I was watching this video the other day and our friend Bob made a comment about the steamdecks trackpads, essentially calling the bad. I want to know what the community thinks.
For me, they are a game changer. They are not the best implemented trackpads I’ve ever seen but on a handheld it made a world of difference setting up any desktop software like emudeck, and any of the associated emulators. Civ games in my opinion are easier to navigate and I would be hard pressed to try to play any type of RTS game without them. Not to mention that after a year of having the Deck, I just learned how to comfortably type with them. I’ve bound them to be a radial dial of tools within games and with the desktop mode.
This morning I heard of the Aya Neo Kun, a 75 watt hour x86 handheld with trackpads. Outside the GDP WIN 4 with it’s physical keyboard this is the only other x86 handheld I think I could consider using. I believe its physical trackpads would help me navigate the nightmare that is windows 11. I will always prefer a mouse and keyboard but on the go, they’ve been a handy tool to getting things done.
Love em, hate em, or just don’t care about em, I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts.
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They are amazing. Especially when utilizing desktop mode. I love them
I don’t have a deck yet, but I do have a steam controller… which has track-paddish elements. I can’t speak to the quality or ergonomics of the pads on the deck, but the steam controller’s pads are game-changing in terms of being able to interact with mouse-driven games with poor controller support. Part of why my eye is on the deck is to have a system with that kind of support.
Recently got a TV put up and I tried playing escape simulator with an Xbox controller. It was the first time I really wished I owned a steam controller. The maps have a lot of different things and ways to interact with them. I find pads make it easier to rotate objects.
I’m happy the deck has them. I use them in FPS and some other genres and couldn’t imagine playing those without them, being a former PC only player. Coupled with gyro, it is a great experience.
It’s great that it has them but I never use them. I just don’t play those types of games.
Depends on the game, but I definitely make use of them. Last game I’ve used them almost exclusively was Inscryption.
Inscription? That’s cool, I would have never thought to use them for a card game.
Inscryption has a some puzzle room aspects as well, where you need to click around the screen using a mouse.
Any gaming pc handheld without trackpads are DoA in my opinion. You simply can’t use the desktop interface without them
they are the ultimate Marco buttons. I think most people just think of them as two mice and that’s why they don’t get why they should use them, even in non k/m type games.
What games have you been playing on your deck? Recently got Grounded on the sale. Hoping to tweak the trackpad to pull up the radial menu faster. Games a lot of fun with friends, but combat it slower when pulling up the radial menu doesn’t go away until you’ve select something.
So I play a lot of games from the 90s that have no concept of a modern controller. Games like Starfleet Academy and MechWarrior 2 and those games are very single keyboard key functions. But with a little bit of trial and error i have all those functions tied to popup onscreen menus and can play handheld no problem. All i need now is a Steam Controller two because when i play docked i feel like i am missing half my controller without the track-pads.
Mech warrior 4 vegenence was my first entry in series early 2000s. This post makes me want to try out Mech Warrior 2 on the deck. Another point for steam controller. Im currently working my way through some SNES titles I missed. Playing Fall Out 1 is on my list as well and I think the track pads would be plenty usefully in that game.
I’ve found them to be very useful for games that require you to use the mouse a few times, and my God, the radial menu it can create is godlike. I also use it to activate the gyro.
They are absolutely brilliant!
Quite honestly, if there’s going to be a handheld gaming pc that will pull me away from my Steam Deck, it’ll need to have the 4 back buttons as well as the trackpads… otherwise, it’ll just feel like an inferior product for me.
Doing mouse movements with the analog stick is nearly a non-starter for me.
Trackpads are the Steamdeck’s killer feature - they elevate it to a useable device in Desktop mode and allow for so many more gametypes than just sticks and gyro.
I’m not a fan of them in general, but specifically on the Deck I’ve been using them a lot simply because it’s built for bigger hands and I struggle to consistently reach the joysticks.
