Are you, like me, still lost in the purgatory of Steam Deck pre-order? Is “after Q3 2022” an infinite void swallowing the future, with the promise of PC gaming on the go seemingly never coming? This video from DIY YouTube channel JerryRigAnything of someone being bent, burned and stabbed can give you some catharsis.
JerryRigEverything creator Zack Nelson differentiates his channel by assessing personal technology, mostly smartphones, from a sustainability angle. Nelson tests most major new releases with durability tests, including bending, scratching, and even applying an open flame to the screen.
The glove begins with a scratch test of the Deck’s screen, with Nelson using picks calibrated to Moh’s hardness scale to assess relative resistance. Surprisingly, the top-end, $650 Deck screen fares slightly worse than most devices, with its anti-reflective coating being less resistant to scratches. Something for every owner to keep an eye on.
Nelson then takes a razor to the console, demonstrating the relative robustness of the buttons and punishing the ears by highlighting the chassis, finishing by drawing a Tesla valve on the back in a cheeky pun on the device’s makers.
The channel-favorite flame test doesn’t end up causing permanent damage to the device’s screen, as it does with IPS screens, of course, but always a source of surprise to me. Nelson’s “bending test” for assessing the overall structural integrity of a device by bending it as hard as possible also doesn’t permanently damage the device. Good news for Deck owners, bad news if you were here for a spectacle.
JerryRigEverything’s sustainability tests certainly contain useful information for consumers, but I can’t help but I can’t help but also find a certain anarchic thrill in watching the technology rule our lives in this way. Doesn’t the constant buzz of social media, bad news, and spam emails make you want to break these things in half? Set them on fire? Only me?
JerryRigEverything will follow up the Deck’s destruction in the near future with a disassembly video of the allegedly repair-friendly device.