Valve is getting into the handheld gaming space with the launch of the new Steam Deck. It’s basically a gaming computer that you can hold in your hands… or a PC that looks a bit like a Nintendo Switch.

The Steam Deck went up for pre-order starting July 16th, with prices starting at $399 for a model with entry-level specs. But customers can pay more if they want additional (and faster) storage. The Steam Deck should begin shipping in December February, 2022.

The Steam Deck features a 7 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel touchscreen LCD display sandwiched between two game controllers. The screen has a 60 Hz refresh rate and supports up to 400 nits of brightness.

Under the hood, the Steam Deck features 16GB of LPDDR5 memory, 64GB to 512GB of storage, and an custom low-power AMD processor which features:

  • CPU: AMD Zen 2 with 4 cores, 8 threads (2.4 GHz to 3.5 GHz for up to 448 GFlops performance)
  • GPU: 8 x AMD RDNA 2 compute units (1 – 1.6 GHz for up to 1.6 TFlops)
  • Power consumption: 4 – 15 watts

Valve says the custom chip is code-named Aerith, and while it only have 1GB of dedicated video memory, it can access up to 8GB of shared LPDDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 88 GB/s.

While it’s a low-power chip designed for use in a handheld, Valve says it performs the same whether the Steam Deck is running on battery power or plugged in, and the company didn’t put any artificial performance constraints on the processor… but recommends developers consider capping frame rates on their games in order to extend battery life.

The Steam Deck may only have the graphics performance of an entry-level discrete GPU like NVIDIA’s GeForce MX450, that processing power should go a long way on a device with a 1280 x 800 pixel display since there’s no need to render 1080o or higher res graphics. And Valve is also allowing developers to upload versions of their games to Steam that are optimized for lower-resolution displays in order to reduce the storage needs and speed up download times for Steam Deck users.

The Steam Deck measures 298 x 117 x 49mm (11.7″ x 4.6″ x 2″) and weighs 669 grams (1.5 pounds) and packs a 40 Wh battery that Valve says should be good for up to 7-8 hours of web browsing or several hours of game play.

You can charge it via a 45W USB Type-C power adapter, and the Steam Deck’s USB-C port also supports DisplayPort 1.4 Alt-mode, meaning you can connect it to an 8K/60Hz display, a 4K/120Hz display if you want to game on the big screen. Alternately you can connect up to two 4K/60Hz displays.

Other ports include a 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD card reader, and the Steam Deck has dual microphones and dual speakers.

The game controllers feature most of the usual buttons you’d expect including dual analog sticks, X, Y, A, and B buttons, shoulder trigger buttons, and a D-Pad. But there are also trackpads on each side of the screen, which can come in handy if you’re playing games that normally require a mouse. This is a carry-over from Valve’s discontinued Steam Controller.

There are also View & Menu buttons which could be useful for navigation.

If you’re wondering what exactly you’ll be navigating, other than games, it’s SteamOS. Valve’s computer will ship with a custom GNU/Linux distribution based on Arch Linux and featuring the KDE Plasma desktop and Valve’s custom user interface.

SteamOS first debuted years ago when Valve was making a push to work with third-party PC makers to deliver “Steam Machines,” or compact desktop computers that customers could use like game consoles, but with support for PC games downloaded from the Steam store.

Steam Machines never really took off. But Valve did port the Steam game client to work with Linux, encouraged many developers to port their games to Linux, and even built on existing open source tools to release Proton, a tool that allows many Windows PC games to run on Linux without any modifications at all.

And that all could give Valve an edge in the handheld gaming PC space over competitors… and there are competitors. In recent years two Chinese companies have released a number of handheld gaming computers that feature the guts of laptop stuffed into compact chassis designed to be carried around.

GPD and One Netbook have sort of dominated this space, with a little recent competition from AYA, but their devices are also aimed at enthusiasts willing to drop as much as $1,000 on a handheld gaming device from a Chinese company with limited presence outside of their home countries.

You can see how the Steam Deck stacks up against the competition in our comparison table.

Handheld gaming PCs
Clockwise from top left: Valve Steam Deck, GPD Win 3, OneGx1 Pro, Aya Neo, GPD Win Max 2021

Valve’s Steam Deck is a little more expensive than a Nintendo Switch (even the new OLED model). But it’s cheaper than most GPD or One Netbook devices, and it’s also backed by a company that’s made a name for itself in gaming. SteamOS may not support all Windows PC games, but it will support many of them.

And since the Steam Deck is basically a PC, you can install Windows or other operating systems on it, as IGN confirmed.

And if the little computer doesn’t have enough horsepower for the titles you want to play, you can always use it to stream games from a more powerful PC using Steam’s remote play service.

I don’t expect GPD or One Netbook to give up without a fight. But positioning the Steam Deck as a mobile gaming PC with a starting price of $399 will put a lot of pressure on those companies to offer lower-cost devices and/or features that Valve’s handheld doesn’t match.

That said, the entry-level version of the Steam Deck has just 64GB of eMMC storage. If you want more & faster storage, you have to pay extra. Here are the pricing options:

  • 64GB eMMC for $399
  • 256GB PCIe NVMe for $529
  • 512GB PCIe NVMe for $649

All three models have an M.2 2230 socket, so you could theoretically buy the cheapest model and add your own SSD. But Valve does say that the SSDs are “not intended for end-user replacement,” suggesting that you’ll have to open the case and potentially void your warranty to perform upgrades, since there’s no easy access slot. Upgrades are possible, but not necessarily easy.

The good news is that Valve says you can also expand storage via an SD card, and the company says that while games load more slowly from eMMC or SD card storage than from an NVMe SSD, the performance hit isn’t that big:

  • Games load 12% slower from eMMC storage.
  • Games load 18% slower from an SD card.
  • A Steam Deck with eMMC storage takes 25% longer to boot than one with an NVMe SSD.

All three models also come with a carrying case, but the most expensive model also comes with “premium anti-glare etched glass” and has an “exclusive virtual keyboard theme” if that’s something you think you’ll need.

Valve’s Linux-based SteamOS is another key feature that helps set the Steam Deck apart from the competition. Shipping a handheld gaming PC with a custom operating system focused on gaming gives Valve more control over the user interface and performance of its device, while also helping keep costs down since the company doesn’t have to pay for a Windows license.

The Steam Deck will ship with a new version of the operating system called SteamOS 3 with an updated user interface that’s been optimized for small, handheld devices.

Among other things, there’s a new home screen layout, a universal search feature, a notification area that can be accessed with the press of a hardware button, and a mobile-friendly virtual keyboard. There’s also a new Steam Input configurator.

SteamOS 3 is based on Arch Linux and currently uses Linux kernel 5.13, but Valve is working on an update to version 5.15 of the Linux kernel. The operating system features an immutable OS filesystem by default, which means that Valve will release operating system updates as complete OS images. But users can enter developer mode to change the filesystem to read/write if they want to make changes or install packages the same way they would on other GNU/Linux distributions.

And although many Windows PC games don’t natively support Linux, Valve has been a leader in both encouraging developers to create native Linux ports and developing Proton software that allows many Windows titles to run on Linux without any additional work from developers.

The company is also now giving developers the option to take advantage of new APIs that will make PC gaming a little more console-like. For example, instead of just synchronizing user’s saved data to the cloud when they exit games, developers can now add an option for saving when a Steam Deck is suspended, allowing users to suspend and resume the Steam Deck without losing any data and quickly get back to where they left off when the system wakes up.

While SteamOS 3.0 is made with the Steam Deck in mind, the new user interface will also replace Steam’s Big Picture UI for the company’s desktop clients in the future, making the Steam experience more unified across platforms and allowing Valve to roll out updates more quickly.

Other features built for the Steam Deck will also be coming to the company’s desktop clients. For example, the new controller settings configurator will have the same user interface on desktop and laptop systems as it does on handhelds.

Valve will also sell an official dock accessory that’s basically a USB-C hub and stand that gives you additional ports including HDMI, DisplayPort, and Ethernet jacks. Pricing and availability details haven’t been announced yet.

The Steam Deck will be available in the US, Canada, UK, and European Union at launch, before eventually expanding to additional markets.

Valve Steam Deck Specs
Display
  • 7 inches
  • 1280 x 800 pixels
  • LCD
  • 400 nits
  • Touchscreen
CPUAMD Zen 2

  • 4-cores / 8-threads
  • 2.4 GHz to 3.5 GHz
  • Up to 448 GFlops FP32
  • 4-15 watts
GPUAMD RDNA 2

  • 8 compute units
  • 1 GHz to 1.66 GHz
  • Up to 1.6 TFlops FP32
RAM16GB LPDDR5-5500
Storage
  • 64GB eMMC (PCIe Gen 2 x1)
  • 256GB NVMe SSD (M.2 2230 PCIe Gen 3 x4)
  • 512GB NVMe SSD (M.2 2230 PCie Gen 3 x4)
  • microSDXC card reader
Ports
  • 1 x USB-C (with DisplayPort 1.4 Alt Mode for 8K/60 Hz or 4K/120 Hz video out)
  • 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
Game controllers
  • 2 x analog sticks with capacitive touch
  • A, B,  X,  Y buttons
  • D-pad
  • L & R analog triggers
  • L & R bumpers
  • 4 x assignable grip buttons
  • 2 x 32.5mm square trackpads with haptic feedback
  • 6-Axis gyroscope
Other buttons & switches
  • Volume Up
  • Volume Down
  • View
  • Menu
KeyboardVirtual
Battery & charging
  • 40Wh battery
  • 45W USB Type-C PD 3.0 charger
Wireless
  • WiFi 5
  • Bluetooth 5.0
Audio
  • Stereo front-facing speakers
  • 3.5mm audio jack
Webcam & micMic only
OSSteam OS (Arch Linux with KDE Plasma)
Dimensions298mm x 117mm x 49mm
11.7″ x 4.6″ x 1.9″
Weight669 grams
1.5 pounds
Docking Station
  • 1 x HDMI 2.0
  • 1 x Gigabit Ethernet
  • 1 x USB Type-C power input
  • 1 x USB-C out to Steam Deck
  • 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A
  • 2 x USB 2.0
Price
  • $399 (64GB eMMC)
  • $529 (256GB NVMe)
  • $649 (512GB NVMe)

via Steam (1)(2)(3)

This article was originally published July 15, 2021 and last updated November 13, 2021.

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53 replies on “Everything we know about Valve’s Steam Deck handheld gaming PC”

  1. No ,thanks , I’ll buy the Onexplayer 1s with full windows and 1TB ssd , rather than wait 4 to 5 months to receive a steam deck

  2. Is the 64GB eMMC soldered to the mainboard is it a separate PCIe module that you can remove and will it still have an M.2 slot? The price jumps a lot to 256 GB and beyond but you can easily just buy a 1TB WD SN530 2230 M.2 SSD on ebay for like $90-120 which makes it possible to have a Steam Deck with 1TB of NVME storage for less than the cost of a 256 GB Steam Deck. But that all depends on if the 64GB model is even upgradeable.

    1. PS: We didn’t need this old article to be updated. Brad, the new article you wrote was more than necessary: https://liliputing.com/2021/11/valve-steam-deck-shipments-delayed-until-february-2022.html

      About the eMMC… It is soldered.
      But the cheapest version DOES still have the m.2 slot, but Valve recommends you to not open and use it. I think they are right. It looks very cramped in there to try to put one in. Probably a better idea to get one of the higher models. The highest model looks like a “rip off” but really it is not bad value, and might be the one to get, since it is the only one that gets an upgraded for the Laminated Panel (which makes the display more enjoyable).

      I think we will see Custom Mods for the SteamDeck, where people have the 64GB eMMC for the native SteamOS and the m.2 Slot to dualboot Windows10 from, and people will probably upgrade the display too. Just look at the modding scene for the Nintendo GameBoy Advance, it’s wild.

      1. I’ve seen Valve’s teardown video for the Steam Deck and I think as far as accessing the M.2 slot goes, it seems reasonably alright to do so. And yeah that’s what I was planning to do with the eMMC model as well, keep the OS on the 64GB eMMC while having most games on the NVME SSD. I haven’t decided if I want to keep SteamOS and dual boot with Windows or just replace it entirely on the eMMC with Windows.

        But yeah the eMMC being soldered seems like the best value and a huge plus to me since that’s essentially a free boot drive while the M.2 SSD will have even more space available. The thing with the 512 GB model aside from its price is that a lot of modern games are huge and 512 GB is only enough space to store a few modern games at best. So having a 1 TB SSD without the OS taking up space on it is a pretty good deal to me personally. Based on my experience with the GPD Win 1, loading games off the microSD card isn’t the most pleasant experience either lol

        1. I personally wouldn’t even consider upgrading the storage on the Steam Deck until we see some confirmation that it will support HMB on 3rd party SSDs.

          Basically, most M.2 2230 SSDs do not have their own onboard DRAM for cache (they’re physically too small to fit the memory), so they rely on a feature called Host Memory Buffer to borrow a small amount of the system’s RAM to act as a storage buffer. Without buffer memory, the drive would have awful performance.

          What isn’t known yet is whether the Steam Deck was designed to support HMB on 3rd party SSDs, or if perhaps it was only built to support the factory-included SSD.

          With Valve clearly not intending for the storage to be upgraded, I would say that there is a strong possibility that the Steam Deck probably won’t support HMB on any 3rd party drives (why would they go out of their way?). If that turns out to be the case, I would strongly advise against upgrading them. You might end up with an SSD that performs worse than an SD card.

  3. Can’t wait to get this from scalpers in February and still get it cheaper than the other PC gaming handhelds.

  4. I pre-ordered and got Q1 2022 estimated shipping.

    Even though I won’t have it for about a year, I’m already thinking about what I want the Steam Deck 2 will have:
    – Built-in 4G. Killing my phone’s battery is not great.
    – Built-in kickstand. Preferably a long flap instead of a small stick.
    – Second USB Type-C port on the bottom.
    Officially user replaceable SSD.
    – Pogo pins and magnets on the bottom for a Surface-like keyboard accessory. Might be usable for the dock?
    – Smaller if they don’t compromise screen size and ergonomics.
    – Of course, generally better specs.

  5. Even the 512GB one is much cheaper than the competition and completely smokes them, specs wise. It’s a no brainer purchase from me. That’s if I can even get one this year, which is looking unlikely. This thing is going to sell like crazy; maybe no where near as well as Switch, but far, far better than other handheld PC’s on the market. It might even sell at a similar pace to the Xbox Series consoles, because the appeal for such a device is really broad, especially once Valve starts selling to Asian territories.

  6. A lot has been confirmed already yesterday and contrary to some reports, most of the hardware is finalized and is not in a state of flux at this point. Valve has confirmed in multiple communications now at least two things that people are getting confused about.

    This is–repeat–a full-fledged PC (meaning, for example, it can be installed with an alternative OS via bootable media), so you can install whatever OS and software you want. There is zip, zero, nada locked down here. So putting Linux and Windows petty rivalries aside for a brief moment, if you prefer the pure Windows experience, go ahead and install it. Or if you want a different Linux distro than the stock one from Valve, that’s totally up to you too. Or stay pure with SteamOS 3.0 and add any additional software you want.
    The SSD is 2230 M.2 NVMe slot that Valve claims is “not intended for end-user replacement” and is surrounded by an EMI and thermal shield. Let me dispel some fears here. Don’t get tricked by semantics! They are saying it is not intended to be upgraded though it most certainly can with minimal effort. That way, you doubt the ease of upgrade and you jump for the highest model and they preserve the upsell. In fact, Microsoft used the same lingo to describe the Surface Pro X and Pro 7+’s serviceable SSD. In reality, on those two Surfaces, it is just ONE screw and a flex-metal housing away from removal. Lastly, don’t let the EMI and thermal shield terminology scare you. It is in reality likely just a clam shell covering the SSD to reduce EMI radiation in order to pass FCC requirements. It is probably just like the Surface Pro 7+’s EMI and thermal shield which is trivial to remove.

    1. Decent 2230 SSDs seems to be hard to come by it seems though.

      Anyway, I preo-ordered. GPD sucks.

      1. I was able to get a like new used WD SN530 1 TB 2230 SSD for around $90 on ebay although the price seems to have gone up in the past month but it’s still not too bad last I checked.

      2. 2230 SSDs are not sold to retail clients, instead only offered in bulk.

        There are stores which will sell them individually (e.g. Conrad in Germany), but few and far between. eBay is the best bet, though most sellers will be selling out of China.

        Perhaps this will change in the coming years.

  7. Reserved in the first minute, I am glad I stuck to my guns and never stepped into GPD hardware minefield. Truth bomb: GPD build quality was trash for longevity. The only reason they charged what they did was because they could. Steam Deck already won the graphics performance war because it has Navi 2, which has DOUBLE the performance per watt of Vega, and 5500 MHz LPDDR5, meaning 30 to over 100% more memory bandwidth than competing devices. To top off the dynamic APU duo, a quad-core Zen 2 CPU is more than enough for 720P. GPD and others may have done some complimentary market testing for Valve, but their days are now numbered. No one wants their crappy, slow boat overseas warranty support any more where you have sometimes pay $100+ just to send it back. No one wants to have been given the wrongly spec’ed system only to be told you can either be compensated a minimal sum or have to solder it up yourself. Good riddance to them, and welcome to the next level.

  8. Hopefully the folks on here that wanted one, managed to snag one. I started trying to get a 256 GB model within seconds of it going live, managed to cart one and it took nearly an hour to check out. Interest in this portable is hot.

  9. I’ll keep my eye on these things, but I’ve already got more computers than I know what to do with.
    But it does have some interesting possibilities.
    If SC-Controller works well enough, you could use the controls with any OS. You could plug the computer into a lapdock, but it might not improve battery life by much (even the pinephone will drain its battery faster than my nexdock can charge it, but that could be a software problem).
    I could imagine using the entire computer as a controller for my desktop, but I have steam controllers already.
    I could use Phosh, Plasma Mobile, and Anbox applications, but I already have a pine phone, and that can make phone calls and roughly geolocate itself.

  10. Simply put…I’m in. This is a must buy in my opinion. Although…one comment in the article did surprise me.

    Brad? Arch with a KDE desktop, that sounds like the pinephone? When I was playing around with Steam OS a few years back, it was based on Debian. Did they switch to Arch?

      1. Thanks…
        I had no problems checking out this evening with my $5 pre-order. Looking forward to checking this handheld out. My last one was the first series of the PSP.

  11. I wonder what the current PC handheld companies will do to compete now.

    The ones with physical keyboards could be a differentiator for a few, I guess. Although, that may not be enough to go against just the Valve brand/name recognition. Let alone HW only comparisons.

    1. At IGN there’s a clip from an interview with Gabe, where he strongly implies that they’re selling these below cost (the price point is “painful”) because he wants to create a broader market. Valve doesn’t want to dominate hardware sales, he wants to prove that the market exists and encourage other companies to offer competing products. He knows that more PC gamers directly translates into more money for Valve.

      I’m not sure how it’s supposed to work for Aya or GPD or whoever, though — Valve has more money than God and can afford to subsidize purchases. With these available, why would I possibly spend 50-100% more on competitor?

      1. By “other companies”, I’m guessing that’s more geared towards other large companies who have more resources and partnerships like Dell, ASUS, Lenovo, etc.

        I believe GPD, One Netbook and AYA will have a difficult time competing if they don’t do anything different from what they’re doing now. Especially if other large companies enter the market too.

        1. Agreed, the AYA NEO was a decent deal if you managed to get in line for early delivery. At the current price it should be DOA for most people.

          1. Besides that, Navi 2 is far superior to Vega 8. It’s has double the performance per watt. And there is massively increased memory bandwidth, to the level of a GTX 1050. Exceptedly, most are pegging performance at the level of a GTX 1050. So at this point, the Aya Neo is not even in the same gaming performance league. The two extra CPU cores Aya Neo has, while nice for benchmarks, are overkill for 720P gaming.

      2. Selling below cost would be the worst way for other companies to enter the market.
        I would think the reason to do would be to sell more subscriptions and to encourage more developers.

  12. Too bad there isn’t a 4G option. Would be useful for me since I don’t like tethering my phone and killing the battery.

    1. Built-in 4G would have been awesome. I hope they add it for a future version.

  13. Does Steam allow installing games onto external USB drives that may not always be connected without issues when they’re not plugged in? It’d be faster than SD cards and could be usable in some scenarios even including portable use cases.

    1. The hardware and the OS will certainly support it. The only question would be if the Steam UI on a device would support it, but I don’t see why not. At least in the “PC-mode” I would expect the full Steam experience and if I remember correctly it was possible to do.

      1. Steam has a concept of “libraries” (game installation directories). By default you have a single Library on your primary storage device, but you can easily make one on another device. I know the Desktop interface has commands to move a game between libraries. I’m 80% sure that Big Picture, the controller-friendly interface that almost certainly forms the basis for the one used in the pictures, also has the same commands available.

    2. I’m interested in this. Especially the part with how Steam handles when the drive is not connected and then later connected.

      1. The most sensible thing would probably be to have a “hot” library on internal storage and a “cold” one on an SD card. You could put games on a (faster) USB drive but the whole point of the thing is to be portable, and anyway the sole USB-C port is in a terrible position to use for expansion.

    3. On top of the other comments about this, I think it’s also worthwhile to bring up the performance implications of running games from a MicroSD.

      MicroSD cards don’t have terrific read/write performance, so even the fastest cards out there are outperformed by average mechanical HDDs. I’d recommend shopping for a MicroSD card based on a balance of sequential read/write performance, AND random read/write performance.

      I’d be prepared for loading times similar to what you experienced before the days of SSDs (if anyone remembers Skyrim’s loading screens on a mechanical HDD).

  14. I’m pre-ordering tomorrow. Was looking at the Win Max 2021 refresh but a device from Valve trumps any potential HW/form factor advantage the Max would have.

    I’m sure AYA, One Netbook and GPD will be losing potential sales due to this. They’ll have to up their game to compete even if the Steam Deck has issues.

  15. Goodbye GPD. What a crappy company.

    Hello Steam Deck. While there are some design decisions I don’t like, I’ll be pre-ordering tomorrow.

  16. With 64 GB eMMC storage for $399 what you actually get is a fancy paperweight with a screen. GPD Win 1 had the same storage all the way back in 2016. It is embarrassing.

    1. It is embarrassing but I get why they had to design down to that price point. The next tier up is obviously the sweet spot, since you can fit at least a couple of modern games (or one copy of Flight Simulator, hah) on the fast drive, then put the rest in “cold storage” on an SD card to shuffle on when you need them.

      1. For $399 I would rather have an option with no storage at all, but where I can put the SSD myself. If you get the 64 GB one you are stuck with it and all you can change is the SD card which are slow. What someone should design is an “expansion slot” which you can connect to the top USB port, so you can glue it to the back with a SSD in it and maybe a pass-through, so you can still charge the device. If you look at the pictures of the back there is plenty of room there for something like this.

        1. Including a user-serviceable m.2 slot would be amazing, but I’m sure they made the choices they did to improve the durability of the unit (it is portable, after all) and performance of the cooling solution. The pricing on the 256GB model seems pretty reasonable to me, especially compared to some of the competition.

    1. I think they will now focus on clamshell designs with a keyboard to differentiate themselves again. WIN 3 was probably the first and last Windows candy bar design gaming handheld for them

  17. As disappointing as eMMC is, it’s understandable that eMMC was needed to get the base model to $399 (it’s really a shock that they were able to reach $399 at all, even without any storage).

    I really wonder if there’s an empty M.2 slot on the motherboard on that model. Something tells me that they removed it. It would be really nice if they position the $399 model as a “bring your own SSD”, but if it’s eMMC-only, then I’ll be avoiding that model.

    Aside from that, the only other concern I have about this device is the 16:10 aspect ratio screen. That’s an unusual choice for a gaming device, I’m sure lots of gamers will complain about that. Personally, I love this choice because I’ll likely be playing lots of older console emulators and DOS games, which were all designed for 4:3.

    1. They support USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) so possibly it should work good with a proper thumb drive. The problem is the form factor, but there are now some possibilities to get a small USB-C/USB-A pendrive. Still – it will stick out, maybe in the future there will be more options when this picks up.

      1. I’m still reading coverage elsewhere but I’m pretty concerned about the port thing. Having the port on top means that anything you plug in is naturally going to strain the connector due to gravity. It also looks like maybe there’s no dock hookup on the bottom, in which case the “dock” is actually a cradle with a pigtail you have to plug in manually, which would be a pretty big bummer.

  18. Wow, I never thought I’d be interested in this general product category but… This looks actually really interesting. Quite curious to see how well they implement it.

  19. $399 (or even $529) sounds pretty good even if you are going to dock it and use it as a compact desktop. I’m quite tempted to get this.

  20. This could have been an absolute slam dunk except for two things: 1) The EMMC storage on the base model 2) the controller layout. Man that controller layout looks…..interesting to say the least.

    1. If one were to be optimistic, one might imagine that you could unscrew the case and install an NVME drive at any time. But I don’t know that because I don’t see any photos of the bottom.

    2. The base model’s price point and storage size and type basically puts it into direct competition with the Switch OLED model. For just $50 more you get a vastly faster machine with more control options that can also double as a living room PC and media box. I think Valve is targeting prospective Switch customers by having the price so low while the higher storage models are for power users and the UMPC crowd.

    3. Coverage on IGN says that they were very skeptical of the control layout as well but it wound up being a lot more comfortable than they expected. I’d still much prefer being able to hold one in person prior to purchase, but I’m not at all sure how likely these are to show up at retail.

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