For the inevitable minisforum machines comparisons - it's not as bad for Valve as it seems. You can't just add a dedicated GPU to a cheap miniPC with an integrated graphics- power delivery and airflow will have to be different, and you may be surprised to find out that even the cheapest mini PCs with dedicated graphics aren't significantly cheaper than a Steam machine (if at all).
And then my personal experience with these cheap no-brand mini-computers is that their Linux compatibility is spotty, BIOS updates are non-existend, quality control is severely lacking, and you have basically no support. They are also often pretty loud, overheat and die within a year or two. If something doesn't work properly, you are on your own- the manufacturer will have forgotten about this model in a couple of months, and user base is so low that it's unlikely someone will find a workaround.
So comparatively, a Steam Machine would be much preferable to me, considering that it will likely work out of the box with no compatibility issues, will have a typical valve support (which, judging by Steam Deck, is quite fair), is well-built and near silent.
The problem is once the price crosses a thousand, I'd rather add, say, 500 eur, and get a much more powerful machine. I see a point for the cheapest bottom of the barrel gaming pc/handheld (which would be 700-750) with many performance tradeoffs, but this doesn't look like a good enough upgrade from that. A 12+ GB RTX4070-class videocard, 24-32GB of RAM and maybe even an 8-core CPU for $1500+ would likely be more usable in the current market
> For the inevitable minisforum machines comparisons
It appears the Steam Machine is much more powerful than what a typical mini desktop pc would offer, while staying cool and quiet.
Gamers Nexus review: https://youtu.be/66QzlDewigE
>which, judging by Steam Deck, is quite fair
I love my Steam Deck but let's not forget that it took a solid 2-3 years for it to really become a somewhat turnkey, stable experience. They shipped it in a near-beta state. Flipping between gaming/desktop mode induced a fail state probably 30% of the time until a year ago, docking to TV's can still be very frustrating (aspect ratio and latency are almost always wonky until you tinker with it a fair bit) and isn't nearly as smooth a transition as with the switch, there used to be a VERY frustrating lockout where if your deck wanted to update and you weren't on your home network it wouldn't log in, just all sorts of really frustrating points of friction.
Again I love my deck, it's an incredible and capable device. But it was very clunky those first 2-3 years. It really only matured in the last 12-18mo or so. Hopefully the SM is a stronger experience day/week/month 1.
> I love my deck, it's an incredible and capable device. But it was very clunky those first 2-3 years
I got the Steam Deck on release. It was a near solid device for me from the get go. Only had the occasional crash/reboot, but I wouldn't describe it as having been clunky.
I personally would call the UI pretty clunky. Trying to figure out which settings are on the right settings button menu vs the left is annoying. Plus, there's stuff like not being able to get the onscreen keyboard to come on screen, and streaming can be a headache.
I love it and use it a lot, but it's not a Nintendo Switch experience, at all.
Then it’s likely you either weren’t trying to use all the available features or are misremembering, because I promise you it was not smooth at launch. I got mine over a year in and these problems still existed. The gaming/desktop transition was a notorious issue, as was docking to a TV. Computer monitors it was (generally) fine.
My bad- support is too wide of a term, and I meant it in a sense that Valve is quick to respond when their hardware stops working.
I got my deck fixed after the warranty period, for example, with very little fuss. They even payed for the shipping of the broken device to them
That’s pretty cool of them. Hopefully they continue to operate that way. I remember when Apple used to be like that about iPods.