Valve Introduces Steam Deck: Compact Nintendo Switch Style Game Console With AMD Chip Starting From $399

Valve has announced its handheld game console to compete with the Nintendo Switch.

What we know

The novelty is named Steam Deck. The gadget is equipped with a 7-inch display with a resolution of 1200 × 800p, 400 nits brightness and a refresh rate of 60 Hz. The screen is surrounded on two sides by different control buttons, joysticks and touch panels.

The device runs an AMD processor with Zen 2 architecture, RDNA 2 graphics accelerator and a maximum clock speed of 3.5 GHz. The GPU, in turn, operates at a frequency of 1.0-1.6 GHz. The console is also equipped with 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and three storage options: 64 GB eMMC (PCIe Gen 2), 256 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3) and 512 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3). All three support a microSD card slot.

The Steam Deck also received Bluetooth 5.0, dual band Wi-Fi, a USB-C port with support for displaying images to an external screen with a resolution of 8K @ 60 Hz and 4K @ 120 Hz. To do this, you need to use a proprietary docking station. It has two USB-A 2.0 ports, as well as one USB-A 3.1, DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0, USB-C with Power Delivery and Ethernet. The console is powered by a 40 Wh battery. Depending on the game, the battery lasts for 2-8 hours of device operation. The gadget will be charged using a 45-watt power supply.

As for the software, the gadget has a special version of SteamOS 3.0 with a branded game store. If desired, you can install Windows or another third-party OS.

Price and when to expect

Valve will start selling the Steam Deck this December with the following prices:

• Steam Deck 64GB - $399
• Steam Deck 256GB - $529
• Steam Deck 512GB - $649

Source: Steam Deck