The Nintendo Switch (OLED model) wasn't the "Pro" upgrade many expected it to be with 4K support and new internals but before its announcement, other handhelds aimed to take the role of the "Switch Pro". The AYA NEO and GPD Win 3 are among those devices shooting for that nickname since they are able to run recent AAA PC games on the go, given that they are handheld gaming PCs. Their efforts and popularity, although niche, enticed companies like Lenovo and Tencent to make similar concepts or patents; indicating that these indie companies might have more serious competition in the future.

It seems like this will indeed be the case and these handheld gaming PC manufacturers will need to brace themselves as Valve is itself entering this market with a Valve-branded handheld gaming PC. This news was actually reported back in May and today we have the official confirmation. In a Steam post today, Valve revealed the Steam Deck, an AMD-based handheld gaming PC that is expected to begin shipping in December 2021 in select regions.

The software giant partnered with AMD to create a custom APU for the handheld that is said to be "optimized for handheld gaming". "It is a Zen 2 + RDNA 2 powerhouse, delivering more than enough performance to run the latest AAA games in a very efficient power envelope," reads the announcement.

It will run on SteamOS 3.0 (Arch-based) and there will be several models of the Steam Deck, which differ on the storage capacity, with the base model starting at $399. However, every model will include a microSD slot for additional storage capacity. For more details about the models available and their price, refer to the image below:

You can find additional specs details in the images below (click/tap to enlarge):

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And just like the AYA NEO and GPD Win 3, the Steam Deck will also have a dock which will be sold separately. This accessory will provide ports for external displays, wired networking, USB peripherals, and power. More details about the dock's pricing will be announced at a later date but you can find some specs details in the thumbnail below:

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Valve says that the Steam Deck will start shipping this December to the United States, Canada, the European Union and the United Kingdom, with more regions coming in 2022. However, to be able to purchase one, you will need to book a paid reservation which will let you pre-order when the time comes. This reservation fee will also count towards the Steam Deck purchase price.

"The main reason for reservations is to ensure an orderly and fair ordering process for customers when Steam Deck inventory becomes available," writes Valve in the announcement FAQ. "The additional fee gives us a clearer signal of intent to purchase, which gives us better data to balance supply chain, inventory, and regional distribution leading up to launch."

Reservations for the Steam Deck will open Friday July 16th, 10am PDT. For more details about the new handheld gaming PC, head to the source link and official Steam Deck website linked below.

Are you interested in getting one?

SOURCE
Steam Deck Official Website

 

[Xzi]

actually, scalper do are a problem
Starting today, scalpers are welcomed by Steam to create many account with different credit card each and preorder one per account
Easy for them to do that and delay all the queue for those who really wants one
Like... if you want one in 2022 Q2, you'll have to pay double or wait until like 2023

The estimates seem the same as they were yesterday. For the US, anyway. Q2 2022 for the 64GB model, and Q3 2022 for the 512GB model. I can't see the 256GB model because that's the one I reserved (Q1), but I'm guessing it's only out to Q2 right now as well.

Plus: almost everyone who wants one (and isn't a scalper) already had a Steam account with at least one purchase on it, so they didn't have to wait for that restriction to lift.

 

[ganons]

I think Valve missed a potential selling point by not making it officially user serviceable, unless it was an intentional decision to push people onto more profitable SKUs or more difficult to manufacture.

They could have even just sold 2 SKUs IMO, improving availability.

At £349 for the base SKU and officially user expandable internal storage, this would be a no brainer, where as the 256GB and to greater extent the 512GB model is a more questionable decision.

I went with the 512GB model mainly because at the time I was not aware of the M.2 slot.

I think its due to the size, the 2230 is smaller than the cheaper 2280. I'm guess space limitations.

 

[Noctosphere]

The estimates seem the same as they were yesterday. For the US, anyway. Q2 2022 for the 64GB model, and Q3 2022 for the 512GB model. I can't see the 256GB model because that's the one I reserved (Q1), but I'm guessing it's only out to Q2 right now as well.

Plus: almost everyone who wants one (and isn't a scalper) already had a Steam account with at least one purchase on it, so they didn't have to wait for that restriction to lift.

yea well, here in canada, yesterday, I preordered the 256GB one for Q2
660$ is a pretty high amount of money
Pretty sure a lot of people, even with a steam account with a lot of game on it, still hesitate on getting one (and that error will be fatal to them, because they'll be stuck with scalpers)

 

[Xzi]

This will ship with Steam OS 3...oh correction, it's version 2.999999999

Half-Life 2 confirmed.

 

[Noctosphere]

Half-Life 2.9999999 confirmed.

ftfy

 

[Xzi]

yea well, here in canada, yesterday, I preordered the 256GB one for Q2
660$ is a pretty high amount of money
Pretty sure a lot of people, even with a steam account with a lot of game on it, still hesitate on getting one (and that error will be fatal to them, because they'll be stuck with scalpers)

Oof, gaming stuff does tend to cost more in Canada for whatever reason. $529 for that same SKU here.

OTOH you get universal healthcare and probably better average/median pay, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[tech3475]

I think its due to the size, the 2230 is smaller than the cheaper 2280. I'm guess space limitations.

I’m not questioning the choice of form factor, 2230 makes sense for the size and it’s better than soldered onto the board, even if it’s a pain to replace.

 

[Noctosphere]

Oof, gaming stuff does tend to cost more in Canada for whatever reason. $529 for that same SKU here.

OTOH you get universal healthcare and probably better average/median pay, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

errr... not really
i mean, i think free healthcare is only available in Quebec afaik (luckily, thats where I live )
As for the pay, we have the same pay for the same job in usa and canada
For example, a job paid 13USD/h in usa will be paid 13CAD/h in Canada
However, electronics stuff cost about 30% more in canada compared to usa due to exchange rate, even if it should have dropped to about 20% by now

 

[mattyxarope]

errr... not really
i mean, i think free healthcare is only available in Quebec afaik (luckily, thats where I live )
As for the pay, we have the same pay for the same job in usa and canada
For example, a job paid 13USD/h in usa will be paid 13CAD/h in Canada
However, electronics stuff cost about 30% more in canada compared to usa due to exchange rate, even if it should have dropped to about 20% by now

If you live by the border surely there is some way you could order it to an address in the US and pick it up, right? Do people do that?

 

[Deleted member 514389]

I'll take DF's word:
If the devs don't stand behind this thing, it'll crash and burn..

Sure, it might be near XSS, and over the Switch spec wise...

But then again the same could be said about the Dreamcast, GC and maybe even WiiU...
But they still failed despite being at least close to their competitors in terms of "power".

Furthermore I don't feel like this thing is plug and play-able enough...
Seems like a toy for nerds and geeks...

(And let's not forget who - as per usual - made this "design" en vogue.. yep, the red giant)

Power means nothing if it isn't utilized correctly.

 

[Goku1992A]

Well people are forgetting rule #1 Scalpers would NOT EXIST if people wasn't buying them for the ridiculous prices. So the scalpers are not the problem the impatient people who are buying them for double or triple the asking price is the reason why it is like this.

I take my time I don't rush. If I can't get a PS5 this year I will get one next year or the year after next.

 

[Xzi]

I'll take DF's word:
If the devs don't stand behind this thing, it'll crash and burn..

GabeN talked about selling millions of units, I don't expect Valve to abandon this for a long time, if ever. But frankly, even if they did it wouldn't matter for a lot of us. This is a full-fledged PC, you aren't in any sort of walled garden.

Sure, it might be near XSS, and over the Switch spec wise...

But then again the same could be said about the Dreamcast, GC and maybe even WiiU...
But they still failed despite being at least close to their competitors in terms of "power".

Every one of these is a console, not a PC. And there is no real "failure point" for Valve here, their profits will be stellar with Steam alone no matter what. They're just trying to get more manufacturers and more users into the PC gaming ecosystem, and adding a portable option is a great way to do that.

Furthermore I don't feel like this thing is plug and play-able enough...
Seems like a toy for nerds and geeks...

SteamOS' UX doesn't look much more complicated than Switch's. And people who never want to see the desktop environment don't have to. This can definitely be used just like a "Switch Pro," but it also has so much more functionality for advanced users.

(And let's not forget who - as per usual - made this "design" en vogue.. yep, the red giant)

Who cares? I'm just glad Valve is willing to take a loss on the hardware, where Nintendo was not. We definitely need more competition in that space.

Power means nothing if it isn't utilized correctly.

The utilization is up to the user. You can underclock or overclock, undervolt or overvolt, whatever the hell you like. And an AMD APU is obviously a great choice, since next-gen consoles are also using AMD APUs.

 

[machomuu]

This IS a better competitor in comparison to other PC handheld devices which can be twice or more expensive and don't provide this much performance to cost ratio.

Well duh but that's not what I'm referring to.

We've had handheld computers for years but this is the first time it hasn't been a niche release. This is making waves and a big part of what comes with that is companies scrambling to meet it, especially in the advent of the OLED's announcement. They're gonna come out of the woodwork and I'd be incredibly surprised if capable hands didn't end up making something better at more competitive prices.

 

[Paolosworld]

Am i the only one seeing a huge issue here? switch already has storage issues and switch games are bare bones and compressed so that they are minimum in size, this thing runs pc games, pc games are not compressed and have loads of modes and settings to tweak so are people expecting to uninstall 100+gb games on this? will they keep installing and deleting games all the time? because sd cards are extremely expensive even the ones at 512gb and they cant hold that many pc games at all.

So for me this will be a huge damn issue, and if you decide you want to play another game and need to install 150gb from a random network when away from home you will be disappointed on the time you will take or before battery runs out, i mean i see most people will only keep like 1 or 2 games installed or just waste a crap ton of money on sd cards to carry around.

A lot of AAA stuff doesn't seem viable on here at all, nowadays 30gb is considered small on steam.
Not to mention the low battery on high intensity stuff too.

Got forbid someone tries to play cod on this

 

[Kioku]

I'll take DF's word:
If the devs don't stand behind this thing, it'll crash and burn..

Sure, it might be near XSS, and over the Switch spec wise...

But then again the same could be said about the Dreamcast, GC and maybe even WiiU...
But they still failed despite being at least close to their competitors in terms of "power".

Furthermore I don't feel like this thing is plug and play-able enough...
Seems like a toy for nerds and geeks...

(And let's not forget who - as per usual - made this "design" en vogue.. yep, the red giant)

Power means nothing if it isn't utilized correctly.

O
So, you're pretty ignorant on this then? I'm not going to pick apart your post, like @Xzi. I'll just keep it short. This design isn't Nintendo's. They weren't the first to create it. By any margin.

This also isn't a console. Devs are "supporting it" by optimizing their games and releasing them to the PC Game stores. They don't have to specifically come out with "Steam Deck Exclusive!". Seems weird.

Lastly, "nerds and geeks". If that isn't a shallow attempt at a subtle insult, I don't know what is.

 

[Rahkeesh]

Yeah there's been a lot of misframing this thing as a console. Maybe that's even partly valve's fault. But this is the Index mark 2. It's meant to lead the way to encourage more mainstream PC manufacturers than rando chinese startupts to get into handheld gaming PCs. They are really leaning more into proton this time than expecting devs to show up on linux.

Gabe talking about "millions" is technically the same range as fail consoles like the dreamcast and wii u but again this isn't a console, it doesn't have exclusive games, and its specced to handle 8th gen at 800p well so it doesn't really need optimizing to work beyond some proton config. As the 9th gen marches on this is more a way to play last-gen AAA and contemporary indies, so like half the value of the Switch except you don't have to wait for whatever dev to port these games, they will just be there already by virtue of being on Steam.

 

[Xzi]

Yeah there's been a lot of misframing this thing as a console. Maybe that's even partly valve's fault.

Not at all. This very post calls it a "handheld gaming PC." But in some ways, this is a first of its kind, so people are having trouble wrapping their heads around the fact that it is a fully open device. Especially given that a gaming laptop with similar specs would cost at least twice what Valve is asking for Steam Deck.

 

[Kioku]

Not at all. This very post calls it a "handheld gaming PC." But in some ways, this is a first of its kind, so people are having trouble wrapping their heads around the fact that it is a fully open device. Especially given that a gaming laptop with similar specs would cost at least twice what Valve is asking for Steam Deck.

Even IGN correctly labeled it as a PC. FRIGGING IGN!!

 

[tpax]

Actually, those aren't the real scalpers
Scalpers usually buy ALL the stuff to resell at gold price
Those are just the people who sell their unique preorder

Scalpers haven't started yet to buy ALL the stuff
Right now, you have to had bought a game before june 2021 to be able to preorder one, so scalpers will be limited to one per account with a game bought before june 2021, so that limit considerably their possibility to buy more than one

Later today, they'll be able to buy one per any account, even if they dont have any game on it.
But yea, those scalper you see on ebay arent real scalper, just random people selling their unique preorder, they don't have many preorder like regular scalpers

Selling pre-orders for astronomical prices is still scalping. Those were not regular users selling their reservations, since some of the eBay listings had like "10 items available" behind a single listing. Professional scalpers somehow were good prepared for Valve's terms on how you could pre-order a Deck. Fortunately, eBay banned all those listings as of yesterday.

 

[ertaboy356b]

O
So, you're pretty ignorant on this then? I'm not going to pick apart your post, like @Xzi. I'll just keep it short. This design isn't Nintendo's. They weren't the first to create it. By any margin.

This also isn't a console. Devs are "supporting it" by optimizing their games and releasing them to the PC Game stores. They don't have to specifically come out with "Steam Deck Exclusive!". Seems weird.

Lastly, "nerds and geeks". If that isn't a shallow attempt at a subtle insult, I don't know what is.

Unfortunately, the Steam Deck is running on a compatibility layer which is Proton and Proton does not run games perfectly as opposed to when running on a Windows machine. Unless you grandma and her dog knows how to install Windows, this handheld will massively require a Steam Deck optimized support from devs.