1.5 pounds is what the 2010 iPad weighed, people managed to use it just fine.
As for visual appeal, who knows? PC gamer aesthetics seem to be oriented around dotting your CPU case with the most gauche RGB lights Amazon dropshippers have to offer. At least this is more toned down than say, a comparable Alienware product.
As for Valve hardware, the only clear flop was Steam Machines -- which weren't Valve hardware at all.
I think it's odd to focus purely on the mass market success of Valve's actual hardware (Link, Controller, Index) since these can all be considered experiments by a company that can afford to fail, and since these have all been widely praised as the best-in-category. Clearly they know how to make great hardware; they just haven't done anything mass market yet. Who knows, maybe the disappointment with Nintendo will fuel sales for the Steam Deck.
If they keep trying, one day the stars are going to align and their hardware dream will hit, but today isn't the day. I give it 18 months to live, no chance at a v2.
I feel this device is too "on the nose" for what PC enthusiasts want. Its a Nomad, not an iPod. Its a Game Gear, not a Gameboy. Enthusiasts will just shrug at its lackluster performance and tiny screen vs just paying a bit more for a gaming laptop or desktop with several times the performance.
I also don't like the idea that if you want to play many popular games, especially those beholden to anti-cheat systems, you have to run Windows and now you have to go through the hassle of buying a Windows license and installing it on this machine. A lot of kids might be disappointed when their parents buy this and they find out they can only play stuff that works on Linux and that stuff may not include the big AAA shooters they want to play (mostly due to anti-cheat being windows only). Worse, Win10 costs $120, which is a pricey upgrade for a device that starts at $399.
I think its often in technology that the customer doesn't know what they actually want. They don't actually know how to ask to be surprised or what that surprise might be, afterall its a surprise! So they just ask for slightly better or tinier versions of the things they already own, which may or may not be the right answer.
Products that actually get successful tend to surprise and break expectations and introduce new concepts. This device just seems like its not doing any of that, but on paper its what PC enthusiasts claim they want, but I'm guessing won't actually buy. I don't know what its EOL will be, but its definitely going to be a super-super niche device, at bit like how Android tablets with things like full size USB slots were seen as potential iPad killers just a few years ago, but failed to get any real marketshare. You can still get an Android tablet, but its just a lackluster device compared to the competition and super-super niche. This device may also have a very long life as potential ammunition against Microsoft trying to seal off Windows from gaming again. It'll always be in production even as a loss because its so politically and economically important to Valve to be able to keep MS from locking them out with the MS store.
* 1.47 pounds is 666g, versus the Switch’s 398g (with Joy-Con attatched). 67% heavier.
* I do like that the two people I can see on the landing page both appear to be female, and not overtly "models" at that. I don’t want to read into whether this implies anything about what the marketing for this system might be — rather, I just like that we’re seeing a further erosion of the video-games-as-boys-club trope.
* The visual appearance of this console is brazenly ugly. It sure feels like they were unwilling to compromise something for the sake of appearance, though I’m not sure what that something is.
* They claim that there’s no performance difference between tiers, but obviously disk speed has an impact on how games perform whenever they need to fetch data. This feels like a bit of skating by on ambiguity rather than being fully forthright about tradeoffs — which only hurts since the price jump from the entry level to the middle tier is so dramatic, and we don’t yet know pricing for the dock.
* Countdown until this thing is EOL? Any bet on what the firesale will look like? No, I’m not assuming it’ll flop necessarily, we just all know Valve’s track record for being fickle about hardware.
* This really goes to show how much prowess Nintendo has at hardware, and how hard mass-market product design is. According to my napkin math, Nintendo and Valve are both in the same ballpark in terms of financial status / resources. Though if the Xbox and Surface has shown us anything, if you keep trying and trying in earnest, you’ll eventually get there.