If you are playing games where trackpads are useful, there’s not really another option, so it’s automatically a good value. I know my steam deck experience would have been a whole lot worse without those, and I would probably never consider a gaming handheld without them. But for the gaming I do with an xbox controller, I currently just use it for some video games at my computer (where I have access to a mouse anyways), and maybe split screen with family. I think my Gamesir Cyclone 2 controller (at half the price) is an unambiguously better deal for that, in the premium controller space. If I were using it mostly for couch gaming, that might put the Steam controller in a better position, or if I were mostly playing games that support whatever haptic trigger things Sony has, that controller might be in a better position.

One of the other more unique features is the tracking in the Steam Frame. It would be cool if they could standardize that sort of thing so it would work with other headsets. I wonder if they’ve considered that.

yep, I got through about 50 hours of Subnautica at ~15 fps back in the day.

Even portal with RTX is kinda playable on the steam deck though if you use that config that one person made to enable fsr3 and do some default settings changes, and put the gpu clock up to full

Software support is basically identical across any Linux distro. It’s not really a concern when choosing a distro to use. Of course some are easier to install stuff on than others.

I agree, really anything with KDE Plasma will feel basically the same because the Steam Deck’s desktop is basically stock kde.

If you plan on plugging in a monitor and keyboard and using it as a more general computer it’s a lot easier to justify