STEAM DECK - All In One Portable PC Gaming            

Steam Deck will allow you to take your steam library anywhere here's everything you need to know before you get it. We should probably kick off by answering the most important question you might have what even a Steam Deck is? Well it's a handheld console designed for PC Gamers to access their steam library when they're untethered from their main computer. Like if a gaming laptop had a little baby with the Nintendo switch!

Specs of Steam Deck

What's inside!! let's talk about specs, the steam deck is equipped with an AMD APU combining a Zen 2 CPU with an RDNA 2 GPU, this RDNA 2 GPU is the same one inside the PS5 and Xbox series X and series S, just with a little less compute units, compared to the next-gen consoles. But it's still pretty impressive stuff there's a 7-inch lcd touchscreen with a 1200 x 800 resolution 16 gigs of RAM and three different storage capacities 64, 256 and 512 GBs. All of the three models have the same RAM and APU, so the only difference between them is how quickly you'll be accessing installed games and how many you can install, plus a few extras. I'll get to that in a minute a quick note on steam deck storage options by the way the 64 gigs base model uses eMMC storage vs faster NVME storage on the two higher end models. So if you think you really want one of these and you plan on playing bigger, more resource intensive games that take up a lot of disk space, keep this factor into your decision making process.

Design of Steam Deck

The design of the Steam Deck itself is pretty cool despite little bulky looking. Aside from the touch screen it has a micro SD card slot for storage expansion, two precision track pads underneath the analog sticks, a dedicated steam button and two additional buttons on the back of the device. On top of the standard bumper/ trigger combo. The USB C port on top isn't just for charging you can actually plug in peripherals like a keyboard or if you're feeling extra saucy a freaking fight Stick. If you want more ports there's even the steam dock, that’s sold separately accessory!! That basically turns your Steam Deck into a Desktop PC running Linux with additional ports. Now you know what it is, and what's inside!!

Operating System of Steam Deck

Still interested let's talk about what you can do with the steam deck and what you can't do!!! The steam deck runs on a custom Linux distribution Steam OS, which means this is a full-fledged portable PC with a custom operating system. Proton is the compatibility layer, that makes it possible for Windows games to run on Linux hardware. Valve says their goal is to get every single game on steam, in playable condition at 30 frames per second, or better on the steam deck!! 100% of steam! That is an incredibly ambitious goal, but the key word here Is playable. Will it be glorious high-res 120 frames per second gaming? Probably not but playable is playable!! So I have to give Valve credit where it's due, but steam is only one game store what about everything else? Epic, Xbox, Origin, Uplaybattle.net!! Well i am going to let Valve answer that themselves. Steam Deck is not a walled garden, you can install whatever you want on it including other apps and OS's ,that's right!! If you want you can technically wipe the entire thing and install windows on it. It's a PC remember! genuinely one of the coolest, most open portable consoles out there, so huge kudos to Valve, for not locking everything down! Which I think is a major win for users.

Offline/ Online Gaming

You can take this thing anywhere and play anything right even offline, well kind of obviously, you'll have to be online to download a game to the steam deck!! And if you want to play online multiplayer well I hope I don't have to spell that one out for you if you're offline you'll also need a local save file or you'll need access to the game, while connected to the internet in order to load a cloud save before starting an offline session. Valve also says some games are required to be launched in online mode as part of initial game startup before they'll work in offline mode, usually because of some required update, either to Steam or the game itself. So make sure you have all your day zero updates or day one patches fully installed, before you go on a big road trip or to a cabin somewhere without internet access.

Price for Steam Deck

One more important caveat some games employ anti-cheap measures and they need to be specifically configured for Steam Deck for the game to work. If you're still with reading it you're probably pretty interested in getting a Steam Deck!! How much for you to get it? The steam deck is competitively priced starting at $399 for the base 64 GBs model $529 for the 256 GBs model and $649 for the 512 GBs model all of them again are the same! They come with a carrying case but the two pricier versions do have a few extras. I know the top of the line model has a premium Screen, anti-scratch might be a good idea.

So What are You Thinking?

However some corners of the internet have noticed that Valve hasn't exactly been successful, when it comes to some of its previous hardware attempts. Over the years the index is a great VR headset, but do you remember Steam Link, Steam controller and maybe the biggest flop of them all Steam Machines. I can see where some folks might be hesitant about Steam Deck. Waiting to hear a more thorough verdict from your friends and favorite content creators before placing an order drop your thoughts down in the comments.