I’ve never really put a protective case on my handheld consoles (NDS, Vita, 3DS). However, the Steam Deck is more expensive and weighs much more, meaning that even a small height fall could more easily damage it.
I was thinking about the Spigen “Thin Fit Pro”, which seems to be a tad more premium than what is usually on the market. It seems to be cut out to fit in an official dock, but I have my doubts.
What’s your take on this?
Yes and no. When I got my OLED is was so light but after a JSAUX modcase, it sort of lost that feeling. That said, I’m all for protecting my devices and I have a toddler, so that’s me.
When I purchased the original Deck, I had it sitting on my desk in my garage with some headphones plugged in and my dog, who was under the desk, got up and bumped the cable with her head. The cable startled her, causing her to panic and jolt, catching the cable around her torso, and yanking the Steam deck off the desk. Dog is now in a panic as the flying Steam Deck crashes into the cement floor behind her, bouncing and skittering across the ground about 6ft or so until it came to a rest. Now, all of this happened in llike 2 seconds, so there wasn’t much I could do. It was basically new out of the box, but it took that incident without issue. That was a a few scrapes along the back/side, but no damage to anything else. Has run fine since.
All that to say that it’s tanky in its own right, but your mileage may vary. I lucked out I think, but even a case won’t save the screen from an ill placed drop onto a rock or something like that.