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What about a steam deck?
Potentially. We have Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, PS5, my desktop, and he wants the laptop to take to other houses and play on occasion as well.
The Deck might be a good fit.
I say this as someone who doesn't own a Steam Deck, but do understand their utility. I do own a gaming laptop, however, and believe the pros are balanced by the cons. Depending on what factors matter more will impact your choice.
Steam Decks aren't going to be able to play the latest and greatest games in good quality, but then neither will most gaming laptops. The laptop may still perform better than the Deck, but it doesn't quite have that "play literally wherever" utility that the Deck does.
The thing I often joked about with my gaming laptop is that it's not really a laptop, it's a desktop with a laptop form factor. But I do mean that seriously—if I tried to play games with it on my lap, I would literally burn my legs. And because it runs so hot, I have to keep it on a separate cooling pad to help regulate its temperature over longer play sessions. It also can't go more than an hour on battery without dying. All that means that it's honestly a pain to move, because I need to bring the laptop plus cooling pad and power cables for both.
And all that being said, gaming laptops today are really cheapening out on build quality. I had to RMA my first laptop from MSI because it melted the thin membrane below the keyboard and keys started sticking. All the manufacturers are cutting corners these days, so it's hard to find a gaming laptop where the expectation is that it still works after 5 years.
If the kid still needs a computer for schoolwork and such, a gaming laptop would be the easy choice, and just make sure he's handling it with care when taking it to friends' houses. But if you're looking for longevity, I might recommend avoiding some of the "gamer" brands and look more at "professional" laptops that have decent hardware and are built a bit more durably, albeit at a premium price point. But if it's just a dedicated portable gaming machine he needs, I'd opt for Steam Deck or similar.
I appreciate this response. As I said in another post, the Steam Deck is intriguing! I wouldn’t mind one myself.
I do want to say that part of why a laptop is “needed” here is because he does record and edit YouTube videos of his gaming, so a Steam Deck wouldn’t allow him to do that unfortunately.
As someone who regularly plays on a Steam Deck, I almost exclusively play 2D indie games on it. 3D games (even 2D gameplay with 3D graphics) tend to have 30-40fps and go through the battery in ~2 hours. I love the thing and it works great for my needs, but it doesn't handle everything well.
Hopefully this helps add context
It has a desktop mode that would let you use it like a regular computer (Linux, that is), but I wouldn't recommend a steam deck for a kid personally. I have one and they run into some of the weirdest crap that can be frustrating to sort out, and I tinker with it intentionally, I can't imagine the shenanigans a kid could cause inadvertently.