So, I kinda feel like buying before Summer Sale ends, but I have mainly one doubt. That is, does it make sense to buy now?
I remember reading news about the next installment of Steam Deck right after it came out. I really wouldn’t like it if I bought and next year something new came out and my device would already be outdated (not from a specs point of view, I know it isn’t particularly powerful or anything). For the same reason I usually prefer consoles over gaming computers, since generations have more or less a fixed time length (I hated last generation’s mid-gen upgrades) while new CPUs and GPUs basically come out every year or so. But this is another story.
So, do you know anything about the next Steam Deck? What’s your advice for someone in my situation?
Personally, I think I could put up with the next Deck coming out in, say, two years. But before that?.. I don’t know, I’m afraid I would feel like I wasted money.
I don’t think we’ll see a Steam Deck 2 anytime soon.
Is the Deck the best handheld on the market in terms of performance? No.
But if you ask me, it provides the most polished experience with SteamOS and probably has the best price to performance ratio, especially when on sale. If you want to check if your favourite games work on the deck refer to ProtonDB.
Plus you’re not limited to PC games, the Deck is also very good at emulating games. Mario Kart 8, Zelda Breath of the Wild or some PS2 classics like the Burnout series - it will do them all.
It all comes down to your expectations but if you want one, buy it now. Or buy it on the next sale. I got mine in May and I don’t regret the purchase whatsoever. Love to use it for quick couch gaming sessions, on the balcony or when travelling.
Also kinda unrelated but referring to your view on PC parts: yes new generations are released pretty quick compared to consoles but a build using components that are a couple of years old can still be equally powerful to a PS5 for example.