My wallet would support Steam if it had any sort of bills in it. Lenovo is a lousy company in the gadgets market. I own a marvelous Yoga Tab 3 Pro with an Intel Atom CPU and a built-in projector. An expensive device that received the one clunky Android upgrade and no source code. I modded the firmware enough to make it still usable, but God, do I hate their “support” service. Good riddance!
I kinda dig it. I have comically large hands so the big chunky controllers appeal to me. Don’t think I’d ever use them detached but if there’s a connector thing like for joycons I can see it working.
Unless drivers are available not really. This is all specialized APU stuff. Valve chose AMD on purpose and had a deal with them to improve drivers AMD was already open sourcing and developing for Linux community. If they chose some Windows only hardware you won’t have much luck with Steam Deck. It might work but then performance will suffer.
Will say it’s an interesting idea to put a scroll wheel on the back of the right grip. On the deck and steam controller I’d sometimes use track pads to just be scroll wheels, but sometimes I wish there was just a physical tactile scroll wheel instead.
Do you remember Lenovo getting into the smartphone business ? I bet they are going for a redo this time again. they are known for having commitment issues
That’s not what happened… Lenovo didn’t have a smartphone business until Google sold the remains of Motorola to them, so Lenovo and Zuk branded phones actually came AFTER Motorola by Lenovo.
Why do these people design the control interfaces without giving thought to it that if it's for PC gaming, mouse cursor control is paramount? While this has a touchpad, the position look like it's an afterthought. And doubly so if it's going to run on Windows on a small screen; touch is just about doable on a 12" Surface Pro screen, I can't imagine going smaller than 10".
Valve has the resources to hack Proton to make things work, others just want an OS they know will already run Windows games without much fuss. Valve specifically wants to move away from Windows because of fears of anticompetitive behavior from Microsoft. They're not just doing it from the goodness of their hearts. Microsoft would like nothing more than the Steam store crushed and all its games moved to their own walled garden.
A big reason to move away from Microsoft is also lack of licensing fees, which the other companies can definitely get behind. They’d have to make their own store and front end most likely, but proton is basically all done for them and is already in a shippable state that “just works” for users.
Once again the consumer electronics industry proving that it has essentially zero imagination.
Those who want a Steam Deck can probably just buy a Steam Deck. Or a Switch. 13.2% faster processor, 8.3% more colors, 9% faster refresh… all those endless specs don’t speak to me, which is all any company can do if they are just copying some existing design.
How about different form factors? I think the idea of a Steam Deck is great, but I hate how bulky it is. I am willing to sacrifice CPU power and even screen size for something a little more pocketable. Something in a portrait orientation rather landscape, maybe.
The product designer for this needs to be fired. Anyone who’s held a controller for an extended period of time knows these hard corners will kill your hands.
Phones are a slightly different story. Edges do help grip, and ensure product stability (which is essential on a phone). Additionally their smaller form factor means ergonomics don’t come into play as much as a game controller.
Like seeing the competition. I got the Rog Ally right now and loving it. Not sure I would want the joy cons type form factor though that might make portability easier.
Power management on laptop-like devices is a problem for Linux because of lazy manufacturers. ACPI often reports broken values and h/w vendors patch it up using Windows driver overrides, rather than a real fix. Suspend/resume is a delicately choreographed set of steps given to the OS by ACPI so if that’s wrong, you’ll get awful battery life or worse, crashes. Linux devs will emulate the Windows driver patches but that comes later, if at all.
I mean, hopefully it would work but Lenovo would need to not take the easy way out. They’ve been slipping, even with their Thinkpads lately.
Yes, but things like that take time. So yeah: Six months after the device is released there will probably be fantastic Linux support. Until then it’ll be hit or miss from an “annoying fucking bugs” and “where’d my battery life go?” perspective.
This is why it’s always better when a device manufacturer supports Linux right out of the gate. Not only does that give the device vastly more capabilities it also helps Windows by ensuring that the hardware doesn’t require all sorts of wacky ACPI workarounds and custom software be developed in order to do things like check the temperature or battery capacity (things that Lenovo has made absurdly proprietary in the past).
I think most people now when looking at portable gaming devices like these want a seamless experience (like with the Steamdeck)
Windows has proven to be problematic with these devices, where when you use the Steamdeck it’s pretty much pick up and play. The ROG ally uses Windows + it’s own armory crate software and from what I’ve heard it’s been pretty hit or miss
I’m excited for this new PC/Console hybrid market to start becoming something big. Hardware competition will drive progress up and prices down while openiNg access to games to many. I do really hone the market lands on Linux as their main OS instead of Windows11.
Add comment