Steam Deck is promising portable PC gaming
Valve as a company have made some amazing games, then they stopped, they have a great platform in Steam, but they stopped working on improvements and then they started into the hardware space, with varying degrees of success.
Enter the Steam Deck, their latest hardware offering, that it meant to be able to take your Steam games on the go with you, so you can play almost anything from your Steam library, no matter where you are. Sporting a 7 inch screen, this device lets you play your library, through a range of input options, the standard sticks and buttons are there, but just below each stick are trackpads, much like you would get on your laptop, just smaller.
These pads are designed to simulate a mouse, so for those games that don’t play well without one, you can still get your gaming value out of that.
Speaking of value, price is going to be a big thing, the starting price for the Steam Deck, is $399 USD or roughly $530 AUD and that is only for the base model, which sports 64gb of on board storage. Increased storage options will also be available for $529 for 256GB and $649 for 512GB, but thankfully the unit also allows for expansion via MicroSD cards.
Tech specs are what matter with a device like this and the machine does have some power behind it.
Processor
AMD APU
CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32)
GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz (up to 1.6 TFlops FP32)
APU power: 4-15W
RAM
16 GB LPDDR5 RAM (5500 MT/s)
Sadly where it is going to fail for most people is with the battery, it will come with a 40Whr battery, which is said to offer anywhere from 2 hours to 8 hours of use, depending on the games you are playing.
The top of the device has a headphone jack, but also is where the USB-C port is located, which will allow you to connect the machine to a larger display, if you want to.
For those who want to dock the Steam Deck, that is an option as well, if you buy the dock on its own, but with it, you can connect the Steam Deck to the internet via lan, output to multiple screens and even plug in other controllers and accessories via the full sized USB ports.
Right now, orders are only being taken for selected countries, of which Australia is not one of them, but when it does become available here in 2022, would you get one?
