On Thursday, Valve announced the arrival of its new handheld gaming PC – Steam Deck aka SteamPal. Starting at $399, Steam Deck handheld gaming PC can play almost any AAA titles and will ship to customers in December 2021 with preorders now available. “Steam Deck is a PC so it will give you freedom whatever you want to install or run on it,” said Erik Peterson of Valve. Meaning you can run its StreamOS version or can install Windows, Epic Game Store, etc.
Specs of Steam Deck Handheld Gaming PC
In an exclusive FAQ with IGN, Valve has given the following info about its Steam Deck handheld gaming PC. Here is what they said.
Steam Deck is somewhat similar to Nintendo Switch but with the abilities of a complete game PC, which also makes it more powerful than Nintendo. It features a 7-inch optically connected LCD touchscreen that offers a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and a 60 Hz refresh rate. Under the hood, Steam Deck is equipped with an Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) constructed by AMD. The processor is based on enterprise Zen 2 micro-architecture and culminates in 3.5 GHz. GPU is 8 RDNA 2 computing units operating at up to 1.6 GHz.
It features 16GB of RAM and a microSD card slot, enabling users to extend the integrated storage. As per Valve, Steam Deck provides a 40-Watt-Hour battery with two to eight hours of gameplay. It also allows users to connect the handset to an external display such as a PC or TV screen as well as a mouse and keyboard if you want to use it as a conventional PC.
Valve’s Steam Deck handheld gaming PC is equipped with one USB 3.1 and two USB 2.0. It comes with DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 and an Ethernet jack. With the kind authorization of USB-C DisplayPort, the dock will support video output in up to 4K at 120 Hz or 8K at 60 Hz. It also comes with a dual-band 802.11 ac Wi-Fi radio – compatible with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks – and Bluetooth 5.0 for accessories, controllers, and audio.
In an interview with IGN, Greg Coomer informed that “Steam Deck accessory rack extends up all that can be connected via USB and all that can be connected via Bluetooth.”
Pricing and Availablity
The $399 core model of Steam Deck features 64GB of storage in eMMC format and the second one costs $529 and provides faster storage with a 256 GB PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD. The premium $649 Steam Desk includes a 512GB NVMe SSD that Valve calls “high speed”, though it’s still a PCIe 3.0 drive.
Additionally, the screen of this model features high-end glare-free etched glass. The device comes with an exclusive case and exclusive virtual keyboard theme, in addition to the bonuses of the least expensive models.
People with steam accounts (located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, or the European Union and have made a purchase from Steam prior to June 2021) can book a pre-order of Valve’s Steam Deck handheld gaming PC via Stream Online Store from this Friday, July 16 at 10 am. It costs $5 to book an online space and when the device becomes available in December 2021, the company will notify everyone, who has placed reservations, to buy the device.
Update: Valve has adjusted the availability of Steam Deck – Q2 2022 for the 64GB/256GB version and Q3 2022 for the 512GB version.
2 Comments
Pingback: GPD To Launch ‘GPD-XP’ An Android-Based Gaming Handheld Console Soon - Craffic
Pingback: Valve is already planning to develop 4K capable Steam Deck 2 in the next couple of years - Craffic