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[Cyberpunkd]

READ THE THREAD BEFORE VOTING!

Help me GAF, you're my only hope.

Context: So a month ago I got the idea of getting back to gaming on my PC with BG3. By PC I mean my MBP 14" with M1 Pro chip I use for work. Bought myself fancy Logitech MX mouse and used it 3-4 times. Getting it out was always a hassle. Return period runs out next week so it's going back. Also BG3 got delayed on Mac, also I had no idea what I would be playing afterwards.

So I got myself a Playstation Portal (got a PS5 I barely use already) because my experience with Switch (got that one as well, it's indie / Mario Kart machine) taught me that as a father with kids the only way I can keep up with my hobby is through portable play to get 15-20 minutes a day. Too much hassle powering up the PS5 + light blazing in the living room from 55" OLED.

I had a Steam deck last year, don't know why I sent it back. I sat down today and made a list of Pros and Cons.

Steam Deck:
+ No streaming, no worries
+ I have huge Steam library
+ Can play Starfield (yes, I know I shit a lot on that game but c'mon, it's next Bethesda RPG, shit getting played yo)
+ Can play BG3
+ Can play all vintage games I love since I'm a little retro bitch: Witcher 1, Morrowind, Skyrim, etc.

- Battery life sucks, but I plan to game almost exclusively at home + I never have a lot of time
- Fan speed + heat
- Steam Deck 64GB + 512 SSD = approx. 500€, so 280€ more than Portal

Playstation Portal:
+ Can play Playstation games, but I don't remember a single PS IP I was crazy about in the last few years + they will end up on PC eventually
+ No fans, no heat, huge battery life

- Cannot play Starfield
- Cannot play Morrowind
- Streaming might be wonky, but I don't think so - I have Wi-FI 6 at home, if not mobile 5G hotspot with 200GB monthly data

So from the look of it I'm trying to convince myself to get a Steam Deck, but I need your help. WDYT?

 

[GHG]

Steam deck. You can also stream games from your PS5 to it using Chiaki.




The portal is an abomination.

 

[Bernoulli]

Not worth buying a deck in 2023

Save up and get an Ally or better

As someone suggested wait for switch 2, PS5 graphics at 1080p and real optimization

 

[Beer Baelly]

Save your money for Switch#Too

 

[DonJorginho]

Would honestly suggest you buy neither and save up for the superior ROG Ally.

 

[GHG]

Not worth buying a dick in 2023

Save up and get an Ally or better

Nope, now that the honeymoon period is over a lot of people are having issues with the Ally, it's particularly poor on the software/user experience front.

 

[Banjo64]

Deck every time. It’s not even close.

 

[Bernoulli]

Nope, now that the honeymoon period is over a lot of people are having issues with the Ally, it's particularly poor on the software/user experience front.

But still better than the outdated hardware in the deck

Just wait for the switch 2 that will be better than both

 

[DonJorginho]

Nope, now that the honeymoon period is over a lot of people are having issues with the Ally, it's particularly poor on the software/user experience front.

Those issues can be ironed out, at the end of the day the power difference is more than significant enough for me to personally recommend it over the Deck right now

 

[GHG]

But still better than the outdated hardware in the deck

Just wait for the switch 2 that will be better than both

The switch 2 isn't going to play his steam library.

Those issues can be ironed out, at the end of the day the power difference is more than significant enough for me to personally recommend it over the Deck right now

I would ordinarily agree with you in that issues can be ironed out but some of them can't be (such as the device overheating which causes the SD card slot to no longer function correctly), and this is Asus we are talking about.

 

[DonJorginho]

The switch 2 isn't going to play his steam library.



I would ordinarily agree with you in that issues can be ironed out but some of them can't be (such as the device overheating which causes the SD card slot to no longer function correctly), and this is Asus we are talking about.

I can see your point, perhaps wait till the inevitable Steam Deck updated model that will surely come sooner rather than later.

 

[STARSBarry]

Why buy a cloud device when you can buy actual hardware?

Have you ever used a pure cloud device before? It will be consistantly inconvenient enough for you to regret it.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Don't want to wait for the new models, it will never stop. Not interested in ROG Ally.

 

[Topher]

Don't want to wait for the new models, it will never stop. Not interested in ROG Ally.

Then I think Steam Deck is the right choice. Definitely not the Portal, imo.

 

[azertydu91]

Steam deck. You can also stream games from your PS5 to it using Chiaki.




The portal is an abomination.

Pretty much this, the Steam deck has so much more versatility, enough that I think it is worth to pay more than the portal.I can stream psnow, remote play, Xcloud etc and play steam games and emulated games.
I think the portal is interesting if you don't have a steam account or are crazy about the ps exclusives and nothing else...Or maybe you can stand rhe weight or the screen of the steam deck but other than that I don't think there's a lot to think about, it is a win for the Deck on 80% of the points.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Portal is interesting but loses to steam deck steam deck is not an “accessory” PlayStation portal is.

 

[Shifty1897]

If you have a huge Steam backlog, buy the Deck. If you have a huge PlayStation backlog, buy the Portal. If you have a huge backlog on both and only play games 20 minutes per day, don't buy either, your gaming days are over and there's no point spending money on hardware you're never going to use.

 

[GHG]

I can see your point, perhaps wait till the inevitable Steam Deck updated model that will surely come sooner rather than later.

If he needs something with more power than the deck then there are other PC handhelds I'd recommend considering over the Ally (the aokzoe A1 pro and the upcoming Lenovo legion go):

I am completely floored by this Chinese PC handheld (AokZoe A1 Pro)

I recently out of curiosity decided to acquire an ultra beefy PC handheld. I ended up on the AokZoe A1 Pro. This bad boy has a massive 65Wh battery, 1200p 8' display, hall-based sticks, 7840u RDNA3 chip with 32GB LPDDR5 @7500Mhz. Basically, this is the most pimped out any PC handheld has been...

www.neogaf.com

Lenovo’s Legion Go handheld gaming PC ($799) specs leaked, QHD+ screen, Oct release

https://windowsreport.com/legion-go-price-specs-release-date/ An official document confirms the Lenovo Legion Go rumors we've shared so far The gaming handheld will be unveiled on September 1st, and you can buy it for €799/$799 in October Impressively, the specs sheet details a massive 8.8”...

www.neogaf.com

The Ally has too many known issues as far as I'm concerned for it to be a recommendation. They seem to have put more into the marketing/PR side of the equation than they did into the actual product itself. That thing got pushed hard.

 

[Draugoth]

Steam Deck,

It's not even remotely close.

 

[ReBurn]

get the thing you have games for

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Am I able to play my GOG library with same efficiency i.e. Witcher 3 on both platforms = same FPS?

 

[TrebleShot]

Portal will give you a much better experience than streaming to steam decks.

The steam deck is a 16:10 aspect ratio so your ps5 will show up with black bars on the top and bottom and since it’s not native res you’ll have ever so slight artefacting.

Also using remote play away from home is a pain in the ass , you’ll have to open ports on the router and even then it will be hit and miss and the quality will be rough depending on the dodgy WiFi you get at hotels.

Native gaming is fantastic but only for indies and older games from steam , you’ll be hacking the shit out of the console to get things like Starfield running and it will look pixelated , extremely low quality and play at 25-30fps if your lucky which will look horribly inconsistent and choppy on the deck.

If you want a better experience you should get a ROG ally which again isn’t ideal it’s rough at first setting it up and has some of the downfalls the steam deck has by the z1 is far more capable than the deck, new games wont look amazing they will look low but the streaming capabilities are much better and you have VRR and low frame rate compensation,.

Also on the ally you can use a program like Rewasd to spoof a PS4 controller to use the native remote play app which will work with PS5 outside of your home natively.

The ally will be best but I’d argue that the portal will give you a more native experience and it will almost certainly be hacked to run things like moonlight and Xbox cloud gaming. So honestly in your situation I think the portal is the best choice.

People shit on it but no other device is giving you haptic feedback , trigger resistance etc. the emulation of that rumble is non existent on the deck and very basic on the ally.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Not worth buying a deck in 2023

Save up and get an Ally or better

As someone suggested wait for switch 2, PS5 graphics at 1080p and real optimization

Ally is too expensive. I know the “just wait for X, Y is outdated”, it never stops. There will always be something better released in the future.

Save your money for Switch#Too

Not crazy about Nintendo IPs + they will find a way to fuck it up.

Would honestly suggest you buy neither and save up for the superior ROG Ally.

See above

But still better than the outdated hardware in the deck

Just wait for the switch 2 that will be better than both

See above

Why buy a cloud device when you can buy actual hardware?

Have you ever used a pure cloud device before? It will be consistantly inconvenient enough for you to regret it.

Why? No fans, no heat, battery life. No, I never used a pure cloud device.

 

[AmuroChan]

Why? No fans, no heat, battery life. No, I never used a pure cloud device.

I use remote play at home via my phone +backbone and it's perfectly solid. I have Fiber + WiFi 6 at home so my connection is never an issue. I'm like you, a dad with kids and rarely get to actually sit in front of the TV and play for longer than 30 min. So the Portal is a device that fits my use case perfectly, as I mostly game on PS5 anyway.

 

[KormaChameleon]

Steam Deck. You can play games natively on it unlike the Portal. If you buy the Deck, you technically already own the portal as you can remote play your PS5 to the Deck.

 

[STARSBarry]

Ally is too expensive. I know the “just wait for X, Y is outdated”, it never stops. There will always be something better released in the future.

Not crazy about Nintendo IPs + they will find a way to fuck it up.

See above

See above

Why? No fans, no heat, battery life. No, I never used a pure cloud device.

So I guess rereading your post the key here is a little background, I live in the UK and I do a little traveling, to what is considered a major city but with shitty support for infrastructure. That means a pure cloud device would suck, especially because I do a fair bit of underground travel. I would therefore take the steam deck every time.

But if you intend to use it in your home as a sort of... slightly portable version of your PS5 so you can take shit on the toilet or play it lying down somewhere, that's kind of exactly what its designed for, its like... a Wii U which you can take outside and then be horrified by the latency because you cant get a good connection. But if your thinking of using it outside the home, well... never ever assume your going to get a good connection and as I said it will happen enough to find it irritating. The Battery on the steam deck sucks though 100% agree, but your more likely to find a wall outlet than you are a good stable connection to run a game across cloud (all my trains have plug sockets for example)

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Your 3rd option says you have a huge backlog.

If that's the case then wait. Simply cause these are first gen devices. Will get much better in newer iterations.

 

[Northeastmonk]

Am I able to play my GOG library with same efficiency i.e. Witcher 3 on both platforms = same FPS?

I’d love something to play my GOG library on, but I don’t think anything exists that’s a good option. I haven’t tried windows on SD tbh. I almost wish GOG would make something, but that would an insane amount of dedicated handhelds for online services.

 

[ManaByte]

Too much hassle powering up the PS5

You still have to power up your PS5 with the Portal. It's just a remote play device.

 

[TxKnight7]

I would get the steam deck
you can play games from all
microsoft
sony
Nin
+Emulators
PC games etc.

 

[Knightime_X]

You can play games outside your house with Deck.
Forget it, if you go portal.

Steam Deck can also use emulation.

 

[FalsettoVibe]

Based on what I read, you should not buy either.

 

[StereoVsn]

Nope, now that the honeymoon period is over a lot of people are having issues with the Ally, it's particularly poor on the software/user experience front.

Yep, I have both and mostly went back to the Deck. Even with latest BIOS updates Ally has issues, especially in battery life department. And I am talking running it at 15w, not 20w.

It is still better and easier if course to run Game pass/EA/Epic/Ubi store games on Ally.

Edit: Also, Asus latest AMD GPU driver is from June. You can brutefl force the latest generic one but it causes instability.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

You can play games outside your house with Deck.
Forget it, if you go portal.

Steam Deck can also use emulation.

Not true, you can use mobile data hot-spot from your phone to connect a wi-fi only device to it.

I get what you're saying though, a steamdeck-like device that runs its own software maybe it'll be a best option in this case.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

You still have to power up your PS5 with the Portal. It's just a remote play device.

Yes, but it is different sitting at the sofa and not turning the TV.

 

[K' Dash]

One is a Scam, the other is not.

That’s a tough one.

 

[Gamerguy84]

In your case a steam deck or equivalent like a rog.

 

[Black_Stride]

Your phone is probably a better Playstation Portal than the Playstation Portal, so skip that.

SteamDeck or ROG Ally.

 

[docchicken]

Steam deck can do what playstation portal can do. Get the steam deck and use that as your "portal."

 

[Cyberpunkd]

I use remote play at home via my phone +backbone and it's perfectly solid. I have Fiber + WiFi 6 at home so my connection is never an issue. I'm like you, a dad with kids and rarely get to actually sit in front of the TV and play for longer than 30 min. So the Portal is a device that fits my use case perfectly, as I mostly game on PS5 anyway.

That’s what I was thinking, thank you for the input. I have a 5.8” iPhone (I like smaller phones) in a case, too much hassle to put it into backbone + small screen. Any way I can test remote play with using on screen buttons and not physical ones?

 

[AmuroChan]

That’s what I was thinking, thank you for the input. I have a 5.8” iPhone (I like smaller phones) in a case, too much hassle to put it into backbone + small screen. Any way I can test remote play with using on screen buttons and not physical ones?

Yes, you can use on screen buttons.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Steam Deck by a huge margin but I wouldn’t wanna play Starfield on it

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Yes, you can use on screen buttons.

Got the app, will test it tonight, I assume the quality of connexion will be the same as with Portal.

 

[Morrie’s wig shop]

If money is no object between these two products plus with this list of pros and cons and the fact you’ve already owned it and you regret getting rid of it, I think would repurchase a Steam Deck. Right?

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

get the thing you have games for

 

[AmuroChan]

Got the app, will test it tonight, I assume the quality of connexion will be the same as with Portal.

Portal may offer a better connection because with the phone, there are other apps and connections running in the background.

 

[lughnasadh123]

Wait for the next Steam Deck.

 

[IDKFA]

Buy a Switch Lite instead.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Bought a Steam Deck last week (64Gb model with a 512 SD card). Well worth it and absolutely slaps the shit out of the portal. Steam Deck honestly plays a lot more than I originally thought it would and it’s a great device. If you’re buying either of them, get the deck.

 

[Fabieter]

Wait for Deck 2 at this point.