Pretty much the default for Steam Deck keyboard+mouse.

Works surprisingly well, just bind some keyboard shortcuts to the various other buttons and such.

Downside is that my right track pad is polished a little smooth in the middle. I blame the Master of Magic remake.

HODL! (For Steam sale or Humble Bundle)

My Steam Deck has largely replaced my laptop, so there is some overlap, but I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. If you are carrying a keyboard & external screen to work on spreadsheets with you Steam Deck, you would be happier with a laptop.

I have a 60% Bluetooth keyboard and a relatively compact mouse that I can carry with me, but by that point a compact laptop would be more portable with a larger screen.

Using the on screen keyboard and built-in screen to edit spreadsheets would constitute a crime against humanity. Don’t do it, there’s so much more to live for.

The reason it’s replaced my laptop is that I mostly use my laptop for gaming, and the Steam Deck excels at that. Most places I would use a laptop for something else, I have ready access to surplus keyboards and mice. At my parents there is an old TV with HDMI, and I stashed a basic USB mouse and keyboard there over a decade ago. My Steam Deck and a small hub is all I need.

Because of the need of external devices, I kind of consider the Steam Deck a combination of a handheld and a really portable desktop tower.

Over two years with mine, battery aging isn’t noticeable. I’m pretty sure when plugged in and fully charged, the Deck runs off of external power. I don’t know if it shunts around the battery or not, but it certainly isn’t cycling the battery.

I mostly use my deck in a few fixed locations, so it’s mostly plugged in.

I’ve got some “fancy” $20 headphones right now. I used to use $10 headphones from Miniso, but they only last a year before one ear bud will go dead.

I’ve had expensive headphones, and have a nice pair of Sennheisers, but really it’s cheap in ear headphones most of the time for me.

They are small, and I keep them rolled up in a little pouch with a USB drive that’s pretty much always in my pocket. They never need to be charged. The audio quality is good enough that unless I start listening to FLACC files on my SD, I’m never going to notice. Their wired, so no lag or syncing issues ever. If something happens to them, I have another $10 pair tucked in a drawer, plus I can always buy more.

The Steam Deck is portable, can’t beat wired earbuds for portability and reliability.

Also, the mic is fine. The mic is on a wire, close to my mouth. It’s simple, but it makes the audio about as good as my Sennheisers. Or at least I’ve never noticed.

Yes, but Valve just evoked a cyberdeck, OP took it the rest of the way.

I’ve got a 60% mechanical keyboard I use with my SD a lot, some street if combined carry case would be cool.

I’ve been complaining about printer support. It’s pretty much the last piece of the puzzle for a school focused SD.

Thanks to KDE on the SD, I’ve switched my main DE on my desktop. Still have a soft spot for XFCE, but KDE Plasma on the SD was polished and was very “coherent”.

One thing the SD is missing for being a complete “serious” computer is printing support. I’m sure I could it installed, the SD is eminently hackable, but a Flatpak solution or a Steam default solution would really justify using a SD in Desktop mode for school and work.

I think the Windows thing is spot on. You’re going to be using a handheld gaming device for gaming mostly (if not entirely). You don’t need to run Excel.

I think the justification for Windows on a gaming device though is kernel level anti-cheat. The problem is that you are chasing a pretty select audience. People who will play one of those games on a handheld, and will also only buy a handheld that can pay those games. Also won’t install Windows on a Deck either.

An aside, I probably use Desktop mode more than average, and I have LibreOffice installed on my deck. Jokes on Microsoft though, I’ve been using Linux primarily for ages anyways, so I don’t even need Windows for that.