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Bring your PC games anywhere with Valve’s Switch-like Steam Deck

Valve did it: a powerful PC gaming handheld at reasonable prices

Every so often, we see a concept for a PC handheld from some startup that promises to revolutionise portable gaming, but they’ve yet to deliver at a palatable price let alone catch on broadly. That could change later this year with Valve’s Steam Deck, a portable gaming PC that can’t help but look like a Nintendo Switch albeit without detachable controllers. This beastly handheld is powered by a custom AMD Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU, with a meaty 16GB RAM and SSD storage within plus microSD card support. The 7in 1280×800 screen isn’t super high-res, but as we’ve seen with the Switch, games can still look pretty great on a smaller display like this. It has physical and touch controls and is compatible with the entire Steam library, Valve says – so even flashy 3D games like Doom Eternal and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order should run well here. It’ll start at US$399 (about £289) for a version with a 64GB SSD, while versions with speedier 256GB and 512GB NVMe SSDs will cost a bit more while otherwise keeping parity on specs. The Steam Deck starts rolling out in December.

Profile image of Andrew Hayward Andrew Hayward Freelance Writer

About

Andrew writes features, news stories, reviews, and other pieces, often when the UK home team is off-duty or asleep. I'm based in Chicago with my lovely wife, amazing son, and silly cats, and my writing about games, gadgets, esports, apps, and plenty more has appeared in more than 75 publications since 2006.

Areas of expertise

Video games, gadgets, apps, smart home

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