laughing)
The sound stage on this thing.
- [Hoffman] It sounds so good!
(laughing)
- Okay.
That is impressive.
And you guys aren't even getting the directionality,
like an absolute toy by comparison.
(car engine revving)
This makes noise.
This has a sound system.
And I think that pretty much wraps up the short circuit
first impressions.
Guys, head over to LTT for our full first impressions
with thermals benchmarks, all that kind of good stuff,
and make sure you hit subscribe.