The Vergecast · Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Listeners and reviewers question the value proposition of Valve's Steam Deck, with one listener arguing it's a poor deal compared to consoles or building a custom PC. Another reviewer notes it isn't 'ready out of the box' despite having redeeming qualities.
“if this was released by a Sus or whoever else besides valve, you would have torn a shred for the bad product that it is, instead of spending half the episode defending valve and looking at the product with rose tinted glasses.”
“Basically, Jude’s point is this thing is a terrible deal and you guys were far too nice to it because there's actually no one who should buy it.”
“The problem with the Steam Deck is that it is not quite ready out of the box. This is why we're giving it a six, not a seven, an eight, a nine.”