I’ve been interested in getting a gaming handheld for a while so I’m seriously tempted by this thing but I don’t know if I should get the Asus Rog Ally or the Lenovo Legion GO or wait for the next gen Nintendo Switch instead?
It seems like it’s a great time for gaming handhelds and there’s a lot of competition…
Problem is that playing Overwatch on a PC handheld means there’s no aim assist whereas you can get that on the Switch so I’m leaning towards the Switch…
Mmm not sure if you already bought one in the meantime but I’ll give you my 2cents. I don’t have experience with a Steam deck or any of the other handhelds but I did bought myself one of these recently and although it doesn’t match the specs of the handhelds you mention, to me it is somewhat the same since I use it with a latest gen smartphone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEKPxmwFtx0
I tried playing T3 Arena with it, which is basically Overwatch for Android, and whilst it works flawlessly from a technical perspective, my experience is that playing a shooter on a handheld is just appalling when you’re used to a PC. I should’ve known better because I tried OW on console once at my sister’s house and hated it too. This is all personal ofcourse, you might like it but I would think twice if you consider playing Overwatch or any shooter on a handheld.
Hmm thanks my deck is arriving this week so we’ll see…
I do have a deck and tried OW on it, performancewise it’s ok after shaders are compiled (also do not install it on microsd) but sadly it sucks even with gyro aiming. It would be nice to have aim assist there but it’s never going to happen sadly 
Do you think the controls would work well enough for a character like Reinhart?
Have you tried using the trackpads to aim?
I play the Switch using a gaming handheld, but I use a controller for it. I tried with the Switch handheld but the analog kept playing up. I really do prefer PCs than handhelds for this type of game, sorry buddy.
Regards,
Versorius - Mighty Warrior
I have a steam deck OLED and Overwatch plays great on it. You obv need to compete with PC players but I feel like I’m better at the game (or I WILL be once I get more practice) on the deck than on console because of gyro aim.
The gyro on steam deck is SUPER customizable, the only flaw is that Overwatch doesn’t natively support gyro aiming, so the Steam Deck needs to convert gyro input into joystick movement, and it does it very well with the “Gyro To Joystick Camera [beta]” setting. Alternatively, you can tell the deck to convert gyro to mouse movement which is much smoother but it causes the game to rapidly switch between controller mode and mouse+keyboard mode, which causes a whole host of issues and annoyances.
In the end, I settled on the “Gyro To Joystick Camera [beta]” which despite being in beta works very well. I also turned on “Enable Angle Catch-Up” which alleviates the slowness of the gyro since it is capped at your max joystick sensitivity, which I have at 37 horizontal and 30 vertical.
I feel like gyro aim gives me flick accuracy that controller alone can’t, which means weapons like Pharah’s rocket launcher are better (although still not as good as mouse) at hitting specific spots from specific angles.
As for tanks, I don’t play Reinhardt but I have to imagine he is easy to play with or without gyro, without or without aim assist, with or without a mouse. Other tanks that require more aiming like Junker Queen or Wrecking Ball will definitely benefit from gyro aim.
Thanks buddy this is just the info I was looking for!
Have you tried using the flick stick configuration with trackpad?
I play Reinhardt almost exclusively nowadays…
The issue with Reinhardt I think is that sometimes I do need to turn more quickly than the joystick would allow for example if I need to shield something behind me…
From what I’ve heard of it flickstick might provide me decent functionality for this purpose but I don’t know if anyone’s used it in reality or if it would actually be practical!
For me gyroscope controls has never felt comfortable on any device I’ve ever used it including the Nintendo switch or my mobile phone so it’s the first thing I’ve always disabled and I can only imagine it would be even more uncomfortable on the steam deck due to the weight of the device and having to rotate it around…
Some other questions that come to mind:
How do you find the fan noise of the device when playing?
What graphics settings do you use?
What frame rate do you get?
Do you turn HDR on? How does it look?
Does the game look good on the OLED screen?
How long does the battery life last with Overwatch?
Sincerely,
hulk
Looks like this video and Reddit thread answered my questions about the performance:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/18d0q6b/psa_forget_the_screen_get_the_oled_for_battery/
Unfortunately it looks like HDR isn’t supported on the steam deck OLED…
