I was super excited when I saw the announcement, with this affordable start price, but then my reality check kicked in. The 64GB model is a no go. It’s barely ok in the Switch world where games are optimised and compressed, but this is Steam we’re talking about. Not only that, but it’s not an nVME storage. There’s only one option to expand the storage and it’s … micro SD card. Good luck with running modern games from the SD card. Ok, so 256GB it is, but even that would hold like 3-4 modern games top (I assume that a substantial chunk of this SSD will be taken by the OS). If I move into 512GB territory, now we’re taking a $650 price point … and the dock isn’t included. Add dock (I don’t know how much it costs exactly) and we’re most likely in $700 territory. This is too close to some budget AMD APU gaming laptops to my liking. So the question is why would I even use it for, considering that yes, it is portable, but it is bigger and twice as heavy as the Switch, it’s roughly as powerful as the PS4 with realistically $650-$700 price tag? Emulation was the very first thing that came to my mind. For actual PC gaming any budget gaming laptop would be a better option and for portability, Switch (lite preferably). IDK, it’s a tough sell for me. I’ll definitely wait for reviews first and see what the community can do with it before I commit.

I'm actually quite interested in this and I'm not even a PC gamer. It's essentially a PSVita 2 but with proper 3rd party support, Xbox Supporrt and some Playstation support.

The whole package isn't quite there, no DLSS or AMD equivalent, storage options off-putting, no hint at upgradeable hardware.

But all in all very cool, I'll be keeping a closer eye on whatever gen 2 version of this launches a few years from now and might even pick it over and Xbox series as a means to play Xbox exclusives/Gamepass

Why? Phones, Tablets, Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo all do it?

Switch V2 gets just 3 hours+52 mins in Crysis remastered.
Switch Lite gets 2 hours+10 mins in Haven.

https://reviews2go.com/2018/08/06/nintendo-switch-battery-life-chart-2/

No point bitching about 2 hours of intense gaming on this, that would be slightly hypocritical otherwise?

You have absolutely no idea on this, specifications haven't been released.

Definitely a Switch Killer for me, no question. Probably not in general though because it's not as appealing to children as the Switch.

The more I think about it the better this device gets. With Android and Apple emulation, I can see this device also supporting all those mobile games as well. To bad I have absolutely no use for a mobile handheld gaming device but if I was in the market, I would be giving this a serious look.

Most console games are PC games too. 

The fastest consumer SD cards widely available have read speeds of 300 MBPS. That is double a decent 7200 RPM HDD and roughly comparable to older SATA SSD's. Plenty fine for gaming. Especially since texture quality is going to be low-medium on this due to other bottlenecks.

I don't see why this would be a huge problem. You could also get top-HDD level SD cards with read speeds of about 100-170 MBPS. After a quick search I found a 512 Gb with 170 MBps read speeds for $164.99 or a 512 Gb with 100 MBps read speeds for $69.99.

That is currently. This isn't releasing until December, and probably will be on the market for many years to come. Storage prices are still falling over time. 

Besides with a dock, I am guessing you can attach external SSDs. Switch out games you are playing portably which have longer load times to the internal memory, and games with shorter load times to the SD. 

And then there is the matter of repacks of cracked games, which probably will inevitably happen. 

i don't even see that as impresive. Just a bit early to the market. Not even 6 months when lpddr5 is common and I doubt pc gamers will overlook an ultra light pc with better specs and battery and a full 14' screen and more storage for the same price. And I know it cost money to be first and to be so compact. But the form factor is more importsnt to the audience who prefers a laptop that's already portable. Mouseand keyboard and all. 

 Yes. Launch Switch can't play BOTW for more than 2 hours for example, and nobody really cares. It's also comes with even less storage space and is severely underpowered for a 300 USD hardware. 400 USD for a PS4 level handheld is far cheaper even if you need to buy additional storage 

Steam must have seen all the indie sales the switch was getting and wanted to have the revenue back on their store. I know some people myself who have a switch and play indies all the time.

This is also a great option for anyone who wanted a gaming laptop or even a desktop. I already have a desktop, but next time i'll just get a Steam Deck haha. You can install windows and emulate everything else that way as well.

This thing has ridiculous value!