Valve's Steam Deck handheld announced

[The Deadman]

https://www.gameinformer.com/2021/07...start-tomorrow

Valve has been quiet on their hardware front for a while. That is until they announced the first big competitor to Nintendo’s Switch. This December, Valve will be releasing their very own handheld PC they’re calling the Steam Deck.

In a press release sent to Game Informer, Valve describes some of the hardware included in their mobile gaming device, saying: “Steam Deck is a powerful all-in-one portable PC. With a custom processor developed in cooperation with AMD, Steam Deck is comparable to a gaming laptop with the ability to run the latest AAA games. Your Steam library will be on Deck to play games wherever and whenever you want. Steam Deck is also an open PC, adding the ability to install any software or connect with any hardware.”

This new processor co-developed by AMD and is optimized for handheld using AMD’s Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architecture, and sports 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. The Steam Deck will be available with 64GB, 256GB, or 512gb of onboard storage, which can be added onto with micro-SD cards.

Competing with the Switch, especially the new OLED model that was just announced, Valve has included a 7” 1280 x 800px LCD touchscreen flanked with controls on either side. The Steam Deck features the analog sticks, buttons (including ones on the grips), and triggers you’d want on a controller, but it also has two track pads like the experimental Steam controller from years ago. Another welcome addition to the device is a gyro sensor, which puts this even more in line with the features put forth by Nintendo’s flagship console.

Because it’s not just a gaming device, the Steam Deck is set up to be docked and used like a regular computer. There will be a dock sold separately, but the unit does include USB-C port can be utilized for multiple peripherals, including a monitor, mouse and keyboard, or even multiple controllers to be plugged in at the same time. Valve says you can use your everyday PC applications on this mini-computer, though it won't natively run Windows out of the box, so keep that in mind if you decide to purchase. Given Valve’s recent history with creating their own OS for Steam PC’s, it makes sense it chose to run with their own operating system.

Steam Deck looks to be an impressive package, and it won’t be long until it gets into the hands of gamers. It’s up for preorder starting tomorrow, July 16, starting at a $399 price point. Valve is expecting the units to start shipping this December.

[Sumac]

Jokes about HD Switch aside, Steam once again wasting money for something, that most likely fail.

I mean, I am glad they have spare money for the experiments, like that, but its just a fart in the wind, like their steam box. Switch is popular not so much, because, of it being portable, but, because, of fairly unique line up of good games, mostly produced by Nintendo and their developers.

So what exactly Valve want to achieve here, especially, when they are programs which allow to control your home PC from your phone, I honestly don't know.

[sdp]

This is nothing like steam box, people are super hyped for it, it's at a great price point and computer portable gaming machines have been very popular the last 7 years or so but they've only been made by small chinese companies. The hype is real and this will change the game for sure.

I'm excited, it can run Windows 10 so it'll be the perfect emulation portable.

Originally Posted by Sumac

Switch is popular not so much, because, of it being portable, but, because, of fairly unique line up of good games, mostly produced by Nintendo and their developers.

Then why did the Wii U fail miserably? Same games. The portable aspect is one of the key things that made it a success

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by sdp

Then why did the Wii U fail miserably? Same games. The portable aspect is one of the key things that made it a success

Wii U was a bad realization of this "combo" idea all around.
More of a gimmick than a full fleshed realization of idea. Which is quite similar to the Valve's new thing.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Sumac

Jokes about HD Switch aside, Steam once again wasting money for something, that most likely fail.

I mean, I am glad they have spare money for the experiments, like that, but its just a fart in the wind, like their steam box. Switch is popular not so much, because, of it being portable, but, because, of fairly unique line up of good games, mostly produced by Nintendo and their developers.

So what exactly Valve want to achieve here, especially, when they are programs which allow to control your home PC from your phone, I honestly don't know.

I can play Half-Life on the can now, I'd say that is an accomplishment.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by neatoman

I can play Half-Life on the can now, I'd say that is an accomplishment.

But you can do it without Valve proprietary device.

[sdp]

Originally Posted by Sumac

But you can do it without Valve proprietary device.

it's their hardware but the software is not proprietary, anyone can make their own handheld using the Steam OS, in fact with interviews about the steam deck they encouraged others to do it, they just want the market to open up more.

[Prowler]

Too pricey and not enough memory. Plus, a lot of the games that are PC exclusives or best played on PC are optimised to be played with a mouse and/or keyboard. I don't see how major PC games like Football Manager, Civilization or Europa Unviersalis will be played on this device. Even if it happens to have Touch controls, that's still gotta be a bit of a hassle.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by sdp

it's their hardware but the software is not proprietary

It's running KDE5's Plasma desktop
https://pointieststick.com/2021/07/1...deck-revealed/

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Too pricey and not enough memory. Plus, a lot of the games that are PC exclusives or best played on PC are optimised to be played with a mouse and/or keyboard.

This does support connecting a mouse, monitor and keyboard to it and using it as a computer.

[Zulithe]

Personally I really like it, great specs, will be a KILLER emulation machine if developers rally around it.

Sadly people have low expectations due to how VALVE has a history of abandoning hardware. The price could be better, too.

But price aside, I would buy it just on what it has to offer as a piece of hardware; it has nice specs. I hope they can prove people wrong and this thing ends up impressing, then I'll buy one.

This would be the ultimate way to play Genshin Impact (and a lot of games, really) when on-the-go while still being very serviceable when docked/HDMI'd out to a screen.

[sdp]

Originally Posted by Zulithe

Personally I really like it, great specs, will be a KILLER emulation machine if developers rally around it.

Sadly people have low expectations due to how VALVE has a history of abandoning hardware. The price could be better, too.

None of the valve hardware has had as much hype as this and they do still back the VIVE pretty well. This level of hype is what they wanted with the steam box but they never could. I do think it's a different thing, with the steambox they were entering a crowded market but here they are entering a market that's been growing the last 5 years and dominated by small chinese companies, finally a big company is entering the market of handheld computers.

It's already going to be a killer emulation machine, since it's basically a PC you can run any of the OS's dedicated to emulation that already exist for other devices or even run windows and all the emulators for windows. So even if nothing was developed for it exclusively, it already becomes the defacto best emulating machine out there since it can run anything already created.

Originally Posted by Prowler

Too pricey and not enough memory. Plus, a lot of the games that are PC exclusives or best played on PC are optimised to be played with a mouse and/or keyboard. I don't see how major PC games like Football Manager, Civilization or Europa Unviersalis will be played on this device. Even if it happens to have Touch controls, that's still gotta be a bit of a hassle.

It's only $50 more than the OLED switch but is many times more powerful than a Switch, even a Switch 2 would only be as powerful as this when it eventually comes out in a few years.
That's what the touchpads are for, for every type of game, they worked fine for the steam controller. Plus not every PC game is keyboard and mouse, its not the 90s anymore, most PC games are like console games and played with a gamepad.

[frank_one]

Any info about battery life?