The big difference with Steam is this has a monstrous library already, probably better than the Switch even, because really it has all the same indie games and 3rd party games but it has basically all the XBox One/PS4 (minus Sony titles, even there things like Horizon are on PC) games.

Probably you can even run Switch games on this via the emulator, lol.

For only $50 more than Switch OLED, that's not a bad price. The price they got is quite good, if Steam keeps iterating new models at a $399.99 entry point with better and better tech, that's going to be really interesting.

Why probably? Wasn't it confirmed to have all steam games? 

Sadly, 4 cores / 8 threads is a real problem. Tuning resolution or graphics settings don't solve the issues, the future games will quickly ask for 6 cores / 12 threads.

Oh welp, playing indie games is the best to go. And for the storage... ohhh.. We need NVMe SSD slot 2 internally, because my Steam games are heavier than my digital Switch games. xD

I don't see this selling all that well.

The design doesn't seem like something that will have the mass appeal the Switch's design has with the ease of 'switching' game modes as well as the detachable joycons. The look is also less appealing. I get that they want to say it's a portable PC, but it's bulk is giving me Wii U gamepad vibes.

The price is going to be a tough nut. It's lowest-costing model is $50 more than the premium Switch model, but that's going to be compared more to the $300 base Switch, not the OLED model. The $529 model is going to make the $350 Switch OLED look more appealing to the general consumer.

My guess is Valve is courting the high-end PC gamer market, the guys who spend fortunes to build their custom rigs to be as powerful as possible. But I'm not sure it's powerful enough for that. The RAM is astounding and on par with current gen, but the rest of the specs are still decidedly last-gen, meaning it still won't run current-gen games as well as an actual PC or the current-gen consoles and will have problems similar to what the Switch had with PS4/XB1 games, and I'm not sure the PC master race crowd would settle for something like that even if it's the most powerful handheld ever.

There is a pretty good market in the PC gaming industry for handheld PCs. It is why GPD Win 3 and Aya Neo which are handheld PCs that cost double this for much weaker specs are so successful with every iteration. If there wasn't a market for it, those wouldn't continue to sell.

Now will this be a switch killer? I highly doubt it will reach anywhere near those levels. But I wouldn't be so quick to think something like this wouldn't sell well enough to meet Valve's expectations. While current gen consoles are obviously significantly more powerful, they are targeting 4k resolutions where as something like this is targeting 720p. Steam Deck also has RDNA 2 architecture and Zen 2 based CPU which means it will support all the new technologies and engines going forward. So while it won't be able to play new games anywhere near max settings, PC games are flexible enough to have different graphical options.

PC has always been about being giving people options. It's why we have desktops, laptops, handhelds and etc that can all play games. Even the best laptops are nothing compared to a Desktop with a 3080 but those continues to sell every generation. This just fills a hole in the handheld market where instead of spending $1000 for a meh PC handheld, people can now spend $529 for a much more powerful handheld.

The main attraction for something like this is the ability to play Xbox, Sony, Nintendo (via emulator) and PC games on the go. That is something the switch won't be able to provide.

Looks interesting, but the lack of memory, terrible battery and not coming with a dock will kill it.

No you can't upgrade the internal one later. Instead you use high speed micro SD card, just like the Switch. The price is perfectly reasonable, use your SD card instead. Also Apple and others charge $400 for 500GB of added storage, I don't see how you can complain if Valve is asking for just $130. This is a small integrated device, not a motherboard.

It has 16GB of DDR5 memory. Also $400 dollars from Apple. That's 4x more RAM than the Switch. That's crazy cheap. Instead of paying $800 to Apple or Google (Pixel) or Samsung (phones), you get a 500GB/16GB machine for an extra $130 bucks (16GB included no extra charge). That is literally crazy cheap. Not sure how they managed it. They must be expecting ram prices to drop back to normal in the fall. Ram is the most expensive thing right now.

Also the screen on this is WAY better than the Switch. This is an optically bonded screen like a high end tablet (like the iPad Air, not like the normal iPad, way better).

Also the system even has display port alt mode, something my new $1000 gaming laptop is lacking. That is incredibly awesome. I'm really impressed. I was expecting this to cost at least $200 more at all storage levels.

Sorry, I meant storage memory not RAM.

People ont his site really, and I mean really, need to get it out of their heads that this is some first party Switch killer machine, because it really isn't, and the expectations that it's going to flop, because it's not cheap as chips (going with £100-200 less, because why not, some ppl here are cray with prices anyway) or has first party titles.

This is exactly what I've been asking for for years and it's finally becoming a thing, so there definitely is a market for this thing, way more so than Steam machines ever was (that concept was doomed the moment Valve allowed 3rd parties to take control).