Yes you can and it’s how I use it half the time. Keep in mind that the system is tuned to 720p/800p so you can either have the TV resolution and take a big performance hit or have it at the native resolution.
It's my only gaming system right now, although notably I'm not one of those people who thinks that anything under 4k @ 60fps is literally unplayable since I switched over from an old potato PS4 that I gave to a friend when I got the Deck, and I play on a pretty shit 720p TV too. I often play with it plugged into the TV, and use an old PS4 controller to play, and I've been prefectly happy. The quality's about the same I got on the PS4, but the library's sooo much bigger, and since it's a mobile device I can play in bed too if I feel like it.
I really like that I can play all my steam games on it. I don't have a gaming PC, but I can run anything from around the ps3 era like sleeping dogs which runs well on mine, and even newer non heavy duty games. So I do have a good 20 games I've bought over time on my library
Yeah the heavier duty stuff I play are eg. RDR2, Cyberpunk and Starfield (yeah yeah I know, I'm stupid, ugly, bad and wrong). RDR2 and Cyberpunk run just fine "out of the box" and look like the PS4 version did or even a bit better (although like I said I have a 🥔 TV), but admittedly Starfield can occasionally be an exercise in masochism. Works better than you'd expect though especially if you sacrifice more of the graphics, but it requires a bunch of fiddling with INI files because of course it does. Hilariously it looks worse than eg. RDR2 or Cyberpunk despite especially RDR2 being like 6 years old, again because of course it does.
Fantastic fucking system, really couldn't be more pleased.
You can! And you can even use PS5 (or any other bluetooth-capable) controllers with it.
We had a family night in the living room with mine, I used an xbox one X controller, wife used a dualshock 4, and kiddo used a Wii U controller (I was emulating a switch game, so the Wii U controller helped the little one a lot with the button mappings being correct on the faces).
Buy a ps5 controller to go with it so motion sensing is there (it's awesome to use in shooter games like borderlands and tomb raider).
If you don't already have a bunch of computer games and you know you'll only be playing it on the TV (which would be silly, really) I'd probably say just get a ps5, though. That or someone's used gaming computer for $500 and just hook that to the TV. If you wouldn't use it outside your living room there are better options.
And it’s gotten to a point where it’s being used as a utility computer in places, if I recall. That could’ve potentially sent sales snowballing away from typical console sale figures.
It’s a Linux machine with good cpu, 16gb of ram, KDE and you can install stuff with flatpak AND distrobox. If you have a dock, there really is no reason not to use as a normal computer.