Valve's Steam Deck handheld game console, $400, can play PC games

Steam Deck pricing starts at $399 and comes in $529 and $649 versions.

The Steam Deck has an AMD APU containing 2 Zen 2 4-core CPUs with 8 threads and 8 AMD RDNA 2 graphics processing units and 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Users will have three storage options including 64GB eMMC ($399), 256GB NVMe SSD ($529) and 512GB high-speed NVME SSD ($649). You can also expand the storage using the high-speed microSD card slot.

Steam Deck has a lot of different control options. On the upper two sides are two small thumbsticks, below are two Steam Controller-style trackpads. There is also a set of ABXY buttons, D-pad, L1/L2 button, R1/R2 button, Quick access button and Steam button. The bottom of the machine also has a set of buttons R4 / R5 and L4 / L5.

The device is equipped with a 720p touch screen (1280 x 800 pixels). The Steam Deck is also equipped with a gyroscope for motion control.

As for the battery, Valve claims the Steam Deck's battery capacity is enough for you to play most titles for a few hours. Even, if handling light tasks, the device can be used for 7 to 8 hours.

With SteamOS pre-installed, Steam Deck gives you quick pause/access to games. Thanks to that, you can easily return to the level you are working on after finishing the job.

Valve also sells a dock to help you connect your Steam Deck to your old TV, monitor, or CRT TV, if you have a cable that supports it. Steam Deck has a USB port with the ability to support USB, HDMI, Ethernet data transfer. The machine also supports standard Bluetooth with the ability to transmit audio via Bluetooth, something that Nintendo Switch does not have.

Steam Deck's SteamOS is built on Linux and powered by Proton, so it can easily run Windows games without the developer having to adjust. Moreover, the Steam Deck can also be turned into a fully functional Linux computer when connecting a mouse, keyboard and monitor.

Kareem Winters

Update 16 July 2021