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Valve has quietly unveiled the Steam Deck, a handheld gaming PC designed to play a vast library of AAA games directly from your Steam library. This all-in-one device promises a powerful and portable gaming experience.

Back of the Steam Deck

Valve collaborated with AMD to develop a custom APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) specifically for the Steam Deck. This APU combines a 4-core Zen 2 CPU and an AMD RDNA 2 GPU, paired with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. This powerful combination is designed to handle the demands of the latest AAA games. The Steam Deck will be available in three storage configurations: 64GB eMMC, 256GB NVMe SSD, and a high-speed 512GB NVMe SSD. Expandability is also offered via a microSD card slot.

The Steam Deck offers a comprehensive array of control options. These include two thumbsticks with capacitive touch sensors for added precision, two small trackpads, a D-pad, four face buttons (ABXY), four shoulder buttons, and four additional back buttons. This extensive control layout aims to provide a console-like experience in a handheld form factor.

A 7-inch touchscreen and a built-in gyroscope contribute to a more immersive and precise gaming experience, particularly for aiming in first-person shooters. The 40Wh battery promises several hours of continuous gameplay, and up to 7-8 hours for less demanding tasks like web browsing, game streaming, or playing 2D games.

Using the Steam Deck as a Linux desktop

Powering the Steam Deck is a new version of SteamOS, built on Linux and optimized for handheld use. Leveraging Proton compatibility layer, the Steam Deck can run Windows games without requiring developers to create specific ports.

Built on Linux, the Steam Deck functions as a mini-PC. Users can connect a mouse, keyboard, headset, and external display via the USB-C port. Installing additional software and even a full desktop environment is also possible, transforming the device into a portable computer.

The Steam Deck is slated for release in December 2021 with a starting price of $399 for the 64GB model, $529 for the 256GB model, and $649 for the 512GB model. Pre-orders will open on Saturday for Steam accounts that made a purchase before July 2021, with a limit of one unit per account.