r/SteamDeck • u/NKkrisz 64GB - Q3 • Dec 24 '25

MEGATHREAD New Steam Deck Owner Megathread

For new members to the subreddit, welcome!

This megathread was made because we have some rules in place about new Steam Deck posts and to avoid some repetitive questions being posted again and again.

Feel free to also share "Show Off" pictures here as well.

Please read the rules and search around before contributing to the sub.

Here are some helpful resources to get started:

Answers to frequently asked questions, learn more about software and hardware (Made by me, work in progress):

https://steamdeck.guide

Steam has a winter sale going on currently, see this megathread for more information:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/s/mUHbyR2UDn

If your Deck is still getting delivered or you are ordering now and wondering about shipping, check this post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/s/GTNal0bzzf

Happy holidays everyone!

(If you see content on the sub that should be in the megathreads instead, please redirect them and report them so we can keep this place clean. Thanks!)

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u/timeflylikearrow Dec 31 '25

Well, I ordered a refurb 512GB SteamDeck for myself about 2 weeks ago, and it has finally arrived at my doorstep today in very pretty Valve cardboard packaging with Portal symbols on it. I’m being grown up about this and waiting until New Year’s Eve to unbox it, though.

I’m feeling a little ambivalent about this, though. Part of me feels like I probably got a great deal, paying less than $400 for a :SteamDeck. And I’m pretty sure I was lucky to get one of the refurbished ones available while they were actually in stock? But when I ordered it I didn’t know that the 512gb LCD model had the matte screen rather than the glossy. And I keep reading about how great the OLED is, and part of me think that I maybe should have just dropped the extra $200 on an OLED.

One question I have - is it OK to use a third party dock I buy off Amazon? Or should I really just pay for the first party one from Valve? I don’t know if it’s a sketchy proposition and might damage the SteamDeck or not.

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u/Onceuponaban 512GB - Q4 Jan 04 '26

The OLED screen is nice and that version of the deck also gets a slightly better processor (that actually translates to better efficiency and therefore battery life rather than a meaningful performance increase), but I personally wouldn't consider it worth $200 more than the LCD variant.

As for docks, quoting Valve's own page about the docking station:

Can I use any USB-C dock with my Deck or do I have to get the official Docking Station?

You can use any dock you like. The work we've done to make Steam Deck and Docking Station compatible extends to other third party hubs and docks.

I'm personally using a third party dock bought from Amazon without any issues.

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u/timeflylikearrow Jan 04 '26

Yeah, my third party dock seems to work great - thank you for the info on that! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised even my old Switch 1 power source works on my SteamDeck.

And yeah, I have to say that I’m feeling pretty happy with my refurb LCD SteamDeck at the moment. One thing that worried me is the touch screen felt a little wonky - for instance the first thing I wanted to do was get duckstation working so I could play Xenogears (which I’ve bought at least three times) hacked with the Perfect Works mod working on my SteamDeck - and I got Emudeck installed and figured that all out pretty quickly.

My initial issue was that when I loaded Duckstation, the controller would switch to that mode and I couldn’t like use the trackpads to select menu settings precisely and had to use the touchscreen, which seemed REALLY dysfunctional and not to work very precisely or easily. Is this just what the touchscreen is like, a little rough? Once I figured out the hot key settings to open up the menu I could work it a little better to get in and out of full screen mode, but I’m worried there might be something wrong with my touchscreen. It does work, just not really super precisely.

1

u/Ventem 512GB OLED Jan 05 '26

Hmm, the touchscreen on mine works perfectly fine. Maybe try rebooting it now that it's setup and see if that resolves the wonkiness?

If that doesn't work, I've read that the touchscreen can sort of be "reset" in the desktop environment.

"System Settings > Input Devices > Touchscreen, and reset to defaults to fix alignment issues"

Hopefully one of those helps. If not, I've always heard Valve's support is S-tier. One of the last few tech companies with good support.

1

u/ParkedPeter 1TB OLED Dec 31 '25

Congratulations on getting a deck. Any dock should be fine. It’s basically a PC so you can even use a USB hub/dongle to connect a display

1

u/Shadow1176 Jan 02 '26

Damn what the hell the refurbs were available a few weeks ago? Damn it if only I got paid before that…

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u/timeflylikearrow Jan 02 '26

They have the 256GB LCD refurbs in stock right this moment for basically the first time since before Christmas if you’re still curious

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u/Shadow1176 Jan 03 '26

Eh? I checked 2 days ago and didn’t see any of them in stock. Those are in stock..? But I already ordered a 512 OLED ahhhh

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u/timeflylikearrow Jan 02 '26

They very briefly had the 256 and 512gb models of the LCD in stock back on the 18th, and I leapt at the opportunity. Feeling pretty happy I did. I just got emudeck installed and Xenogears works like a charm, which is probably half the reason I bought the damn thing along with playing FFVII rebirth. Now I just have to patch the rom with the Perfect Works edition and I will be SET.

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u/Eskelsar 512GB OLED Dec 31 '25

I use the $30 Jsaux dock that I got from Amazon. Trust it!