Back in May, it was rumored that Valve was working on a Nintendo Switch-like device except that it would play PC games. Valve is no stranger to consoles as in the past, the company has explored similar ideas with its Steam Machines, although in this case, it would be a portable gadget.
Turns out the rumors were true because Valve has since announced the Steam Deck. Right now in its current form, the Steam Deck looks like a mashup of various consoles put together. It’s got the concept of the Switch going for it, but at the same time, the size kind of reminds us of the Sega Game Gear from back in the day.
However, IGN notes in their video (see above) that apparently the hardware isn’t final yet, so it could change ahead of its release. The console will feature a 7-inch 1280×800 display with a 60Hz refresh rate and under the hood, Valve teamed up with AMD for a 2.4-3.5GHz processor and a 1.0 to a 1.6GHz GPU with RDNA 2 units.
There will also be 16GB of RAM accompanying it and will support up to 512GB of NVMe storage that can be further expanded via an SD card. The built-in 40Wh battery is also said to be good for about 2-8 hours depending on the game you’re playing. The Steam Deck will be going on sale in December where it will be priced starting at $399.