You can. Changing the battery is pretty easy.

Me too, but I'm pretty sure I'll be getting one.

I haven't had a VR headset since the original Oculus Rift. I'm still salty about them selling to Meta, and after I moved to Linux it turned into a paperweight anyway.

Since that point, no new headset had checked all the boxes for features, first-class Linux support, and a vendor I could actually tolerate engaging with.

The Steam Frame is doubtless going to seem very expensive in comparison, but I see that as the price I have to pay to avoid an account on a platform I don't want and all the associated data harvesting.

I will pay that price.

The original release date was sometime around Q1 2026, obviously trump's tariffs (illegal tax) and then AI consuming all of the RAM has messed with the timeline.

Oh and then international shipping will be more expensive due to increased fuel prices because of the Iran war.

This. Fuck SCUF and their owners Corsair

Back buttons are an obvious modification of previous designs; they aren't patentable.

I like the loud

I despise trackpads so I never bought a steam controller. But steam input is money. It made some of my old PC favorites like Thief playable with a controller.

What do you use it for? The only game I found that worked really well was Metroid Prime (after a ton of tweaking)

How do you use yours? I have a couple, and have never managed to figure out how to get them to pair properly to either my Mac or my Linux machine. I mean, they pair, but then I can't really seem to use them for much.

Yeah I don't get why people praise the trackpads on it so much. Trackpads are such ass and always have been. Some people will just praise valve no matter what they do.

no

100% reason to remember the name.

But also:

• Only one thumbstick
• Terrible Dpad

Lmao. More like 60% of people know that replacing sticks with trackpads was an awful idea. Valve tried too hard and failed, and they know they failed by the looks of it

i will also steam frame

GabeGoggle

Almost $500,000 USD is insane.

How do you come to this conclusion? The controller doesn't have a GPU or lots of memory and expensive space. So from that angle of view, the controller can be priced normally as it would be years ago. The first Steam Controller was priced at 50 Euros at launch, if I remember right. The controller will absolutely be not 100 Dollars or more expensive. 60 Dollars is very likely, if we are lucky even less. If they we have bad luck, then it will be 70.

Can you tell me why there is "no chance its less"?

I'm more than willing to pay that price. This controller will kick ass. I won't want another ever again.

Yeah I'm concerned about that.

I recently went on a hunt for a cheap good offbrand controller. I bought several from gamesir 8bitdo and easysmx, and ended up landing on the gamesir cyclone 2. It's quite good, though not perfect, because the ergonomics are not 100% my style, but it was my best option overall. I think it was like 50€.

Before that I was using the 30€ range controllers from easysmx and for their price they were good but only lasted a couple of years because stick drift.

I tried 8bitdo because everyone talked so good of them, but I didn't like the ergonomics, that's 100% personal though, the controller itself was good.

I also read about the Vader 4 controllers, which has good reviews but never tried it.

Not OP, but I used Xbox controllers for a long time. I kept breaking them (I have gorilla grip problem), so I got an Xbox pro because I didn't like how the ps3 or ps4 controllers were laid out. I broke the pro controller.

I've switched to a ps5 controller and aside from getting re-used to the button names, it's been really nice. Super comfy and is holding up really well. I miss some things on my pro controller, but so far this is great.

In all of that,I did use the OG steam controller for a while too and I loved that one, but my hands were too small for some functions, so I couldn't keep using it.

An 8bitdo controller is next on my list after the ps5 maybe breaks, as I've heard very good things.

I'm not sure about general reception, but I preordered the Steam Deck as soon as it went live and have been using mine for years, so it's coming from personal experience. It's okay for menus and light use, and there are definitely worse dpads out there, but I'm noticeably less accurate in 2D platformers than playing on PC or on Anbernic handhelds.

On mine, the diagonals are overly sensitive compared to the cardinal directions, and because of the mushy membrane (and glossy surface) there isn't enough feedback to reliably stop those false diagonals. In platformers a diagonal input will often make you crouch and kill your momentum, so it can be a liability in certain games.

B-but Metric is hard

Should've used long tons for improved confusion

Prison phone!

I'm the type of guy who expects driving to be done with the arrow keys (at least for a game that's not a full blown driving simulator or driving centric), but that would imply the game not requiring you to use the mouse at the same time. But then, depending on the game, replacing a mouse with a controller could be a downgrade in a certain regard.

In the end I'm just curious. I'll try, if it doesn't work for me, I'll sell it, and that's it.

Edit: I didn't imply steering with the mouse - that's terrible. See my other comment further down.

Why would Valve need to do that?

This controller, and the Steam Machines can be used anywhere including not on Steam, so it doesn't make sense to do this. Especially after Gabe demanding the hardware division stands on its own.

My projection is these will sell like hot cakes, like most things Valve sells.

hah maybe thats the price of a ps5 controller on black friday

Ah, wish that was the case now.

Physically. To start, the Deck is heavy and cumbersome to play on. Resting it on a surface is pretty much a must. The grips also have too narrow of a geometry and result in wrist strain fairly quickly. These two factors also interact with the positioning of the dpad, making it feel awkward to use, like I can't be as nimble with the inputs as I would on a controller. The dpad itself is the worst part. There is a lot of travel in the presses, which wouldn't necessarily be a problem, except that it has an overall very mushy feel. Worst of all it does that thing that a lot of modern dpads do, where if you press in on the center the whole dpad presses in as if it's one big button, really poor pivot.

Most of this should be solved in the controller, but I'm waiting for reviews to come out. If the dpad still has that last problem or is otherwise not good, I don't think I'm going to get one (unless they do another $5 clearance sale).