Great news to one of Boiling Steam’s contributors. John Kehayias – AKA podiki or 9bladed, depending on where he is on the Internet – just got his Steam Deck today. He happened to be one of the few lucky ones that got their pre-order within the first 10 minutes they went live. He got the email from Valve on Monday, paid for it, got the shipping info from FedEx on Wednesday, and received it today. While he’s generally had a hard time with FedEx in the past, it looks like he got his package on time. I’m very happy for him.

On the Boiling Steam Matrix channel (#boilingsteam:matrix.org, if you want to join), John has given some thoughts during the brief time he’s had it:

  • I’m not much of a d-pad user, but I like that it has clear 4 directions, enough play for distinct push in each direction, not stiff
  • screen is not the anti-reflective one (obviously) but photos make it seem much worse (you can clearly see the ceiling fan from the photo)
  • screen is nicer than expected! Really no big complaint there for the size/distance using it
  • fan is a bit annoying (but when you are playing or with headphones less noticeable)
  • feels good in the hand, bit heavier than I was expecting but works
  • overall experience is quite smooth, I’m impressed
  • even downloaded a game then went off Wi-Fi (went to a park) and it installed and started up fine
  • been playing Death’s Door (saved it for the Deck), real smooth other than a minor slow down or 2, looks like ~4 hours battery life with that at 30fps and all settings max
  • suspend and wakeup works great, they really did well with that
  • Elden Ring works perfectly, only tried it briefly (bit spoiled playing on the projector recently)

I happened to be working for my brother at the time pre-orders went live, and because I didn’t have any cell service in the area, I couldn’t put my order in until later that day. So I’m in the Q2 category. Still better than being in Q3 or even later though. I got the 64 GB version. I honestly don’t think I’m going to have a review on it; there’s just too many reviews out there already. I would have to touch on things that other reviewers didn’t mention in order to stand out.

That being said, I’m still looking forward to reading John’s full review.