This Steam Deck review (or initial review, anyway — we’re still waiting on ability to review SteamOS) looks at the production-ready Arch Linux-based handheld gaming PCs for the first time. The video includes methodology notes for our in-depth testing approach and demonstrates the basics of the more advanced principles we apply behind-the-scenes in testing. The benchmark sections follow those, with a heavy focus on Steam Deck battery life, thermal testing of the memory, ICs, APU (GPU/CPU), and more, and acoustic testing alongside RPM ramp and hysteresis. We’re looking forward to a review of the UI and OS for SteamOS in the future. We didn’t test Windows yet because the drivers were incomplete, and so the data would not accurately depict a version with GPU drivers.
