Steam Deck

I use it for work in the rare occasions I go to the office, but there are monitors available there so I don't have to rely on the device's screen.

It works pretty well but I had to install a ton of development dependencies that tend to be standard in every Linux distro but are not there in the steam OS.

Plus some coworkers have heard that I work on a PSP, coding with the joystick buttons and that is a nice rumor I like to keep alive.

I can weigh in on this - I've been using my Steam Deck docked and in desktop mode for about 6 months. The os is read-only, but you can switch it to RW... but that's the beginning of your troubles.

1. The Steam repo mirror is woefully out of date, and occasionally while installing packages with AUR/pacman there will be an untrusted key (untrusted because it's outdated) that prevents the package from being installed (or prerequisites from being installed)
2. The base OS+games rapidly consumes the NVMe. You can get a 1 or 2TB replacement for hundreds of dollars, but that's basically your only good option.
3. Every so often, they'll push an update that breaks your customizations - the OS goes RO again, your installed packages are deleted (but configuration files remain), meaning you have to do manual clean up before reinstalling.

The latter got so bad, I ended up writing an Ansible playbook to make my recovery from upgrade easier: https://github.com/pezhore/steamdeck-developer

That's not including the annoyance of finding a monitor and dock (and charger) that will properly work with the deck.

TL;DR - you can use the steam deck as a workstation, but it's painful.

I used my Steam Deck as my main system for a month to see how it would do. It was fine. No issues whatsoever.

I pretty much use my Steam Deck instead of my laptop so the time now. I mostly take advantage of keyboards, much, and monitors available at my destinations though, so it's much more portable.

For you typically Café office warrior, you're going to need to pack a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, as well as put up with a small screen. The monitors and laptop-style housings you mention can mitigate that though.

Still, it's kind of an inferior laptop option overall. You'll either have to make do without some laptop features or end up packing more gear than with a laptop. The Steam Deck is optimized for gaming, a laptop is optimized for… officing outside an office?

Where the Steam Deck might even though is where it can be docked. It may be large for a handheld gaming device, but it is smaller than most laptops.

You will still have to accept some limitations. SteamOS is designed to support gaming. One thing I've noticed is no support for printing (cups). I'm sure there are others. If you were a University student and you could only buy an inexpensive laptop or a Steam Deck, I'd get the inexpensive laptop. If you have a desktop with a mechanical keyboard and buffer big monitors, and you just need a supplemental device in a pinch, and are mostly looking to play games? Then the Steam Deck would be perfect.

For me, the Steam Deck has effectively completely replaced my laptop, but I'm not typing up TPS reports at Starbucks all day. I'm mostly playing games, and accepting a substandard "serious computing" experience or packing some essentials or just using it for non-gaming in a few locations.

So I've been using my steam deck as a laptop replacement as I'm on uni and I don't really need that much processing power on me.

If you have a good dock, some accessories and a lot of patience, it can fit the bill.

I've switched my system over to Bazzite, which is amazing because it's more up to date, and makes using the deck as a desktop very enjoyable, but it is running on the latest beta so any bugs that are on steamos 3.5 will persist here. However unfortunately it doesn't support HDR at the moment.

Even without bazzite you can easily use it as a desktop, but you do have to be aware that it isn't as strong as some laptops nowadays. (of course you could always remote connect to a desktop and do stuff there but yknow).

Deck is great value, and as a general purpose PC it's more than capable, but the main focus should be on how are you going to use it. Laptop has the benefit of being one piece thing that you can grab on a public transportation or any other place and you get access to your usual PC stuff with full blown keyboard. If you need to finish your essay before arrival, you can do so. However, if you want a laptop to game on, it will be either chunky (which defeats the portability argument) or expensive. Also, while having Deck, you can still access your notes, scans, books etc everywhere from the comfort of Deck's gamepad.

I don’t know, I’m definitely a fan of my deck, but it seems to me like the clunkiness of that setup would be a hindrance. With one of those LapDocks you would essentially have to find the space for both the deck and the laptop, and live with the wires connecting them, as opposed to just having an actual laptop. Then there’s the fact that the deck is running a tweaked version of Linux with all the issues that come with that.

For sort term use I could absolutely see plugging the deck into a regular old monitor and just getting by with that. For long term spending the same money you’d spend on the LapDock on an actual laptop (new or used) and installing a full fledged Linux distribution would result in something way more functional. Then when you want to game you pull out the deck, and you have a normal laptop you can use for other purposes, with actual portability if you need it.

If you need Windows for your use case, the actual laptop option is probably even more compelling, as it would likely just work right out of the box, with zero configuration required.

Its usefulness as a laptop replacement may be limited. Remember it's a locked down read-only version of Linux. The steam deck uses an a/b model to update. Basically there are two separate versions of the OS on the machine - when it updates it replaces one copy and makes that the default, and uses the other as the backup. Next system update it replaces the other copy and switches to that. It switches back and forth that way, putting a stock image on with each update. So you'd probably want to go down the route of running your own OS on it.

Without that it does limit a little in how useful it is as a laptop like device. It depends what you want to do on it of course, and your Flatpak apps and personal files will stay but any other customisation you do to the device will get wiped each time it does a major update. That would include any installed software outside the Flatpak route if you unlock Pacman.

It seems like a capable machine though. I have mine hooked up to my TV at 4K when at home. I use it to stream 4K game content from my desktop to my living room, but I've also played with the desktop mode in 4k and it's been good. It renders 4k video well, and we know it's capable of playing video games at 720p directly which is still generally intensive.

I can't see why it wouldn't be able to do basic graphics work, but no idea about more intensive work like 3D modelling and video encoding.

Personally I'd get a dedicated device for work but if you can't afford that or you dont want to carry more than one device around then I guess it's worth a try?

Just remember if you do use it for work that also entails setting it up to back up your personal data. Your game data is largely backed up by Steam but if you put your work stuff on there then you'll need to be protecting yourself in case of damage or theft.

I was considering something like this for work. One downside of this approach is that you'll be carrying more weight; with the NexDock it's going to be a 1.6-1.7kg affair for a 13.3" notebook.

Also if you're going to be doing photography, what software are you going to run on the Steam Deck?

I'm sure it's sufficient in a pinch but if you're considering one with the specific purpose of being a laptop it's probably better to just get an actual laptop

I use my NexDock + SteamDeck when traveling and LAN parties. It works fine, a little clunky. I haven't tried resolutions above 1080p, but as long as you're not trying to play AAA games, I don't see it being an issue. Personally I would go with the external monitor. The Nexdock keyboard and mouse is horrendous.

I have a nexdock, and i wouldnt recommend it for colour accuracy. The speakers are a bit quiet as well. The keyboard is fine, but the touchpad is terrible. For light uni work, i think its perfect with a phone with desktop mode, and probably would be good with a steamdeck (i dont have a steamdeck, so dunno for sure). It can be annoying having something tethered to your "laptop" though, makes it a little less portable.

It will work on high rez screens (I know because that is supported by KDE plasma). For color accurate work, you may have to wait until valve enables wayland on steam os or install windows on it. As for it's own screen, I am not the person you are looking for...

Maybe try a FrameWork laptop. Just as repairable (if not more) and is an actual laptop that can help you do your work. Again, I don't know if it could be color accurate enough for your work.

It's a super slick idea, but before you get hung up on the resolution only being 1080p, remember the native resolution on the Steam Deck is 720p.

So they already exceed Steam Deck spec. If you need a higher resolution, then forget the docking station, the Steam Deck itself is not the answer you're looking for.

It actually did replace my laptop when I got it last year. My dying, ancient laptop finally kicked it just a couple of days before the Deck arrived. I never had one iota of desire to get another laptop.

Of course our use cases are radically different, but I think that displays the versatility quite well.

I mean, yes, you could do this. Is it viable? Sort of, but only while docked - you're not going to get a lot done on the go on the deck unless you're carrying a portable monitor, mouse and keyboard and at that point you're carrying more than a laptop around.

Personally I really like my 16in screen on my work+games laptop and it has much better performance and cooling than the steam deck. If I had to pick just one it'd probably be the laptop.

But yeah, knock yourself out, it's probably a fun project if nothing else.