u/Fecundpossum

You know, I’m not entirely certain. The American repair service is a partnered business, so I would assume it would be in valve’s best interest to partner with such companies regionally.

And if you watch some video tutorials of these repairs and feel like it’s outside of your skill level, valve’s repair service is accessible through customer support. They provide a shipping label, and when it gets there they assess the cost of repair, inform you of the cost and ask if you want it done or not. If not they’ll ship it back as is. I believe I paid about $135 USD to have buttons replaced and machine cleaned out internally. It’s an option, if you lack either the time or gumption to fix it yourself.

There’s a reason valve has an absurd amount of money.

Yes, because I also have a desktop PC, not to mention a dock for my Steam deck. Sure, I could keep using my old Xbox controller on the PC, but the Steam controller creates perfect continuity between my deck, pc, and deck docked.

Yeah, I’m not saying one plan is better than the other, just that it’s something to be aware of when making a choice. My steam deck sees a lot of travel and a lot of use, and I’ve never used a screen protector, because you’re really not supposed to with the matte screen. Haven’t noticed a scratch yet, so it works for me. The only protection I use is the tpu rubberized grip case, I think from spigen. That and the case it came in for travel.

The top end model has etched glare resistant glass on the panel, both on the old IPS displays and the newer OLED models.

My work sometimes comes with long hours of downtime in the outdoors with the sun shining, the anti glare glass is fantastic for that scenario. I know there are etched glass screen protectors, but I’ve seen one up close and didn’t look as clear as mine.

So, that’s at least one reason to go for it in my opinion.

Conversely, I have sent a steam deck in for repairs twice. The first time the shoulder button broke. They didn’t ask questions and fixed it for free. The second time I broke it, and paid for the repairs. Both times steam support was helpful and easy to deal with. I can’t recommend the steam deck enough, it’s worth every penny.