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

 

[gamesquest1]

I wouldn't bank on it. Don't forget those conceited prick scalpers too.

I think valve have the perfect store front where they could weight pre-orders going to long time steam users or regular steam users to limit the amount scalped, sure you would need to deal with people buying just to flip, but hey ho better than 20 million dummy accounts being made spamming buy orders

all that said I doubt this will suffer the same fate as GPU/CPU scalpers, its still a fairly niche target audience, and nobody should be buying up thermally throttled devices to mine crypto on or other such nonsense

 

[64bitmodels]

I think valve have the perfect store front where they could weight pre-orders going to long time steam users or regular steam users to limit the amount scalped, sure you would need to deal with people buying just to flip, but hey ho better than 20 million dummy accounts being made spamming buy orders

all that said I doubt this will suffer the same fate as GPU/CPU scalpers, its still a fairly niche target audience, and nobody should be buying up thermally throttled devices to mine crypto on or other such nonsense

plus hardware prices are going down as we're slowly getting ourselves out of the pandemic and the semiconductor shortage

 

[the_randomizer]

I think valve have the perfect store front where they could weight pre-orders going to long time steam users or regular steam users to limit the amount scalped, sure you would need to deal with people buying just to flip, but hey ho better than 20 million dummy accounts being made spamming buy orders

all that said I doubt this will suffer the same fate as GPU/CPU scalpers, its still a fairly niche target audience, and nobody should be buying up thermally throttled devices to mine crypto on or other such nonsense

I've heard GPU prices are finally starting to stabilize a bit, so maybe it'll be fine. I already have a Series X, PS5 and PC, and it looks cool, but the price....

 

[WiiHomebrew+Snes]

Very interested to see what this thing is capable of. Especially in terms of emulation. But considering the base model is only 64 GB and not even NVME you really have to go for that 256GB model. At the very least there's SD upgradability.

 

[gamesquest1]

yeah I would personally just wait for the reviews to come in, I can't imagine there will be insurmountable demand, I'm sure maybe there will be a few weeks of scalpers hoping its the next snes mini or whatever trying to flip them for double, but that should die off pretty quickly

 

[nero99]

I'd rather get a NEO. this thing looks like a pain to play on.

 

[Xzi]

I'd rather get a NEO. this thing looks like a pain to play on.

Don't judge based on one picture. Here you go (I know, yuck IGN):



The way the back of it is contoured is almost exactly like the back of the Hori Splitpad Pro, and I know for a fact that's comfortable in my hands.

 

[diggeloid]

Very interested to see what this thing is capable of. Especially in terms of emulation. But considering the base model is only 64 GB and not even NVME you really have to go for that 256GB model. At the very least there's SD upgradability.

I have like all my Switch games on the SD card and the load times are fine (except for Pillars of Eternity, fuck that literal scam).

Obviously it depends on the game, but if Nintendo can get away with selling a 64gb Switch I'm sure this thing will do fine. If you're planning to use it as an actual PC though, then that upgraded storage is definitely a must have.

 

[64bitmodels]

how about we start a handheld pc war between the steam deck and the aya neo

 

[Xzi]

Very interested to see what this thing is capable of. Especially in terms of emulation. But considering the base model is only 64 GB and not even NVME you really have to go for that 256GB model. At the very least there's SD upgradability.

I'm probably just going to reserve the $400 model myself, being that the majority of storage space will come from mSDs anyway, and I've got a bunch of them already. Load times aren't too bad, worse than nvme by a bit, but still far better than mechanical HDDs.

Then again, I will probably have more than enough money by December to splurge a little, and not having to buy a case separately would be nice. Including the dock would've really sold me on the first upgrade tier.

 

[smf]

I've heard GPU prices are finally starting to stabilize a bit, so maybe it'll be fine.

The main thing pushing graphics card prices up was miners, but they have started dumping them on the market now that btc has crashed.

Embedded GPU did not really suffer the same issue, it was just a problem getting hold of them.

 

[krasaty]

If GBAtemp is able to do an early review or q&a with valve over this, the NVMe slot is definitely something to be looked at/asked about. Even if it's difficult to open to get to it, being able to upgrade internal storage yourself would be a must here. I can't imagine there being a difference in PCBs for 3 versions of the product. The 64gb model likely just has the emmc connected via an m.2 slot.

 

[Xzi]

I can't imagine there being a difference in PCBs for 3 versions of the product. The 64gb model likely just has the emmc connected via an m.2 slot.

"64 GB eMMC (PCIe Gen 2 x1)
256 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4)
512 GB high-speed NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4)"

So yeah I guess that would be a fair amount slower. Probably be worth getting the 256 GB model just to have the option of putting a bigger SSD in later, if nothing else.

 

[FFTfanatic]

Official FAQ session

 

[Xzi]

Official FAQ session

"The internal storage is not upgradable."

Well that's a bummer, but with a portable I shouldn't have issues making due with about 750 GB of total space anyway.

 

[gamesquest1]

Official FAQ session

ooof, come on valve, you're a PC gamer market, people want at least the most basic upgradability, sure ram when you're squishing a PC to be as small as possible is probably better fixed, but they should've found a way to make the internal storage end user replaceable (beyond a SD card), I guess the dock should allow you to have cheap huge storage, but a end user replaceable SSD would've been nice

I'm hoping it is just a standard M.2 drive inside and they just mean its not user replaceable*.......*unless you rip the console apart, although it wouldn't surprise me if they soldered it all down on the motherboard,

 

[krasaty]

"The internal storage is not upgradable."

Well that's a bummer, but with a portable I shouldn't have issues making due with about 750 GB of total space anyway.

Definitely disappointing if internal storage is truly not upgradable in any way. Hoping them saying it's not just means it's prohibitively difficult to do so though.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

"The internal storage is not upgradable."

Well that's a bummer, but with a portable I shouldn't have issues making due with about 750 GB of total space anyway.

I honestly doubt it's "not upgradeable" so much as "not recommended for the average person", it's a bog standard PC after all. Unless they do something really dumb like not include an M.2 slot and solder the storage to the board or something, there's no reason someone couldn't just tear it down and slap something in there. Whether it'll be easy to do is something else, but honestly unless they do something really stupid with the construction of the thing I expect the day it ships to anyone mildly good at DIY there will be tutorials on how to do it.

 

[FFTfanatic]

Definitely disappointing if internal storage is truly not upgradable in any way. Hoping them saying it's not just means it's prohibitively difficult to do so though.

You can be sure that even if it is possible, it will invalidate your warranty, so better to attempt once expired.

 

[Xzi]

I honestly doubt it's "not upgradeable" so much as "not recommended for the average person", it's a bog standard PC after all. Unless they do something really dumb like not include an M.2 slot and solder the storage to the board or something, there's no reason someone couldn't just tear it down and slap something in there. Whether it'll be easy to do is something else, but honestly unless they do something really stupid with the construction of the thing I expect the day it ships to anyone mildly good at DIY there will be tutorials on how to do it.

It's a PCIe Gen3 x4 slot, and it will be very interesting to see a teardown of this thing. They said everything is crammed in there very tight, so it might all be fixed to the main board.