I was interested in buying a Steam Deck... Until I discovered all the (apparently) better alternatives. Asus Rog Ally, OneXPlayer, Aya Neo etc... I like the idea of an handheld console and obviously I would like to have a device that can run almost everything, so the Windows based handhelds seem better than the Steam Deck. Is it true? Furthermore the Steam Deck looks really big compared to some new devices out there (eg the OneXFly) and neither I like the screen of the Steam Deck, apparently of lower res and with very big bazels (to me looks like the first Nintendo Switch). On the other hand, I think Valve is a more serious company than (apart from Asus) some other unknown Chinese company and I expect Valve to deliver a better product. Still I'm not convinced of Steam OS compared to Windows 11, since I would like to play also Epic games and maybe some emulators. So I started getting information about the alternatives and... There are a lot. There are so many that I got overwhelmed. If you go to the OneXPlayer website they sell like 3-4 different handheld consoles, Aya Neo even more and they also have IndieGoGo campaigns running for new devices, all with weird names. I can't understand what's the device right for me (and I really don't understand their business model). So my question is: are the rivals of the Steam Deck worth their price? Are they really better than the Steam Deck (in terms of quality, screen, size)? Thank you for your opinion!
UPDATE: I finally bought a refurbished 256GB Steam Deck.
Don't they all cost double or tripple of the SteamDeck? Call me oldschool, but spending $1000 on a handheld just sounds crazy to me. SteamDeck is already pretty much the max price I'd call acceptable.
The biggest problem for me with the SteamDeck, and why I haven't bought one, is simply its 1280x800 resolution, that might be acceptable for gaming, but it's really no good when you want to read a PDF or do other non-gaming things. Kind of limits it's versatility and is just not a good look when you have the same resolution as a cheap China tablet from five years ago, or a Nintendo Switch for that matter, which itself already felt a little out of date at its launch.
The Steam Deck is sold specifically as a gaming handheld. If you're buying it to read PDFs, you're buying the wrong device. Besides, the resolution isn't the issue for reading documents, it's the size of the screen. If you want to do non-gaming things, you'll be much better served if you plug in a monitor, in which case you can even use a 4K display if that's what you want.
I think the SD does have its issues, but I feel like the display is not one of them. At that size, it's a good resolution to get better performance in games. A higher resolution would kill the battery, reduce performance, and due to its size it would be hard to tell the difference in-game.
I mean.. Buy a 50usd tablet to read pdf's and do some casual browsing. Steam decks are made for gaming.
I don't understand some people :)