I don’t do much handheld gaming, but I’m going to have some overseas flights and long-ish train rides later this year, and may also be having surgery that will keep me fairly bedbound for about a month. I’m just not sure how much money it’s worth spending on a deck that I likely won’t use much outside of those specific cases - I bought a switch when I got covid in 2020 and used it a ton at the time but I’ve only used it a few times since, though I miiight use a deck a bit more just because I already have a pretty extensive steam library.

Is it better to stick to the cheapest model or is there enough of a difference that it might be worth spending a little more for a nicer one?

  • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    There used to be 3 models sold:

    • 64: LCD screen, Slowest storage, no anti-reflective glass, regular battery
    • 256: LCD screen, Fast storage, no anti-reflective glass, regular battery
    • 512: LCD screen, Fast storage, anti-reflective glass, regular battery

    If your region still has the 64 or the 512 for sell they’ll be highly discounted. The 64 I think it’s not worth it, because it’s too small disk size, the 512 is what I have and I’m very happy with it.

    Currently the three models sold are:

    • 256: LCD screen, Fast storage, no anti-reflective glass, regular battery
    • 512: OLED screen, Fast storage, no anti-reflective glass, large battery
    • 1TB: OLED screen, Fast storage, anti-reflective glass, large battery

    If you don’t care about the anti reflective glass the new 512 is very tempting, 512 is more than enough and you can always put SD cards for extra games. Personally I would go for the highest one, larger internal storage is always preferable to SD cards, the anti-reflective glass is worth it and if you’re going to be travelling a lot the large battery is surely worth it. If the price is too high, the 512 is very close.

    As for the usage afterwards, my deck has seen lots of usage, the biggest problem I have with the switch is very limited game catalogue (not that they don’t offer enough games, but I have very few because they’re really expensive). If you like gaming, the deck is great because it allows you to squeeze 5min gaming sessions whenever you have free time, which a PC doesn’t because it takes 5min to open steam, open the game, load your save, etc, whereas on the deck you unlock it and you’re back where you stopped in a matter of seconds.

    • frickineh@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      I think the anti-reflective glass is very tempting. I’m not incredibly worried about the battery because basically everywhere I take it will have charging available and I don’t think I can justify the cost of the 1TB model knowing that I really prefer using my PC for gaming whenever possible (which is most of the time, for me).

      This is very helpful, thank you!

      • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        There are screen protectors with anti-reflective coating if that’s the only downside of the cheaper model.