The Steam Deck looks pretty cool, but I recently starting using an existing Valve product that nullifies most use cases for me: Steam Link.
If you want a Steam Deck you should first try Steam Link. If it doesn't meet your needs (gaming requiring internet, mobile internet adding too much latency), then the Steam Deck becomes attractive. I hadn't considered this when evaluating the value of the Steam Deck and I suspect most others haven't either (judging from the lack of Steam Link coverage).
Makes total sense but my use case - and from what I can tell, this is very common - is sitting on the couch with the wife in the evenings while she's/we're watching something. There is a couple of hours after the kids go to bed where I could spend that time in the office, or I could be on the couch with her. I don't know if it's a woman thing or just my wife, but she definitely prefers I'm close to her, even if I'm on my phone. Since I like making her happy, I don't spend a lot of time on my PC playing games anymore. The Deck will allow me to play games again, and I'm really looking forward to it. Throw in the ability to play while on vacation/traveling/in bed, plus the cool features like instant resume from sleep (which my PC definitely cannot compete with) and gyroscopes, and I can't remember being this excited about a new gadget.
This is my primary use case too. I've started using my phone with steam link and an xbox controller to play some of the bigger single player titles I've been sitting on for the past few years (such as Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher 3, and Cyberpunk 2077).
My 4790k is long in the tooth but it can lock 30 fps in any game. Coupled with a 3070 I can stream 1080p30 at max graphics settings on any of these games and I don't need to buy another computer to do it.
As someone who uses (or used to use) Steam Link to be able to use a Windows PC headlessly to game from a macOS machine, I think it's a really compelling argument to consider it before considering a Steam Deck.
However, I'm viewing Steam Deck as a mobile gaming machine, which might be replacing my current Windows gaming laptop, and I can leave my Windows gaming laptop at home (or replace with a tower altogether). And if Steam Link works with a Steam Deck, I can have the best of both worlds (mobile gaming + regular gaming via Steam Link)!
If you already use Steam then you already have a PC and according to the steam hardware survey you very likely have a more powerful GPU than what is in the steam deck.
Nearly everyone has a smartphone and video streaming box on a TV. So to get all the way there you need a controller.
Stadia vs. Switch is apt, except with negligible latency in the home (TV sharing is a common issue in couples/families today) and without needing to pay a subscription for things you own. Also, the graphics quality is going to be much better than what Stadia or Deck can deliver if you use Link with any decent gaming rig. Also I don't invite any google venture into my life because it's spyware and vaporware.
Not necessarily, you can use steam on a Mac and it runs natively, you can also use it with parallels with virtualized windows, or you could've owned a PC and accumulated steam games at one point in your life and then moved over to the mac ecosphere. There are plenty of use cases where you may have a steam library and not have a PC... you're just not looking very hard.
I agree, but I think many on HN and the excited hardware junkies (which there will be plenty of for this niche boutique product) could gain some value without having another computer through existing, free, undermarketed software.
If you want a Steam Deck you should first try Steam Link. If it doesn't meet your needs (gaming requiring internet, mobile internet adding too much latency), then the Steam Deck becomes attractive. I hadn't considered this when evaluating the value of the Steam Deck and I suspect most others haven't either (judging from the lack of Steam Link coverage).