The rumors about a handheld gaming device being developed by Valve have proven to be true, as the company today officially unveiled the Steam Deck, its upcoming all-in-one portable gaming PC that it says has enough horsepower to run AAA games smoothly.
Valve has partnered with AMD to power the device, with it touting an APU that has a Zen 2 four core eight thread CPU paired with an RDNA 2 1.6 Tflops GPU. It also has 16GB of LPDDR5 ram, internal storage that goes up to 512GB of NVMe, plus a high-speed microSD card slot for expansion.
A new version of SteamOS will be running on the handheld, with the Proton compatibility layer being used to run existing Steam games on the platform without needing specific Linux ports. But since this is a PC, users will be able to install whatever operating system they want and any other software.
On the outside, the 7-inch display comes in at 1280 x 800px with a 60Hz refresh rate, and it is touch enabled. The handheld has two analog sticks with capacitive touch, two track pads with adjustable pressure sensitivity and haptic feedback, a 6-axis gyro, as well as the usual array of controller buttons like ABXY, D-pad, triggers, bumpers, and others.
Depending on the games being played, the Steam Deck"s 40Whr battery will last 2-8 hours according to Valve. For those looking to plug the handheld to a TV and game there, The company is also releasing an official dock, though it will be sold separately. This will include USB 3.1 and 2.0, ethernet, and HDMI 2.0 ports.
The Steam Deck will be available in three pricing categories that add better internal storage, anti-glare glass, and other goodies when moving up. However, the graphics quality and frame rates will remain the same. Here"s the rundown of each option:
$399 USD 64GB
| $529 USD 256GB
| $649 USD 512GB
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Valve plans to ship the Steam Deck in December 2021, and reservation will begin soon across the United States, Canada, European Union, and the United Kingdom, with more regions being added in 2022.