After years of handheld gaming PCs like the Aya Neo coming out of the woodwork, Valve has thrown its hat in the ring with the Steam Deck, hitting shelves in December. There are three models to choose from ranging between $399 and $649, all of which take design cues from the Nintendo Switch.
Under the hood, it’s powered by a custom AMD APU combining the Zen 2 and RDNA 2 platforms – the latter being the same architecture found on team red’s best graphics card. While Valve hasn’t been forthcoming with benchmarks, it claims it has “more than enough performance to run the latest AAA games”. And, with the purchase of an additional dock, you can use it just like you would a normal computer, plugged into a keyboard, mouse, and monitor on the best gaming desk.
It comes with the new SteamOS 3 Linux-based operating system, but you’ll be able to install Windows to the device for compatibility with more of the best PC games. However, Proton compatibility has dramatically improved to the point that you probably won’t need to.
Here’s all we know about the Steam Deck:
Steam Deck release date
Valve’s handheld gaming PC was initially scheduled to begin shipping in December this year, but supply chain issues have forced the Steam Deck release date back to February 2022. Thankfully, Valve recently stated that the company remains confident the Steam Deck is safe from any further delays.
You can still reserve one of the three models for a small fee of $5 / £4. Once stock of the device is available, Valve will then send out notifications to those who have reserved a model to purchase.
Steam Deck price
Three modles of the Steam Deck are available, with slightly varied specs but widely different prices. The base model will set you back $399 / £349, and comes with 64GB of eMMC storage. For $529 / £459, you can upgrade to a Steam Deck with 256GB of NVMe storage that also comes with an exclusive Steam community profile bundle.
This most-expensive $649 / £569 512GB model’s screen uses a premium anti-glare etched glass, which could make it a better choice for outdoor play. It also comes with a slightly more boujie carrying case, but comes in the same retail packaging (complete with Portal Easter eggs).
Steam Deck specs
No matter which model you go for, you’ll be getting the same performance inside games. The APU includes a quad-core, eight thread AMD Zen 2 CPU running at a base clock of 2.4GHz and a 3.5GHz boost clock, along with an RDNA 2 GPU chip. There’s also 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, which should future-proof the device nicely.
It uses a 7-inch IPS touchscreen with a 1280×800 resolution and a maximum refresh rate of 60Hz. While colours won’t pop as much as the panel on the Switch OLED, the Deck should still boast great viewing angles. A peak brightness of 400 nits should be great for outdoor gaming, as the Switch Lite performs well with at just 380 nits.
It features all the buttons you’d expect to find on the best PC controller, along with a gyroscope and two track pads. You’ll also be able to easily upgrade any Steam Deck’s storage with a microSD card, which will be a necessity on the 64GB model as the OS will take up 15% of its internal storage.
Steam Deck performance
The Steam Deck’s 1.6 teraflop GPU puts it somewhere between an Xbox One S and PS4. This might not sound impressive, until you realise that Valve’s handheld gaming PC could make use of AMD FSR to boost fps and is much more portable than any console bar the Nintendo Switch.
We know that Valve’s handheld gaming PC is capable of running hallmark titles from the previous console generation, like Horizon Zero Dawn. Although, given the strength of its hardware, it’s likely we won’t be running many games at maximum or too high a setting.
Despite the Deck’s relatively low 15W power consumption rating, Valve quotes battery life during gameplay between two and eight hours, depending on how demanding the game you’re playing is. This is quite a bit lower compared to the Nintendo Switch, which can run on battery power for between for-and-a-half to nine hours.
{“schema”:{“page”:{“content”:{“headline”:”Steam Deck – release date, price, specs, and benchmarks”,”type”:”hardware”,”category”:”gaming-hardware”},”user”:{“loginstatus”:false},”game”:{“publisher”:””,”genre”:””,”title”:”Gaming hardware”,”genres”:[]}}}}