I managed to get my hands on a Steam Deck OLED 1TB model just before they went out of stock, and to cut to the chase, I am VERY glad I went ahead and bought one when I did. I am practically addicted to this thing, it has replaced all of my other systems (XBOX Series X, PS5, and Switch) since I got it. I have always wanted to get into PC gaming because of the freedoms that comes with it, as well as the Steam sales, and the Steam Deck was (and still technically is, for now) the cheapest gateway. It may not be the most powerful PC, or even the most powerful handheld PC, but for whatever you're getting, I'd say it is more than worth it. Before I got my hands on the Steam Deck, my Steam library was just a limited selection of maybe 20 games that could all be played on the lowest of low-end laptops. Now, I am at a little over 100 games thanks to Steam sales, all of which I was able to get running at acceptional to exceptional performances. 6th & 7th Gen games have never looked better in my eyes, all since I've been playing on console for as long as I can remember. 8th Gen games run surprisingly well without too much compromise (depending on the game), and that was the biggest surprise for me personally. Current Gen games are a different story, as I only have a couple of them and I was VERY careful with what I bought. I didn't want to buy a game and it turned out to not work on the Deck very well. The most power intensive games in my library would have to be Baldur's Gate 3 and Halo Infinite. BG3 runs pretty damn well, especially since Larian updated the game for Steam Deck compatibility not too long ago. Halo Infinite was rough to get running at first, but eventually I got it running at 60 FPS with low settings. Even with low settings, the game still looks good, but that may just be because it's on a handheld (you tend to notice that games running on a smaller screen appear better than it actually is). The biggest standout of the Steam Deck is the freedom, and that cannot go understated. Most PC gamers would probably be familiar already, but as someone who got into PC gaming with this thing, the freedoms that come with it are a breath of fresh air. I can make tweaks, enhancements, and install pretty much any mod I want into almost any game in my library. That comes in handy with games that had botched PC ports that the community had to fix themselves, or games like Skyrim which have mods that you can only play with on PC. I still have a lot more games I want to get for this thing, I have the external dock coming in tomorrow as of posting this, I plan to get a screen protector next chance I get, and I am hopeful that I will have more fun with this thing for years to come...

As someone who used the Steam Deck as a gateway into PC gaming, this is how I feel...