Running games at 800p targeting 40fps is a lot more viable than I would have expected just looking at the numbers. It looks great for a display that size and 40fps feels like it’s a lot closer to 60fps than it really is.
I get why people using it as their primary gaming device would want more power but as a secondary device for me it’s stellar.
I do this with Xbox controllers and it’s very easy. Depending on the emulator you usually have to assign which physical controller should be used for which console input. Usually this is a one time setup unless you switch back and forth a lot between the built in a Steam Deck controller and an external one.
I recommend launching the emulator from Steam when setting that up so there isn’t any confusion between connecting directly to the controllers vs using Steam Input. Once the setup is done you can launch individual ROMs directly from Steam.
You can even mix and match controllers. I’ve played Smash Bros with a mix of Xbox, GCN and PS4 controllers on the Deck.
Windows 8 was an attempt to do all that already, though I don’t know that it succeeded. My guess is that this sort of handheld will run a stripped down version of Windows running the Xbox app.
Windows is already the handheld version of Windows but it’s kind of terrible at it.
The more I learn about Valve culture the more I realize they definitely have teams just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. I bet there are some really wild prototypes that we never get to see.