The Nintendo Switch is a nifty concept, but arguably underpowered and lacking in game variety. Valve now has an idea with the Steam Deck, a handheld game console that lets you play your existing Steam library on the go or on the go. big screen.

At a glance, the Steam Deck looks familiar – there’s a 7-inch LCD screen in the middle, flanked by a pair of joysticks and an array of buttons. The most obvious new additions are the trackpads on either side, which look set to mimic the experience of using a mouse. Or if that doesn’t suit you, the display is a capacitive touchscreen, for easy typing or swiping through menus.

But it’s what’s inside that really matters. The Steam Deck runs on an AMD Zen 2 processor and RDNA 2 GPU with up to 1.6 teraflops of graphics processing power. It packs 16 GB of RAM and three storage space options: 64 GB of eMMC flash storage, 256 GB of NVMe SSD, or 512 GB of high-speed NVMe SSD. This can also be extended with Micro SD cards.

These are decent numbers in the gaming laptop world, and of course, they absolutely bring the Nintendo Switch out of the water. Best of all, you’ll have access to tens of thousands of games on the Steam store, and any purchases you’ve made previously will be there, pending. Cloud saves mean you can pick up where you left off on PC, and other Steam features like Achievements, Friends Lists, and Chat will work natively as well.

Oddly enough, it’s not just a gaming machine either. The Steam Deck is basically a portable PC, capable of running other software, browsing the internet, streaming videos, and even playing games that aren’t on Steam. Between Bluetooth and USB-C connections, most accessories will also work, including headphones, mice, keyboards, controllers, and whatever else you have to hand.

Taking a more direct page from the Switch’s playbook, the Steam Deck can be connected to an external display via the USB-C port at the bottom. Valve also says a dedicated dock will be available later.

However, power might end up being the biggest hurdle. The 40 Wh battery is supposed to last up to eight hours of use, but only for less intensive gaming or things like surfing the web. If you play the bulk of the triple-A games, you could hit the charger in as little as two hours.

Still, it’s an intriguing idea, and we hope the ever-fickle Valve actually bothers long-term support (RIP, Steam Machine). Valve is currently taking pre-orders, with prices starting at US $ 399 for the 64GB model, $ 529 for the 256GB, and $ 649 for the 512GB. Shipping is slated to begin in December to the US, Canada, UK and Europe, and other regions will follow.

Source: steam bridge