How Do You Decide Between Steam Deck and Gaming Laptop in 2025?

[itombac 0]

I’m new to the PC gaming space (mainly a console player until now), and I’ve been doing a lot of research on portable gaming options. With the Steam Deck OLED getting great reviews and gaming laptops becoming more affordable and powerful in 2025, I’m stuck trying to decide between the two.

I’m mainly interested in playing indie games, older AAA titles, and some modding (Skyrim, Fallout, etc.). Battery life and portability are important since I travel a bit, but I also like the idea of having a bigger screen and potentially using it for other stuff like light video editing or work.

I’ve read through some performance comparisons and Reddit threads, but they often focus on one device or specific use cases. I’m curious what you all think, especially from a game compatibility and long-term maintenance perspective (driver issues, OS updates, storage upgrades, etc.).

Questions:

• How reliable is the Steam Deck for mod-heavy games?

• Are there any drawbacks to using a gaming laptop purely for gaming (e.g., bloatware, thermals)?

• Do you find game compatibility/support better on one over the other?

Appreciate any advice or personal experiences. Thanks in advance!

[mine18 2]

I don't own a steam deck, but here are my two cents on the matter

1. This depends on how mods are applied, id say generally speaking the steam deck is fine for modded games, but you may have to jump through extra hoops, games which have mod launchers (dedicated or otherwise) should work just fine 99% of the time, steam workshop is made by valve so that's fine, anything else is up in the case

2. What you mentioned are two valid concerns for gaming laptops, although thermals can also be a concern for the steam deck, If we're talking purely gaming outside of the quality of the hardware itself and it not being upgradable I don't think there's any major drawback besides IGPU/DGPU shenanigans, and the aforementioned thermals and bloatware.

3. That would depend on what you play, you can check ProtonDB for an aggreggated compatibility list for games on Linux, broadly speaking most games work fine, the only games with issues are generally games with anti-cheat because despite having linux/steam deck support for years now, most devs don't enable them out of fear of hackers, some DRM games and games which use windows stuff like Windows Media Video (WMV) for cutscenes can have issues, but again your mileage WILL vary on that one.

If you don't already have a Desktop PC for gaming, this is a 50/50 decision since laptops could be an alternative to a desktop pc, you say you move a lot so that is a valid situation but how often would you need to do work that can only be done on a PC and not your phone? Also keep in mind the weight that gaming laptops can put on your bag, which can hamper portability.

You can do some of this work on a steam deck too as long as you're patient and it doesn't need too much performance (assuming you don't mind squinting at the screen if you don't have any kind of external screen), as for me since I already own a desktop so the Steam Deck will be far more useful in it being more portable, having a more seamless experience (assuming the games work fine), and longer battery life.

Edited June 25 by mine18
acknowledged the "moving" part of the comment

[itombac 0]

Thanks a lot for the detailed insights—really appreciate you taking the time!

1. That’s a great point about modding on the Steam Deck being totally doable but sometimes requiring extra steps. I figured Steam Workshop mods would be easy, but it’s helpful to know standalone mod managers or launchers can still work with some tinkering. I’m comfortable with a little setup, especially if it means I can get something like modded Skyrim running on the go.

2. And yeah, thermals and bloatware on laptops are exactly what made me hesitate. I’ve seen some laptops in 2025 come with cleaner software installs (especially from brands like ASUS or Lenovo’s gaming lines), but the fan noise and heat during long sessions still worry me. I’d be playing plugged in a lot, but I also don’t want it to feel like I’m lugging around a mini oven.

3. The ProtonDB tip is super helpful—I’ve looked at it briefly but will dig in more seriously now that I know some of those media/codecs and anti-cheat issues can cause friction. Kind of wild that some devs still don’t toggle on the native Steam Deck support even when it’s technically available.

I don’t have a desktop yet (still in console-first mode), so I guess this is me testing the waters. The laptop would be more of an all-rounder for gaming + light work, but the portability and simplicity of the Deck is really appealing. Especially if I can dock it at home for longer sessions.

Your last point really hit the mark—if I had a gaming PC already, I think I’d lean Steam Deck without question. Since I don’t, I’m still weighing if the laptop would give me more flexibility now, even if it means less portability.

Appreciate the honest take—it helps a lot!

[emilianojay23 0]

On 6/25/2025 at 11:04 AM, itombac said:

I’m new to the PC gaming space (mainly a console player until now), and I’ve been doing a lot of research on portable gaming options. With the Steam Deck OLED getting great reviews and gaming laptops becoming more affordable and powerful in 2025, I’m stuck trying to decide between the two.

I’m mainly interested in playing indie games, older AAA titles, and some modding (Skyrim, Fallout, etc.). Battery life and portability are important since I travel a bit, but I also like the idea of having a bigger screen and potentially using it for other stuff like light video editing or work.

I’ve read through some performance comparisons and Reddit threads, but they often focus on one device or specific use cases. I’m curious what you all think, especially from a game compatibility and long-term maintenance perspective (driver issues, OS updates, storage upgrades, etc.). age of war

Questions:

• How reliable is the Steam Deck for mod-heavy games?

• Are there any drawbacks to using a gaming laptop purely for gaming (e.g., bloatware, thermals)?

• Do you find game compatibility/support better on one over the other?

Appreciate any advice or personal experiences. Thanks in advance!

The Steam Deck runs a Linux-based OS (SteamOS), but it also allows for Windows installation, which can enhance compatibility with mod-heavy games. Many popular mods for games like Skyrim and Fallout are designed for Windows, so running Windows on the Deck can alleviate some issues. Consider how you prioritize portability versus performance. If you travel a lot and want something easy to carry, the Steam Deck is a solid choice.

[Wolfinston 4]

I bought a laptop two years ago and made the terrible mistake of thinking every RTX 3050 had 8gb of vram. Wasn't until months after -yes even after the guarantee had expired-, when I noticed I couldn't play a lot of games, and won't be able to play a lot of games in the future. Doom the Dark Ages, Oblivion, Indiana Jones & The Great Circle, etc. So that's definitely something to consider when getting one; it still works for a lot of games and I've been having fun playing those though, but it also has changed my gaming habits quite a bit, I now don't necessarily prioritize the most recent releases unless I can run them in both my main rig and the laptop, for example.

When it comes to the Steam deck, I would say to wait for a bit, because it is in a similar situation, ironically the Steam deck can run Indy and, I'm assuming, it will be able to run some more games in the future thanks to more and more devs/publishers optimizing the experiences for that specific device, but you have to consider the deck is already not running a lot of games, and a lot of future games are already not considering it as an option. My guess is that Valve will eventually release a new one in a year or two.

To answer your questions specifically:

- Both the deck and the laptop work wonders for modding, perhaps the laptop offers more versatility because you're just operating with the Windows Os, although Valve's OS is also doing wonders nowadays with modding and the like.

- Thermals are an issue with laptops, some more than others (MSI!!!!) and I will tell you, I have a Lenovo laptop and there have been some games where I had to turn down the settings just to not make the laptop run as hot, this goes for higher refresh rates & framerates as well. Steam deck doesn't have this issue, you can check other handhelds and it's the same, there's a consideration to thermals and the like, my recommendation is to go on youtube to check comparisons, here's one comparing the ROG Ally with a gaming laptop from Jarrod's Tech: https://youtu.be/GWiFe9C_v9g?si=eOI_7oR4tZMAqupo&t=52

- When it comes to game compatibility, it really comes down to what you're looking for when it comes to games and what kind of laptop are you looking to get. Also, how tolerable are low settings for you? There are laptops with an RTX 4060 and 8gb of vram that can run the latests games at a mix of medium settings to low with DLSS or FSR turned to quality mode and the like, again, I recommend you to check youtube for these things, there are some great comparisons over there.

I would simply recommend you to ask yourself these questions when buying one of these devices:

- What games are you planning to play? Recent games, future games, do you replay games? Do you want to play them casually? Do you want to play them as your main rig?

- Also, how lenient are you when it comes to tweaking game settings, lowering the resolution, or playing at low fps (30fps) for example? Stuff like this matters when getting any of these devices.

- Don't make any assumptions either, research well and deep before you commit to a purchase, I bought that gaming laptop with 4gb of vram, and I can't tell you how many times I'm kicking myself over it.