Valve Announced the Steam Deck, a $400 Handheld Gaming PC: Here are the Specifications, Price, Launch Date and All We Know So Far!

 

An overview of Steam Deck Library

Valve has announced the Steam Deck, a $400 Handheld Gaming PC based on a Custom AMD Zen 2 + RDNA 2 APU that can run your entire Steam Library at the size of your smartphone. The Steam Deck is the best example of Portability with Power. So far, the Valve Steam Deck is the most powerful, full-featured handheld gaming console in the world. Capable of running your entire steam library the same as your PC does. $529 and $649 Variants of Steam Back uses NVMe SSD's, which alone can make the Steam Deck faster & smoother than Nintendo Switch.

Steam Deck Comfortable Design

Steam Deck ThumbSticks

Steam Deck ThumbSticks

Steam Deck ThumbSticks

Steam Deck Design

Comfort

The whole design for the Stream Deck is built with keeping both comfort and gaming in mind. Each & Every button in the Device from Trackpad to Joystick or just the triggers, all is within your reach so that you can reach them easily. The Rear side of the Deck is built to fit a wide range of hand sizes.

JoyStick & TrackPad

On the front, the full-size two analogue joysticks are built-in with Capacitive Touch Sensor (letting it know when you have your fingers on them or not), the Steam Deck also has TrackPads on both sides which can serve as a great substitute for the lack of Mouse input.

GYRO

Using the Gyroscopic sensor that comes built-in with Steam Deck, you can also physically move the device so you can achieve more precision than using a thumbstick or trackpad alone.

Triggers

So far, we know about a total of 8 Triggers in Steam Deck: 4 on the shoulders and 4 at your Pinky Finger and Ring Finger which means you'll be having a lot of buttons to make your gameplay as fast and exciting as possible. Especially this is going to help a lot in Driving Games, and FPS Games.

Grip Buttons

Steam Deck also has 4 user-assignable Grip buttons to keep every control right at your fingertips. Although the Grip Buttons don't look quite Good they'll surely be helping you in making your gameplay even better.

Steam Deck Features

The Steam Deck Handheld Gaming Console comes in handy with every feature that is important for a portable console. If you are feeling lost or just can't find the thing you're looking for then you can simply use Steam Deck's Touch Screen to search for the thing you want. The touch screen is a Multi-Touch Display which means it can support more than 1 finger at once.

Touch Screen In Steam Deck

 

In case the game you're playing doesn't work well handheld you can say hello to the Trackpad. With increased precision and customizability, trackpads also give you a competitive edge when playing fast-paced FPS games. 

Steam Deck also supports GYRO which means you will also be able to just tilt your deck to aim even better. In addition to this, you can also expand your storage via MicroSD Card, games that are already stored in the MicroSD Card will start appearing on your library instantly.

Trackpad Feature in Steam Deck

 Steam Deck is Bluetooth-ready, and its USB-C port can handle all sorts of I/O. You can also connect your Keyboard, Mouse or Headphones with Bluetooth. You can also connect your Steam Deck to external Displays using the official Dock that will be sold separately. The official dock props up your Steam Deck while connecting to external displays, wired networking, USB peripherals, and power. You can also use a powered USB-C hub if you've got one lying around.

Casting Steam Deck to TV using the external Dock

Steam Deck is powered by a Custom-Made Zen 2 + RDNA 2 AMD APU Optimized for handheld gaming, delivering more than enough performance to run the latest AAA games in a very efficient power envelope

Valve had partnered with AMD to bring a custom made AMD APU for Steam Deck based on the Zen 2 and RDNA 2. The custom made AMD APU used in the Handheld Steam Deck Gaming Console is a 4 Cores and 8 Threads processor (with 2.4-3.5GHz clock speed) which is enough for such a compact size Gaming PC, the integrated GPU has 8 RDNA 2 CUs, operating on 1.0-1.6GHz. Moreover, the specs include 16 GB LPDDR5 onboard Dual-Channel Ram which seems quite impressive for the size, and 3 storage options (64 GB eMMC, 256 GB NVMe SSD, and 512 GB High-Speed NVMe SSD), all models use socketed 2230 m.2 modules and are not intended for users itself to replace it and has included high-speed microSD card slot. The Display section of the Steam Deck has a 7" Touch Screen Display based on 1280 x 800px (16:10 aspect ratio) which is 400 nits and operates on 60Hz Display Refresh Rate (You'll find full Specifications of Steam Deck at the end of this post).

Use Steam Deck as your PC

Steam Deck's both Software & Hardware is capable enough to be used literally as a PC. You can do Gaming, Browsing the web, Streaming Videos, do your normal productivity stuff or even running some other Applications. You can also Install some other Game stores on it as well so that you can access the games you own there too.

All the Steam functionalities

The Deck is integrated with Steam, which means you'll have all the functions of Steam same as you have on your PC. Once you've logged into Steam Deck, your entire Steam Library shows up, just like any other PC. You'll be able to find your collections and favourites - exactly where you left them. The deck also has Steam Overlay to give you access to various Steam Features while you are playing a game. You can use Steam Chat to talk to your friends, Steam Notifications so you can check-in without leaving your game, Cloud Saves to Start playing on a PC and pick up right where you left off on Deck, Remote Play to stream games from your home PC directly to your Deck no matter where you are, and the entire steam community and store.

Steam Deck Home Screen

A New Steam OS

Steam Deck runs on a new version of SteamOS developed particularly for the handheld experience. It comes with Proton, a compatibility layer that makes it possible to run your games without any porting work needed. Moreover, you'll also be able to download other applications, and browsing the web to your Steam Deck as the new Steam OS does support it.

Steam Deck Price & Launch Date

Steam Deck comes in three different variants in which all of them differs just in Storage option: 64GB Variant which costs $399 has an eMMC based Interna storage and comes with carrying case, 256 GB Variant costs $529 and is based on NVMe SSD Storage, and has to carry case with exclusive steam community profile bundle, and the highest variant which has 512 GB NVMe SSD storage is priced at $649 comes with Premium anti-glare etched glass, Exclusive carrying case, Exclusive Steam Community profile bundle and Exclusive virtual keyboard theme.

Steam Deck is not launched for purchase yet, it's just been revealed yet although eh Reservations for the Deck has started for every variant. Pre-order your Steam Deck here. Shipping of the Deck will start from December 2021 to the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. Shipping for other countries including India seems unlikely this year, but we may get a chance to get our hands on Steam Deck in India and other regions where it's not available yet by 2022.

Steam Deck Full Specifications

Steam Deck Full Specifications

Compute
Processor	Custom AMD APU, CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32), GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz (up to 1.6 TFlops FP32), TDP: 4-15W
RAM	16 GB LPDDR5 on-board RAM (5500 MT/s dual-channel)
Storage	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)
Controls & Inputs
Gamepad	A B X Y buttons D-pad, L & R analog triggers, L & R bumpers, View & Menu buttons, 4 x assignable grip buttons
Joysticks	2 x full-size analog sticks with capacitive touch
Haptics	HD haptics
Trackpads	2 x 32.5mm square trackpads with haptic feedback
Gyro	6-Axis IMU
Display
Resolution	1280 x 800px (16:10 aspect ratio)
Type	Optically bonded IPS LCD
Size	7"
Brightness	400 nits
Refresh Rate	60Hz
Touch	Yes
Sensors	Ambient light sensor
Network
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.0
Wi-Fi	Dual-band Wi-Fi radio, 2.4GHz and 5GHz, 2 x 2 MIMO, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Audio
Mic	Dual Mic Array
Audio Jack	3.5mm
Power
Input	45W USB Type-C PD3.0 power supply
Battery	40Whr battery. 2 - 8 hours of gameplay
Expansion
microSD	UHS-I supports SD, SDXC and SDHC
External Connectivity	USB-C with DisplayPort 1.4 Alt-mode support; up to 8K @60Hz or 4K @120Hz, USB 3.2 Gen 2
Size & Weight
Size	298mm x 117mm x 49mm
Weight	670 gram (approx)
Software
OS	SteamOS 3.0 (Arch-based)
Desktop	KDE Plasma