5 Things The Steam Deck OLED Can Do That A Nintendo Switch 2 Can’t

When looking for a handheld console, you might find yourself choosing between a Steam Deck OLED and the Nintendo Switch 2. One of the biggest considerations would be the game library. While the Switch has an excellent first-party lineup, led by the likes of Super Mario, Pokémon, The Legend of Zelda, Kirby, and Donkey Kong, as well as some stellar third-party indie and AAA games, its library is a fraction of what the Steam Deck OLED offers.

Furthermore, the Steam Deck is more powerful than the Switch 2 due to having more memory and greater CPU and GPU clock speeds. Another area where the Switch 2 can’t touch the Steam Deck is in customization. The Switch 2 is a closed system, meaning you’ll have to jailbreak it if you want to customize it. But even then, the options are limited.

The Steam Deck, on the other hand, runs on the SteamOS, a Linux-based operating system. It allows you to flip to Desktop Mode to install a wide range of tools that the Switch 2 can’t. For instance, you can easily install other game launchers and emulators. You can also stream various services and even turn it into a Windows handheld. You don’t even need to mod the system to do any of this.

On the Nintendo Switch 2, you only have access to one digital storefront for all your games — the Nintendo eShop. If you are a Nintendo fan, that could be all you need, because the company does a good job ensuring there are quality games on its system. The process of releasing games on Steam isn’t as stringent as Nintendo’s, and that is why Valve’s platform sees thousands of games released every month. With over 130,000 games on Steam, it’s safe to say that you can always find something to play, but you can extend your options even further on the Steam Deck with other storefronts.

Steam doesn’t have everything. For instance, you might want to play Silent Hill 4: The Room, Star Trek: Armada 2, and Stranglehold, but the only place you can find these is on Good Old Games (GOG). There are also some new games that come exclusively to the Epic Games Store, with notable examples being Alan Wake 2 and Alan Wake Remastered (the original is available on Steam). You can install both storefronts on the Steam Deck OLED. They won’t run natively since they’re meant for Windows, so you’ll have to use a compatibility tool like the Heroic Games Launcher or Valve’s own Proton (unless you actually install Windows on your Steam Deck first — see below).

Even though you play games from the Epic Games Store on the Steam Deck OLED, you’ll run into problems when playing some online games. The biggest example is Fortnite. You can download it on the Steam Deck, but once its anti-cheat systems (e.g., Easy Anti-Cheat) detect that you’re on Linux, which they don’t support, the game will not work past a certain point. Your best bet to play Fortnite on the Steam Deck is to use another workaround, and Xbox Cloud Gaming is one of the easiest ways to do it.

To stream Fortnite, you would need to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which got a price cut in April 2026 from $29.99 to $22.99 per month. The lower-priced tiers, Essential ($9.99 per month) and Premium ($14.99 per month),  don’t have Fortnite, but you can still stream games from the massive Game Pass library and your very own. Note that you need to use a browser like Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome to start streaming games using Xbox Cloud Gaming on the Steam Deck OLED.

On the Nintendo Switch 2, you’re stuck with Nintendo’s own subscription service called Nintendo Switch Online. It’s cheaper than Game Pass, starting from $19.99 per year for the Individual plan. You can access online multiplayer, cloud saves, and select classic games (more on this later). But with Game Pass on the Steam Deck OLED, your selection of quality games expands significantly.

The Steam Deck allows you to install a wide range of emulators in Desktop Mode, such as EmuDeck, Cemu, PCSX2, and MAME. With these, you can play games not only from Nintendo consoles (NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii, 3DS, and even the Nintendo Switch). You can also download emulators for the arcade games, Sega Genesis, Sega Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, and PS3. The best part is that you don’t even need a subscription. This allows you to save by playing games you have backed up legally, with the added bonus that they will not be taken away from you. Just keep in mind that using emulators is not illegal as long as you are not playing pirated ROMs.

As of May 2026, the Nintendo Switch 2 has no publicly available jailbreak. But it’s only a matter of time before someone finds an exploit that allows them to install custom firmware (CFW) so people can run emulators. Right now, people can play retro games on the Switch 2 through the Nintendo Switch Online membership, which gives them access to over 150 classic games from consoles like the NES, SNES, N64, Game Boy, GBA, GameCube, and Sega Genesis. It’s a small library, but it’s better than risking bricking a console through unstable jailbreaks.

Consoles have become entertainment hubs, allowing you to enjoy passive entertainment during your gaming downtime. While the Steam Deck OLED has no native streaming apps, as with everything here, there is a much easier workaround thanks to its Linux-based OS. Again, this is where emulators like EmuDeck help, as they allow you to download and run ROMs for popular streaming apps like YouTube, Netflix, Crunchyroll, Prime Video, and Apple TV. From there, you can just log into your account as usual and start watching your favorite channels, movies, TV shows, and anime. If you don’t want to use EmuDeck, you can stream using a browser like Edge (recommended), Chrome, or Firefox.

On the original Nintendo Switch, you could download streaming apps such as Hulu and Crunchyroll. It even had InkPen, where you could read comic books and manga. However, Nintendo has since dropped support for all streaming and media apps on the Switch 2, making it a gaming-focused console only. There are rumors, though, that the YouTube app may be coming to the Switch 2.

Unlike the Switch 2, the Steam Deck OLED is essentially a PC, meaning you can install another operating system on it. Windows 11 is one of the best choices if you’re tired of using Heroic Games, Proton, Wine, and similar tools. Those solutions don’t always offer a seamless experience, either, so it can sometimes help to give the apps and games a native environment to run in instead of forcing them through a compatibility layer. Furthermore, with Windows 11 installed, you’ll also be able to download games on Game Pass without having to use the Xbox Cloud Gaming workaround. The best part is that you can dual-boot — it’s not a choice between Windows or SteamOS.

There’s a possibility that Windows 11 can run on the Switch 2 since it uses an ARM-based chip like the original Switch. That’s how X user @Patrosi managed to get Windows 11 ARM working on the Switch. However, they did call it the “world’s slowest PC” because every movement takes several seconds to complete. But since the Switch 2 has a more powerful processor, Windows 11 would likely run much faster. Regardless, if it ever happens, installing it would be a more involved process than doing it on the Steam Deck OLED because the Switch 2 will have to be modded. As the X user also pointed out, the process took them three hours to complete.