Yesterday, the folks over at Valve revealed their new handheld PC called the Steam Deck. This is Valve’s PC gaming, Linux-powered answer to popular & portable Nintendo Switch. It’s been previously rumored to be coming and now its finally here w/interesting timing as the OLED Switch pre-orders went live.
The Steam Deck offers a 7inch 1280 x 800 touchscreen display, powered by an AMD APU w/ quad-core Zen 2 CPU + AMD RDNA 2 graphics, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, a 40W battery capable of up to 7-8 hours of juice, and 3 storage options of 64GB eMMC, 256GB NVMe SSD, & 512GB hig-speed NVME SSD – all expandable via high-speed microSD slot.
As far as controls, you got 2 thumbsticks, 2 smaller trackpads, ABXY buttons, D-pad, a gyroscope for motion controls, 2 shoulder triggers, 4 back buttons, and built-in mics. You got an options for quick suspend/resume that puts your device into sleep mode & pick up where you left off built into SteamOS.
Being a handheld Linux computer, you’ll be able to plug in a mouse, keyboard, & monitor as well as install other game stores, surf the web, & more. It will also be able to replicate the Steam app to access your chats, notifications, cloud save support, library, & stream games from your gaming PC via Valve’s Remote Play feature. Valve will sell a dock similar to Nintendo’s that can plug into external displays but won’t be required to plug it into a TV though. The dock will be equipped w/ USB-C + USB ports, HDMI, Ethernet, & Bluetooth connectivity.
The Steam Deck is due out this December in the US, Canada, EU, & the UK w/ other regions coming in 2022. The 64GB model will cost you at $399, the 256GB goes for $529, & the 512GB will set you back $649. Pre-orders kick off today at 1PM EST.
