The Steam Deck, Valve’s first portable console, will ship to its first customers at the end of February. After months of speculation, gamers will finally find out what this fake Nintendo Switch rival is worth.
Pushed back a few weeks before its release in November, the Steam Deck will finally be marketed. On its blog, Valve announces that it is able “to begin shipments at the end of February”. If it is likely that all French orders will not be honored immediately, the situation should gradually unblock. The handheld console, which provides access to Steam games, is highly anticipated.
Fake Switch, real PC
Announced in June 2021, the Steam Deck is a stunner. At first glance, you might think it’s a competitor to the Nintendo Switch. In reality, it is more of a portable PC taking on the appearance of a console. Its components are infinitely superior to those present in the Nintendo console and, Valve magic, it is able to run most PC games available on the Steam store. Valve also announces that games optimized for the Steam Deck will soon be recognizable thanks to a label “Steam Deck Verified” on their sell sheet.
| Switch | OLED switches | Steam Deck | |
| Touch screen | 6.2 inch (LCD) | 7 inch (OLED) | 7 inch (IPS) |
| Screen definition | 1280 x 720 pixels | 1280 x 720 pixels | 1280 x 800 pixels |
| Joysticks | Detachable | Detachable | Fixed |
| Mode (s) of use | Laptop, TV, table | Laptop, TV, table | Laptop, TV |
| Dock | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CPU | Nvidia Tegra X1 (1.02GHz) | Nvidia Tegra X1 (1.02GHz) | AMD Zen 2 (2.4 to 3.5 GHz) |
| GPUs | Nvidia GM20B (768MHz) | Nvidia GM20B (768MHz) | AMD RDNA 2 (1.0-1.6GHz) |
| RAM | 4GB | 4GB | 16 GB |
| Storage | 32 GB | 64 GB | 64 to 512 GB |
| Price | 299 € | €359.99 | 419 to 679 € |
For the moment, Valve does not communicate on its ability to produce Steam Decks once the first wave of pre-orders has passed. It is currently not possible to order the console before the second quarter of 2022 since the company first prefers to fulfill orders placed in July. Given its production difficulties, no one knows if the Steam Deck will one day emancipate itself from its status as a niche product.