I’ve got a powerful desktop computer, but I also have a 6 year old daughter and very little personal time. Grabbing the deck and playing alongside / with (for instance, both of us playing Minecraft, me on the deck, her on the PS5; or her playing on the PS5 while I play separately on the Deck) is a big thing. Also I have been emulating a lot, as she’s stolen my switch so I can play on that. It’s nice to be able to whack headphones in and game for 10 or 20 minutes in bed before sleep… Honestly, it broke and had to be RMA’d, and I missed it so much because the ‘instant on’ play for a few minutes is just so addictive…

I use it for emulation, (up to PS3 / Switch level works perfectly with a beta 3.5 OS with the SMT fixes), AAA gaming (Hogwarts legacy worked perfectly for the screen size at medium), old games, indie games, GamePass streaming, PS5 streaming…

It was a birthday present that I thought I’d use a reasonable amount. However, it’s almost taken over my gaming time because even if I want to run something too powerful for the deck, I often don’t want to sit infront of my home office PC (As I spend all day there working) and I can just stream from the PC using SteamLink / Sunlight:Moonlight… It’s basically only when I want to play at full-screen 4K and have a few hours to myself I bother to game on the PC.

For a less obvious use case, I did some light video editing with Kdenlive and an external monitor, mostly because the Steam Deck is more powerful than my laptop ;)

Also PS2 emulation, Burnout Revenge has not aged one bit and plays very conveniently on a handheld.

I use mine when I travel for work. Great for being bored in the hotel and procrastinating actual work I should be doing

If you’re on the same network as your gaming PC, and have a halfway decent router, you can use Steam’s remote play to get the performance of your gaming PC on your Deck. Works great from my experience and would allow you to play titles that the deck struggles with.

I like to play it in bed before sleeping, or lay on the couch and play either on the deck itself, or docked on the TV. The main reason I wasn’t using a lot of consoles was more just having to purchase games twice / lack of cross platform cloud saves. The deck made that way better.

I have a 1.5 hour commute in total each day to work, so that entire time can be spent gaming. I really like my bed, or the couch, or just in general different settings especially for the cozier games I prefer.

I game a lot so spending dozens of hours a week at the same desk and chair doesn’t work very well for me. The option to play handheld or use my dock to move from my bed to my living room tv seamless is very welcome. Even once at a family gathering I brought it for us all to play Jackbox and it was a blast.

I play a lot of cozy games, ones that deserve to be played huddled up in a blanket on a couch, and I find them all the more enjoyable on Steam Deck than my Desktop.

I’ve been into Linux since 2006 and Linux gaming for almost just as long. When Valve announced a handheld PC with a Linux OS that actually has a ton of game support it was a day one preorder for me. I’m super happy with it. It’s such a polished experience with SteamOS that it’s become the main way I play games anymore. It has the benefits of a handheld console and the openness of a Linux PC. It’s by far the best gaming purchase I’ve ever made. I picked up a ROG Ally as well to attempt to run Linux on it but the out of box experience is garbage compared to the Deck. Windows is a terrible handheld OS and Armoury Crate is a terrible user interface. The performance is better, yet everything else leaves much to be desired while the Deck is an all-around solid and refined experience.

You just have to be willing to say no to games that don’t want to support Linux, but that’s easy having run Linux on my desktop for years.

Sometimes it just works better to be laying on the couch playing as opposed to sitting in a chair

It’s amazing for playing from my couch when I’m chilling with the family etc.

I have a switch to mostly play Pokemon. But for other games, either they’re not available on switch or loading times are very long. I have an old gtx 970 and 6700k but I don’t feel like big spend on a modern build is valuable right now with how casual my gaming is. The steam deck gave me a gaming computer comprise and I really like it. $500 for a good enough computer that plays a lot.

I use my deck mostly for casual couch gaming, when travelling or at work. My gaming PC is still in good use though and won’t be replaced by the deck.

But to be totally honest, it’s the tinkering that’s most fun for me. Installing non steam games/applications, tweaking and playing around with settings etc.

Local network game streaming works quite well in my experience. That means I get to use my beefier PC to carry that burden while I play Last of Us part 1 for 5 hours on the deck at 60fps.

I have a pretty good desktop computer and used to pass all my time there, in my office. But it was at the expense of my wife being mad for me not being with her.

It allow me to still play but also being present in the living room. And since i got the Steamdeck, i’m more playing Switch emulated game than i ever played on my Switch.

And most of all, now i can play local multiplayer game everytime i go to friends place. They never was gamer but now they always ask me to bring it.

It’s really the best piece of tech that i’ve purchased in a while. 100% worth it.

Travel. Whether it be for: work/leisure, domestic/international, bus/train. I work from home and don’t drive. So when I’m traveling via transit, it’s Steam Deck time.

My Steam Deck is my only gaming PC and is enough for my needs. I dual boot Windows along with SteamOS for when I need to do something that Linux makes too confusing. The Deck allows me to be outside of my office while gaming. I had a switch, but am pretty much done with it since I discovered Yuzu recently. For entertainment and light work, I use an iPad Pro 12.9. I thinks it’s a great combo for everything I need and want to do.