Im curious if anybody uses their steam deck for something other than gaming? I saw a dude use it as a kareoke machine. I also saw a dude use it as a teleprompter (weirdest by far). With all the software you can buy on steam, what are creative uses for the steam de k that isnt gaming related?
I often use it as a pc, using the browser to do stuff and watch videos and streams.
Yes.
Maybe a dumb question but: it can’t run Photoshop can it?
You need to install Windows for that, either natively or as a VM. Maybe it works fine through Wine, but the APU really isn’t anything crazy so idk how viable that is
It can but it requires a bit of effort, though you can also use some applications that are free and native to Linux like Gimp, Krita, Inkscape and Darktable. Much easier since you can find these all on the discover store in desktop mode ^^
I use it as the living room entertainment machine / mediabox. Its docked 95% of the time, used for Netflix, Youtube, whatever the high seas bring in.
I bought it specofically as a replacement for my previous linux gaming PC / mediabox.
What do you use as a controller for it?
I use an Xbox one wireless controller with mine
When I use mine for a mediapc, I use kodi, and there is a kodi remote app you can put on your phone.
Steam Controller
I was in a pinch on a train and a work emergency happened. I hotspotted my phone and hooked it into the steam deck. Was able to do all the work needed using the touchpads and onscreen keyboard lol
Why not just use your phone? I mean it’s perfectly capable of any office work and is probably more comfortable because of the better touch screen.
Not saying it can’t be done on Steam Deck but it’s really hard for me to imagine a situation where I would choose so.
I use it in desktop mode periodically. If it’s already docked and I need a browser that isn’t on my phone, I’ll use it rather than swap over to my work laptop. I’ve been on linux for decades, so it’s pretty comfy for me,
I watch Netflix while I play chess, I used to do it on my PC, but now I do it on the deck because it uses less power
That’s what one my favourite aspects: When idling it uses like 3-5 W. And in most games I use around 12W, give or take. That’s soooo little for what I’m doing! My alternative is a speced out pc that I use with two monitors, that probably draws closer to 40W idle and 200-400W on a heavy load? Never measured it, ignorance is bliss as they say.
I love that my little Deck can do everything I want with sooo little power! One of my favourite features and one of the reasons I keep the performance indicators on, just so I can see how little power I’m using and be happy.
Just a rough calculation: Say my pc takes on average 120W (with a hefty margin of error depending on the task). And my deck takes 10W roughly. For me in Germany, electricity costs around 35ct/kWh right now (RIP, I know). That means I save 110W or 3.85 ct per hour of gaming. Meaning, because I got the refurbished 512GB model for around 380€, the Deck will have paid for itself once it replaces 9870 hours of Pc usage! That’s more than my entire Steam games time combined since like 2012 or so… It’s around 8h usage for 3 years straight. So probably not happening, but still a nice thing to have!
it’s my primary workstation
Use it as a computer in my living room as well. For movies or searching on browsers. Not much more
I have it docked on my desk and use it for browsing the web and watching videos. Basically anything that isn’t AAA gaming, I do with the Deck because it’s ~5W vs ~100W if I used my PC for that. And that’s about 80% of the time spent on PC.
It’s my computer. I just paid my bills with it.
I use mine for everything I use a computer for. Windows has become very unbearable. I connected a windows PC to my hotspot for a few hours to fix some stuff, turned on “metered connecton”, and… 1/3rd of my data is gone. Wtf. This whole, we will tell the user what they will and won’t do really pisses off. You cant even disable updates anymore.
Steam OS needs some tweaking to make it more into a PC. It has a read only file system that doesnt work well with software not installed as flatpacks. You can work around this, but when steamdeck becomes a bit more stable and mature, there will be some cool drop in replacements of modified steam OS that basically give you a full desktop operating system in desktop mode.
You can disable read only.
I watch movies/series on it in my bed, instead of watching them in a chair at my pc. Weirdly enought i dont watch youtube on it, but i do that at pc.
I use it a lot for tinkering. Nested desktop mode makes everything so much more convenient too. Thanks to Valve for adding that officially.
Apparently it’s being used in war: link