Consoles

The Best Features Of The Steam Deck

The Steam Deck was released to critical acclaim and has become the top choice for gamers that like to take their favourite titles wherever they go. Built on top of Linux and featuring all the latest games in Steam’s library, the Steam Deck is a powerful, mobile gaming platform that, while having a few drawbacks, should appeal to most gamers on the go.

The Steam Deck is fairly straightforward to use, but there are some functions that gamers and users might not be fully aware of. Let’s look at some of the Steam Deck’s best but little-known features that take the device to a whole new level.

Remote Play

The Steam Deck is fairly powerful considering its size, but given the battery life, limited hardware, and screen size, a user can’t expect to play the very latest AAA games on the device, at least not at an acceptable FPS. Fortunately, there’s a way around this, if the gamer also happens to have a decent desktop machine that has a linked Steam account. Remote Play allows them to stream their favourite game directly to the Deck, provided there’s a decent internet connection. Most of Steam’s games support this feature, and it allows for a much smoother gaming experience.

Desktop Mode

The Deck is built on top of the Linux operating system, and behind SteamOS is KDE Plasma, an extremely powerful desktop operating system that can allow the user to use the Steam Deck like they would any Linux computer. Along with KDE, the user also has access to a wide range of different open source packages that they can download and install.

This means that, if the need arises, it’s possible to turn the Steam Deck into a fully-fledged and mobile computer that comes with all of the benefits of the Linux operating system, such as the use of a browser for browsing the net or checking out CA casino bonuses. Just make sure to remember that Linux works a bit differently to Windows, so it’s a good idea not to mess with the system files that allow the OS to work.

Rear Buttons

The Steam Deck is designed to emulate the controllers of more traditional gaming systems, which means that along with the buttons that are found on the face of the device, there are also four rear buttons that are seldom used in most games.

But Valve has made sure that’s possible to change the functions of these buttons, allowing them to be worked in games as well as in SteamOS in general. It’s a great way to add a bit more functionality to the device without having to add more external peripherals.

Keyboard and Mouse

Speaking of peripherals, for those gamers that just can’t get used to the Deck’s controls, it’s possible to add a keyboard and mouse to the device. Almost all keyboards and mice should work out of the box, and no drivers or other software will need to be installed for the devices to start working.