I had a fairly opposite experience. I bought a Steam Deck when it first came out and had to return it during the refund period because of a software bug making it basically unusable with my account.

A year later, the bug was finally fixed and I rebought. And… I like the fact that it runs Linux and the efforts done to make windows games playable in Linux in general. But I’ve found that i actually don’t enjoy the form factor of the Steam Deck at all.

I find it to be too big and heavy to hold comfortably without resting it on something. The buttons are tiny and too close to the edge. The d-pad sucks, at least on mine. Staring at the little screen gives me a headache and text/icons are too small in a lot of games. The Wi-Fi is really slow (at least in the original LCD model) and downloading/installing takes absolutely forever. I’ve literally spent more time installing games and downloading updates than actually playing games in it.

It has been months since I last turned mine on. In hindsight, it was a poor purchase for me.

I do still like it as a concept and an happy to see it is successful. I welcome the new Linux users. I follow the steam deck communities and read the news.

… But it’s just not for me, apparently.