Hey, I’m thinking of upgrading from my old work laptop (which isn’t really built for gaming at all, but is great for productivity), and I was eyeing either an OLED steam deck or a more powerful laptop that I could bring with me and use on campus away from my home setup. I plan on using linux for either machine, but I was wondering if any of the Steam Deck’s secret sauce or price to performance puts it ahead compared to a Framework or Gaming laptop.
Also, if anyone has experience using a steam deck as a workstation/portable work setup, I would love your input on if it’s a good idea to replace a laptop with a steam deck entirely.
You do you - anything is technically possible, and from a purely engineering perspective a Steam Deck is an impressive little piece of hardware.
That said. I would advise against getting it for any sort of productivity. Having to haul out it, a separate keyboard, and mouse, just to take a quick note in class is cumbersome and distracting, even if we assume everything works on the first go every time (it won’t.).
As others have pointed out, Linux is nice until it isn’t - maybe you can partner up with a friend when your chemistry lab needs you to reference their archaic software to find some material property, but its a risk you’re choosing to take on. Will it pair with the campus printers? What if you need to run Solid Works? Ansys? The drivers for a digital microscope? Collaborating on group projects in Microsoft Office (the web apps aren’t the same.)? The list goes on.
Additionally, something like the Steam Deck is built for gaming. Meaning every time you pick it up, it reminds you it’s time to game. As someone with ADHD who struggled to stay on task in college, having a constant reminder of distractions at my fingertips would have been overwhelming.
That’s before we factor in the ‘cool’ factor of being that person in the class.
Get a laptop.
Luckily, I’ve had experiences with my prior classes understanding class software on my distro (I only have engineering and programming classes remaining, with all relevant software either native, running through WINE, or a windows VM).
I guess hearing from the perspectives of yourself and others, sounds like a combo would be better - current laptop for productivity, steam deck for fun.
It’s not like I have to throw it away :)