The Steam Deck, Valve’s rumored portable PC handheld, has been announced, and it looks incredible. It’s not just some feverish concept with an indefinite release date, either. It’s real, and pre-order reservations are going live sooner than you’d think.
Steam Deck Pricing and Pre-Orders
There will be three models of the Steam Deck, with the primary difference between them being how much storage users get. The three different models are:
- 64GB eMMC: $399
- 256GB NVMe SSD: $529
- 512GB NVMe SSD: $649
The pre-order system is a bit unusual. On July 16 at 1 pm ET, you can purchase a reservation to order the console when it becomes available for $5. Meaning, you’re not actually pre-ordering the handheld. Instead, you’re pre-ordering the chance to order it.
Luckily, Steam is taking precautions against scalpers. A valid Steam account is required to reserve the Steam Deck with at least one purchase on record before June 2021. Additionally, reservations are limited to one per account. Hopefully, this will prevent the mass scalping we’ve seen with nearly every tech device over the last few years.
Unfortunately, reservations are initially limited to the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. Information about additional regional availability will come soon.
Steam Deck release date
The pre-order patch states that the Steam Deck has a release date of December 2021. That doesn’t mean that everyone who orders will get their handheld then, though. Instead, it seems as though Valve is using a first-come, first-served system, so some buyers may get their devices in the following months.
Steam Deck specs
Here’s a brief rundown of the handheld’s specs.
- CPU: AMD Zen 2 4 cores/8 threads 2.4-3.5GHz
- GPU: AMD APU 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz
- RAM: 16GB LPDDR5 RAM
- Display: 1280×800 7″ LCD @ 60Hz Touchscreen
- Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
- Bluetooth: 5.0
- Expansion Storage: microSD
- OS: SteamOS 3.0
The full specs can be found on the official page.
