By wololo
Valve's Steam Link is out today. Retailing at $49.99, the device is surely less expensive than the PS4 or the Xbox One. But will it deliver?
Don't be mistaken: Steam Link in itself is not a gaming device. It is just a streaming platform that connect to your actual gaming machine (an expensive PC) and streams the video directly to your TV, while sending back your local input (keyboard + mouse, or gamepad) to your gaming rig.
This means you get the power of your gaming PC directly to your living room, at minimal cost, assuming you already have the gaming PC.
The number one question with that kind of setup is the ping, or the lag between your input and the visual feedback. There’s bound to have some lag in such a setup, but early reviews say that the experience is good, as long as you use a LAN cable (not WiFi).
Gamespresso has only good things to say in that matter: “the latency is almost nonexistent.[…] Think of Steam Link as an Apple Airplay, just stable and well-functioning”. IGN rates the device 7.5/10, and say this is the “most elegant way to get your PC games onto your TV”.
Xbox One and Xbox 360 controllers are apparently supported, so if you really want to play with game pads you don’t necessarily have to buy the steam controllers. I’d personally would like to see how many games are actually playing OK with the game pads.
From your TV, you can basically control all of the options of the Steam platform, including purchasing games and downloading them. Some reviewers regret that there are no streaming services for video, however the Steam Link basically lets you mirror and control your PC entirely, meaning you can basically start your media player of choice from the TV, and watch movies or listen to music.
Reviewers on Yahoo lifestyle noted that for $49.99, you can't really go wrong with Steam Link if you have a gaming PC and are looking for ways to connect it to your TV.
What do you think? Is Steam Link going to take over the living room, making our PS4/Xbox1/Wii U obsolete? Or is it going to be some sort of failure just like Sony's PS TV? Are you interested in the product at all?
At the time of this writing, the product can be back-ordered on Amazon (temporarily out of stock but ships as soon as available)
Valve's Steam Link is out today. Retailing at $49.99, the device is surely less expensive than the PS4 or the Xbox One. But will it deliver?
Don't be mistaken: Steam Link in itself is not a gaming device. It is just a streaming platform that connect to your actual gaming machine (an expensive PC) and streams the video directly to your TV, while sending back your local input (keyboard + mouse, or gamepad) to your gaming rig.
This means you get the power of your gaming PC directly to your living room, at minimal cost, assuming you already have the gaming PC.
The number one question with that kind of setup is the ping, or the lag between your input and the visual feedback. There’s bound to have some lag in such a setup, but early reviews say that the experience is good, as long as you use a LAN cable (not WiFi).
Gamespresso has only good things to say in that matter: “the latency is almost nonexistent.[…] Think of Steam Link as an Apple Airplay, just stable and well-functioning”. IGN rates the device 7.5/10, and say this is the “most elegant way to get your PC games onto your TV”.
Xbox One and Xbox 360 controllers are apparently supported, so if you really want to play with game pads you don’t necessarily have to buy the steam controllers. I’d personally would like to see how many games are actually playing OK with the game pads.
From your TV, you can basically control all of the options of the Steam platform, including purchasing games and downloading them. Some reviewers regret that there are no streaming services for video, however the Steam Link basically lets you mirror and control your PC entirely, meaning you can basically start your media player of choice from the TV, and watch movies or listen to music.
Reviewers on Yahoo lifestyle noted that for $49.99, you can't really go wrong with Steam Link if you have a gaming PC and are looking for ways to connect it to your TV.
What do you think? Is Steam Link going to take over the living room, making our PS4/Xbox1/Wii U obsolete? Or is it going to be some sort of failure just like Sony's PS TV? Are you interested in the product at all?
At the time of this writing, the product can be back-ordered on Amazon (temporarily out of stock but ships as soon as available)
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