1y ago

Steam Deck as a laptop replacement?

I've been thinking about this for a while. With the repairability of the steam deck and the power available to it, it seems like a no brainer to use it for a bit of school work or casual browsing, Discord etc. Like you would a normal desktop.

There's a new product type popping up called LapDock that's basically a hollowed out laptop but often with a giant battery, UPerfect has one and as well as the NexDock and they seem promising.

My personal biggest gripe is screen resolution and colour accuracy, as well as battery life. As I also do photography colour accuracy would be a great plus for me and as for resolution, I've been using 2k and higher screens for years and going back to 1080p seems like a bit of a turn off. However, UPerfect has monitor only types but having to set that up ontop of a mouse and keyboard while out and about seems less than ideal in comparison to a laptop.

Any thoughts on this? Anyone who's tried it? Anyone who've tried desktop mode on high Res screens and seen any downsides, stutters, playback trouble, etc?

Edit:

I went out and bought myself a USB-C Hub with a PD port, HDMI and 2 USB to get a feel for the desktop experience on my TV at home. Since I do most of my work related things in Windows I installed it on a separate partition using GParted to shrink the home folder and then went through the Windows installer. After installing Valves drivers from their help page without errors everything seemed to work absolutely amazingly!

Everything from 4K playback to Windows animations all goes smoothly. It's a trouble free Windows installation which from my previous experiences is a nice change of pace. The only hiccups I can notice is the occasional stutter and some Windows feeling laggy when resizing and moving, mainly the settings window and other WinUI software with lots of detailing and graphics to them.

I tried installing Deathloop through Xbox Game Pass and that worked wonderfully too. It installed quickly and I tried setting the resolution to 4K and got a solid 15 FPS! I tried 1440p as well and got around 30 and then went to 1080p where I got around 45. Not quite enough for me as I get slight headaches when below 60 but good enough I feel like. In the end for gaming it doesn't really matter since I have handheld for that. Alternatively up-scaling.

As I've tried the Windows experience on the Steam Deck now I'm gonna continue my experimenting with SteamOS and see how that goes. My biggest issue so far has been that the USB-C Hub in Windows works perfectly at 4K 60Hz but SteamOS doesn't seem to be detecting the 60Hz mode at all when the screen is at 4K. I'm gonna troubleshoot and see what I can find. If anyone has had any similar issues and know how to resolve them any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

All in all the desktop experience on the Steam Deck is amazingly smooth. Truly feels like a proper Desktop when things are setup the way I need them to be and I couldn't be happier. The question for a laptop replacement is still in the air for me however. Now that I know that the desktop experience will be as smooth as it is I'm wondering which right way to go about it would be. As a lot of people in the comments on this thread and others mention that the build quality of the NexDock is absolutely terrible, a portable monitor seems to be the better way. I suppose in the end it would boil down to either living with bad build quality to get the more seamless experience. or chucking along a bluetooth mouse and keyboard with a portable monitor which could potentially not be too big of a hassle depending on how lazy I'm feeling during the days.

More thoughts would be welcome! Especially if there's any other users who have any experience with external displays and how they're using them!

46 comments

I use it for work in the rare occasions I go to the office, but there are monitors available there so I don't have to rely on the device's screen.
It works pretty well but I had to install a ton of development dependencies that tend to be standard in every Linux distro but are not there in the steam OS.
Plus some coworkers have heard that I work on a PSP, coding with the joystick buttons and that is a nice rumor I like to keep alive.
- I want this rumour at my next workplace so that's kinda making it more worth it lol
  For the sake of the monitor it is also gonna be a "primary-ish" way for me to use it at home too so packing it up and down could potentially become a bit of a chore.
- It gets a lot less painful when you can use Nix to install everything.

I can weigh in on this - I've been using my Steam Deck docked and in desktop mode for about 6 months. The os is read-only, but you can switch it to RW... but that's the beginning of your troubles.
The Steam repo mirror is woefully out of date, and occasionally while installing packages with AUR/pacman there will be an untrusted key (untrusted because it's outdated) that prevents the package from being installed (or prerequisites from being installed)
The base OS+games rapidly consumes the NVMe. You can get a 1 or 2TB replacement for hundreds of dollars, but that's basically your only good option.
Every so often, they'll push an update that breaks your customizations - the OS goes RO again, your installed packages are deleted (but configuration files remain), meaning you have to do manual clean up before reinstalling.
The latter got so bad, I ended up writing an Ansible playbook to make my recovery from upgrade easier: https://github.com/pezhore/steamdeck-developer
That's not including the annoyance of finding a monitor and dock (and charger) that will properly work with the deck.
TL;DR - you can use the steam deck as a workstation, but it's painful.
- One other key office feature that's missing is printing. No cups support natively or via Flatpak.
  
  Oh, that's a good one. I rarely have to print anything so I haven't run into that issue.
- The read-only bit and updates causing packages to revert changes is kind of a big deal. I’ve rarely seen it mentioned or it is constantly glossed over.
- I intend to install Windows on a separate partition so there I will most likely keep my school work and then use SteamOS for the gaming side of things. I think a Windows partition will mitigate most of your mentioned OS troubles.
  
  The only thing I'd be wary of in that case is OS driver support. I don't have experience dual booting, nor with Windows support - but I'm sure other folks have gone that route.

I used my Steam Deck as my main system for a month to see how it would do. It was fine. No issues whatsoever.
- That's cool to hear! Have you tried on a 4K screen and video playback? Some youtube videos I've watched have mentioned that it can sometimes be choppy, I intend to install Windows to keep as a general purpose OS and keep SteamOS for gaming.
  
  I intend to install Windows to keep as a general purpose OS
  Why do you want to shoot yourself in the foot? Desktop mode of SteamOS is already general purpose.

I pretty much use my Steam Deck instead of my laptop so the time now. I mostly take advantage of keyboards, much, and monitors available at my destinations though, so it's much more portable.
For you typically Café office warrior, you're going to need to pack a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, as well as put up with a small screen. The monitors and laptop-style housings you mention can mitigate that though.
Still, it's kind of an inferior laptop option overall. You'll either have to make do without some laptop features or end up packing more gear than with a laptop. The Steam Deck is optimized for gaming, a laptop is optimized for… officing outside an office?
Where the Steam Deck might even though is where it can be docked. It may be large for a handheld gaming device, but it is smaller than most laptops.
You will still have to accept some limitations. SteamOS is designed to support gaming. One thing I've noticed is no support for printing (cups). I'm sure there are others. If you were a University student and you could only buy an inexpensive laptop or a Steam Deck, I'd get the inexpensive laptop. If you have a desktop with a mechanical keyboard and buffer big monitors, and you just need a supplemental device in a pinch, and are mostly looking to play games? Then the Steam Deck would be perfect.
For me, the Steam Deck has effectively completely replaced my laptop, but I'm not typing up TPS reports at Starbucks all day. I'm mostly playing games, and accepting a substandard "serious computing" experience or packing some essentials or just using it for non-gaming in a few locations.
- When it comes to SteamOS limiations, I'm most likely going to end up dualbooting with Windows so that won't be much of an issue! As for printing, I never really print anything since I'm getting an education in IT systems administrations and virtualization so we never really print out our assignments. But good thing to keep in mind!
  I don't sit by cafés too much either but do have a few buildings I go to that are not home or not school, since I prefer to study outside of my apartment I like to bring things with me. For most weeks I'm either at my local community music school for music where there's space to set up the setup but can be a bit clunky for sure if one compares to a laptop and folds up rather than setting up the screen plugging in the steam deck and then make sure the bluetooth is paired to the mouse and keyboard or if I get one of those Lapdocks I can short the steps a bit but will essentially be the same issue. A bit lower mobility and a bit more work to get running immediately.
  My school works mostly contains of setting up VMs and working with Azure/AWS and the Windows partition will definitely help out in that regard.

So I've been using my steam deck as a laptop replacement as I'm on uni and I don't really need that much processing power on me.
If you have a good dock, some accessories and a lot of patience, it can fit the bill.
I've switched my system over to Bazzite, which is amazing because it's more up to date, and makes using the deck as a desktop very enjoyable, but it is running on the latest beta so any bugs that are on steamos 3.5 will persist here. However unfortunately it doesn't support HDR at the moment.
Even without bazzite you can easily use it as a desktop, but you do have to be aware that it isn't as strong as some laptops nowadays. (of course you could always remote connect to a desktop and do stuff there but yknow).
- Bazzite seems very interesting. Thanks for the link! HDR to me is a bit of a second priority, it sure is nice but it doesn't make and break anything. Currently trying out Windows on the Deck and seems like HDR seems to be broken for me there. Sadly the option on my TV to fix it seems to be greyed out in the settings.
  My desktop experience so far has been great actually. While the CPU itself isn't as strong as my previous 5900HX the GPU performance is indeed noticeable when running about in some software. It's a great try-out at least!
- So you connect a monitor and keyboard, and use it like a desktop?

Deck is great value, and as a general purpose PC it's more than capable, but the main focus should be on how are you going to use it. Laptop has the benefit of being one piece thing that you can grab on a public transportation or any other place and you get access to your usual PC stuff with full blown keyboard. If you need to finish your essay before arrival, you can do so. However, if you want a laptop to game on, it will be either chunky (which defeats the portability argument) or expensive. Also, while having Deck, you can still access your notes, scans, books etc everywhere from the comfort of Deck's gamepad.
- This has been my primary concern with getting this to work as well. If I do decide to go with the portable monitor which I'm leaning more towards now it'll for sure be a bit more clunky to get out the monitor, plug in the steam deck, pull out a mouse and keyboard and make sure their paired and then get going. Our trains here are very spacious most of the time unless it gets crowded so for the most part that itself wouldn't be too big of an issue but depends on how much effort I feel needs to go into getting everything setup for my usual 40 minute train ride to get a few write-ups on my assignment done. Realistically I would probably skip the monitor and get the keyboard out and use the touchscreen thinking about it.

Its usefulness as a laptop replacement may be limited. Remember it's a locked down read-only version of Linux. The steam deck uses an a/b model to update. Basically there are two separate versions of the OS on the machine - when it updates it replaces one copy and makes that the default, and uses the other as the backup. Next system update it replaces the other copy and switches to that. It switches back and forth that way, putting a stock image on with each update. So you'd probably want to go down the route of running your own OS on it.
Without that it does limit a little in how useful it is as a laptop like device. It depends what you want to do on it of course, and your Flatpak apps and personal files will stay but any other customisation you do to the device will get wiped each time it does a major update. That would include any installed software outside the Flatpak route if you unlock Pacman.
It seems like a capable machine though. I have mine hooked up to my TV at 4K when at home. I use it to stream 4K game content from my desktop to my living room, but I've also played with the desktop mode in 4k and it's been good. It renders 4k video well, and we know it's capable of playing video games at 720p directly which is still generally intensive.
I can't see why it wouldn't be able to do basic graphics work, but no idea about more intensive work like 3D modelling and video encoding.
Personally I'd get a dedicated device for work but if you can't afford that or you dont want to carry more than one device around then I guess it's worth a try?
Just remember if you do use it for work that also entails setting it up to back up your personal data. Your game data is largely backed up by Steam but if you put your work stuff on there then you'll need to be protecting yourself in case of damage or theft.
- I have a NAS at home I can easily back things up to. For limitations on the OS I do intend to install Windows on it on a separate partition to keep things clean when it comes to SteamOS so I don't think the RO will be much of an issue.
  I'm happy to hear about your feedback to it playing 4K video with no issues and that it works lagfree on 4K too. That's been my main concern if I end up getting a 4K or 2K screen to get my more standard resolutions available that the hardware would potentially have a hard time to catch up if I have a few processor things running at one go like a video stream in the background, editing a document and voice chatting at the same time and then on top running Lightroom to boot. But from what I can gather from user experiences it shouldn't be too much of an issue!

I don’t know, I’m definitely a fan of my deck, but it seems to me like the clunkiness of that setup would be a hindrance. With one of those LapDocks you would essentially have to find the space for both the deck and the laptop, and live with the wires connecting them, as opposed to just having an actual laptop. Then there’s the fact that the deck is running a tweaked version of Linux with all the issues that come with that.
For sort term use I could absolutely see plugging the deck into a regular old monitor and just getting by with that. For long term spending the same money you’d spend on the LapDock on an actual laptop (new or used) and installing a full fledged Linux distribution would result in something way more functional. Then when you want to game you pull out the deck, and you have a normal laptop you can use for other purposes, with actual portability if you need it.
If you need Windows for your use case, the actual laptop option is probably even more compelling, as it would likely just work right out of the box, with zero configuration required.

I use my NexDock + SteamDeck when traveling and LAN parties. It works fine, a little clunky. I haven't tried resolutions above 1080p, but as long as you're not trying to play AAA games, I don't see it being an issue. Personally I would go with the external monitor. The Nexdock keyboard and mouse is horrendous.
- I don't intend to do any gaming on an external monitor I think. Even if I do I think I'll be happy enough with FSR!
  You don't seem to be alone in disliking the build quality of the NexDock. I wish more people had input to the UPerfect devices but their displays seem good. I've heard of more "proper" display brands doing some portable displays too that I can look into to get a bit more reliable warranty and such.
  Have you found yourself preferring using an external keyboard and mouse with the NexDock? That would probably be the biggest downside to the solution of using the monitor only solution. Having to chuck with me a Bluetooth KB+M.
  I'm glad for your input tho, helps a ton!
  
  I pretty much always use an external mouse with my NexDock, cause the touchpad is pretty unusable imo. The keyboard is.. okay. I wouldn't really have a good place to put an external keyboard without pushing the nexdock screen too far back.
  My NexDock doesn't charge the steamdeck fast enough with the single cable solution, so I end up using a USB-c hub and power it separately which makes it extremely clunky. You end up with: 2x usb-c cables for power, usb-c hub, hdmi cable, usb cable to nexdock<-> steamdeck. You can get it down to 1x usb-c cable for charging if you alternate between the charging the steamdeck and the nexdock.

I'm sure it's sufficient in a pinch but if you're considering one with the specific purpose of being a laptop it's probably better to just get an actual laptop

I was considering something like this for work. One downside of this approach is that you'll be carrying more weight; with the NexDock it's going to be a 1.6-1.7kg affair for a 13.3" notebook.
Also if you're going to be doing photography, what software are you going to run on the Steam Deck?
- Yes please consider the software, not just the form factor. Because SteamOS is Linux there is no Photoshop and Lightroom. There is however Gimp and Darktable (and Krita) which may or may not fit your needs.
  Also you want to make sure you install desktop software as Flatpaks. Lke others have said, the root filesystem is read-only, and pacman repositories are old. The root filesystem gets reset on SteamOS updates, but flatpaks are installed in your home directory which persists across updates.
- For the software side of things I'm most likely going to end up dualbooting with Windows, I have a lot of experience with Linux and tried for years to go over to Linux even for my photography but a partition with Windows and some editing software will have to do!
  From what I've read the Windows experience have improved a bit so I'm thinking that'll be my "Work/School" OS and keep Steam OS for gaming, very ironic considering how it's always been reversed in the past.

I have a nexdock, and i wouldnt recommend it for colour accuracy. The speakers are a bit quiet as well. The keyboard is fine, but the touchpad is terrible. For light uni work, i think its perfect with a phone with desktop mode, and probably would be good with a steamdeck (i dont have a steamdeck, so dunno for sure). It can be annoying having something tethered to your "laptop" though, makes it a little less portable.
- Agree with all these points about the Nexdock.
  We bought a bunch of them at work to be KVM consoles for computers without network out of band management, and at that they excel.
  That said, I don't think I actually knew it had speakers, wasn't really part of my use case :)
  It also makes me wish that USB-C connectors on GPUs hadn't been such a short-term deal, the one-cable hookup is definitely a great thing.

It's a super slick idea, but before you get hung up on the resolution only being 1080p, remember the native resolution on the Steam Deck is 720p.
So they already exceed Steam Deck spec. If you need a higher resolution, then forget the docking station, the Steam Deck itself is not the answer you're looking for.
- Native on Steam Deck is 1280x800 (16:10). Pedantic, I know.
  I agree though, Steam Deck is great for games and while can be used like a laptop, I wouldn't recommend it either.
- It wouldn't be for gaming. Mostly running VMs, managing school assignments and general browsing and voice chatting. If I do end up booting up a game I wouldn't mind utilizing FSR as much as possible.
  
  Oh, I get it's not for gaming, but you're talking about needing a higher resolution and color accuracy and my point is that if that's your primary concern, the laptop dock you're connecting to is the least of your problems. :)
  The limiter on resolution is the Steam Deck, not the display you connect it to. I love running mine through a laptop dock to my 8K Samsung, but that's not going to suddenly make my Steam Deck 8K. There are limits. :)

It will work on high rez screens (I know because that is supported by KDE plasma). For color accurate work, you may have to wait until valve enables wayland on steam os or install windows on it. As for it's own screen, I am not the person you are looking for...
Maybe try a FrameWork laptop. Just as repairable (if not more) and is an actual laptop that can help you do your work. Again, I don't know if it could be color accurate enough for your work.
- I've been eyeing frameworks for some time but I can't throw down that amount of money sadly. In the future when I get a job and such it'll definitely be something I'm getting however! For now, I do want to cut down my devices, maybe skip on having to chuck along two complete computers and feel safe that if I ever mess it up I can buy a part to replace it.

It actually did replace my laptop when I got it last year. My dying, ancient laptop finally kicked it just a couple of days before the Deck arrived. I never had one iota of desire to get another laptop.
Of course our use cases are radically different, but I think that displays the versatility quite well.

I mean, yes, you could do this. Is it viable? Sort of, but only while docked - you're not going to get a lot done on the go on the deck unless you're carrying a portable monitor, mouse and keyboard and at that point you're carrying more than a laptop around.
Personally I really like my 16in screen on my work+games laptop and it has much better performance and cooling than the steam deck. If I had to pick just one it'd probably be the laptop.
But yeah, knock yourself out, it's probably a fun project if nothing else.
- I'm thinking it'll probably be way better for sustainability as well. Since I do need the performance I do and the Deck hits that performance within a good margin having to spend €12000 on a laptop with good build quality and good specs just for it to break or have some shit happen to it after the warranty is out feels like shit. So I'm thinking because the setup is semi-modular and each of the part of the setup isn't super expensive it can still be worth it in the long-ish run. My steam deck break? I buy a new part from ifixit. The monitor breaks? Worst case scenario I can get a new one and possibly an upgrade since this market is new and moving. Keyboard and mouse breaks? Easy to replace that too.
  Downside of course being the clunkiness of having to carry around all that and the time spent setting it up rather than just getting the laptop up and fold it up.

46 comments