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NaDeX1, 16 july 2021 18:43

Steam deck Portable pc

Valve introduces its portable PC gaming device. Called Steam Deck, it will cost in the console rank and will go on sale in late 2021.

Steam platform owners are entering the portable console market. More precisely, not exactly a console - but gaming laptops. And when I say laptops, I don’t mean laptops. Steam Deck is their pretty powerful PC gaming device that will actually struggle with consoles as it is in their price range, a minimum of 419 euros and a maximum of 679 euros.

But let's go in order - hardware first:

Steam Deck is based on AMD's APU solution Zen architecture, with four cores and RDNA 2 graphics power up to 1.6 teraflops. It has 16 GB of LPDDR5 working memory and three different storage options:

64 GB eMMC (PCIe Gen 2 x1)
256 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4)
512 GB high-speed NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4)

The Steam Deck screen is a 7-inch LCD with a resolution of 1280 × 800, a brightness of 400 nits and a frequency of 60 Hz. It is sensitive to touch. The Steam Deck battery is declared for 2-8 hours of gameplay - depending on the game and the framerate (which can be limited to 30 fps to save on battery consumption).

The device supports Bluetooth 5.0, dual-band Wifi, its memory can be expanded with microSD cards, and there is also the possibility of connecting to a TV or monitor. It has a built-in microphone, stereo speakers and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The Steam Deck weighs approximately 669 grams.

In terms of controls, it has everything that standard controllers have, with the addition of two trackpads on each side under the analog sticks, as well as four rear buttons. If the controllers do not suit you, it will be possible to connect a mouse and / or keyboard to the Steam Deck.

Now - the device uses the operating system SteamOS - more precisely its new version. You already know that this system is based on Linux and that this is always a problem because most games on Steam do not support Linux. Fortunately, the new version of SteamOS incorporates Proton, a compatibility layer that allows games to run for Windows systems. How effective - it remains to be seen, but this is still a very important thing.

The Steam Deck will also be able to be used as a device for streaming from a home PC over a wi-fi network.

Reservations for Steam Deck start tomorrow, July 16, and deliveries of the device itself should start in December 2021. As we said at the beginning, the price is actually quite reasonable - for 419 euros you get a model with 64 GB of memory and a travel bag. For 549 euros you have a model with a 256 GB NVMe SSD, and for 679 euros a model with 512 GB and premium screen protection.

The dock for connecting to a larger screen will be sold separately.