This Steam Deck Durability Test had me watching in horror

LOL, same! It did hurt so much to see this... well... FOR SCIENCE!
And yes, when I carry mine around, I also put it into the case! Better safe than sorry.
Just ordered a dbrand screen protector too!

Nice to see the inner things of the ABXY buttons though.


Last edited by Corben on 17 May 2022 at 3:02 pm UTC

These videos might be very good to see durability, but I find rather annoying that while this person has 2 units to destroy, and make money out of it, some of us will still have to wait a few months to play with it.

EDIT: It seems they only break 1, but still.


Last edited by Arehandoro on 17 May 2022 at 3:13 pm UTC

Spoilers for the video, but:

I'm surprised how well this held up! The scratches on the screen weren't apparent until super wide viewing angles, 20 seconds exposed to FIRE and the screen recovered, and not a single crack while flexing the device?! I was seriously sweating when he started pulling but it flexed right back. Valve really built these things to last!

It's sad to see people deliberately destroying their own Steam Deck when I didn't even got e-mail for mine.

I suppose at least some of the parts are replaceable but I don't know what the purpose of scratching everywhere was. It's obviously all the same material (e.g. he could have just scored the back and made his point). Knowing that the buttons won't wear out and that some are covered with stickers is actually useful information, but defacing it and making instant e-waste seemed pointless.

I guess no one here ever watched his videos seeing the reactions.

yeah he definitely has a place in hell now :).

Just that thumbnail has me wincing—since I don't feel like watching the video, anyone want to spoil it: is the upgraded glass worth it?

Ya'll this is his job and he got them either as review units or bought them off of people. Calm down, it's mass produced consumer hardware. While it's meaningful for the proliferation of Linux, it's best to not be so invested in a product made by a multi-billion dollar corporation. (I couldn't make it through the first 5 minutes to be perfectly honest.)


Last edited by TrainDoc on 18 May 2022 at 6:56 am UTC

I'm sorry but that's not a durability test. Never in day to day use would you put a cutter to it and start hacking away. That video is part of a niche segment on youtube that revolves around destroying popular objects/devices. The cringe element is intended and it drives views. Nobody watches that for the "durability" aspect.


Last edited by devland on 17 May 2022 at 8:02 pm UTC

My eyes

I suppose at least some of the parts are replaceable but I don't know what the purpose of scratching everywhere was. It's obviously all the same material (e.g. he could have just scored the back and made his point). Knowing that the buttons won't wear out and that some are covered with stickers is actually useful information, but defacing it and making instant e-waste seemed pointless.

His entire channel is dedicated to testing whether or not devices will fall apart, scratch, etc. I couldn't watch this one past him taking out the razor blade and scratching the case up...

I watched the one where he did his tests on the Samsung S8 Ultra (which is currently about as unobtainium as the Deck) and it was a horror show.. but it did show that it doesn't bend as easily as you'd think it would, and it 'bit' his finger tips when he tried!

The worst part of the video for me was watching him put his thumb in the path of the razor blade. He was just asking to badly cut himself!

Never in day to day use would you put a cutter to it and start hacking away.

That's not how hacking works?!



... on a more serious note, I've got to agree with those questioning the point of the video.
Some of these "tests" go way beyond strong usage/dropping/scratching testing. Might as well have gone for a "Will it Blend?"
Seems a bit tone deaf to waste a unit apparently so many people are waiting for.


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 18 May 2022 at 6:46 am UTC

Wow people get up set over this - please remember, this is to simulate long time careless use to see how the device hold up after you stopped being super care full with it - accidentally sat on it / stuck it in a bag with random cables, etc.

There is usually also a segment about taking apart the devices, guessing he skipped that here because valve already has it covered.


I Must it held up a lot better than I thought it would and most of damaged parts are user replaceble, at this price point I pretty much expected the device to just disintegrate

That was difficult to watch 😭

Valve already did all these tests themselves. I mean what do people expect to happen? your gonna break it obviously! THE REAL TEST is reliability over time, such as thumb stick drift etc... who accidentally cuts their deck in half ever?

Huh. When I saw the headline, I assumed he'd have some way to simulate lots and lots of hard use--some way to do thousands upon thousands of hard "steer left" moments in a short time, sort of thing. From the comments, I'm guessing that wasn't what was happening.

That said, this isn't entirely pointless. Take for instance my laptop. I have a laptop with an SSD and a metal shell, precisely because I tend to clumsily drop it or knock it off the wide flat chair arm I often put it on, and I wanted something that would not die when that happened. The metal at one corner in particular is now rather crumpled, but that doesn't seem to have done anything except made charging a little fiddly. So yes, it's useful to me to know how equipment will take being dropped from waist height, for instance. Still . . . I'm not gonna be watching this.

Huh. When I saw the headline, I assumed he'd have some way to simulate lots and lots of hard use--some way to do thousands upon thousands of hard "steer left" moments in a short time, sort of thing. From the comments, I'm guessing that wasn't what was happening.

That said, this isn't entirely pointless. Take for instance my laptop. I have a laptop with an SSD and a metal shell, precisely because I tend to clumsily drop it or knock it off the wide flat chair arm I often put it on, and I wanted something that would not die when that happened. The metal at one corner in particular is now rather crumpled, but that doesn't seem to have done anything except made charging a little fiddly. So yes, it's useful to me to know how equipment will take being dropped from waist height, for instance. Still . . . I'm not gonna be watching this.

Gravity is so weird some times. I dropped a tank of a LCD monitor once when I was trying to move it. It hit just right and it crumpled like if I were punched in the gut by Tyson... Shame too, as it was a pretty decent monitor that supported 15khz.

The worst part of the video for me was watching him put his thumb in the path of the razor blade. He was just asking to badly cut himself!

Ha, the one I watched of the S8 Ultra+ tablet... he flexed it and the case came apart just enough on the edges to snag the skin on his thumbs and bite him. It struck back from the abuse!