I’ve had mine since Monday and so far I’ve been very happy with it. Because of my work schedule, I’ve probably only played about 2-4 hours but the convenience of how quickly it boots up or even just being able to pause/resume a game like on the Steam Deck has been amazing.

I got the 2TB Machine so I got the 2 extra faceplates, both are really nice and I’ve opted to go with the wooden one. All 3 (2 extras and the normal black one) feel very well built (each is slightly different due to the variation in materials) and are extremely easy to swap due to the magnets.

Setup was a bit tricky though. I’d gotten my Steam Controller when they initially came out so it was paired to my desktop PC. I tried to follow the setup video that Valve posted but even with the puck connected to my Machine, it just wouldn’t work. If I wired the controller directly to the Machine, it would work for a couple of inputs then it would stop. That being said, I plugged in an Xbox controller, which immediately worked. Then after running the various firmware updates, the Machine actually recognized that the Steam Controller wasn’t paired properly and it walked me through how to pair it with it. Since doing that, I’ve not had any issues with it and the controller has been able to turn on the Machine from sleep or even from a power off state every time I’ve tried. CEC has also been hit or miss, it’s really convenient when it works but sometimes it won’t switch the input or turn off my TV after shutting down. That being said, I’m pretty sure it’s more an issue with my TV than the Machine since I’ve had similar CEC issues before.

Happy to test anything (non destructive of course) or expand on anything I’ve said if anyone is curious.