Steam Deck vs Switch – Comprehensive Comparison

Nintendo Switch is, for all intents and purposes, the most popular modern handheld. Nothing can really change this fact but it's also a simple fact that Valve managed to revolutionize the PC gaming handheld niche on top of that. The Steam Deck, then, won't ever be more popular or successful than the Switch, but it did satisfy a slightly different audience than the Switch could, and so the comparisons were born.

Now, due to the Switch's aforementioned ubiquity, any new handheld was always going to get compared to it. That's what we're here to do today, focusing mainly on the purpose of the handheld you may be deciding between.

While the Deck and the Switch are comparable on a surface level, the two do serve slightly (albeit meaningfully) different purposes, and that's what you'll learn about down below.

READ MORE: How to Play PC Game Pass on the Deck? All You Need to Know!

Steam Deck vs Nintendo Switch - A Practical Look

Whether you're interested in the LCD or the OLED Steam Deck, the most important bit to understand here is that you're really buying a Linux PC with a veneer of console gaming applied on top. In the case of the Switch, on the other hand, you're buying a genuine console, with all the pros and cons that includes.

It's important to drive right off the bat that the Deck won't be a perfect fit for all players in much the same way that the Switch won't be. Some of us lean more heavily towards the fiddly openness of PC gaming, while others prefer a more curated and limited experience that's part-and-parcel when you buy a Nintendo console. That's just how it is! Let's get right down into the nitty-gritty of it.

The Steam Deck Experience

The Steam Deck is an immensely powerful PC handheld. It is, coincidentally, also a fairly janky device that is - sooner or later - going to make its user have to work to get the experience back up to par.

Full disclosure, though - I personally love this thing to bits. If you're a PC gamer, the Steam Deck is way easier to manage and contend with than your Windows PC. We've already gone over the many, many boons of Valve's gaming OS here at 2Game, and they all apply still. Can you make the most out of these features, though?

So, if you're joining the Deck crew after having ample experience in gaming on PC, you'll have a grand old time. The issue comes from the opposite situation: if you're joining the Deck crew after having only experienced gaming on a console, you'll have to contend with the type of problems you generally have no experience with. Further, the Deck allows you to try to play anything you want, and then it might not run or might run horrifically poorly, and you just get to accept that.

One of the biggest boons, by far, is that the Deck allows you to play all of your PC games. There's no concept of a game generation as far as the Deck is concerned: whether you'd like to try playing an obscure indie title from the early aughts or, say, give the latest AAAs a shot - you can. This also means you can save lots of money by buying your games on Steam/PC in general, using retailers such as 2Game!

When you pick the Deck up, you immediately feel its heft but it's also more comfortable to hold. So, it's a toss-up in that regard.

The Nintendo Switch Experience

Nintendo Switch is, at its core, an impressively closed-down early 2010s Android tablet. That is what it is, in the most reductive sense possible. It being closed-down and under control by Nintendo, however, means it's a fixed system (aside from the OLED upgrade, which we recommend) that will always reliably deliver precisely the sort of experience Nintendo wants you to have.

Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily, as you get to enjoy phenomenal Nintendo exclusives at a reasonably well-paced 30 FPS... and that's it. The Switch doesn't let you do much with it at all outside of playing games, and that's perfectly fine. Many of us don't need their handheld to do anything and everything, and the Switch does one thing only: play games.

The issue with not allowing you any tuning at all is that you get third-party titles such as The Outer Worlds, which is a pain to play on the Switch. Or Mortal Kombat 11. Or Ark: Survival Evolved. Or Crysis Remastered. You get the point, and Digital Foundry has driven it home time and again: the Switch is a massively underpowered device and no amount of optimization will help in some cases.

There's also the fact that Nintendo Switch games - especially first-party titles - often cost a lot more than their PC counterparts, and you've got no access to retailer sites such as 2Game to help you out on that front.

Ergonomically, the Switch is a lighter but less confortable device to hold, which could go either way depending on your preference.

How Do You Choose?

In the end, it all boils down to a simple equation. You should get the Steam Deck if you're okay with having to do more leg-work to get the most out of your handheld. Make no mistake - this device is way more powerful than the Switch, but that might not be the experience you get out of it by default. You will need to learn how to put the right frame-rate cap into place, how to optimize the Deck's power output, and which games work well on it and which ones do not.

Can you get a superior playing experience from the Deck than you would from the Switch? Oh, without the faintest sliver of a doubt! You will need to work for it, though, and if you're not keen on that, the Steam Deck might leave you in a sour mood.

On the flip side, you should get the Nintendo Switch (or its inevitable follow-up, cough cough) if you want a no-frills, no-customization gaming experience. With the Switch, you're getting one thing and one thing only, and that's games - often at subpar performance and with fewer visual frills, but it will work and it will generally be playable.

If you're simply hoping to get a pick-up-and-play experience out of your handheld and you have absolutely no interest in changing up your games' visual and performance targets, there's no beating the Switch.

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