Valve has announced the Steam Deck, a handheld gaming PC that runs your entire Steam library and starts at just $399. Steam Deck starts shipping December 2021 to the United States, Canada, European Union, and the United Kingdom. More regions coming in 2022.
The Steam Deck has a form factor similar to that of a slightly larger Nintendo Switch but with the capabilities of a full gaming PC. It runs a modified version of Valve’s SteamOS, complete with a new console-like interface for easy navigation of both the Steam store and your Steam library, but it also provides access to an unrestricted computer desktop where any third-party applications can be installed (including non-Steam games or launchers).
The Steam Deck has a 7-inch, 1280x800 resolution, 60hz LCD screen, a custom AMD APU featuring a 4-core, 8-thread CPU paired with 8 RDNA 2 compute units for the GPU, and 16 GBs of LPDDR5 RAM. Practically speaking, that makes it a substantial amount stronger than the Switch, allowing it to run modern games impressively well.
If you’re in one of the regions that the Steam Deck will launch in you can Wishlist the device now. For the rest of the world, all we can do at the moment is set a reminder to be advised when it will be available in our region.
Get all the technical specs and other details on the official Steam Deck site:
Being a Switch Lite owner that has primarily played games on it that are available on Steam as well (due to the ridiculous regional pricing for Nintendo games), I can back this. The moment Amazon starts selling them, I’ll most likely place an order. Local pricing for the $399 option wil probably be around R8000, with shipping and taxes included. It makes it not much more expensive than a Switch, with arguably better “switchability”.
I wonder if Valve will ever do Regional Pricing How does the base price compare to a Switch? $399 is about R5900. If I had that sort of money, and as much as I want one of these, I would rather put it towards upgrades for the desktop. The other two cost ~R7800 and ~R9600.
I’ve never cared enough for modern handhelds, but… lately I’ve been streaming games to the iPad and lammin in bed farming borderlands 3 bosses and force pushing storm troopers off of cliffs So I guess, this might be a good fit for me. But alas, america doesn’t give a flying fuck about africa, unless they’re raping our resources.
Steam Deck will go on sale starting on 25 February, with the first batch of handhelds set to ship from 28 February. In a blog post, Steam says customers will begin getting invites “shortly after 10 am PT” on the 25th and will have 3 days to confirm and pay for their reserved unit.
Steam Deck starts shipping initially to the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. More regions “to follow soon”.
How does the base price compare to a Switch? $399 is about R5900. If I had that sort of money, and as much as I want one of these, I would rather put it towards upgrades for the desktop. The other two cost ~R7800 and ~R9600.
So I guess, this might be a good fit for me. But alas, america doesn’t give a flying fuck about africa, unless they’re raping our resources.
