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Notes -
I might get into handheld devices about the time you can control them with a headset reading nerve impulses, and you 3d glasses with them.
Between hating bending my neck using phones and small devices not having keyboards or large screens, what kind of games can you even play on them ?
Platformers, card games, metroidvanias, Rogue likes, third person action games, driving games, etc.
What you don't want to play is high paced precision games like FPSs, MOBAs and RTSs.
I play either FPS's, quasi-simulators where memorizing the keybinds is quite a feat or strategy games, so nothing suitable for phones..
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Some games (eg Terraria) are intentionally 'game-boy esque', and work as well or better on handhelds as on desktop keyboards. That said, I've seen some people play casual levels of more complex games like MineCraft or even FFXIV on Steam Decks without too many problems -- they're not an ideal form factor, but they're still quite usable.
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I definitely hear you on the neck bending! Avoiding the dreaded back hump is something I've always fought against due to how phones and laptops tend to leave you in bad posture positions.
The steam deck can have a (less refined) switch output where you can hook it up to a monitor or TV with a dock, so I frequently use it as a more open source switch which can run all my emulators easily. It has pretty stellar bluetooth as well so you can connect any controller you'd like to it.
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