It feels good for desktop applications and navigating in the Steam menus – and it’ll feel very familiar to anyone who’s used a Steam Controller. It even simulates the momentum of a trackball, meaning if you swipe quickly across the trackpad and take your finger off, the cursor glides along in the same way it would if you spun a trackball. I like the haptics – dragging my finger across the surface feels like moving a mouse across my desk. It feels very crisp and accurate.ĭirectly below each thumbstick is a trackpad with a subtle haptic feature you can toggle on or off in the menus. They're really responsive, moving quickly and where you want them to. If you're a fan of gyro aiming, you're in for a good time.

That being said, adjusting the settings to either thumbstick or gyro control shows off how well they work. This means both the thumbsticks and the gyros are active at the same time, so I found myself making movements I didn't intend to make. The feature can be turned off in the Steam menus, but by default the gyros are activated when the thumbsticks' touch-sensitive surface detects your thumbs. If I have one complaint with the thumbsticks, it's how they work with the gyros. It's nice to feel safe holding onto something so expensive, and you probably wouldn’t want to have a young kid play with it very much anyway. The grips on either side bulge out at the edges, making it much more comfortable to hold in my adult-sized hands than a Nintendo Switch. The case is a matte black with a subtle texture to it, somewhat rougher than an Xbox controller, and it feels good to the touch. There are only two colors: black, and touches of light-gray.

I wouldn't call it a particularly attractive piece of tech, but it has a futuristic industrial look that fits in well with the overall Steam aesthetic. Still, the Steam Deck isn’t uncomfortable to hold, and it’s not like my arms got tired from holding it for a couple of hours. There’s no way it’s going to fit in a pocket. The size difference is enough that going back to my Switch after using the Steam Deck exclusively for a few days makes the Switch feel like a microconsole. It’s 11.7 inches from end to end, which is more than two inches longer than a Switch, and at 1.5 pounds it’s quite a bit heavier. 29 Images Steam Deck – Design and FeaturesĪs you've already seen from the memes, the Steam Deck is pretty massive.

256gb steam deck