Runs on a version of linux (SteamOS), which is fucking cool. You can also install other game stores and run normal programs on it.
Here are some tech specs:
- 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)
- 16 GB LPDDR5 RAM (5500 MT/s)
- 1280 x 800px (16:10 aspect ratio)
- 7" optically bonded LCD
- Bluetooth 5.0 (support for controllers, accessories and audio)
- Wi-FiDual-band Wi-Fi radio, 2.4GHz and 5GHz, 2 x 2 MIMO, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
- MicroSD slot to add more storage
Is this any good? Looks better than the switch, but idk.
Sources:
- Valve preorder site: https://www.steamdeck.com/en/
- Polygon: https://www.polygon.com/22578782/steam-deck-handheld-valve-release-date-price
Past steam hardware was built very well. The steam link was a solid brick and the controllers were built very well, just weird.
It can play Windows games using built-in Wine (Valve "Proton"). I wonder if Microsoft will ever dare to sue them over this stuff.
It looks like it also works fine as a desktop PC and it has a bunch of ports on it for HDMI and USB and stuff. If it didn't also work as a desktop and have lots of ports it would be stupid, but seems like it's basically a handheld gaming laptop.
Wine/Proton are developed through clean-room reverse engineering. There is no Microsoft code in Wine/Proton.
This is true, but there was a colossal lawsuit between Oracle and Google a few years back over this. Oracle was trying to shake down Google for implementing the Java API in the Dalvik virtual machine (a core component of Android). Oracle lost the suit, and the precedent for the meantime is that APIs are not subject to copyright.
Edit: Turns out the the case was appealed. and the Supreme Court only ruled on it this April. I remember coverage of it from years back though. The courts fucking suck in general, but the original judge actually learned how to program in Java to understand the technology involved and vast implications of the case.
So that's basically most of the remaining top 100 games not working under proton just sorted out, right?
Who the hell is this for. It's basically just a shitty gaming laptop.
I can certainly see some people liking it, but I think they're going to be competing too much with the Switch. There's no room in mobile gaming anymore when everyone has a smart phone. That's why the PS Vita failed. Switch works because it's a home console with mobile ability and has a ton of appeal to kids who don't have smart phones.
Yeah, they're selling a dock with it and it uses your existing steam games, but I don't think it will be a switch killer or anything.
I wonder how they'll handle the hardware getting older? Nintendo has games building to the specs of their console, but Steam is basically porting over games meant for normal PCs.
The one thing it has going for it is that because it's using steam ecosystem it doesn't need its own dedicated development like a true console would.
As far as hardware, it's basically a modern sealed, soldered laptop. You'll still be able to play some things and won't be able to play others.
I've read zero about this but I cannot imagine that they aren't also selling this as a thing to stream games to from your more powerful PC.
IIRC Steam has that as a built-in feature and if this thing runs "normal programs" then it'll be able to do that.
It has more hardware compatibility (external displays, USB, any bluetooth devices) and you can use it as a desktop computer with regular software. The main reason to get a Switch is for the exclusive games though.
I could play FTL and Darkest Dungeon on this at least, probably Skyrim too!
I mean I know there are some chinese handhelds that do the same thing that are being sold at insane prices, so I know there is a demand for these kind of switch-killers. Also yeah Valve likes to release hardware that has no mainstream niche yet.
Most importantly though, Valve pushing proton so heavily can only be good news for the linux desktop lol.
Starts at $400 for base model and $650 for the premium with more storage. Fuck, that's a lot more than a switch.
and with games being deadass 40+ GB these days like, you need that storage
Guess why they're 100gb
Ok did you guess
It's all the skins. Even if you don't buy them your computer has to render them on other players.
It’s not the skins, it’s the horrible compression and lack of optimization that devs end up with when crunch sets in and they have to start ignoring things in order to get the project out the door.
Games could easily be half their current size or lower without sacrificing audio and visual fidelity (and would run better, too) if they had the time to work on shit like that.
I fail to see what performance benefits are gained from having a 50MB WAV file instead of a 2.5MB OGG, or [the same comparison but using texture formats instead]. Lossy compression creates files that are quickly and easily loaded, with negligible overhead, and have been in use for decades. The primary goal here isn't disk space savings, but decreased load times and lowered RAM usage.
Even if you employed on-disk compression (which is what I think you're suggesting), there are plenty of fast compression algorithms and situations where it's literally faster to read the compressed file from disk and decompress it than it would have been to read the entire gigantic uncompressed file from disk directly into RAM.
The OS is going to be like 3GB, probably less. 64GB will work fine if the only thing you’re playing is lightweight indie titles.
Totally out of the question for anything AAA from like 2017-on, though.
Yeah, that's one of my main concerns. I really hope the storage is just an NVMe slot and not soldered down.
Reservations are $5 though and go towards the cost if you buy it. I kind of want to just reserve it in case I somehow have that much money saved up whenever they want me to pay for it.
With the 5600g coming out I would just recommend someone who was looking to buy this to build a budget PC but at 400 its hard to beat imo
That does not look comfortable to hold for a long time, just saying
It has USB and Bluetooth so you'll be able to just plug in a PS5 controller or something
anybody else remember valve's steam machines idea? they did that but it's a switch now huh
Yeah, those were cool, but never really caught on. They've been trying to figure out how to make something like this work for years. Making it centrally planned / manufactured like this is probably better.
I have a Steam Controller. Another piece of hardware they basically gave up on after spending so much work on it. I guess that work sort of went into this though. It probably uses the Steam Controller API as well for games that support it.
I fucking love my Steam Controller, I use it for just about every game that makes sense to use it for, and a fair few where it doesn't because the inputs are so customizable you can turn it into a better-than-KB+M option with a little bit of experimentation. It's criminal that they dropped support for it.
Bad choice of words, they just stopped making them they didn't get rid of the software or anything.
The main problem with it is it's locked into Steam. I don't usually have Steam running at startup on my computer and have games from other storefronts. You have to use that one Linux program compiled with mingw or whatever to make it work without Steam, and that was created through reverse engineering.
Yeah there are pre-compiled binaries at https://github.com/kozec/sc-controller/releases
Actually, it might not even use mingw or anything like that on Windows. It works decently well.
Honestly not a terrible option if you're looking for a budget pc, you can basically hook this up to a monitor and use it as a PC although you'll probably be stuck with low resolution. That being said, if you get a smallish monitor it won't look terrible.
If I thought I would regularly use a handheld device I would 1000% get this. Looks huge though, I hope it is comfortable
That's my thought too, looks really cool but I just don't see my self using a hand held for anything but switch exclusives. Although pretty sure linux has a switch emulator so I haven't bothered getting a switch either.
Oh yeah, you're right. The buttons are right against the top edge, the heck?
Will it run third party programs? I ask because this would be the best thing I could ever hope for. I play a lot of games on a GPD XD, a little Android handheld with emulators. If the Steam handheld runs PSP, SNES, arcade, and Dreamcast emulators alongside running my whole Steam library, I'm gonna buy seven.
Yes. It’s a standard Linux PC. You can even wipe SteamOS and install Windows if you have a sick sense of humor
it's linux so as long as it's not super locked down it should run all kinds of emulators
it's not locked down at all, I believe there's a button that takes you to the regular arch desktop
