So as I have the Steam Deck now for around 1 week (+1 day), I have to say that this device is really, for me as a mostly PC-Gamer nowadays, the innovation that I was looking for.
In that 1 week I finished 3 Gunvolt titles, continued Yakuza, installed some Emulators and played some non-Steam games so its ready to go. I also installed non-Steam games that now feel far better than just adding the non-steam games as a shortcut on Steam since the UI is more intuitive than the desktop Overlay.
Playing on this device, it really reminds me of the evenings 20 years ago with a GBA and later 3DS before going to sleep and finishing games, just this time those games are AAA games, Indie titles, visual novels etc.
My Steam library has around 4.5k games and now I feel I finish far more.
First of all some thoughts on the build quality/feel. It is kinda wonky and if you have a Steam controller it kinda feels the same. It does not feel that expensive. It might be because of the matte touch, but I would rather have a texture like the new Xbox one controllers.
Second of all the fan noise is really annoying, because in some games it just turns on the fans seemingly randomly. Most likely the SSD needs to be cooled or whatever, but playing some Indiegames where the fan is not even on, then it turns on for 2 minutes, then off again is distracting. For 3d games its usually on and it sounds a bit like a Macbook under load.
Regarding games. Most games I played worked right out of the box. I had a problem with one Gunvolt title that crashes at the final boss, Blue Reflection uses non supported movie files, but other than that the majority that I installed works really well.
Visual novels especially feel really good on this.
One major feature I did not think would be that good is the suspend/resume feature. I just turn it off, then the next evening I turn it on and after 5 seconds I am back directly where I left off.
And for now I only used it at home. Before sleeping, during a bath etc.
Since usually when Covid is over I am also travelling a lot to China and there are some days when there isnt much to do (Chinese new year, visiting relatives) and I can only see how great it will be with a Dock, just taking this small device, connecting it in the hotel and playing some games on it.
Here are some images of games I played with it:
I do not really want to compare it to the Switch, but for me personally, I prefer the Steam Deck. I already have a huge library of games on my Steam account, so I would not need to rebuy games just to play them portable. Then you have Humble Bundles with great prices (the last one had Scarlet Nexus, Gears 5, Celeste, Cloudpunk and Bloodstained for like 17€). I can configure the games however I want on the desktop. Just for me this makes more sense.