And the inconsistency is a bit of an issue too – it’s hard to tell how quickly a specific game will slurp up the juice until you’re already playing it.” Although you’re unlikely to find many gaming laptops that last much longer, he pointed out. “Realistically, I think most games are going to land at the lower end of the battery life scale,” he said, “which isn’t ideal for long commutes.

The main thing holding it back was the battery life. In our Steam Deck review, James enjoyed the hardware’s portability and diversity of games on offer. Even Microsoft Gaming’s CEO Phil Spencer seemed keen on the Deck, but he got one before they were even released. Last month, they said that all reservations would be shipped earlier than expected. Valve have been getting on top of supply chain issues since the Deck launched though, and speeding up wait times for orders. We haven’t had much insight into how Steam Deck’s been performing for Valve since pre-order figures popped out of Steam’s HTML in July last year.

Head honcho Katharine gives her opinion on the hardware. Watch on YouTube There are a few Decks kicking around the RPS treehouse now.

Steam handheld release date