Valve confirms the Steam Deck SSD is upgradeable but doesn't want you to do it

After the somewhat catastrophic failure of SMACH Z to materialize into a real handheld gaming PC, most gamers appear super delighted at the recent announcement from Valve as it launched the new Steam Deck portable PC. The device comes in three variants starting at $399. And while the hardware specifications powering them is the same across the three models, one thing that's different is the storage options.

It was stated originally that the $399 version comes with 64GB eMMC storage while the more expensive $529 and $649 variants will pack 256GB and 512GB NVMe SSDs respectively. This left many wondering about the upgradability of the storage provided and one Reddit user named 'midnight_watch' mailed Valve boss Gabe Newell himself inquiring about the matter. In his response to midnight_watch, Newell confirmed that the devices will indeed feature an upgradeable M.2 2230 slot. In yet another response to a different Reddit user named 'BernandoOne', it has also been confirmed that the $399 version with the eMMC storage option will also come with the M.2 2230 slot.

This has led Valve to update its tech specs on the official Steam Deck site today which now states this information. The company, for some reason, however, does not recommend users to upgrade it themselves. It could be because of how uncommon and oftentimes expensive the 2230 standard SSDs are compared to the far more widespread 2280 options, but we aren't really sure.

In addition to the new information related to the storage, Valve has also provided a bit more detail regarding the memory used in the Steam Deck, which now states that the 5,500MT/s LPDDR5 DRAM will be running in dual-channel mode.

Source: Valve via midnight_watch (Reddit)