After years in the making, Valve’s answer to Nintendo Switch, the Steam Deck is finally coming to fruition.
The Steam Deck will be Valve’s latest handheld device for playing PC games wherever you go. The company announced on Friday morning that the latest portable console is schedule for release… well, at least in the US in December.
In short, the Steam Deck, which was previously rumoured as the “SteamPal”, is essentially a portable gaming PC that is slightly larger than Nintendo’s Switch console.
This Steam device features a 7-inch touchscreen with two thumbsticks, a D-pad, and a standard four-button layout.
Moreover, the two trackpads included in the device — one on either side of the machine- allows players to increase their precision.
Image via Valve
Valve’s Answer To Nintendo Switch
The console also includes not just four triggers, but eight on its back. Four on its shoulders and four more where the ring and pinky fingers rest.
Gabe Newell, founder and CEO of Valve told IGN that the Steam Deck will be available in three models with different storage options. There’s no performance differences between the three versions except for the speed of the flash memory.
The selling point of this device is basically gamers can play the games that currently exist in their Steam libraries. Which means, you can play every Steam game, wherever you go! Players just needs to log into their account and every data should be with them.
Image via Valve
It was assured that the Steam Deck is capable of running PC games on its own hardware, even without cloud storage. Videos on the Steam Deck shows players playing games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Hades, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Moreover, it includes a 40-watt-hour battery which offers two to eight hours of gameplay and dual microphones. If you’re a stickler to size and weight, this machine weighs 1.47 pounds, and measures 11.73 inches long by 4.6 inches high by 1.93 inches deep.
Just like the Switch, there’s also a dock where you can buy to connect to your TV or computer.
It has three USB ports: one is USB 3.1, and the other two are USB 2.0. It also offers two video outputs — DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 — and an Ethernet jack. Courtesy of USB-C DisplayPort (aka DP Alt Mode), the dock will support video output in a maximum resolution of 4K at 120 Hz or 8K at 60 Hz (Dock is sold separately according to Valve).
Image via Valve
Additionally, if you’re wondering, SEAGM has Steam Wallet Codes available of course. The Steam Deck is currently priced at:
$399 (RM 1676) for 64GB eMMC storage,
$529 (RM 2222) for 256GB NVMe SSD storage, and
$649 (RM 2726) for 512GB of high-speed NVME SSD storage.
