After an initial setback in November, all seems to be going as planned for Valve’s long-awaited Steam Deck games console. The company which had announced a two-month delay, in its latest update said it “looks like” Steam Deck shipments will start by the end of February.
Announced in July 2021, the Steam Deck is essentially a handheld PC powered by Valve’s games platform, Steam. It features Nintendo Switch-style analogue controls surrounding a handheld HD display, on which users can access their existing Steam library of PC games wherever they are.
More than just a game console, Steam Deck can serve as a PC, which can also stream games at best online casinos in Australia. What this means is that you can plug it into a monitor or TV, hook up controllers or a mouse and keyboard, even install Windows if you prefer.
Since launching in 2003, Steam has grown to dominate digital sales of PC games, becoming the platform’s de facto storefront. If successful, the Steam Deck would mark Valve’s first serious foray into building gaming hardware.
But the platform did not do well when it was introduced in 2015. This prompted Valve to quietly pull back on it by April 2018. The company, though, stated that it remained committed to providing some type of open hardware platform.
Steam Deck designer Steve Dalton said “There was always kind of this classic chicken and egg problem with the Steam Machine”, as it required the adoption of Linux by both gamers and game developers to reach a critical interest in the machines to draw manufacturers in making them. That said, here is everything to know about this device.
Release Date
Initially planned to be shipped in late 2021, Steam Deck will launch in February 2022. The delay is a bottleneck in the manufacturing process.
Valve is aiming to fulfil all of its pre-order reservations before the Steam Deck goes on general sale, however, so unless you’ve registered your interest and paid your deposit, you’re unlikely to be able to pick one up until April at the earliest. The advertised release date for the Steam Deck on the device’s product page is “after Q2 2022”, which covers the period between 1 January and 21 March.
How to check my Steam Deck delivery date
Head to the Steam Deck store page on the account which you made your reservation. There you will find an expected order availability listed beneath the cancel button (don’t press this).
Specification
According to revelation made in July 2021, it is built around AMD components and powered by the chipmaker’s Zen 2 CPU and a DNA 2 GPU. It possesses a 16GB RAM while storage varies from 64GB, 128GB and 512GB.
It also has a 7in touchscreen with 1280 x 80px resolution. For controls, Steam has face buttons, twin analogue sticks and capacitive trackpads. Its size is 298mm x 117mm x 49mm and weighs 699g on StreamOS.
Cost
The price depends on the version. There are three different types based on storage size. The Steam Deck costs:
$399 for the 64GB version
$529 for the 256GB version
$649 for the 512GB version
The more expensive versions of the Steam Deck feature faster NVMe SSD storage, while the cheapest is listed with a 64GB eMMC (embedded multi-media card) storage solution. All three versions will let you increase storage space with a MicroSD card, at least.
Performance
Steam Deck, which can also be used to play real money slots usa, is reported to have met Valve’s basic 30 fps target for general gaming performance. A Chinese user got their hands on a dev kit and published a number of benchmarks of graphically Intensive modern games. And DOTA 2. They’ve tested Shadow of the Tomb Raider, DOOM, and Cyberpunk 2077, too, so you do get a decent spread of performance.
Games to Run on Steam Deck
According to Valve, “All the games we want to be playable is, really, the entire Steam library. We haven’t really found something we could throw at this device that it couldn’t handle.”
“We’ve achieved the level of performance that is required to really run the latest generation of games without problems.”
The fact that Valve has been testing games from the last year on the Deck without issue suggests that maybe SteamOS 3.0’s update to Proton will give greater compatibility for Windows-based games on its Linux operating system.
Conclusion
Steam Deck is said to have an experience of a game never designed for a portable machine.
